Installation of a motorised dish (help and any tips!)

Ronan|Raven

Hola, recently purchased myself a motorised 1 metre dish etc for my viewing pleasure and to have another toy to play with. Not then I was going to get someone to install it for me but I fell confident enough in my own "DIY" (Destruction) abilities! It will be using a HTH mount so as long as I get the mounting and pole at the nice right angle etc all should be well on that accout. Now then as to where I point the dish is where I need some pointers on Which direction etc. I was told that if I can find one degree west with it by moving ish manually before clamping it fully in place and using the motor I should be fine only problem with this is if I stick it on the wrong wall of the house and 1 deg west is pointing at my roof!

Any tips , advice etc much appreciated.

swoofer

12 midday looking at sun(if it is not cloudy) = true south.

have a look here

http://www.satalogue.com/section5/page7.htm

and also do a google search.

gb--

Eurorunner

Ronan - you need to point it at 8*W - ie. Atlantic Bird 2 - which is due south for your location.
Our friends accross the water in blightey point to 1*W ie Thor which is due south for them.

What brand of motor /dish did ya get?

Ronan|Raven

the motor is a Cryptik diseq positioner 1.2 and the dish a 1 meter jobbie (make I dont know!) I was planning at pointing it at 1deg west first for thor but as that seems ot be uk mainly for that positioning I shall go for Atlantic Bird 2 which is about 2 degrees off me afaik im 8.633 west its 10deg west?

My plan is to put up the mounting brackets to take the dish away and above the gutter, point the motor unit due south, drop on the dish and align it manually to one of the nearest satellites. When I have it picking up signals off atlantic brid 2 ill shoot it over to hispasat say and see via moving it manually up and down to get the best signal, clamp it all down and then pray

kaisersose77

once u get 8W u should in theory get all satellites east or west of it. Just get 8w and see if u can get turksat at 42E and hispasat at 30W together when moving left and right and you should pick all the major satellites between them at least

byte

So, how did you get on Ronan? Success?

Ronan|Raven

I only wit hteh aid of the bro and old fella got the brackets and pole up (all perfectly at 90* ) It was raining to heavily today here. tomorrow we are dropping the dish and motor etc onto the pole and seeing what we shall get.

Im quietly confident!

Ronan|Raven

Well all is now up anyway just wondering if anyone knows what might prevent the motor from turning..... The connection between reciever and motor are made and seem fine im oot of ideas!

Is the actuator earthed?
If not run an earth cable from the receiver to it.

seano

http://www.geo-orbit.org/sizepgs/tuningp2.html#anchor166032





www.tarasat.nl

watty

I put up a diseqc rotator on Sat morning.

Any bigger than the 90cm dish and I would have been Hang-gliding.

1) If Motor "tilt" is marked on scale and this equals your North/South (approx 52N on Limerick / Dublin line).

In east of Ireland the 5W is better. The 8W is weak as few channels on it. Limerick/Cork/Athlone approx 8W

if you don't have GOTO X on Diseq motor AND set top receiver, position all the satellites roughly on living room floor without dish.

I connected up motor on floor to Receiver so as to see what all the menu options did.

Then I bolted dish to pole with signal meter, Only had to re-adjust the up/down (declination) of dish to motor pole slightly and the whole mount on ground pole to peak signal.

The dish must be at right angles to motor pole when at Zero. Don't re-adjust this unless it really is wrong.

The motor angle (up/down) must relate to your North/south position. Don't readjsut.

watty

You have to select all the "right" options on receiver setup menus.

Diseqc 1.0 is a 4-way switch

Diseqc 1.2 is motor drive.

Often the Motor drive only works on LNB1 setting

Exact options depend on Receiver model.

To "AUTOMATICALLY" have all the satellite positions you need:
GOTO X option built into Motor (only some do it)
GOTO X option built in AND ENABLED on Receiver
Correct Longitude and Latitude (i.e. 52N, 8W = Limerick approx) entered into receiver.
"Recalculate" positions "selected" on Receiver.

Otherwise you have to press East or West till signal appears, scan to see which satellite it is and store the position. A total pain.


With the GOTO X option, alignment is SO much easier as you can select say Astra (strong signal), knowing that if pole is true vertical and motor vertical angle (north / south tilt) correct (scale always), you then simply rotate the WHOLE motor assembly on the main pole and fine adjust dish tilt on the motor to dish bracket for max signal on your meter (you do have a £20 meter?).

Don't buy a receiver and motor that doesn't do GOTO X!

Ronan|Raven

Cheers for all the feedback. I changed the cable and connections between the motor and reciever and by nelly's wellies it moves! Getting about 80% signal strength and 15% quality on Atlantic Bird 2 as the dish isnt properly alligned yet. I am not going outside now to do it as I will take off!

EKRIUQ

Anyone know a good site where I can get my hands on a motorised system?:)

watty

Ask again next week if you still looking. I'm evaluating a Motorised System from a reliable Dublin Mailorder company.


Do you need install or have you some experience?

If you doing DIY get a Sat meter with analog needle and optionally a portable TV and Video Sender (or position TV in window) so you can see "quality" to fine adjust dish and LNB skew (LNB skew error only shows as lower quality, rarely as signal, except on Turksat 42E where alsmost EVERY transponder is Vertical, but really the Skew should be adjustted on Sirius 5E / Thor 1W/ Telecom 5W or Atlantic 8W

(I recommend 5W as there is so few transponders on 8W, make motor position angle scale = <Your Position e.g. 7W> - <Satellite Position West> , i.e. 1E for 8W or 2W for 5W bird for "southmost" satellite.

Make sure and buy Motor *AND* receiver that support GOTO X

make sure the Most East Satellite + local West <= east motor Rotation
Most West Satellite - local West <= west motor Rotation,

Taking account of inbuilt limits, walls , pole etc.

kaisersose77

http://www.hm-sat.de/home/index.asp

(please delete if not allowed)

In my opinion your better buying the stuff yourself as your only paying the price of the motor, dish etc and you dont have to pay any sat installer. I've ordered from the site above a few times and never had a problem. The stab hh 120 is only 99 euros and theres some english sites selling it for 150 sterling! i got a superjack motor( havent had any problems with it yet but a lot of people have, so id stay away from that model) for 69 euros off the site and its being sold for 155 euros on a uk site. Antennen section is the dish section, 44 euros for an 85cm seems good value and the delivery cost wont double just because of the size and akwardness of the dish i think. You can pay cash on delivery which is cheaper and safer than credit card. I ordered a dreambox 7000s and a stab 120 motor for a friend last tuesday and delivery was only 19 euros and it arrived on friday

watty

Or if you find overseas site daunting our own Tony (posts regularly) at www.satellite.ie has a selection of FTA receivers and some diseq equipment. It is cheaper to phone Dublin than abroad too

But do read up about install etc as much as possible. If you are clack handed at wires and drilling holes, mixing concrete and cutting up 2.5" poles then a "reliable" installer is less headache. But if you like DIY then have fun and save money. Assume a weekend is needed if you are new to dish setup.

Tony

Very reasonable prices on that site .

Originally posted by kaisersose77
http://www.hm-sat.de/home/index.asp

(please delete if not allowed)

In my opinion your better buying the stuff yourself as your only paying the price of the motor, dish etc and you dont have to pay any sat installer. I've ordered from the site above a few times and never had a problem. The stab hh 120 is only 99 euros and theres some english sites selling it for 150 sterling!