The Antenna Rotator Controller is unique in that it senses, displays, and controls to the earth’s true magnetic field. The compass sensor, mounted in a waterproof enclosure, is attached to the mast and sends its signal to a microcontroller. The ARC can receive azimuth commands from its internal keypad, MixW, or ARC VB (a custom grid square program) and will control many low cost 24V rotators to a level of precision not found in the original controller.
ARC II is an update to the design which includes two pushbuttons for manually moving the rotator left and right. The unit is built on an enclosure front panel and chassis and mounted in a custom enclosure. ARC II PC board layouts are 2 layer MiniBoard size. ExpressPCB (www.expresspcb.com) offers three 3.8" x 2.5" boards for $51. If your soldering skills are rusty you may want to use the MiniBoardPro option ($75) which includes a soldermask to reduce the risk of solder bridges.
Devantech now has a tilt compensated magnetic compass module, the CMPS10 for $35.
