I saw on some guy's QRZ page his lowering method. He had an outside camera
monitoring his crankup tower. The camera output went through an A/B switch
to his pc monitor, so that he could monitor the tower for any problems while
he was lowering and raising his tower from the shack and then switch the
monitor back to his pc.
Maybe something to think about as these types of cameras are readily
available now.
Mark N1UK
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mickey Baker" <fishflorida@gmail.com>
To: "Fred Serota" <fserota@msn.com>
Cc: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, 14 October, 2010 2:20 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Remote control of elevation/lowering
I've ruminated about this issue. I'd love to be able to retrofit my tower
(when I get it installed) as well.
Here's a few issues I've identified:
1. The largest potential liability for the manufacturer is to determine
that the raising or lowering of the tower will not cause injury or damage
to
property. How do you know that the pathway for lowering is clear - that a
person doesn't have their arm sticking through the lattice of the tower.
This would require a warning klaxon, a flashing light and a sign,
interlocks
and potentially a video feed of the tower.
2. Using the DPDT switch - if the AC power fails in mid rise or lower,
what happens? When the power comes back, how will you know where the
tower
is in the raising/lowering process - was it static, going up or going
down?
It should reset and not continue any raising or lowering of the tower
when
the power comes back on!
3. What happens in the event of a limit switch failure?
4. How do you know if a limit switch has failed?
5. What happens if there is a mechanical failure of another nature -
motor, cables, crimp, binding of the sections? How do you detect these
and
what's the remediation?
I could build a controller for this - I have specific ideas around these
issues.
On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 2:01 PM, Fred Serota <fserota@msn.com> wrote:
> Has anyone wired the control box of a US Towers MD750 to control the
> lowering of the tower from the house(shack). Although the company sells a
> remote control, they do not seem to want to sell it, impressing on me the
> necessity to change over the original box, wire new "relays" and how they
> have never sold one after the fact of the tower sale.
>
> It seems to me that one should be able to simply wire a DPDT switch in
> parallel to the one on the tower and run the switch to the house. What am
> I
> missing?
>
> Fred, K3BHX
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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> TowerTalk@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>
--
Mickey Baker
Fort Lauderdale, FL
“Tell me, and I will listen. Show me, and I will understand. Involve me, and
I will learn.” Teton Lakota, American Indian Saying.
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