[TRLog] rotator control

[KL7RA]

> I'm going to try and see if a serial board will run two controllers 
>this evening.  I never had much interest in the PC control until 
>talking to Bob, the designer of Rotor-EZ

Multiple rotator test report for the Idiom press Rotor-EZ:

The RS232 output of a serial board will run two controllers. Doing
this does violate the 5k load and EIA specs, probably okay. 

Better idea would be to connect the MAX 202 digital logic 
output (pin 12), multiple loads okay, to the spare MAX 202 
digital logic input (pin 10) and then daisy chain the spare RS232 
out (pin 7) on to the next controller box. I'm sure this is the way 
Hy-gain does it with their DCU-1 box and serial in/out ports.

The Rotor-EZ mod uses the MAX 202 or on older versions of 
the kit MAX 232 (faster speed/lower power chip, not necessary) 
for the level conversion (serial port) and these chips come with
two converters which makes this an easy mod to make.

Bottom line, running multiple controllers using TRLog is easy
and may be of some value when you need to align three antennas
in a stack during the times you need the firepower and very
busy. 

Speaking for my contest activity and after playing with three 
rotators this weekend, I'm of the opinion that TRLog does 
not need to be modified for this application. 

The Rotor-EZ  mod makes the antenna controller point and 
shoot which is very fast to do by hand, no brake/direction 
paddle to hold down. I often have to switch the stackmatch 
as well so I don't see much value of the program running an 
individual box. However when it's time to put them all in the 
same direction using the CTL P command is very handy.  

Some notes:

I was able to control my TicRing with a second controller 
in parallel but be advised the TicRing controller does not 
use polling for the position read but sends the updates in 
continuous mode. This can jam the Rotor-EZ if you just 
cabled the RS232 cables together.

The EZ mod is also sold without the serial port option
(30 bucks cheaper) but it's not a simple matter of adding 
a $1.50 MAX 202 chip. The PIC is not programmed for 
serial input/output with the non-serial port model. I had to 
see for myself to be sure. Bob of Idiom Press is a good 
friend but 30 bucks is 30 bucks.

73 Rich KL7RA