microHAM ARCO Bedienungsanleitung
microHAM © 2021 All rights reserved
TABLE OF CONTENT
1 - DEVICE DESCRIPTION ................................................................................................................4
- PANEL DESCRIPTION ................................................................................................................. 5
Front anel .................................................................................................................................................. 5
Rear anel .................................................................................................................................................... 6
3 - SETUP ........................................................................................................................................... 7
Rotator reset ............................................................................................................................................... 8
Rotator Center .............................................................................................................................................. 9
Calibration ................................................................................................................................................... 10
4 - USER INTERFACE ..................................................................................................................... 1
5 - SETTINGS MENU .......................................................................................................................14
General ....................................................................................................................................................... 14
Appearance ................................................................................................................................................ 15
Appearance - Global ................................................................................................................................... 15
Appearance - Zoom 1..4 ............................................................................................................................. 15
Rotator - Settings ........................................................................................................................................ 16
Rotator - Link .............................................................................................................................................. 18
Heading ...................................................................................................................................................... 20
LAN ............................................................................................................................................................. 21
Internet Remote Control .............................................................................................................................. 22
System ........................................................................................................................................................ 23
USB Firmware Update ................................................................................................................................ 24
USB Serial ort ........................................................................................................................................... 25
6 - HARDWARE SPECIFICATIONS ................................................................................................. 6
7 - PACKAGE CONTENTS .............................................................................................................. 7
8 - WARRANTY ................................................................................................................................ 7
DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY ................................................................................................. 8
APPENDIX A – ARCO CONNECTORS ........................................................................................... 9
APPENDIX B – ROTATOR SETTINGS & CONNECTIONS .............................................................30
APPENDIX C – CUSTOM ROTATOR SETTINGS & CONNECTIONS .............................................39
APPENDIX D – LINE INPUT 115/ 30 VAC SWITCHING .................................................................43
TRADEMARKS
Yaesu is a trademark of Yaesu/Vertex Standard USA
Hy-Gain is a trademark of Hy-Gain Corporation
Orion is a trademark of M2 Antenna Systems
TIC RingRotor is a registered trademark of TIC General
All other products, company names, brand names, and trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
2
microHAM © 2021 All rights reserved
IMPORTANT PRECAUTIONS
Before using the device, check the voltage rating of your local AC mains supply
system and compare to the label located at the rear panel near LINE socket describing
the device LINE input setup.
AVOID opening the device before you have disconnected it from the mains supply.
Any internal settings or repairs have to be done only by an authorized person
according to Appendix D.
DO NOT turn on the device unless it has been properly grounded through the EN
conductor of the LINE mains cord. Do not disconnect this ground under any
circumstances, this may lead to a risk of severe or fatal electric shock.
DO NOT use an extension cord with the AC power cable unless it is correctly rated as
there will be a risk of fire or electric shock.
DO NOT touch the device with damp or wet hands. There will be a danger of electric
shock.
DO NOT allow any objects to enter inside the device.
DO NOT cover the cooling ribs at rear side of the device.
DO NOT expose the device to the high humidity environments.
AVOID permitting children to play with the device.
SET the main switch to the OFF position [O], if you do not use the device for long time.
3
microHAM © 2021 All rights reserved
1 - DEVICE DESCRIPTION
The ARCO is a modern rotator (motor + position sensor) controller designed for reliable
operation with virtually any rotator ever made as well as with the home brew rotators. It is a
completely self-contained stand alone rotator controller not requiring computer or any external
device or power supply for setup and operation, while providing a wide selection of interfaces for
remote control when necessary. It features several ways of controlling azimuth or elevation
heading using uncluttered graphical user interface on the 7” touch screen. Azimuth heading is
displayed on a great circle map, user centered to the rotator installation location, with four
different radius settings, live grey line projection, several coloring options and automatic
day/night color schemes. The controller supports Touch'n Turn feature, fastest possible heading
entry by simple touching desired direction on great circle map. Than classic tactile front panel
CW and CCW buttons, oint and Shot knob and heading entry keypad, either virtual on the
touch screen or hardware, connected to the USB host port on the ARCO.
Along with the manual control, ARCO offers rich connectivity for the computer using standard
RS-232 port, USB serial port not requiring any driver installation on Windows 10, macOS, and
Linux, and Ethernet port to enable control over Internet.
For rotator position feedback, ARCO supports wide range of the absolute and relative sensors
including rheostat, potentiometer, reed contact, Hall sensor, and WM sensor. Additional digital
sensor port provides three differential lines supporting RS-485 communication as well as single
ended push-pull and open collector connection for various quadrature encoders. With high
resolution sensors positioning accuracy is 0.1º.
