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Reviews For: HyGain DCU-3 for Ham IV/V and T2X

Category: Antenna Rotators & Accessories

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Review Summary For : HyGain DCU-3 for Ham IV/V and T2X
Reviews: 4MSRP: 449.95
Description:
Programmable rotator controller for Ham IV/V and T2X
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.hy-gain.com/Product.php?productid=DCU-3
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0044.5
NW2M Rating: 2018-06-09
Great, but with a production flaw Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased my DCU-3 as a Hy-gain VII (DCU-3 and Ham-IV rotor combo) at the 2018 Hamvention. The Bell Housing rotor is a masterpiece. I own more than one unit. Fantastic.

Kudos for the excellent color manual in PDF format. It is so nice to have a top-notch manual. I had time to read it cover to cover while my rotor was in transit.

My unit came with the internal "U" jumper for the USB interface, vs the "R" jumper for the RS-232 interface. Only one interface can be active. It is clearly depicted in the schematic on page 19, connector J2. You can see the U and R jumper designator. Although the schematic shows the "R" jumper, mine was actually the "U" jumper. This is a minor typo- but it will raise questions as to what interface is active. We are hams- pop the top cover and look. It is a VERY clean internal design. Very well done.

Opening the top cover only requires 1-turn of the screws as the top/bottom covers are slotted, not drilled. Easy. My Laptop running Win7 found the UART drivers and in 30 seconds I had complete USB control.

That said, the latest DCU-3 controller has a production flaw. The front decal openings are too small for the six Memory Buttons. That is to say- once pushed, they will stick as the return spring is too weak to return to the normal position. I had 4 of 6 buttons all stuck "in". What a pain. I called the factory and they are aware of it and will be making a change. Until then, they wanted users to use an X-acto knife to trim the excess. I tried without success, nor to my liking.

The fix: I removed the top and bottom covers. Remove the knob with hex set screw. Remove the 4 phillips screws holding the front panel assy to the front. The entire button structure will slide back 1/2". That is all you need. I used a mini file to gently remove the excess causing the sticky buttons. You cannot mess it up as the backing for the decal is punched aluminum. It is the plastic decal skirts that are the problem. Blow out the dust and re-assy. It took all of 10-minutes vs a round-trip to the factory and back. We are hams.

I am looking forward to spinning my (flawless) EXP-14 antenna and a new pair of LFA-2M12EL yagis for VHF weak signal/EME. 73, Al - NW2M
K5DSQ Rating: 2017-10-18
Excellent Controller Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased the DCU-3 to replace my old manual HyGain controller and a MDS RC-1 that MFJ/HyGain said was beyond repair. This is a quality piece of equipment that I would have expected from HyGain pre MFJ days. It's very well built, easily connects up to my present Ham IV and interfaces with Ham Radio Deluxe. Nice work HyGain!
W5XD Rating: 2017-07-21
I like it Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The USB control worked first time. I decided to use the RS-232 port instead. Didn't work. Turns out there is an internal jumper with "U" and "R". Only USB or RS-232 works at a time and you have to find and change that jumper. If its in the manual, I couldn't find it.
K4TK Rating: 2017-04-18
great programmable controller Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
bought one of these about a month ago to replace my old analog control box for my Ham IV. Not only does it work flawlessly, but i also easily interfaced it with my DX4WIN logging program (use the DCU-1 setting in the software). So now when i see a DX spot....and click on that spot in my logging software, simply hitting F11 on my laptop has the rotator "automatically" go to the bearing listed in the logging program (which is based on my lat/long). How cool is that? Or, you can set 6 different presets....as well as turn a knob and dial in what bearing you want. Getting the brake and coast down settings was fairly easy. The hardest part of the whole setup was making the termination on the cable. My old connection was just a terminal strip with 8 lugs. The new connection was an 8 pin connection. Hadn't soldered anything in a while....and given the tight space of the connector shell....my old eyes.....etc....just made for a mild bit of a struggle. Not too bad, but as I say, the was the "hardest" part. Everything else was EXTREMELY painless. Even set up a virtual serial port on my new laptop on one of the USB ports...and that too was a breeze.

I give the DCU-3 a big thumbs up in my shack....it was the last piece of modern equipment I've added in the last year to bring my shack "up to date"