Guide for setting up dish & motor?

snaps

Is there a guide on here that has basic step by step guides to setting up a motorised system? I could do with a few pointers as I have never had a motorised dish before, Always been multi LNB via disque switching.

Sparky

Have a brief look here for basics.
http://www.bytelive.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=How+to+align+a+satellite+dish

A motorised system is harder to install. Life would be easier for you if you could borrow an inclinometer and a signal strength meter.

Some info may be of help here http://www.satalogue.com/section13/page9.htm

dj9928

Setting up a Motorised System is fairly easy, Here's my guide.


1 -First off, I'll assume you have successfully attached the Diseqc motor to the dish?

2 -Next off find a suitable location for the dish, make sure you have a clear line of sight of the southern sky,


3 -Next go up the ladder and line the pole mount up mark and drill the wall THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN SETTING THE POLE ABSOLUTELY VERTICAL so make sure it is or the dish will not track the Arc properly.

4 -Once you've that done go up the ladder carefully with the dish and put it on the mount and tighten up a bit but not to much.

5 -Next get a compass and make sure the dish is pointing south,

6 -Once done and I'll assume you have the motor and lnb etc all wired up, if not follow instructions in the manual that came with the motor, and also pay attention to the section in the manual about latitude.

7 -You have two options next, either get a friend to stand inside and watch the signal readings on the satellite receiver or buy a signal meter.

8 -We are trying to find Telecom 2D 5w, so move you dish very slowly west, leaving about 1sec in between moving the dish, The reason for this is to allow the signal reading on the satellite receiver to update. Repeat this process of going left and right and up and down until the numbers on the Satellite receiver start to go up, 5w is a strong satellite so you shouldn't have to much bother finding it.

9 -Once you've found it tighten everything up and go in and do a scan of that satellite to make sure its 5w your on, you should get France 2,3,4,5 etc...

10- Next select usals and entering your cordinates, you can find them here http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&ukwidth=289&ukheight=301&scale=2000000&lang=&overviewmap=IE_over&db=IE&g.x=176&g.y=165

11 -Next up select satellite Hispasat at 30w and select go to. The motor should now drive around to 30w and if alls good you should have a reasonable signal.

12 -Next go back outside and up to the dish and adjust the elevation on the motor until best possible signal is achieved and tighten up.

13 -Next move the dish around to Astra 2, if you have the pole 100% vertical you should have good signal from Astra 2, if not you pole isn't vertical, realign and try again.

And thats it job done:D

Aquos76

Excellent step by step there dj9928. Fair play to you!

watty

Usals should be set up first. To nearest tenth of degree. On a large dish on a weak satellite 0.5 degree error may mean you receive nothing!

Also a compass only approximately gives south. You will find this nearly impossible without a meter. If it is only a beeper and does not measure quality then you need to see the Satellite receiver Quality for fine adjustment.

The first stage of alignment is the motor elevation on pole for your angle North. Do not subsequently change this, only dish elevation/declination on pole. Limerick is 52N approximately so motor scale might be 52 or 90-52 = 48, some motors have degrees north and elevation scales. Read manual to see if you need to subtract from 90 or not. Put to nearest 0.5 degree.

Mounted absolutly square on arm so when motor is at zero it is at the top of the arc.

The dish is then declined on mount (using table that comes with motor as different arms have a different angle). If the dish elevation mount has no scale, or the motor manual missing this is difficult and will be trial & error. See below and only adjust close to 5W or 8W.

Use the USALS and select 5W, or 15W or 30W and wiggle whole motor assembly on pole to peak signal. Adjust the LNB angle rotation for best quality. (Don't do this on 28E, 13E or 19E!).

Only peak dish elevation signal at 5W. The motor will be at zero ONLY if your co-ordinate is 5W. I'm close to 8.5W so the motor is nearly zero (due south ) near Limerick City / Cork City /Mallow etc when 8W is selected (not much signal).

If it does not track all the satellites and the pole is vertical, then the dish is not square on arm (in line with true south when motor is at zero), or dish elevation on arm is wrong.

Dish square to arm can be checked at 42E by carefully rotating the whole dish slightly up/down on arm (this would be east / west at 0 south). Recheck dish elevation and motor east/west on pole then at 5W.

If 5W and 42E are correct and pole is vertical, and dish is pointing highest at 0 south, then all the satellites will be perfect.

watty

A string with a bob (weight) hung down middle inside of pole is a cheap inclinometer to get the pole straight!

snaps

Thanks my gear is due to arrive today from germany so fingers crossed weather stays fine. Hopefully the motor will fit straight on the exsiting pole that is on the wall. There is a chance my dish will not swing to 30w as wall may be in the way. The wall it is going on is facing south east as thats the best I can do. But the motor may make it prodrude enough to allow it to swing that far. So In Galway I should use 5west or 8west to align first off? I am using disque switching at the moment to control 4 lnbs at 28, 19, 13, 5 and a fith one at 16e (I switch the cable over between 5 and 16east). Will I have to retune all my channels back in when I install my motor or will the channels still work ok when motor system is running?

watty

8W is closer to south, but 5W is easier. If you setup USALS FIRST, then it doesn't really matter which satellite you pick. I even used 30W successfully once, but dish elevation was calibrated so I was able to decline that correctly on the motor arm according to the motor manual's table.

yop

Where did you buy snaps?