For the motor control, ARCO uses high current, 4-channel WM driver with overload, short
circuit and overheat protections, combined with automatically operated, current monitoring
internal power supply, preventing driver damage caused by operation failures. This combination
is capable of driving safely any DC motor up to 48V or any AC motor up to 24V, including
innovative brake control reducing solenoid heat. Motor start and stop uses configurable, ultra-
fine gradual speeds ramps, significantly reducing inertial forces stress to the rotator, tower and
antennas, prolonging their lifetime. Gradual speed control uses auto-adapting procedure
considering variable, dynamically changing resistance caused by wind or ice.
ARCO uses built-in linear supply for silent, interference free continuous operation. Separate
built-in power supply for the motor is selectively controlled and entirely turned off when motor
does not turn, to avoid causing any possible interference to the sensitive receivers. For high
voltage or high power motors ARCO provides common control outputs for inverters as well as
industry standard MODBUS RTU control. All rotator settings including compensation for power
loss in the motor cables are menu driven, comfortably without requiring to open cover and
change some internal wiring.
Networking is another strong point of ARCO. ARCO supports not only LAN networking but
allows to build a simple but powerful, isolated two-wire local LINK bus, coupling multiple ARCO
controllers together for automated stacks tracking, multi-directional beaming, and counter
rotation for rotating towers. Unique feature of ARCO is a direct control of rotators connected to
another ARCO controllers, located either on the same LINK bus or anywhere in the world using
Internet connection. All this complex control is greatly simplified by using just two, easy to
handle SYNC and ALIGN buttons, and single ANTENNA button which allows to choose either
one of three antennas installed on the same rotator with different heading offsets, or any other
antenna present on the local LINK network through another ARCO, or on a remote LINK
4
microHAM © 2021 All rights reserved
network through ARCO controller connected over the Internet.
For unattended remote operation over the Internet, ARCO offers autonomous parking function
and physically disconnects all wires coming to the rotator port from the rotator hardware when
connection is over, breaks, or if ARCO goes to the power down mode, in order to minimize
possible damage by high static or nearby lightning during storms.
Firmware provides wide range of additional protections and self explaining error messages for
quick troubleshooting if any failure happens. All of this packed in a full aluminum, compact
enclosure with always free firmware updates.
- PANEL DESCRIPTION
Front Panel
5
1. POWER
Mains power switch
. POWER LED
LED is on when controller is on.
Flashes when controller is in Stand By
mode.
3. FAULT LED
LED indicates operation fault.
4. MOTOR LED
LED is on when power is applied to the
motor.
5. ← CCW BUTTON
Turns motor in counterclockwise
direction.
6. → CW BUTTON
Turns motor in clockwise direction.
7. HEADING KNOB
Sets rotator position. ower is
applied to the motor when knob
stops. Depressing knob will stop
rotator movement.
8. DISPLAY
Touch screen user interface.
microHAM © 2021 All rights reserved
Rear Panel
1. LINE
ower line input. IEC C14 socket.
. FUSE
ower line fuse, 5x20mm T type.
3. LINK
Bus port for linking multiple ARCO controllers together. 3.5mm (1/8”) stereo jack.
4. SERIAL
RS-232 serial port for legacy computer control. DB9 female socket.
5. LAN
Ethernet port, for control over internet. RJ45 socket.
6. USB
USB B port for computer control.
7. FW
USB A port for keypad connection or local firmware update.
8. D-SENSOR
Digital position sensor port, DB15 female socket.
9. ROTATOR
Rotator connection port, 10 position removable terminal, 5.08mm pitch.
10.ROTATOR
Rotator connection port connected in parallel with (9), directly connects YAESU rotators.
11.GND
Rotator cable shield connection, M4 stud. Bonded to chassis.
6
microHAM © 2021 All rights reserved
3 - SETUP
Installation of ARCO consists of hardware and software parts. First, it is necessary to setup the
ARCO software to let controller know what kind of motor and sensor controller has to expect.
For connection to the rotator hardware serve two connectors, removable 10-pins screw terminal
connector (9) and snap-in 6-pins rectangular connector (10), compatible with connectors used
on current YAESU rotators. Corresponding pins on both connectors are internally wired in
parallel.
At first step, DO NOT connect any rotator cables to the ARCO. Make sure the front panel power
switch is off, you should see O sign on its top side. On rear panel verify that the mains voltage
setup label next to the mains FUSE (2) shows the same voltage as is your local mains
distribution.
If it does not match, do not continue and contact your vendor or authorized person to
setup ARCO for your mains distribution rating. Controller has internal 115/230VAC line
voltage selector switch.
