RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 Content Antenna Installation Considerations ................6 General Information ..........................6 Installation Recommendation ......................... 7 Line of Sight and Fresnel Zone ......................8 Reduced Bearing Accuracy Caused by Reflections ................9 Lightning Protection ..........................10 North Alignment ............................
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RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 List of figures Fig. 1 Antenna Mounting......................7 Fig. 2 Line of Sight and Fresnel Zone ..................8 Fig. 3 Illustration of Reflections at fixed locations ..............9 Fig. 4 North Marking of Antenna Unit ..................11 Fig.
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 1 Antenna Installation Considerations 1.1 General Information For static bearing applications like e.g. VTS (vessel traffic service), a high bearing accuracy is demanded, with small tolerable bearing errors. For this purpose the antenna unit possibly has to be calibrated in order to compensate minor unbalances in rotation, but especially the antenna position at the installation site has to be chosen properly for bearing purposes.
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 1.2 Installation Recommendation The quality of the bearing results depends largely on the position of the antenna. So, an antenna position has to be found, where the transmitter´s wavefield can reach the bearing antenna as undisturbed as possible.
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 1.3 Line of Sight and Fresnel Zone There must be a direct line of sight between the transmitter (ship) and the antenna unit. Furthermore the Fresnel Zone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_zone) must be free of any obstacles.
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 1.4 Reduced Bearing Accuracy Caused by Reflections Big natural reflectors in the antenna unit’s surrounding are especially critical! (e. g. mountains in the back-side of the antenna, sharp rocky coasts or forests) Especially if the directly...
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 1.5 Lightning Protection When installing the RT-800 (AU) at fixed coastal locations, precautions must be taken regarding lightning protection. For this reason RHOTHETA Elektronik GmbH offers an optional Lightning Protection Rod (LPR). The Lightning Protection Rod for precision direction finders is designed to protect direction finders from RHOTHETA against the effects of direct lightning strokes into a direction finder system.
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 1.6 North Alignment Bearing values of RT-800 are always displayed and output relatively to the north marking of the antenna unit. This implies that the north marking must be aligned to North in order to display absolute, north related values! Fig.
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 2 Interfaces 2.1 Overview Fig. 5 Overview of Interfaces Pos. Designation Meaning See page Power Supply Power supply connector with replacable fuse IP-Audio Encoder (Channel-1) Audio Output for DF and ecoder cofiguration Ethernet ports for remote control (NMEA / Ethernet)
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 2.2 Device Ports 2.2.1 Antenna Unit Port (Connecting Cable DCU AU) Contact / Pin Signal +24 V Output power supply to Antenna Unit RS485 A Serial data connection DCU AU (9600 Baud / semi-duplex / receive and transmit) RS485 B Input audio signal resp.
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 2.2.2 GPS / RS422 Port This optional (Build-To-Order Option) input is used to connect an external GPS-device to set the internal system clock. This is required for syncronisation of the bearing values if several direction finders are connected together by a command and control center.
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 2.3 Remote Control and IP-Audio Encoder Ports Item Marking Status LED Blinks during boot process of IP Audio Encoder (red) Status LED Blinking: IP Audio Encoder is sending (green) IP Audio Encoder is not sending...
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 2.5 Service & Maintenance Ports 2.5.1 Power Supply and Optional Connections Contact / Pin Signal +12 V to +30 VDC No connections required (internally connected)! GND (Ground) Permanent No connections required (internally connected)! Operation PTT / SBS Optional input in order to suppress self bearing.
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 2.5.2 NMEA Bus (RS 232) This is an additional NMEA interface of the DCU. It is recommended to use it only for local tests, because commands sent to the DCU may be interfere with commands sent through...
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 2.5.3 Test / Program Port for service or test operation (Software and new firmware upload). Contact / Pin Signal RS232 Tx Output serial data with RS232 level RS232 Rx Input serial data with RS232 level...
