Anybody familiar with the Archer 1222 Servorotor II?

I just picked one of these up, hopefully to use with my TV Antenna.

What kind of wiring will it require? Any good? Build Quality? Consistency/Drift?

Thanks!

http://support.radioshack.com/support_video/15785.htm

If it is like the 1223 - you need 4 conductor wire.

I have abandoned trying to find flat rotor wire and have moved on to the round 18 ga x 4 wire sold in most good electrical supply houses.

Antenna rotor manufacturers converted all their rotors to a 3 wire system by the 1990's and the older rotors have been forgotten, but there is nothing wrong with the design.

What you have to remember is to make a list of which color wire is connected to which terminal on the rotor inside of the house and then wire the rotor motor the same identical way. Making sure that when you turn the rotor west, the motor turns clockwise if it is positioned to the south and that the motor turns counter clockwise if the rotor control is on south and you turn it to north.

Orientate it while it is still on the ground, making sure that both the rotor control and the motor is as far north as possible before mounting it to the antenna, and make sure that it will turn in both directions before you put it up.

Also make sure that there is no damage to the rubber boot on the top of the motor. You can temporarily fix that with some GE II silicone sealer. Make sure the weep hole - in the bottom of the rotor motor is clean - no bugs or dirt inside of the rotor and make sure to use the rubber gasket that goes around the cable and put a dab of the GE II around the hole to keep bugs and the weather out of the motor.

There was nothing wrong with the Archer rotor motors and they gave people many years of reliable service. Like most rotor motors, either the rubber boot at the top went bad and left water into the motor, the motor froze when it got water in it in the wintertime in the northern states, or the terminals corroded or the wire went bad and people just threw them away.

As long as you do not have a CB / Shortwave BEAM type antenna, you should not experience any wind drift with the Archer rotor motor.

Usually the rotor controls went bad and when you couldn't get the rotor to turn, people just threw it all away and bought a whole new rotor system.

If the U bolts / hardware were rusted, you could usually cut them off and throw them away and buy new U bolts and hardware and put it back up - good as new for less then $10

Thanks very much, JB! Appreciate you sharing your knowledge with me.

Its New in Box.

I saw some 4 wire "twinlead" on eBay, but I goofed up and missed the bid a couple of months ago. Drat!

Ill look for the 4 wire romex, and use that I guess.

JB AntennaMan,

I was noticing that their are aslo 6 wire and 5 wire rotors. What is the difference between all these. Like the Hy Gain, Alliance, and CDE rotors.

Additionally, I have heard that the new Channel Master 9521a rotors have plastic bearings...is this true?

The Archerotors and Channel Master Colorotors of similar body style were originally made in USA, now China, do you know if their was a Japan phase in there?

Thanks!

You don't need twin lead or romex, all you need is some communications wire - stranded - not solid core.

http://www.colemancable.com/CatalogPDFs/51114.pdf

This is what I am talking about...

I usually pay $.10 a foot for it - for any length and could probably get a 1000' roll even cheaper then that.

Look on the back of the rotor control and see how many terminals it has. There should be either one or two silver screws and two gold plated screws.

If there is only 3 screws, then you need 3 conductor wire.

If there is 4 screws - then you need 4 conductor wire.

Go to a store that sells electrical wiring not a department store and you will find that it is several times cheaper then regular rotor wire.

3 conductor rotor wire at Radio Shack is usually about $24 - $26 per 100'

3 conductor communications wire, which in my opinion is a better wire to start with, .09 a foot, $9 per 100'

You do the math.

You are very welcome Escape Velocity.

Hey thanks for the clarification on the wire! Yeah, cant wait for it to get here, so I can check it out.

Here is a picture of the Archer Servorotor II...

http://i.ebayimg.com/03/!BZYHpp!B2k~$(KGrHgoOKjgEjlLmZRFRBKmbQ86TQg~~_12.J PG

http://i.ebayimg.com/22/!B,pp(pwBmk~$(KGrHgoOKkYEjlLmY4pPBKsZ5gd0)g~~_12.J PG

http://i.ebayimg.com/04/!B,ppVygBGk~$(KGrHgoOKicEjlLmZ3G2BKsZ5YkHE!~~_12.J PG

You got yourself a real find there! That is an old CDE-made rotator that is 10 times more rugged than anything that Radio Shack or Channel Master nakes today: if you don't want it, I'll buy it from you!
:hithere:

Thanks for the history behind the Servorotor II!

I hope it works. Just came in today.

I see right on the box that its a 5 Wire Job.

Any recommendations on 5 Wire cable for the ServoRotor II?

This one should do the trick.

http://www.colemancable.com/CatalogPDFs/67006.pdf

18/6 stranded BC (7/0.0152) OAS

It only comes in a 500' / 100' ft box.

So you might want to see what the local electrical outlet has on sale.

I'm not real familiar with that particular model of rotor, but I would imagine that it would compare with a HDR 300 and the extra wires are for a solenoid locking brake.

My Uncle Paul said that he had a couple of U 100's and that they were too small to turn a beam type CB antenna and the parking brake wouldn't hold the antenna in one position in a wind storm and he had to build his own Solenoid parking brake. Eventually the pot metal gears would fail and you would just throw the rotor away.

So basically what you have is a high end antenna rotor and not a cheap $80 bargain basement rotor like what is sold in Radio Jap and Lowes.

http://www.rotorservice.com/prod1%20rotor%20sales.htm

You could ask the tower talk guys if you wanted a real definite answer, but as long as it works, who cares how it works.

I believe that it is a capacitor start motor and two wires turns it in one direction and two wires turns it in the other direction and it shares a common ground and a power wire to the parking brake, but I could be wrong - because that rotor is probably 40 years old.

I can't read the instructions or the exploded view of a dissembled rotor from the pictures you took, so you need to read the instruction manual to find out how it works.

There is nothing of any relevance left for that particular model because it is obsolete. There are no more. You might have the last original one. The box is worth as much as the rotor.

Thanks for the link to Norm's Rotor Service.

It looks a lot like the AR series down at the bottom of the list. AR 40, AR 33, AR 22. Probably a lessor model. The control unit is exactly the same as the old version under the AR 40....and is made in Taiwan.

Here is what the intro says on the owner's manual...

The Servorotor II is an all transisterized Television Antenna Rotor System desined to support and rotate large television antennas. This rotator will support stacked arrays and deep fringe area antennas. The Servorotator II is not intended for C.B. or Ham antennas. CB and Ham antennas may present a sufficiently high enough wind resistance to destroy the braking system and the gears of the Servorotor II.

The Servorotor II is rated to support and rotate antennas with up to 1.5 square feet of wind area. Teh maximum side thrus, or overturning momentum, is approximately 4000 square inch pounds without guying.

The AR series from CDE, state 3 square feet wind area...via Norm's.

Maybe this is a slightly downscaled model? Though that seems unlikely.

Question: Can I use other controller boxes for this? Certainly the other CDE 5 wire boxes...but how about other manufacturers controllers?

I am sure that you can, but the controller box should last longer then the rotor.

You already have the best controller box for that particular model - the one it came with.

Thanks JB.

I saw some 18/5 Sprinkler wire and some 18/5 Thermostat wire at the Lowes. Any comments on those?