1 - CONNECTIONS SUMMARY
First of all, you have to connect the cables at the back of the devices:
- The provided data cable to the DB25 connector of the exciters and the amplifier (pay attention to the label on the connectors case)as in picture
- 2 coaxial RF cables from the exciters output to the amplifier’s inputs (RG58 cableisenoughfortheseconnections)
- Mains supply cables(for the amplifier refer to picture 2)
- Lan cables
- Audio signal connection(check the Cobalt C-10 user manual)
- Antenna connections
Picture 1 Picture 2
2 - FIRST OPERATION
You can first set the power of the 2 exciters at 1W to 2W, more power input is not needed, then switch their RF on.
When you first switch ON the amplifier you will find some alarms from in the display, this is normal (the USER LED blinking BLUE and YELLOW ), just need to wait for the 2 exciters start rising power.
After that you can switch ON the RF of the amplifier, and you immediately see the output power rising to the set level.
- The level of the power set from the factory is 1000W. You can modify this settingfollowingtheproceduredescribedinthenext
3 - SETTING
THE OUTPUT POWER
To set the output power you can proceed as the usual procedure in the RADIO FREQUENCY menu (this is the same procedure as in the C10 menu, but keep the INTERLOCK button selected):
First click in the “locks” to enable the editing of frequency and power then on SAVE to confirm.
Repeat this procedure for the 2 exciters too, power out 1 to 2W maximum, don’t click on RF MUTE.
IMPORTANT: The frequency of the amplifier and the 2 exciters must be the same.
After this standard procedure you must save these values in the CONFIG files, in the A5000 amplifier only, to be recalled by the software in case of exciter swapping: in the webpage AUTOMATIONS/CONFIGS select the existing file RF INPUT 1 then click on SAVE (3). Repeat selecting the file RF INPUT 2 and click on SAVE again.
4 - FAILOVER FUNCTION
The A-5000 will swap the input signal from a failure exciter to the other one (backup). In the following picture you can see the FAILOVER setting page:
In the factory setting the A-5000 takes the input RF signal from the MAIN exciter until is over 10dBm (normally between 30 at 33dBm), below that it will automatically swaps the BACKUP exciter on-air in 1 second.
If the failing exciter will restart after a while, because of a temporary problem, it will be kept on standby as a BACKUP until a new event happens and it will be swapped
on-air again.
- IF YOU SWAP THE EXCITERS MANUALLY FROM THE DISPLAY OF THE A-5000 OR FROM THE WEB MENU RADIO FREQUENCY OF THE A-5000 THE AUTOMATIC CHANGEOVER WILL STOP YOU MUST SWITCH OFF THIS FUNCTION BEFORE DOING IT, THEN SWITCH ON AGAIN TO RE-ACTIVATE THE FUNCTION OF AUTOMATIC SWITCHING OF THE EXCITERS SIGNAL.
5 - OVERDRIVE PROTECTION
This system protects itself from the too high RF input signals coming from the exciters but is necessary to connect the data cables included in the box as shown in chapter 1.
To reach all the output levels required (1Kw to 5KW) only 1 to 2W input signal is enough.
When, for some reason, the input power from one of the exciters increases more than about 2.5-3W the related exciter will be stopped by the interlock and the active input swaps to the BACKUP exciter.
After 30 seconds the unit restarts the failing exciter to check if it working in a normal range; if it is it will be kept in standby as a backup, otherwise it will be stopped again for 30 seconds, and so on.
This is the protection setting page for this function, just for your reference.
PLEASE, DO NOT CHANGE ANY OF THESE VALUE
WITH NO REASON OR WITHOUT INFORMING US.
6 - USER ALARM LED INFO
In the front panel there are a few important LEDs to understand, you can also refer to the User Manual for all the other display indications.
https://aquabroadcast.co.uk/files/attachments/9e50550c9d3b3fb08d0865db42618b0a9f700284.pdf
The USER LED is set to indicate 2 status:
- BLUE means there is no RF signal from the EXCITER 1
- YELLOW means there is no RF signal from the EXCITER 2
The RF IN 1 or 2 LEDs indicate the status of the input signal:
- GREEN shows the on-air signal
- YELLOW shows the standby ready signal as backup
- OFF shows that no RF signal is present in that input
The RF LED shows the output level of the amplifier:
- GREEN it reached the required power level
- YELLOW the power level is rising to reach the set level
- RED the power level is failing to rise
It’s important to inform you that the RFL is set to be shown in the display in steps of 50W, it means that under 50W of reflected power you read 0W, then 50W, then 100W until the ALARM stops the amplifier. This is safe for the internal RF components, no worries.
7 - NOTIFICATIONS LIST IN THE DASHBOARD
In the DASHBOARD, the main page of the web menu, there is the list of all alarms that occurred during the device lifetime.
It’s hidden behind a little bell in the top right corner and has a red circle with the number of the alarm recorded in it (only if there have been alarms, during tests for example).
When you click on the little bell it appears a window with the alarms recorded and the time that happened (picture 1).
If you want to clear it (the alarms are saved also in the LOG files) you just click at the end of the window (CLEAR NOTIFICATIONS) to get it empty again (picture 2).
Picture 1 Picture 2
IMPORTANT: cleaning the alarms list takes a little time and sometime is necessary to reload the web page with the refresh button in your browser.