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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
N6AJR Rating: 2005-05-20
slick Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
saw it at Visilia and it looks like a pretty slick way to control the rotor.. my only question is sometimes I click on multiple spots in a hurry ( cruisng the bands, see what is open..) and would this have it flopping back and forth..on computer control, I know it would be ok with the point and shoot ( calibrate ) dial
VE3YF Rating: 2005-05-20
Great Automation Tool Time Owned: more than 12 months.
It has been over a year using this product. I purchased EZ-Rotor with the RS-232 option. The assembly and setup pretty much went straight forward with the exception of one problem and a call to Bob at Idiom Press and he was quick and accurate in his response.

The device makes using my rotor a joy. With programs like TRX-Manager and Writelog you either type in the call or point and click the country and the path and off goes the rotor with high precision.

All manual functions remain intact and have been enhanced by the addition of a 5 second brake engagement delay to help prevent damage to the rotor itself. Excellent Job IdiomPress!
NT9E Rating: 2005-02-13
Great product! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought my Rotor-EZ kit (w/RS-232) over a year ago and finally found some time (and a clear flat area) in which to put this kit together. The kit has high quality components and the instructions are pretty clear. Built the kit in 2 sessions. 1 session to populate and solder the on board components and the next session to pull out the un-needed parts from the Tail Twister control box and wire-in the new wires from the circuit board. At this time you should drill the new LED hole for the Op status LED above the word "BRAKE". Had a couple of questions that were (I thought) not in the instruction manual and a quick call to Bob answered my questions. The new system works great and I use TRX-Manager(www.TRX-Manager.com)to control the rotator(Hy-Gain DCU-1 emulation). I highly recommend it for anyone wishing to update their shack automation.
W5GW Rating: 2005-02-01
A nifty weekend project Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The Rotor-EZ adds brake, RS-232 control and a host of other functions to help improve the functionality of my circa 1980 HyGain rotor. Kit was fairly easy to build and install. No problems were encountered. However, this is NOT a kit for a beginner. The soldering pads are very small and require a precision soldering tip. Checkout went ok after I decyphered a few cryptic sentences in the manual. The manual has virtually no pictures of parts or how to route wires, you are on your own, but for an experienced builder this should be easy. The PCB layout illustration was very handy in finding hole locattions. I added shrink wrap to the LED leads. This is something that is deficient in the kit.
W5JON Rating: 2004-12-15
Perfect Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Without the Rotor-EZ the T2X, is a good but problem prone rotor. The Rotor-EZ seems to solve all the weaknesses (jammed stops, brake lock-ups, break release, etc.)of the T2X, and makes operation a breeze. It has been in for two years now and both T2X and control with Rotor-EZ are great.

A great addition to the T2X control.

73,

John W5JON
W7QQ Rating: 2004-11-20
Everything it's cracked up to be Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I was the skeptical owner of a 20 year old Hy-Gain Tailtwister that was part of a package deal when I bought a used tower. The rotor had been stored upside down on the tilt over tower for years and had filled up with water. It was in horrible shape, but it was mine, so I decided to rebuild it. Once that was complete, I assembled and installed the Idiom Press Rotor-Eze into the controller. I had read and heard so many bad things about the Hy-Gain rotors and the brake problems, I just didn't expect much.

After two years of contesting use, turning an 80 pound, six element yagi with a 36 foot boom, I can honestly say that the rotor, and controller have worked perfectly, with absolutely no maintenance. I credit that success to the Idiom Press Rotor Eze controller modifications.

My station is located in a windy area with winter to summer temperatures ranging from 15 below to 115 degrees F. The Idiom Press Rotor Eze features work perfectly as advertised, and it makes operating my relic of a rotor worry free and reliable, even when I have guest ops who are not familiar with rotatable antennas. It's completely foolproof.

After a long preference for the big (and expensive)Yaesu or M Squared rotor, I'm considering another used Hy Gain/Telex rotor for a second tower. The Idiom Press Rotor Eze product makes these rotors THAT good!

