HBC RadioMatic Industrial RC System Repair

 A HBC Radiomatic 900 mhz full duplex remote control system for a concrete pumping truck, repaired and ready to rock! Video at: 

https://youtu.be/hqhcDZFf4iE?si=2LJBb1cGGlY_EYFn

Another Omnex Industrial RC System Repair

 This is another Omnex Industrial Radio Control system, used on a concrete pumping truck. It controls everything... the articulated boom, concrete rate, engine speed, etc. This one took an unscheduled bath in concrete. The operator didn't realize that the very acidic concrete / water slurry got inside. Unfortunately, this damaged connectors, a few components, and ate several pcb traces right off the board. I replaced a few components, patched the board, and got it back online. 

Concrete Truck R/C, Omnex...

 This is a little bit on some Industrial R/C equipment I repair from time to time. These systems are used to guide and control concrete pumping trucks, though I have have worked on some that remotely controlled cranes, and even one skid-steer. There's practically no shops that do this, so it has become a bit of a niche repair operation in my workshop. I've worked on various models operating on 370mhz, 900 mhz, 2.4ghz, and even 10ghz. This particular system was made by Omnex, and operated on 2.4 ghz. I questioned the previous history of it, as it seemed to have maybe been used as a parts unit...every aspect of it had problems. The portable unit had wires cut, the internal antenna was missing and wiring damaged, and the TX final output device was toast. In the base station (the fixed unit that is installed on the concrete truck), the proportional module that controls the arm had to blown modules, and the receive module has a bad 1st rf amp (lightning strike, maybe?). No matter, I repaired it all, gave it a range test, and it's back on the job site and controlling a remote controlled concrete pumping truck :-)

Dave WB4IUY

http://www.WB4IUY.net