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Research Concepts RC2000C User Manual

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RC2000C Az/El Tracking Antenna Controller

Appendix E

Communications Protocol

Research Concepts, Inc. • 5420 Martindale Road • Shawnee, Kansas • 66218-9680 • USA

www.researchconcepts.com

This command causes the controller to automatically position the antenna in either azimuth and

elevation and/or polarization. The command has 3 forms.

Form 1. If the sat_name/position field contains the name of a satellite saved via the controller's SETUP

mode the controller will position the antenna at the azimuth and elevation positions associated with that

satellite. The satellite name should be in capital letters, left justified and padded on the right with blanks

in the sat_name/position field. Note that the satellite name must exactly match one in the controller's

non-volatile memory.

With this form of the command, the polarization field may contain either 'H', 'V', or ' ' (a blank, 20 hex or

32 decimal). If an 'H' or a 'V' is specified, in addition to positioning the antenna in azimuth and

elevation, the polarization control device will be commanded to go to the position associated with either

the horizontal (if 'H' is specified) or vertical (if 'V' is specified) polarization associated with the satellite. If

the field contains a blank the polarization is not changed. For example, this command with 'H' in the

polarization field and 'SBS 6' in the sat_name/position field will specify an auto move to SBS 6 and the

polarization will be adjusted to horizontal for the SBS 6 satellite.

Form 2. If the sat_name/position field contains a valid pair of azimuth and elevation positions the

antenna will move to the position specified. The first 5 characters of the sat_name/position field specify

the azimuth position (azimuth sub-field) and the last five characters specify the elevation position

(elevation sub-field). Within each of the sub-fields the position must be right justified and left padded

with zeroes. For example, a sat_name/position field value of '0152500750' specifies an azimuth

position of 1525 counts and an elevation position of 750. For the command to be accepted these

positions must be within their respective limits for each axis. For this form of the auto move command,

only the blank character is accepted in the polarization field. Note that the position must be specified in

position counts and not in an angle format.

Form 3. If the polarization field contains the 'P' character, the command is interpreted as a

go_to_polarization command. For this form of the command, the first 5 characters of the

sat_name/position field specify the target polarization position in the controller's internal polarization

position representation (polarization sub-field). See byte 32 of the device status poll reply for more

information on the internal polarization position representation for the different types of polarization

control devices. The polarization position in the polarization sub-field must be right justified and left

padded with zeroes. The second 5 characters of the sat_name/position field must contain '00000'. For

example, if the sat_name/position field contains '0050000000' the polarization control device is

commanded to adjust the polarization to a position of 500.

The command contains 16 bytes. Here is the format;

byte 0:

STX

byte 1:

A

where A is the RC2000 address

byte 2:

32h

the auto move command code

byte 3:

polarization

This field can specify 'H', 'V', ' ' (blank), or 'P'.

byte 4-13:

sat_name/position

This field specifies the satellite name or a target azimuth and
elevation or polarization position.

byte 14:

ETX

byte 15:

checksum

The normal reply to this command will be the same as the reply to the status poll query except that the

command code field will be '32h'. The NAK reply will be sent to the host if … a) the satellite name is not

found in non volatile memory. b) the Auto Pol system is enabled and the command specifies

polarization movement (byte 3= ‘H’, ‘V’ or ‘P’ or c) the position specified for form 2 or 3 of the command

is outside of the position limits for that axis.

AZIMUTH/ELEVATION JOG COMMAND

This command jogs the antenna in azimuth or elevation. The command contains 11 bytes. Here is the

format of the command;

byte 0:

STX