OTHER Motor Sensor Wire

iBoston

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jul 15, 2014
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North Central
I need to re-wired my 10' moveable sensor wire...

I have a Titanium ASC Motor and a Venture actuator. The run will be about 60-80 feet. I move the dish from one side of the ARC and back, and ill be off by 2-3 ticks. It's bad! I want really good wire.. Could i use RG6 cable as sensor wire? Would that be a good choice, and if not, can i have an ebay or amazon link on the wire you would suggest. I really want something i am not going to have to worry about again. The underground pipe the cable runs through probably has water in it, so the cable needs to be able to handle that..

Thanks ahead...
 
I've tried all kinds of wire and made sure all the nuts and bolts were tight and I've never been able to get the dish to be on target every time. I've even replaced the reed switch with an opto switch and still can't get accurate pointing. So good luck getting consistent accuracy.
 
I need to re-wired my 10' moveable sensor wire...

I have a Titanium ASC Motor and a Venture actuator. The run will be about 60-80 feet. I move the dish from one side of the ARC and back, and ill be off by 2-3 ticks. It's bad! I want really good wire.. Could i use RG6 cable as sensor wire? Would that be a good choice, and if not, can i have an ebay or amazon link on the wire you would suggest. I really want something i am not going to have to worry about again. The underground pipe the cable runs through probably has water in it, so the cable needs to be able to handle that..

Thanks ahead...

Titanium has recommended 2 wire shielded alarm wire from Home Depot in the past. Likely available from other places as well like Lowes. Don't know how well that would work standing in water inside a pipe though. Perhaps he will comment.

 
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Same. But using a Hall sensor with a high res. magnet wheel. Arc to arc drift is not so bad. Sat to sat the same.
Drift will be worse looking for new sats. or "bumping" the dish to peak.
The dish pivots need to be rock solid. Worn bushings will make landing on the sat. again iffy.
The counter shuts off when the dish motor relays open and turn it off.
So if the motor stops.....A: in the middle of an encoder segment, magnet pole, etc.
Or B: the motor armature coasts to a stop after the pixies are removed.
Count errors are generated.
Pull the motor cover. Watch the gears spin, the armature if you can. Or use an analog multimeter, 3-#194 bulbs in series hooked to the motor input terminal block.
While the actuator is moving. When it hits the designated sat. watch the meter, when thelights go out. Does the motor coast to a stop, even ever so slightly? I bet it does.
A 'seed' for a solution at the motor for immediate stop on power removal.
 

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Is there anything wrong with using an RG6 cable as sensor wire? Its shielded, and its a thick wire..
But not made of copper correct? Use some #14, the distance and low voltage creates voltage drop. Larger wire less loss.
 
Is there anything wrong with using an RG6 cable as sensor wire? Its shielded, and its a thick wire..
When it's used for DC or pulsed DC it's no longer considered shielded as you're now using the outer shield as a current carrying part of the circuit.
One way of looking at it is in the audio world pros use shielded twisted pair and XLR connectors which is far superior to using RCA style coaxial cabling for induced noise rejection.
In your home stereo or audio rack if you lay a coax cable next to an AC power cord. Such as a turntable cable.
Not cool and you get a ton of induced AC hum. Using shielded twisted pair cable, chances of getting that hum is vastly reduced.
Plus you now have a balanced (as opposed to unbalanced) system where equal current is carried on each wire.
Or. As I grabbed of the 'net:
"Connecting that unbalanced, grounded transmission line (coaxial cable) directly to a balanced load can result in all kinds of problems, such as currents flowing back down the shield to the source."
Not saying you shouldn't or can't use it. But if it's stray noise rejection in the pulsed encoder signal to your diseqc controller you're seeking. A twisted pair or twisted 3 conductor cable with outer shield is the only way to go.
Then we could get into impedance and stuff that would reflect or cancel out pulses on the way down the coax.
I'd run out and have them spin the carousel at Home Depot personally.
 
Heck, in all honesty, :eekEVERYTHING looks too expensive these days... I wanted solid wire.... But, i really only need about 150'. So, if that looks good, ill see if i can find shorter length...
 
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