RESEARCH CONCEPTS RC1500B Manual

RC1500 Antenna Controller Implementation
The RC1500 is derived from the RC2000C Polar dual axis antenna controller. The RC2000C
Polar controller tracks inclined orbit satellites with a polar mount that provides for either a
motorized declination or motorized latitude angle adjustment. The feed wiggler system is similar
to the variable declination polar mount.
The RC1500 product is currently 'hosted' on an RC2000. The back panel of the RC1500 is
labelled identically to an RC2000. On the '1500, use the azimuth motor drive and sense lines to
interface to the antenna actuator.
LCD Display
The RC1500 employs a 16 column by 2 row display. The RC2000 employs a 2 x 40 LCD. The
screens of the RC2000 were shrunk to form the RC1500's display. On the RC1500 the
controller's current operating mode is displayed in a three character field in the lower right hand
corner of the display. Here are the three character mode designations...
MAN – Manual mode, AUT – Auto mode, SET – Setup mode, FIX – Fix or Resync mode, REM
– Remote mode, RST – Reset mode, CFG - Configuration, LIM – Limit mode, STP – Track
mode Step Track sub-mode, SEA – Track mode Search sub-mode, MEM – Track mode Program
(or Memory) sub-mode, MNU – Track mode Menu Sub-mode, ERR – Track Mode Error sub-
mode.
Tracking Algorithms
The tracking algorithms of the RC1500 have been simplified relative to those of the RC2000.
Step Tracking - On the 1500 two CONFIG mode items control the performance of the tracker.
The Step Size CONFIG mode item specifies the step size (in actuator position counts) that the
controller takes. The Pk Interval CONFIG item controls the time between peaking operations (in
seconds).
Automatic Search – The limits of the search will be from the (down_limit + 10 cnts) to the
(up_limit – 10 cnts).
Program (or Memory) Track – When memory tracking, the controller will reposition the antenna
whenever the difference between the actual antenna position and the antenna position derived
from the track table differ by (Step Size / 2) or more. Step Size refers to the CONFIG mode
item.
Track Menu – Whenever track mode is active and the time is displayed on the bottom line of the
display the user can hit the 0 key to invoke the track mode menu.