[TowerTalk] PST71D rotor cable question

[David Gilbert]

Hi, Jon.

I have a PST-71D rotator and I feed the motor with about 250 feet of 
solid #14 UF cable (the gray residential cable rated for underground 
use) from a 24 VDC power supply running through an inexpensive PWM 
controller.  I'm doing that since the 10 turn pot in the rotator went 
belly up, and without the pot functioning properly the stock controller 
doesn't work right either.  So I manually operate the PWM controller and 
use the homebrew Arduino-based azimuth indicator I wrote about a few 
weeks ago.

I just measured the current draw from the 24 VDC supply (i.e., the input 
to the PWM controller set to full output) and got roughly 0.33 amp ... 
one third of an amp.  Less than I expected, and I tested it running the 
rotator in both directions.  It's quite windy here today and I saw a 
couple of current spikes to just under 0.5 amp when the rotator had to 
fight the wind, but for the most part the current draw was within the 
range of 0.31 amps to 0.34 amps.

Hope that helps.

Take care es 73,
Dave   AB7E


On 5/2/2023 10:01 AM, Jon Zaimes, AA1K via TowerTalk wrote:
> If you have a Prosistel 71D rotator, what size conductors are you using and over what distance?
> Trying to calculate what is needed for a 500-foot run but the manual online only gives two wire sizes without mentioning distance.
> If you know the current draw of the motor, that would be useful in making the calculation.
>
> 73/Jon
> Jon P. Zaimes, AA1KTower climber for hireFelton, Delawarehttp://www.aa1k.us/Cell: 302-632-2353 Reviews of AA1K tower work on eham website: http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/12922 Hug your favorite tower every day, and always stay connected to it.
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