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Success!
27 September 2016 | by Great moment this afternoon when the Automatic Loop Controller fired up as it should. Happy days.
When I first fired it up, after loading up the Arduino program, all I could see was a dull green glow on the screen. It wasn’t until I remembered a comment from another builder about adjusting the potentiometer on the PCB that controls the LCD contrast.
It was a great relief that my slow and deliberate build – double checking all component values and joints – paid off. Next step is to build the SWR bridge and connect to the stepper motor on the loop.
4 Responses to “Success!”
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What kind of loop are you controlling?
More information would be greatly appreciated. This is something that I’ve been considering and I would like to understand what your whole system consists of.
Hi Dave & Alden,
Thanks for your comments and apologies for the mysterious post. I have been building a 4 foot diameter magnetic loop recently using a 200pF vacuum variable capacitor to tune 40m up to possibly 17m. You’re probably aware that magnetic loops have high Q and so can require frequent re-tuning as you move across a band.
This post was about firing up my build of the automatic loop controller designed by Loftur Jónasson TF3LJ/VE2LJX. It’s comprehensively described at this page: https://sites.google.com/site/lofturj/to-automatically-tune-a-magnetic-loop-antenna. It’s a solid design built around an arduino controller to manage the stepper motor dib=ving your capacitor. There’s also a Yahoo discussion group ‘loopController’ where Loftur is active dispensing advice.
Thank you Stephen. I suspected you meant some sort of loop antenna.