Firmly plug your country approved IEC C13 power cord to the LINE socket on the ARCO
controller, than plug other end to the mains socket and turn ARCO on by flipping front panel
power switch.
After a short while you'll see main screen on display. Touch settings icon in the left bottom
corner to enter SETTINGS MENU. On top you'll see several tabs which will be described later,
now touch General tab, touch ROTATOR LOCATION button and enter QRA locator or G S
coordinates of the place where rotator is installed in WGS 84 format. If you don't know, please
find your location on satellite map https://www.gps-coordinates.net/ or check G S coordinates
in your mobile phone. As a result ARCO will show you your QRA locator and vice versa. Than
set current UTC TIME in HH:MM:SS format and current UTC DATE in DD:MM:YYYY format.
Now touch Rotator tab. At Rotator tab select your rotator MODEL from drop down menu. If you
do not see your model listed, select CUSTOM and configure your rotator parameters. lease
refer to SETTINGS MENU | Rotator chapter for parameters description. If you are not sure,
contact us for help.
Settings proper parameters on Rotator tab, namely SENSOR, p/360º (if applicable),
TOTAL ROTATION, BRAKE and LIMIT SWITCHES presence are absolutely
necessary for proper calibration.They are set automatically when you chose particular
rotator model, but if you are going to calibrate custom rotator, make sure all above
mentioned parameters are set correctly.
When you are done touch EXIT tab. ARCO will generate maps centered to rotator location and
register your settings. It takes about 15 seconds per map, please be patient. When job is
finished turn off main power switch and disconnect power cord from the mains socket. If any
error message pop-ups just confirm and ignore it, it is normal as some protections and real time
checks are already running but you do not have a rotator connected yet.
Always turn off main power switch and disconnect power cord when you are
connecting or disconnecting cables to the ARCO controller or replacing controller.
Safety first!
7
microHAM © 2021 All rights reserved
Now you can proceed to the rotator connection. If you are connecting recent Yaesu rotator, you
just need to connect cable end with the 6-pins (2x3) rectangular plug to the rectangular jack (10)
on your ARCO. No other connections are necessary, you can reconnect back power cord, plug
it to the wall socket, turn the controller ON and proceed to the calibration and software setup.
If you are connecting rotator, having different connector cable end, you need to build an adapter
between mating cable jack and 10-pins ROTATOR terminal on ARCO, or cut it and connect
wires to the terminal directly. Terminal is industry standard 5.08mm (0.2”) pitch pluggable screw
terminal block.
We understand, that some users may be hesitant to cut connections to the old controller. As a
solution, use the female version of the screw terminal block. As you cut wires of the cable, one
by one, and connect their rotator end to the male terminal block for ARCO, simply connect the
other end of the cut wire to the respective terminal of the female terminal block. In this way,
whenever desired, the original connection can be simply restored by plugging in the cable into
the stub on the original controller, ending with the newly installed female terminal block.
Take your time, make nice, clean and solid connections. We recommend to use isolated wire
ferrules crimped to the cable wire ends. Wiring diagrams for various rotators included in the
MODEL menu, can be found at the end of this manual, Appendix B. If you are connecting
unlisted or custom rotator, please make connections according to the charts in Appendix C, with
respect to the motor and sensor type.
Once rotator is connected, you can connect back the power cord, plug it to the wall socket, turn
controller ON and proceed to the rotator preset and calibration.
Rotator Preset
In order to know position of your antenna, antenna rotator must be equipped with a position
sensor and controller must be “synchronized” to this sensor. This synchronization process calls
calibration. This requirement applies to any rotator and controller and must be done properly.
Rotator can be equipped with one of two types of the sensors; absolute sensor as
potentiometer, rheostat, WM sensor, absolute encoder, geomagnetic sensor OR relative
sensor like magnetic reed contact, Hall sensor or incremental encoder in any form.
Absolute sensor always provide absolute value of rotator orientation, relative sensor provides
value of the orientation change. ARCO supports both sensor types and internally converts
relative sensor values to an absolute by counting pulses and constant storing last position value
since calibration.
Rotators with relative sensor and without limit switches has free rotation center, but rotators with
an absolute sensor or rotators with hardware limit switches have an exact center and is
desirable to preset rotator to this position to simplify calibration. It is important to realize that
such rotator has its center of orientation fixed, in other words, absolute rotator center is set by
its mounting orientation on rotator's plate. While it is not necessary to mount such rotator in any
specific direction, important is to set rotator to its center and adjust antenna rotation center by
rotating antenna around the mast separately.
Calibration procedure allows to safely find and set such rotator to its center and calibrate
antenna position individually, unrelated to the actual mounting orientation of the rotator.
