[TowerTalk] Computer Control of a TIC Ring

[Steve Maki]

I had problems with my two TIC rings (early 2000's) where the drive gear 
would slip when the antenna was in certain directions. The cause became 
evident when I took them down for an inspection.

See:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/jpslz6ai1dqxmw9lwsahk/AEcPCf1roeI5Cekuxl-RyXs?rlkey=sf8lf4qmset67gf8fuz2dftdw&dl=0

-Steve K8LX

On 04/17/25 10:49 PM, john at kk9a.com wrote:
> I have owned seven TIC ring rotators and never had this skip tooth problem.
> Your big gear is not concentric to what?  There are so many variations of
> TIC rings so it's hard to visualize what you have.  Almost all of my big
> gear rings were manufactured in three sections.  When assembled they are not
> round or flat so in my case washers were needed to raise the bearing rollers
> to prevent jamming.  With a three piece ring and three roller bearings 120°
> apart all of the mismatched gear joints hit the three roller bearing at the
> same time - brilliant....  But with some assembly care you can make the ring
> turn reasonably smooth.  The drive motor assembly on all of my rings has the
> potentiometer inside.  I believe some models have a separate potentiometer
> box and I am not sure where they are positioned.  The motor assembly on mine
> is near the bearing on the frame so even though the ring is not perfectly
> round, the ring gear is trapped between the motor gear and bearing so it
> stays engaged. I set my motor assembly with a tight engagement, if it
> happens to become too tight during the rotating the frame just deflects a
> little.  I use two drive motors per ring for extra torque.  My 1032 TIC ring
> rotators have been reliable rotators even with large antennas.
>
> John KK9A
>
>
> W6NL wrote:
>
> A problem we have with our TIC ring is that the big gear isn't exactly
> concentric, and it often skips a tooth or two in the wind. This offsets
> the pot, making it vulnerable to running up against the end and being
> damaged. So we can't count on the pot, and are hoping to find a way to
> adapt either a Hall-efect tooth counter for the ring gear, or an
> inexpensive electronic compass sensor.
>
> Over the years we have damaged the coax by going beyond the rotation
> limits when the pot is messed up (we use RT-21s with limits, but that
> relies on the pot), and are intending to install IP67 limit switches as
> well. We also need limit switches for our prop-pitch installations, just
> to be sure we have redundant physical limits.
>
> Open to any indicator suggestions, and suggest not to rely only on the pot.
>
> Dave, W6NL/HC8L
>
>
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