next 'tracking interval'. Be aware, that the clock in the ACU must be set precisely to make the
feature work as expected.
The "program.txt" file is a plain text file containing a three or four column table. Empty lines are
ignored, comments starting with a '#' as well. The numbers in the table are parsed as floating
point numbers which only may consist of decimal digits, one decimal point ans an optional leading
'-' if negative. The columns must be separated by an arbitrary number of space or tabulator
characters. They have the following meanings:
1 --- time stampThe time stamp must be a Julian date with the time of day coded as a
fraction of a day. Example: The Julian date for the common base of most computer clocks
(1970-01-0100:00:00) is 2440587.5
2 --- azimuth angleThe azimuth angle in degrees
3 --- elevation angleThe elevation angle in degrees
4 --- polarization angleThe polarization angle in degrees. This column is optional, no
polarization pointing is commanded if this column is missing.
Memory space is very limited in the ACU-ODM. The file size is limited to 64 Kbytes, being
equivalent to about 12 days of AZ/EL data in 10 minutes intervals.
There are different faults which could occur during operation. Please also refer to chapter
Operation
. Below is a collection of all this faults.
There are the following cases for a fault of one axis. 'TIMEOUT' and 'FAULT' are releasable
during a tracking cycle. A 'STOPPED' fault have to be released with the RESET button:
Jump Values of angle encoder; 5° in azimuth and elevation or 10° in polarisation
('STOPPED')
Antenna moves 5sec into the wrong position ('STOPPED')
Motor timeout occur because of no antenna movement within the entered time ('TIMEOUT')
Motor fault input triggered for example from frequency converter ('FAULT')
There are the following cases for a 'STOPPED' fault of all axes together, which have to be
released with the RESET button:
Trigger emergency stop input
Click the STOP button on the web interface
All faults are released by clicking the RESET button on the web interface or by sending the
remote command mrst=0. The RESET button activates the 'MOTOR RESET' outputs of all three
axes for a quarter second and delete the fault flags. All target angles are set to the actual value
to suppress an immediate movement of the antenna.
If a 'TIMEOUT' or 'FAULT' occur during a tracking cycle in one axis and the cycle is canceled, the
ACU will retry after 2min again according to the setting of 'Retry after motor fault'
(NEVER/ONCE/FOREVER). The retry is a RESET which activates the 'MOTOR RESET' outputs
of all three axes for a quarter second and delete the fault flags. All target angles are set to the
actual value to suppress an immediate movement of the antenna. This is also valid for tracking
faults like a 'PEAKING FAULT'.
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ACU-ODM-UM-2209 Page 72/73