3.1.1 Menu Interface Menu Interface contains settings related to remote control using NMEA-Sentences. 3.1.1.1 NMEA Talk-Mode There are basically two operation modes for getting standard bearing data from the RT-800. Fig. 7 NMEA-Talkmode Settings 1. On Request: The RT-800 sends the data only on request.
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 3.1.1.2 NMEA Internal Baudrate Internally the control panel of the RT-800 (display with buttons) is connected to a serial-to- ethernet converter by a serial line. This implies that the same serial configurations must be used in both, the control panel and the serial-to-ethernet converter.
Fig. 9 System – Audio Line Output Setting 3.1.2.2 Antenna Offset If a fixed bearing offset is present after mechanical installation of the RT-800 AU (i.e. Antenna Unit is not exactly aligned with North), this offset could be compensated using the “Antenna Offset”...
(NPort Administrator) to configure the settings of the remote control connection. 3.2.2 NPort Administrator The provided „NPort Administrator“ is used to configure the serial-to-ethernet converter. You find the setup of NPort Administrator on the RT-800 companion CD provided with the device. Fig. 11 Setup-File of NPort Administrator To install NPort Administrator please start the setup “Npadm_Setup_Ver1.17_Build_11072613.exe”...
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 3.2.3 Configuration Step Description Screenshots Please connect the NMEA / Ethernet port to the LAN using a standard LAN cable Start the NPort Administrator application and click on the button “Search” Page 24 of 36...
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RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 Now the NPort should be found on the Now select the found NPort and click “Configure” to open the configuration dialogue Page 25 of 36...
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RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 Now click on the “Network” panel to start configuration! TIP: To modify any values in configuration dialogues select the item and check the corresponding “Modify”- Checkbox! If an error is reported and the configuration dialogue does not show up in most cases the NPort was assigned an IP address of a different subnet.
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RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 The Serial settings are shown here only for reference! It is strictly recommended to leave the values as shown here! If you like to change the Baudrate, don’t forget to change the corresponding Baudrate in the...
3.3 Configuration of Audio over IP 3.3.1 Introduction / Concept Beside the internal speaker of the RT-800 the LF-Audio signal could be accessed through the IP-Audio encoder “BARIX Instreamer”. This device offers a lot of possibilities to transmit the audio signal over IP-Networks.
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Then connect the provided headphones to the headphone connector (4). Now put on the headphones and switch on the RT-800! The IP address aquired by DHCP will be announced over the headphones! Please write down the IP address! Open a...
“Apply” button. Now the configuration of the IP-Audio converter of RT-800 is done! INFO: Additionally you can configure other streaming targets or streaming modes! For configuration details please refer to the online help on the right or the provided...
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 3.3.3 Configuration of IP-Audio to Line-Audio Converter at Remote Site At the remote site RHOTHETA Elektronik GmbH provides optionally a receiver for the conversion of the IP-Audio stream back to LineAudio. Fig. 13 IP-Audio to Line-Audio Converter BARIX Exstreamer The following steps describe the configuration of the IP-Audio to Line Audio converter.
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RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 Now connect the provided headphones to the headphone jack of the converter. Put on the headphones, prepare for writing down the announced IP address and connect the power plug now. IMPORTANT: The IP-Address of this device...
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RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 Now the IP settings must be configured. It is recommended to use a static IP address because the IP address must be configured at the IP-Audio- converter of RT- 800! If you continue to use DHCP...
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RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 The default settings of the streaming page preconfigured to match the settings of the RT-800. Just check, if the current settings of the device match the settings noted here! After changing the settings please press “Apply”...
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 The received audio signal is output to two terminals: Line Out on the back and headphone jack on the front. Use the connector which is suitable for you application. Now the configuration of the IP-Audio to Line-Audio converter on the remote site is...
RHOTHETA Installation and Configuration Manual RT-800 4 Appendix 4.1 List of abbreviation Abbreviation Meaning Remarks Antenna Unit CP/SS Cospas-Sarsat Display & Control Unit Direction finder Degree (° = 60' ) Emergency Locator Transmitter Ground Global Positoning System Identification Internet Protocol...
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