The Rotor Eze kit was easy to build and install, and the instructions and support materials were we thought out and very clear. Once installed, it operates seamlessly with the Hy Gain controller, and there are no other modifications to make.
W3WKR Rating: 2004-07-12
Great function/especially nice kit for experienced builder Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
eBay gave me an ability to buy a Hy-Gain Tail Twister at a resonable price. It needed an interface to the computer.

Idiom Press's E-Z rotor card to the rescue!

The kit consists of a circuit board of excellent quality, 69 electrical components, and a hand full of wire and misc. mechanical components.

Assembled in 10 hours., worked perfect with terminal program and Write log. Great product
WA0TTN Rating: 2004-02-17
A wonderful device! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I inherited a vintage Cornell-Dubilier Ham II rotator from a ham who was moving to a retirement home. I'd never had a tower, beam, and rotator before. When I saw how kludgy it was to operate the thing, I thought, "There's got to be a better way." I got my answer on the TowerTalk reflector, took a look at the kit on Idiom Press' Web site, and ordered one immediately.

I had the controller modified even before I had the tower and antenna back up, since I wanted to make sure it was working properly first. As I said, I never had to use the controller in its original state, but I sure do like the way it works now!

The modification was very straightforward. The only suggestion is that as I was following the directions I realized that I was basically disabling the original components. So instead of just that, I gutted the unneeded components first before I installed the board. I also had to do the meter hole adjustments, but found it very simple (I bought the assembled kit, by the way). I clamped a rattail file in a vice and gently rubbed the board back and forth on it until the holes were just right. Very easy and very gentle on the components.

While I was at it, I removed the old rotary on/off switch, made a bigger hole with a chassis punch, and installed a flat-batted toggle switch from Radio Shack like the newer models appear to have. I also replaced the lamp meter with a high intensity white LED. Unfortunately, I didn't think about the reverse voltage and the LED fried after a couple of weeks. I read a tip about this in QST so one of these days I'll try it again with two LEDs back-to-back. For now I'm back to the original incandescent bulb, but the LED made the meter look really sharp and crisp.

I also bought the RS-232 option, although I don't use it currently. I did write a little VB program to play with it and it works very nicely. The extra $$$ for the option is well worth it.

So, in summary, I highly recommend this upgrade. It is a bit of work, but well worth the price and the effort to install.
WS1L Rating: 2004-02-01
Great intermediate kit Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I use TRX-Manager to integrate station control for logging, telnet DX Cluster access, radio, etc. I wanted to add rotor control without major expense. My rotor is an old CDE controlling a CD-44. The control box is still in very good shape, though quite old now. A quick email exchenge with Bob Lochner convinced me this kit would do what I needed.

Upon arrival I checked all the parts, no shortages. I went through the instructions very carefully, then went step by step, double and sometimes even triple checking each step.

I had to open up the meter mounting holes on the PC board, as they warned would be the case with older control boxes. That was the only real headache, as I left it too late and had to carefully work around some mounted components. I had wanted to avoid taking the control box apart until the last possible moment, though.

After stuffing the PC board the real project began. I opened up the control box and went step by careful step. A few of the soldering connections were in awkward places but I managed.

When I finished, the kit worked exactly as described and I buttoned up the control box. This is not a beginners kit, and I was pleasantly suprised to avoid mistakes on my part. The lack of pictures in the instructions was not a drawback.

The two best features for me are the computer control - my logging program lets me click a cluster spot to QSY and check its needed status, then one button starts the rotor. I also like the ability to use the former calibration knob to dial the meter to a heading and hit the brake button to start the rotor.

Bob's book, the Complete DX'er, was and is my DX bible. I bought their LogiKey keyer and consider it the best I have ever owned. The Rotor-EZ is a great product, as I would expect. I may try their audio filter soon!
K4UEE Rating: 2003-12-25
Love It! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought the Rotor-EZ kit at Dayton in May '03 and just now found time to assemble it. Found it reasonably easy to do, took about 3 hours and then 15 mins to calibrate. After using a tailtwister for 10 years and having to dedicate one hand to rotating the rotor, it is really great to turn a knob till the needle points in the desired new direction and hit the brake switch. The antenna then rotates, brakes itself, and I can go about my business!