GBox V3000

[olegray]

Tell me what you think of this:
To control two C-band dishes with one V3000, using a 4PDT switch, the common four terminals going to the GBox, and one actuator to one side of the switch and the other actuator to the other side. Of course, it would require turning the V3000 power off before switching from one position to the other to prevent power spikes.

 

[pendragon]

The GBOX stores the absolute position counts for the programmed positions. The pulses that come back from the positioner are only relative. Thus the GBOX has to remember the current position count and know which way it is going to calculate when it arrives from the positioner pulses. In your scheme, when you move one dish the GBOX will be at the wrong position count for the other. So unless you want to keep synchronizing your positions or plan to simply manually position each time, this is going to be one big mess.

 

[olegray]

Well, that confirms what I was thinking would happen, but I wanted to pass it across for someone else opinion.

 

[Anole]

even worse:

Let's say you always brought Dish A back to the True South satellite, and then switched to Dish B (which was parked at TS, too)...
...the Gbox wants to go X counts east or west to a particular bird.

The Gbox stores one table of counts to get from one bird to another.
That count will not be the same for the other dish.
So, the tracking problem gets only worse.

edit:
I edited this several times to enhance not repeat what Pendragon had already said so well.

 

[truckracer]

it would be possible maybe if both dishes were completely accurate and in sync but that won't ever happen since even changing the length of cable will modify the motor speed enough to kill the sync between both dishes. better just get another v box and seperate receiver for the other dish.