Hi
Last week I installed a Baby Loop on my roof 2m high and a long way from metal, at least 8 metres. It worked fine for a few days, then I started getting Motor Fail warnings. The PSU works fine and gives me 24 VDC at 3 amps. In debug mode when I drive the motor manually using the 9/3 8/2 an 7/1 buttons it is OK and the antenna opens and closes. I get around 400 mA load on the PSU with the motor in operation.
A couple of times I have been up to the roof and not really done much. The antenna works fine then the fault comes on again for no apparent reason. Straightened out the coaxial feed and motor cable and measured the SWR through a dummy load connected on the roof instead of the loop, so coaxial is OK. I am using a 1:1 choke balun at both ends of the coaxial. Have tried removing these but it is the same.
When I try to tune manually using * then enter frequency, it shows 30783kHz-7050kHz, then motor fail. I have never entered a frequency of 30783 so that is strange.
I see there was another thread earlier on this subject but it was not properly resolved.
As you know the antenna is not cheap so this is disappointing. Any help would be gratefully received.
John 9V1VV
John,
I've had and been using my ATU 2.0 Unit & baby loop since September 2018 and its been rock solid running on firmware V3.22.
You also mentioned that you have a 1:1 choke balun on both ends of the Coax feed line, and I believe someone on this forum had some issues when he installed some sort of choke on the coax feedline, so I suggest go back and read a couple of threads about this issue he had on a midi loop.
By the way did you test with a dummy load connected directly to the ATU 2.0 unit antenna SO-239 port directly inside your ham shack? I know you mentioned the you connected a dummy load on the roof and tested, but how did you test and what equipment did you use test the coax feedline?
If you get good test results with the dummy load test inside your ham shack, I suspect there is still an issue with you main coax feed line? About how many feet is it between your ham shack and the antenna?
Here is a last suggestion, take the ATU 2.0 unit with you on the roof, take also with you a good known and tested coax cable, I use LMR-400F for my entire RF feed line, and test with the the plain ATU 2.0, a good coax feed line, and the antenna. By the way you either bring along an A/C power extension cord or a 24VDC power supply to run this test. Hope this helps
By the way, these are just suggestions and any risk you take when you climb the roof and solely on your own accord and can no way put the blame on me...sorry for the disclaimer, I know well have common sense but who knows these days of PC...lol
I had this problem happen to my baby loop magnetic antenna last night, almost exact same error messages that you are getting. All was working fine until then errors codes just like you described appeared.
To make long story short, I discovered that the culprit was my MFJ-962D antenna tuner, after hours of troubleshooting.
So here are some tips:
1. Power off your entire baby loop ATU 2.0 unit, radios, amplifiers, tuners, antenna rotators, and all unnecessary equipment at your ham shack.
2. Connect the baby loop antenna main coax cable feed line directly to the ATU 2.0 antenna so-239 port.
3. Power on the Baby Loop ATU 2.0
4. Go to initial settings and select antenna setup
5. Choose auto antenna detection and press enter to complete.
It should detect your baby loop antenna and it will save to the ATU 2.0 unit.
If you are still having the same issues/problems, connect a 50 ohm dummy load to the antenna SO-239 connector and enter any frequency like 14000 Mhz. You should get a 1.1 SWR on all frequencies from 6600 to 29800 Mhz
.
If the dummy load test passes, reconnect the baby loop main coax feed line cable and repeat steps 1 thought 5.
I hope this helps.
The baby loop antenna is very resilient and it will take a lot of "shock and awe" to break it...ho hi...
Dante
KM6VMR