Fail-safe antenna

Radar antenna systems consist of the reflector, pedestal, gears, motors, and drive amplifiers. These components must be protected in the event of failures.

If a critical failure is detected, RCP8 goes to a shutdown state as follows:

  1. The drive output voltage is zeroed.

  2. The drive control relay signal is set to low.

    If a drive control relay is used, RCP8 drive outputs are physically disconnected from the servo amplifiers. Depending on the installation, this may switch to an alternative drive system such as handwheels.

  3. An error bit is set in the output to the host computer.

cautionCAUTION In cases where the alternative drive system may attempt to move the antenna, it may be undesirable to automatically switch to the alternative drive when a shutdown occurs. In such cases, do not implement the RCP8 drive relay signal. Instead, implement a manual switching approach.

When a shutdown occurs, you must investigate the reason for the shutdown in the Control/Monitoring menu. After the fault has been corrected, issue a reset command, either from RCP8 menus or over the host computer serial line.

One of the most potentially damaging situations is when the antenna operates outside the specified elevation range. There are several limits that are typically imposed to protect against this.