60
RC2000C Polar Tracking Antenna Controller
This process will continue until a weaker signal strength is recorded. When that occurs, the controller
will back up one step and conclude that it has found the elevation peak.
6. A problem occurs if the controller makes the wrong decision at step 4. Any time the controller step
size is comparable in magnitude to the antenna's mechanical hysteresis, a problem WILL eventually
occur.
For most antennas the Max Track Error should not be made smaller than 5 (0.5 dB).
SEARCH ENABLE
SEARCH ENABLE:1
0-DISABLE, 1-ENABLE
The Search Enable CONFIG mode item specifies whether or not the Intelli-Search algorithm is enabled or
disabled. When the STEP TRACK submode is active and the signal strength input indicates that the
satellite transponder has gone down, the controller will switch to the SEARCH sub-mode. The Search
Enable CONFIG mode item is the controlling item for the Search Width CONFIG mode item which is
described next.
If the Search Enable CONFIG mode item is enabled, the controller will execute the Intelli-Search
algorithm. During an Intelli-Search, the controller will perform a serpentine-shaped search over a region
where the controller has calculated that the satellite's apparent motion will take it. If the satellite is not
found during the Intelli-Search, the search is periodically repeated until either signal strength information
is available, or track table information becomes available.
If the Search Enable item is disabled, the user is simply prompted to manually position the antenna on
the satellite and hit the ENTER key to continue. The Intelli-Search should be disabled for transmit
applications. It may also be advantageous to disable Intelli-Search for antennas which move very slowly.
SEARCH WIDTH
SEARCH WIDTH:3
1-10, NOMINAL=3
The Search Width item controls the width of the sweeps which occur during execution of the Intelli-
Search algorithm. If the angular extent of the sweeps is too large, the controller could mistakenly align
the antenna with an adjacent satellite. A search with narrow sweeps takes much less time to complete,
but may not sweep over a region which is wide enough to find the satellite.
The Search Width is not an absolute value - increasing its value results in wider sweeps, and decreasing
its value narrows the sweeps. The actual pointing angle over which search sweeps occur is a function of
the antenna beamwidth and the Search Width parameter. For a given Search Width value, the search
sweeps of an antenna with a narrower beamwidth will be greater than for an antenna with a larger
beamwidth.
The default Search Width value of 3 is appropriate for satellites with 2 degree spacing. For faster
searches, the value can be lowered to 1 or 2. Access to the Search Width CONFIG mode item is only
allowed when the Search Enable CONFIG mode item described above is set to 1 (enabled).
5.10.12
Expert Access Flag
Expert Access is used to control access to CONFIG mode items. When the Expert Access flag is set
(ON), the user has access to all controller modes and all CONFIG mode items. When the Expert
Access Flag is reset (OFF), the user is locked out of several modes and most CONFIG mode items. The
purpose of this feature is to keep an operator away from the modes and CONFIG mode items which can
change the contents of the controller's non-volatile memory.
When the Expert Access screen is displayed, the present state of the Expert Access Flag is displayed in
the data entry field. A display value of 1 indicates that the Expert Access Flag is set, and a value of 0
indicates that the flag is reset. To toggle the state of the flag, the user must key in a 5 digit code at the
Research Concepts, Inc. • 5420 Martindale Road • Shawnee, Kansas 66218-9680 • USA www.researchconcepts.com
Chapter 5
CONFIG
ENT,BKSP,SCRLL ^v
CONFIG
ENT,BKSP,SCRLL ^v
Modes Function Description
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