Getting this combo to work here was an interesting challenge.
1) The RCS-10 control box outputs a 3 bit binary signal to control 8
antennas
2) Several antennas that are multiband.
3) I have a remote A/B switch box with that is DC powered over the coax.
4) I wanted to also have the KPA-500 follow the K3 band switching.
This could all be done in hardware but antenna changes would require
rewiring.
For me the solution was a PIC, four relays (+ drivers) added to the
existing control box. Manual selection is retained.
The PIC used is a PICAXE 18m2+ $5 chip. It's in-circuit programmable by
a free software program. BASIC language can be used. Perhaps others.
Its input is the K3 BCD data which it echos that to KPA-500. It then
outputs the proper 3 bit binary code to the RCS-10. The A/B signal is
turned on if the band is appropriate. Antenna/band combos are software
programmable. The program and data occupies 270 bytes.
It never ceases to amaze me what a little bit of "smarts" in a chip can do.
73 de Brian/K3KO
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