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Reviews For: Idiom Press/Ham Supply Rotor-EZ - Hy-Gain Controllers

Category: Antenna Rotators & Accessories

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Review Summary For : Idiom Press/Ham Supply Rotor-EZ - Hy-Gain Controllers
Reviews: 105MSRP: 99.95 - 149.95
Description:
Point and Shoot” Rotor-EZ (with or without computer control RS-232) for ALL 3 paddle Hy- Gain Controllers by Idiom Press/Ham Supply
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.hamsupply.com/rotor-ez-hy-gain-rotor-control/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001054.9
N1KDO Rating: 2022-08-12
Great update, lots of wiring Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought the Rotor-EZ Kit with RS-232.

It was a fair amount of work to assemble and install. There is a lot of re-wiring inside the control box to make this work. If you are detail-oriented, and you can follow instructions, you can install this module and bring your Rotator control box into the 21st century. I do like the color-changing LED -- that is very cool.

I installed the Ham Supply meter kit, too. The meter is nice and bright now.

I'm pleased with the upgrade! point/shoot is great, but the RS-232 is what I really wanted.
NO9B Rating: 2021-08-11
Great Addition to your Rotor Control Box Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I gave a rating of 5 because it's good value, high quality board, easy install, good instructions and it works as expected.
For Hygain/CDE rotors I would get the black plastic control box, depending on how new it is, there may already be LED's for the CW, CCW and Brake. I bought a different control box that didn't have the LED's but the holes were in the frame and were easy to drill out the face plate. I also needed the S facing meter. I have had issues with USB devices in my shack and thats the main reason I went with RotorEZ vs. Vibroplex. The Vibroplex unit is USB only and the RotorEZ is RS232 and includes the USB to RS232 converter and the RS232 cable.
If you get one READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY, there are sometimes two things to do in one step. I would suggest reading the entire manual before starting the install. There is great information in the manual.
W3QT Rating: 2020-10-22
I like it! You will too. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a fine upgrade to my Ham IV. It was a bit tedious holding down paddles and waiting for the antenna to reach its intended location. That detracted from this fine rotator. Used in conjunction with my radio software (DXLab Suite) I can just click a button and off it goes. If software operation isn't your thing, you also can operate the rotator manually with partial but helplful automation. Just turn the calibration knob to point the antenna, hit the brake paddle, and the rest is taken care of by Rotor-EZ. There's no more holding down the paddle until the antenna arrives at its desired location. Several safety features are built in to help mitigate some of the little quirks of the pre-installation boxes. Easy install. Very fast support responses. I like it! My guess is you will too.
NI5L Rating: 2020-06-27
This is way too handy!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After replacing my dead rotor with a tail twister, I decided I would give the Rotor-EZ a try. The anti-jam logic interested me, so I purchased the assembled board without RS-232. It took me about an hour to install and calibrate it. It is so easy to move the antenna to a precise frequency now. It is truly fire and forget. I highly recommend it if you are running any of the Hy Gain rotors.

73 de KA7ESE
K1LNL Rating: 2020-05-09
works with default options Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I assembled the board with great care and it worked on first try but I could not get options to work. assembly instructions were well written but no physical pinouts for the pic controller (found online, needed to select or switch optional features). came with a 28 pin socket for the pic controller and instructions to solder 2 other 16 pin ics. recommend getting sockets for these to avoid any chance of too much heat.

I had trouble with calibration until I realized that the calibration pots (blue ones) came with pre-bent leads probably different orientation from original orange pots and resulted in all references to CW and CCW in the instructions were reversed. reported this to Ham Supply. could not get the option to disable unstick feature to work at all, unstick disable worked but after 2 moves meter jumped into offset mode, reported to Ham Supply but vendor doesn't seem interested in working with me to fix this. I suspect software bug. anyway still a neat product for the money but support needs improvement.
N8ZI Rating: 2018-04-20
Living the dream....... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Recently bought a new in box Ham IV w/ factory brake delay for less than half price. I removed the factory brake delay and installed it in my Dads controller along with the illumination kit and put the rotor ez in mine.
I opted for the RS232 version to let my logging software do the work. It was very easy to assemble with the clear detailed instructions. Roughly an hour of soldering, fired it up and it performed flawlessly. I did have one LED polarity reversed which was a quick easy fix. My controller is the new style with a updated meter and dual lights. They were very dim and unsatisfactory so the illumination kit was retrofitted in by drilling 3 holes in the bezel around the meter. Now my "Radio Active" life has a new toy to play with.
Now I just click on a station listed on the cluster and around my antennas go.
I give the product, price, fast shipping, ease of installation and overall performance an A+++.
Dad and I are both happy campers HI HI
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W7NEE Rating: 2018-04-18
Awesome Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
What a great addition to my shack! I have installed this into my Hygain control box with Great success! The point and shoot feature is a great plus! I ordered mine with the RS232 function and can not believe how easy it is to use with my logging program! I would recommend this to any of those that like full tracking control of your station! Thanks Ham Supply for a great product and Awesome service!
AE9DX Rating: 2017-01-02
Absolutely Great! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I now have these in all three of my Hy-Gain Ham 4 rotators and they are a joy to use. I have purchased both the kit and the pre-assembled units and have had excellent results. They come with everything needed to build/install in the rotor box. As with any kit, reading the instructions through at least twice is a must to stay out of trouble. You will have to drill holes for the LED's so make sure you have SHARP drill bits before you start. Also a good sharp point on your soldering pencil for soldering to the PC board. That being said, I found the units very straight forward to assemble and install with well written instructions. If needed, help is as close as a phone call or e-mail with timely response. Once you have these, you will wonder how you got by without them!
VA3MW Rating: 2016-09-28
great! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have just ordered my 4 and 5th rotator controller with RS232. I will be using these in a LAN connection so I will front end them with a LAN to RS232 converter so I can connect to them with a Raw Socket using PSTRotatorAZ.

My tower is 200ft from my radios so the controllers are installed at the base of the tower and not in the shack of my remote base.

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Earlier 4-star review posted by VA3MW on 2001-09-05

If you are doing an automated (or integrated) station, this is a must have. Instructions are well done. Works fine with DX4Win as well as semi-automatic and manual modes. Expect to spend a couple of evenings putting this together. The hardest part is drilling the holes in the face plate. Also, get the RS-232 interface even if you aren't going to use it right away. Once you try it, you'll love it. Only critical comment would be to have a number of pictures of Control Unit face plates on the web site so you could get an idea of what others have done with the mounting of LED's.
K9FW Rating: 2016-04-11
Great product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just purchased the assembled kit, without the RS232 option. Install was a little tedious. As was the calibration. Once done it works great. Would recommend to others that can strictly follow instructions, and unsolder-solder. The original circuit board, with all it's wires are completely removed. Lots of new wires to install. Al K9FW