8
microHAM © 2021 All rights reserved
If you are going to calibrate already installed antenna with proper center alignment, you can skip
next chapter. If you are going to do new rotator installation, perform next instructions.
The most comfortable way to center rotator is to do this prior installation on the tower while is
down, using temporary connection cable. It is also possible to center rotator when is already
installed on the tower together with an antenna, but if it is brand new installation we recommend
to carefully watch the antenna feedline, release it, or entirely disconnect during the process, to
avoid feedline damage.
Rotator Center
INSTRUCTIONS
–Touch the settings icon at the left bottom corner of the main screen to enter menu.
–Touch Heading tab.
–Touch RESET to clear calibration memory.
–Touch AUTO or FIND CENTER button.
AUTO automatically sets rotator to its center, assuming the sensor center is also rotator
rotation center. rocedure takes longer time as automatically finds and register position
of both CW and CCW limits. AUTO function is provided only for rotators with hardware
limit switches.
FIND CENTER automatically sets absolute sensor rotator to its center, assuming the
sensor center is also a rotator rotation center, by shortest possible path without searching
and registering limit positions.
If automatic finding of the rotator center is not appropriate for whatever reason, you can
turn rotator to its center manually using CW and CCW front panel buttons until reading
shows 50%.
Once rotator is centered setup is done, rotator can be installed on the tower. When rotator and
antenna installation is finished, release antenna clamps a bit to be able to rotate it manually
around the mast (mechanically, DO NOT TURN ROTATOR BY THE ARCO) to the North or to
the South or to any other desired antenna rotation center, and firmly tight all clamps. Antenna
positioning does not need to be super accurate as caused error will only influence position of
CW and CCW limits.
From now, antenna can be turned by ARCO controller equally in both CW and CCW directions
by CW and CCW buttons because you've nulled mounting shift and aligned requested antenna
rotation center to the rotator rotation center. You can adjust rotation speed as necessary by
CALIB S EED parameter which sets percentage of nominal power. Turn rotator to both limits
and check for possible feedline problems.
Next step is registering position of hardware limit switches if they exist and accurate calibration
of the antenna position.
9
microHAM © 2021 All rights reserved
Calibration
Before you proceed to antenna position calibration, you need to register or calibrate position of
CW and CCW limits.
LIMITS CALIBRATION INSTRUCTIONS
•If available and rotator can turn within hardware limits touch AUTO button. ARCO will
automatically find position of both CW and CCW limits and set rotator to its center.
•If your rotator has relative position sensor without limit switches, touch SET CENTER
button and enter desired center of antenna rotation, usually 0º for North center or 180º for
South centered rotations, but center can be anywhere from 0º - 359.9º. This azimuth is
used to preset software limit switches according to the TOTAL ROATATION parameter,
symmetrically divided in CW and CCW directions.
•If neither is applicable, calibrate CW and CCW limits manually same way as antenna
heading. Confirm CW or CCW limit on calibration pop-up window.
•Calibrate antenna heading.
ARCO needs at least one calibration point to show antenna heading and it can be entered by
accurate aiming antenna to the known specific direction and than register this direction as a
calibration point by touching appropriate calibration button. ARCO provides several ways of
entering a calibration point. Buttons inside CALIBRATION OINTS area serve to register a
calibration data. All of them have same purpose but provide different choices, choose most
suitable method for you, it doesn't matter which one.
HEADING CALIBRATION INSTRUCTIONS
•Touch the settings icon at the left bottom corner of the main screen to enter SETTINGS
MENU. Now touch Heading tab. Do not touch FIND CENTER, SET CENTER, AUTO or
RESET buttons on the first line unless you want to clear all calibration data and start
calibration from the scratch. If yes, first touch RESET and continue as was described in
previous chapter.
To get antenna to a specific heading use exclusively ← CCW and → CW
buttons on the controller front panel. For setting up accurate position, CW and
CCW buttons do not use ramps (only on this tab) and speed is automatically
limited to CALIB S EED in % of power.
NORTH / SOUTH buttons. If you know accurate North or South position, turn antenna that
direction as accurately as possible and touch appropriate button to register calibration point.
CUSTOM button allows to enter actual antenna heading. If you have rotator with overlapping
segments (TOTAL ROTATION > 360º), make sure the antenna is NOT in any of these
segments. Actual heading can be found by using compass but all compass devices are
influenced by magnetic declination. See more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_declination
Make sure to check value of the magnetic declination for your QTH:
https://www.magnetic-declination.com/ and add/subtract found value to the compass reading.
Most accurate method of registering calibration point is if you can accurately aim antenna to a
10
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Andere microHAM Controller Handbücher
