[HBR] off-topic reminds me of on-topic questions

[Bill Cromwell]

Hi Stan,

I'm a knob twister myself. Some other hams have done just about exactly 
what you have in mind with steppers and gears for remote tuners and for 
other controls such as your VFO. Watch out for the digital hash noise in 
your receiver while you are using that stepper system. The noise can be 
controlled but I have only bague notions about what they did to suppress 
the noise. After all, I'm a knob twister and the motors I use for that 
do not interfere with the receiver <evil grin>.

Google may help you find the info that is available on the web. Good 
luck with your project.

73,

Bill  KU8H

On 08/18/2014 09:01 AM, Stan McIntosh wrote:
> The balanced inductor antenna tuner reminds me of some on-topic thoughts
> that I have been thinking.  Reduction drives are still available, but they
> can be pricey and hard to find.  However, I have lately been playing with
> stepper motors, and I am thinking of trying to adapt (at least) one to VFO
> use.  If you'll search the term 28BYJ-48, you'll find a motor where you can
> get 5 motors with driver boards for $15 after shipping, and these pair
> nicely with a $5 Arduino board and a $2 bluetooth adapter.  These motors
> may only move in steps, but we're talking about over 4000 steps/revolution
> (the internal motor is 64 steps/revolution with a 63.something:1 reduction
> drive in the case).  The reason I mentioned bluetooth is that I'm often
> lazy with the Arduinos; rather than put controls on the case, I'll just
> send setting information back and forth from my phone.
>
> Sorry if this is blasphemous by munging solid-state with HBR, but I have
> been thinking about this as a way to make fine tuning easier.
>
> Regards,
> Stan
> kd4bth
>