[TowerTalk] wireless rotor

[Jim Lux]

On 4/11/13 10:17 AM, Patrick Greenlee wrote:
> I have the LDG  AT-1000 Pro II tuner with accessory analog meter.  I
> would like to remote the meter and the push buttons (in the shack) so
> the tuner can be closer to the antenna farm.  Has anyone tried this?
> What success, what method?
>
> When asked, the guys at LDG say you can remote the meter a "few" feet.
> So we are on our own fellow LDG remoters!
>
> If I am to be a/the pioneer I will try to remote the push buttons by
> paralleling them with momentary contact push buttons.  First I will try
> to gun the meter via the candidate remote cable (plain wire, no other
> components).  If line losses interfere too much then I'll have to coble
> up an integrated circuit op-amp to be a buffer. No doubt there is a high
> probability of needing to do some filtering for RFI, maybe caps on the
> switches and some RF chokes if needed (beads?)
>
> A simple way to remote the LED lamps would be to physically move them.
> Better would be to add a panel of LED's with each one having a "twin" in
> series with those in the meter box.  This would reduce the intensity but
> not enough to cause problems as I don't anticipate using the remote out
> in full sunlight, just a comfortably lit radio shack. I would run the
> remoting cable via a buried conduit not shared with coax.
>
> Any suggestions, recommendations, prescriptions, warnings,
> encouragement, psychiatric counseling... ;) ;)



The meter is tricky, since it's an analog signal.. you could use it with 
a base resistor to drive a common emitter transistor to form a current 
source.


For the buttons and LEDs.. there are a variety of kits (velleman and 
others) out there that have something simple like a shift register and a 
555 low speed clock, or a CPLD that does serial to parallel.  Another 
approach is a UART at each end.

Or, an Arduino.. measure the voltages using the 12 bit ADC. LEDs go to 
input pins, pushbuttons go to output pins or FETs or small relays.  Then 
send the data using a serial port.

Actually, have you asked LDG whether they have a custom program for the 
processor in your tuner that replicates the capability of the AT-200 
with the serial port?