Portable Wi-Fi Rotor Controller PWRC

NOTE:
PWRC is replacing the venerable AE-12 controller.
Introduces support for the widely available RCA rotators, which have limit switches and capacitor inside. Keeps compatibility with AE-12, by supporting Channel Master, RadioShack, AR-500 and other rotators.

Project Photo album
Manual: PWRC User Manual
Read the QST Review

Features:

  • Powered by 12VDC rotator controller. Optimized for battery-powered portable rotation
  • Mounts inside RCA VH226E or Channel Master TV and others antenna rotor types
  • Easily rotates HEXbeam, Spiderbeam or Tri-bander
  • Field oriented motor control, Variable Speed Drive 30Hz – 80Hz.
  • Acceleration / deceleration velocity profiles
  • Electronic Compass (optional)
  • Wi-Fi 802.11n network interface
  • Can be used as Access point or connected to existing Wi-Fi network
  • WEB interface for point-and-shoot control
  • WEB page can be password protected for remote control
  • QRA grid locator Azimuth and Distance
  • Telnet interface - compatible with PstRotator program
  • UDP packet listener - compatible with N1MM logger and DXLab suite
  • Customizable WEB interface

I built this rotor controller for my portable operation on VHF/UHF contests and Field Day. The main goal was to be able to operate on 12VDC from a Solar / Battery power setup, easy installation and to be able to rotate my VHF/UHF antenna stack and a HF tri-bander. Using Wi-Fi network eliminates the control box and cables, to simplify the setup. On the field I can connect my laptop / tablet / smartphone directly to the rotor using it as a Acces point or it can be connected to existing Wi-Fi network. Rotator can be controlled simultaniousy via three interfaces.
Using any device (laptop/tablet/phone) with WEB browser to set it up and point-and-shoot to rotate antenae.

WEB interface can be completely customized by downloading, modifying and uploading file: rotor.html from the internal flash filesystem.

Running firmware V3B0 and above will serve any file uploaded to the flash file system back to the Web browser. There is a sample application to display Azimuthal map, created on Tom/NS6T Web site.
N1MM logger and DXLab suite (maybe others) can controll it with UDP packets. See N1MM Rotator Control page for details.
The versatile PstRotatorAz by YO3DMU can be used via telnet protocol. See the User manual how to configure it.

Special thanks to Alex / KK6VIX for helping me with building, testing and editing this project.