Antenna rotor

Hi Friends,

I recently salvaged a motor from an old antenna rotor unit. It has two wires and I do not know what kind of a motor is this. It has no identification marks. I want to build a new rotor to drive a small antenna. So now I have few problems.

Is this a AC motor ? (when I gave a small DC it will not work. I dismentled it and found that it has a coil and a rotating permanent magnet. Power is being given to the coil winding. No slip rings and brushes)

It is not a stepper motor as it has no driver circuit.

What type of motors are there in usual antenna rotors?

If this a AC motor, can it be driven from a square wave puls generating circuit?

Would appreciete very much, if someone guide me to built a suitable circuit.

Thanks
Ravi
Colombo

Ravi said:

Hi Friends,

I recently salvaged a motor from an old antenna rotor unit. It has two wires and I do not know what kind of a motor is this. It has no identification marks. I want to build a new rotor to drive a small antenna. So now I have few problems.

Is this a AC motor ? (when I gave a small DC it will not work. I dismentled it and found that it has a coil and a rotating permanent magnet. Power is being given to the coil winding. No slip rings and brushes)

Click to expand...

If it's got no brushes it's either an AC motor, or a hall-effect DC motor. But I fail to see how it can be reversed with only two wires?.

The aerial rotators I've seen have all used AC motors, but use at least four core cable to the head.

Many of the CDE or Hygain rotors here use a 26vac 2-phase AC motor... The motor will have three connections; common (ground), and the two phases... In the controller unit there is a 130-uf/50vac capacitor connected across the two phases and the 26-vac signal is then fed to one or the other motor phase connections... The other motor phase is developed through the capacitor...

Regards, Mike

Mike, I have a CDE AR-33 rotator and have absolutely no documentation on it, nor have I been able to scour any up over the Internet. Do you have a source for an operator/service manual, schematic, etc.? I was given this on and it was locked up with dried-up grease. After cleaning and adjustment, it's been working like a champ for me over the last 8 years.

Dean