AZ / EL printed rotor from PA3AXA and PE1CKK

Can this rotor hold an Arrow II antenna? I’m interested in a small rotor to point my antenna while making QSOs. Since this is mostly 3D printed the material strength would likely be a limiting factor for me tho. I don’t own an enclosed printer so the hardest material I can do is PETG.

I would say, yes, if mounted somehow centered, not mounted with the end of the yagi to the AZ-EL if you get what I mean.

I just sliced the whole thing, and wow. It uses surprisingly little filament! I will definitely be making this in the future. The arrow mount shouldn’t be too hard, I can probably design a part to mount the arrow in the middle of its boom to the rotator.

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One question, the web page specifies “ten turn variable resistors”. What resistance should these potentiometers be?

I have used 10kOhm resistors, but anything between 2 k and 50 k should do. On the 5th turn the voltage on the “runner” is always half of the voltage on the outer connections :slight_smile:

With a 1 k resistor and 5 volt on both outer connections you draw 5 mA so even that should be no problem.

I had wired them wrong the first time. normal variable resistors have the runner as middle connection, my multiturns had them on the outside. There even was a drawing on them with the connections…

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Google Photos

I thought I allready created a Google photo album but this is what I have taken as images when printing , mounting, errorring and more.

Might be handy

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I’ve made a list of bolts needed with the file names of the STLs they go through:
vertical_base - lagerklem M4 25mm 2x
base_plate - lagerklem M4 50mm 2x
tandwiel_groot - tandwiel_groot M4 15mm 8x
tandwiel_groot - tandwiel_groot - bus - vertical_base M4 30mm 4x
tandwiel_groot - tandwiel_groot - bus - arm* M4 30mm 4x
motor - vertical_base M3 5mm x3
motor - base_plate M3 5mm x4
20x M4 nuts

mounting M8 >50mm (depends on your mounting solution)
*“arm” is not an STL, it just refers to the L-bracket that goes on the elevation gears, like the onne made by kerel in an earlier comment in this thread.

These aren’t 100% verified, I haven’t built the rotor yet, but I think everything should be correct.

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