My Fodtrack Page

Fodtrack group now available on Yahoo! It's fun and free!

I built my Fodtrack interface in February 2006 after discovering this interface and software in late 2005.

I purchased my printed circuit board (PCB) from Far Circuits

The 7528 A/d converter and other ICs were purchased from Jameco

All other components were obtained locally, or found in my 'junk box'. A complete list of components, sources and part numbers is listed below.

My Fodtrack interface

I've been working lately to connect my Fod board to my rotators. I have a CDE/Hygain Ham II for azimuth and a Yaesu G500a for elevation.

I've built a relay board which houses four relays, one each for UP, DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT.

It was very easy to connect the Yaesu rotator to Fod. I had to make a simple mod to my rotor box, to bring the 'common' 29 VAC line to the rear panel. I found that although the rotator and control box both use 8-wire terminal strips that only wires 1-6 are used!

I connected the 29 VAC line to pin 8 of my control box. Connecting this to pins 4 or 5 moves the rotator..

The Ham II was a bit more work, as the brake must be released before the rotator can be moved. This brake release switches 110 VAC, and I did not want this switch being made in the Fod box. I wired up a 12 volt relay inside the Ham II box to handle the brake release.

I connected to the Clockwise (CW) and Counter-Clockwise (CCW) switches in the Ham II box, and brought all 4 wires (two relay coil wires, rotator CW and CCW) out through a hole in the rear panel. Once the brake is released, connecting pin 2 on the terminal strip to either of the CW or CCW wires will move the rotator.

Due to the brake release, I also had to use DPST relays for the Ham II rotor. Not finding those anywhere, I bought DPDT pcb-mount relays from Radio Shack $5.49 ea..

The rotor pot in the Ham II was also not compatible with Fod. It uses a 0-13 volt scale instead of the 0-5 volt needed for Fod. I built a simple voltage divider with 3 resistors. Works FB..

Fodtrack shopping list


Radio Shack
-----------

1 qty 276-1770 +5 Volt Regulator (7805)                 $1.59

1 qty 271-1335 10k Ohm resistors (Pkg of 5)             $.99

2 qty 272-1025 10 uf Electrolytic Capacitor             $.99 each

1 qty 276-1999 14 Pin IC Socket (Pkg of 2)              $1.29

1 qty 276-1995 8 Pin IC Socket (Pkg of 2 - only need 1) $.69

1 qty 276-1991 20 Pin IC Socket                         $.69

1 qty 276-1770 +5v regulator                            $1.59

4 qty 276-1620 1n914/4148 diode (Pkg of 50)             $2.59

4 qty 276-2016 2n3904 NPN transistors. Fod calls        $.69 each
      for BC546 transistors (unavailable in my area)
      FYI- pinout of 2n3904 is backwards from BC546.



Jameco
------
1 qty 290087 TLC7528 A/D converter                  $2.75
2 qty 23683  LM324                                  $.28 each
1 qty 23966  LM358                                  $.24  

Far Circuits
------------
1 qty Fodtrack PCB                                  $4.50

Please email me with your results also!

73 and good luck!
Kyle

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