motorised install question (dish lacks elevation scale)

Bogger77

Hi Guys,
My new dish doesnt have an elevation scale on the mounting bracket. I'm trying to setup a motorised system with this. Is there any easy way of finding out what angle to put the dish at? My motor's (diseq) is set to 36degs, which is correct for my latitude.
I've been told that when my dish is facing due south, it's face is exactly perpendicular to the ground. At the moment, I've a nice 1meter dish and moror doing nothing.:o

Thanks
B

Tony

Don't even bother with the elevation scale, point the motor where you think south is and adjust the dish elevation for best signal from the the 5w satellite, this way you use the satellite itself to determine the elevation. Assuming your mount is plumb it should be then lined up and all satellites. If you need to make adjustments just move the motor mount (and dish) on the pole either slightly left or right, do not adjust either the motor elevation or dish elevation.

"I've been told that when my dish is facing due south, it's face is exactly perpendicular to the ground. " who told you this and were they referring to your particular model of dish?

Hope this helps

Bogger77 wrote:

Hi Guys,
My new dish doesnt have an elevation scale on the mounting bracket. I'm trying to setup a motorised system with this. Is there any easy way of finding out what angle to put the dish at? My motor's (diseq) is set to 36degs, which is correct for my latitude.
I've been told that when my dish is facing due south, it's face is exactly perpendicular to the ground. At the moment, I've a nice 1meter dish and moror doing nothing.:o

Thanks
B

Rippy

What Tony says is right, use the sat. signal to determine elevation of dish.
You can however use any satellite (as long as the pole is 100% vertical).
What I do is drive the motor to 30 deg W, find best signal by rotating motor on pole and adjusting dish elevation. I then drive to 42E and fine tune on this sat. Result is perfect alignment on all sats.

Bogger77

i'm about 7.5W, so I'll try use 8w as my base, and then try 28e, etc?

Thanks for the advice

ciarann

Lads have a motorised dish as well and can pick up astra 19E and Hotbird 13E,but if I try to bang it on eurobird or any othere sats like the astra28E etc it wont pick them up or if it does when i move back to hotbird its not correct.My question is is there a sat that you can use to twist the dish at to fine tune the lot.Eutasat w2 is another one I can get the digwelbal package but the stations are hoping and not comming clear.its very annoying when you know you can found some good feeds but she ant pointing right.?
cheers kavo

watty

Your dish or motor is not aligned.

You need to be using USALS, where your Lat & Long is entered into the satellite receiver.

The receiver then calculates the GotoX for each satellite.

Three things MUST be correct before you start
1) Pole absolutely straight. Use a big spirit level vertically or string an dplumbline down centre.

2) The correct motor rotor elevation must be set for your location. Do not readjust.

3) The dish mount must be absolutely square on rotor arm (this can be fine tuned).

Then then Alignment can start
4) Set dish elevation on rotor arm according to your location and table in manual (depends on bend on rotor arm, so different for different motors).

5) Select around 5W or 8W and rotate motor on pole and fine tune dish elevation on arm. DO NOT change motor elevation.

6) Select 30W or 42E, Which ever is not blocked by buildings

7) Peak signal again by rotate WHOLE motor on pole. Do not readjust.

8) at extreme west or east any error of dish rotation on the motor arm (3) can be adjusted as it becomes an elevation error. Slowly rotate dish slightly up/down on arm (at 5W or 8W this would be East/West and impossible as it might be motor on pole rotation wrong). This fine tunes the dish square on arm.

9) Go back to 5W or 8W and final fine adjust dish elevation on motor arm.

(Elevation = Up/Down. Azimuth = East/West)

All satellites will now track perfectly (about 20 on a 90cm dish) providing the (1) and (2) is correct.

Fine tune LNB skew on a weak satellite that is not on inclined orbit.

snaps

Yes 5west for east side of country and 8west for west side of country. I set all my motorised systems up i Galway on 8west and get perfect arc on most sats from 30west to 42east(Sometimes to low to recieve).

I find zero motor first and make sure dish is lined up with the line on the motor. Then just select 8west in usals with the correct long/latt entered for your location. The motor will move very slightly. Then align motor on mount, making adjustments on the dish elevation for 8west (12.566 V, I use to align) this i find brings everything in fine for me. Never had any probs setting up dishes using this usals. If your mount is completly plumb, the dish will arc correctly.

ciarann

I live in Balbriggan co dublin.Do you know what my Latitude should be I am Guessing that the dish should be nearly straigh to been pointing correctly also.I think its nearly pointing the right way.