Does the motorised dish have to be on a pole or can it be wall mounted?

watty

It can be on a wall if the dish doen't hit the wall at west or east limit. Depends on size of bracket, size of dish and the wall (mountings to wall and wall structure take account of weight & windload, I use stud bolt completely through the wall and well away from top of wall for heaver mounts/dish).

snaps

Dish is set up as best I can now. Only problem I see is that when the dish turns the dish doesn't stay square? Is this correct. When it is looking due south (5w) its all square (Like a fixed dish) But when it rotates away from south it skews? Do you understand what I am saying? My motor will not work with my technomate in Usals mode, Just disque 1.2. Think I have to fine tune a few birds in but when the motor turns to the satellites channels are recived, Just need to be peaked with fine tune.

snaps

Watty, What do you mean set up Usals first? I input my long and lat (9.1w & 53.3) then press goto (Which I think drives the motor to 0) Then do I allign the dish and motor onto 5W? Or do I select goto 5W then adjust the whole mount on pole till I get signal of 5w adjust elevation on dish only (Motor elevation has already been set at 53). What exactly is declination angle?

I'll have to have a play tommorrow as I can only recieve 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 26, 28 at the moment.

Ronan|Raven

go for 8west. Some nice strong tps on there and more correct to you south than 5 west is.

mayto

your motor is fine,it skews as it moves left/right off the centre.declination info here http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/HH-mount-installation.htm .i used 8w when setting mine up in athlone with usals. enter your coordinates ,select 8w and try this guide below i came across,replacing thor with 5w or 8w.you can skip step 1 for usals setup as all you have to do is select 8w.for initial usals setup its probably easier to select hotbird or astra2 and tune in. then select 8w and you wil be at its approx position.

The first thing to do is make sure your main pole is perfectly vertical. Having done that, proceed as follows:

1. Position your mount to as near as you can by eye and compass, so that it is pointing directly due south at it's highest point (Usually zero on the scale).

2. There will be two adjustments for the elevation - and it's crucial you adjust the right ones at the right time. One is on the mount itself, determining the arc angle at which it tracks the heavens, and the other is on the dish. Look up (I think there's a utility at satcodx.com) the correct elevation for your location, and estimate the position on the adjuster *on the mount* (usually crudely marked and not always accurate).

3. Tune your receiver in to 1 degree west, preferably a weaker signal, and position your dish so as to get the best signal *without* adjusting the mount, but using the adjustment on the dish clamp.

4. Drive your dish, by operating the motor, around to a satellite well to the west, e.g. Hispasat at 30ºW. Adjust the elevation on the dish clamp so as to get the best signal. This may take some time, but DO NOT adjust the mount settings at this point, only the dish.

5. Drive the dish back to due south (1 degree west), and move *the mount itself* up or down back to the strongest signal.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5. The adjustments needed at each point should get smaller, and after 2 or 3 tries you should need no further adjustment.

7. Test you have the arc correct by going to a satellite well round to the East, e.g. Astra2. If the dish elevation is correct, you've finished: if it is not, your pole is not vertical, straighten the pole and start again.

snaps

cheers I will double check my long and lat with gps. Enter that into Usals then select 8w, I'll find a good strong transponder on Lyngsat. When the usals has turned dish to 8w I move the whole mount to pick up signal? Hope im correct. Looks easy on paper but in reality its a lot harder, even with all the know how!

mayto

if you tune astra or hotbird first through usals it will be easy then to get motors approx position for 8w. you might then have to move motor slightly to get max signal.
it took me hours to set my motor up last week with a 1m dish as pole was a bit off plumb. i had to tighten alternate bolts on the motor to get it straight. i think also that my lidl meter took a lot of gain off the signal as when i removed it my s/n ratio went up 10-15 % on some sats.

snaps

my dish is fine through the arc. Im driving the H to H mount with a technomate 8000mci. I cannot get Usals to work at all. Disque 1.2 is working but I have to manually put the sats in. I have set limits east and west but the motor seems to take no notice at all of them. It seems to have a mind of its own. I know it is all set up correct (Re correcting the motor elevation sorted the arc out) as when I started off this morning it was automatically going to each satellite after I set up on 8W. All of a sudden it stopped doing this and I have had to manually store the positions? Plus also I deleted all my channels off my reciever.

Another strange thing is when I try to scan the Al Jazzera sport transponder into the reciever it keeps crashing!

I was thinking of trying to get my nokia 9800s to drive the motor but I get no joy at all out of it.

Thanks for all of your help, I think I still have a way to go. Luckily I have my 80cm with 4 lnbs still set up.

watty

On your receiver you have the wrong menu item selected.

The limits are not usually stored in Motor. It is to stop the user inadvertenly selecting a satellite either out of radio range or that would cause dish to hit something.

Some H H motors have a physical +/- 48 degree limit switch inside, some really do +/- 90 (H to H) on the built in limit switch. A few have adjustable limit switches. THe set box limits seem to only affect the setbox GotoX commands. If you have the SW limits on your menu wrong you might get no joy of GotoX (USALS) but still working Diseqc 1.2 and manual store (which unlike GotoX really stores in the motor)

dobsdave

Can anyone recomend someone to set up my system for me.
Living in Celbridge.
I know how to do it, just dont seem to have the time or patience.
The dish and bracket are on the wall already and I have been watching hotbird, but would like have the choice of Sat's.

Anyone?

Cheers

Dave

watty

You need a motor then, and minimum 80cm dish.

Smeagol

For your long/lat. see here: http://www.heavens-above.com/countries.asp

dobsdave

watty wrote:

You need a motor then, and minimum 80cm dish.

Sorry folks,I was in a bit of a rush when I wrote the original.

I have an 80cm dish and motor and bracket installed on my house.
I also have a technomate 1500+ci.
And have set the system up to receive hotbird for the art channels.

I am looking for someone/company who will set up my system so that I can receive all the satellites Astra 28,19 etc.

I have read the guides on here and know the principle, but dont have the time/patience.

Sorry for the confusion.

Thanks Dave