Tony

Set your motor to 36 degrees and centre your dish on 5w as per post above

ciarann

does anybody know the bloody latatude and lonitude for balbriggan.I am getting close to pulling the dish of the wall.I cant hit siruis 5 w because of the wall.I cant tune it in on 36e beacuse when i put the sat finder on the end of the dish it is useless even turned down to zero.I dont understand all the jargle above.please help I have taken 4 photos of my satalite but really feel I am wasting my time and might as well be haven a few beers
thanks lads if you want an email of the photo's email
K_ciaran@hotmail.com:confused: :eek:

Tony

You dont need your latitude and longtitude, trust me even if you knew this it would still tell you to set the motor at 36 degrees elevation . You need to set the elevationof the dish using telecom at 5w not sirius and if this is blocked the only way to align is to guess roughly where true south move the motor to the east and align the elevation to the first satellite you can receive. By the looks of your location there I'd say you may be lucky to get even as far as hot bird judging by the dish next to the 80cm.

ciarann wrote:

does anybody know the bloody latatude and lonitude for balbriggan.I am getting close to pulling the dish of the wall.I cant hit siruis 5 w because of the wall.I cant tune it in on 36e beacuse when i put the sat finder on the end of the dish it is useless even turned down to zero.I dont understand all the jargle above.please help I have taken 4 photos of my satalite but really feel I am wasting my time and might as well be haven a few beers
thanks lads if you want an email of the photo's email
K_ciaran@hotmail.com:confused: :eek:

Rippy

ciarann wrote:

does anybody know the bloody latatude and lonitude for balbriggan.I am getting close to pulling the dish of the wall.I cant hit siruis 5 w because of the wall.I cant tune it in on 36e beacuse when i put the sat finder on the end of the dish it is useless even turned down to zero.I dont understand all the jargle above.please help I have taken 4 photos of my satalite but really feel I am wasting my time and might as well be haven a few beers
thanks lads if you want an email of the photo's email
K_ciaran@hotmail.com:confused: :eek:

As Tony said , you have the dish way too close to the house , assuming existing dish on 28E.
Do you have a reasonable length of garden? If so put it at the end and you might have more luck.

ciarann

lads
I am pointing it at hotbird as it is.I am only looking for stuff really on east.I am not really looking for the perfect arc from weat to east.my decoder works of a a server which is all stuff over on the east.So for the moment the dish is fine I would need a steel pole in the garden to have it swinging correctly from Right to left but that not a major issue at the moment.I will take a few more photo's to show you men what I mean.5 west is just out of sight with the house in the way

Tony

Ok maybe Usals might be the way to go for you, get your lat/long (roughly 54 and 6) maybe download Google earth to get the exact co ordinates. Enter this into the usals setup on your receiver and select astra 2, the motor should move to the east, rotate the motor and dish on the mount until you peak the signal. You will have to make small adjustments to the elevation of the dish until you get astra 2 , if you get a reading it may be astra 1 or hotbird so you will have to play around with this for perhaps quite a while. This should do you for the 3 main satellites.

Other than that your other option would be to get a professional installer out.

dfdream

Hi All,

Im setting up a motorised system with USALS and Im at my wits end.

Its a technomate TM2600
VU+ Receiver
1.1m Triax dish

I will add in my comments to WATTYS email in Bold.

You need to be using USALS, where your Lat & Long is entered into the satellite receiver.

Done. I set Latitude: 52.7800° Longitude: -8.7752° (i assume -8.7752° is w8.7752°)

The receiver then calculates the GotoX for each satellite.

Three things MUST be correct before you start
1) Pole absolutely straight. Use a big spirit level vertically or string an dplumbline down centre.
Measures 0 deg off all round with angle finder.

2) The correct motor rotor elevation must be set for your location. Do not readjust.

I set the latitude scale on the motor between 52 and 53.

3) The dish mount must be absolutely square on rotor arm (this can be fine tuned).

As good as I can see. Centre of Dish bracket lines up with centre line on motor shaft.

Then then Alignment can start
4) Set dish elevation on rotor arm according to your location and table in manual (depends on bend on rotor arm, so different for different motors).

5) Select around 5W or 8W and rotate motor on pole and fine tune dish elevation on arm. DO NOT change motor elevation.


Done. I twisted the motor and dish and adjusted the dish to get a picture on 8W.

6) Select 30W or 42E, Which ever is not blocked by buildings

OK

7) Peak signal again by rotate WHOLE motor on pole. Do not readjust.

I can get pictures on 8w and 5w stable but signal 60-65%.

Thing is I cant get any other sat on usals.

I have plenty of clearance (about 50ft back from dormer house on ground.)

I also tried manually aligning 19.2, 13 or 28.2 but cant pick up anything.

Apogee

Are you certain you're on 8W?


Try for 1W and 15W. If the signal is low or non-existent, pull or push on the rim of the dish to see if it improves the signal. That way you can determine if the declination is off.

http://bytelive.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Beacon+Transponders

dfdream

Im nearly certain I was on 8w.

I could see Oscar Drama. I think its only on 8w.

I replaced cable, lnb and connected directly to the lnb and even tried another receiver.

At this stage Id nearly get someone to come and align it.

Anyone in limerick / Clare that would do that and align for usals.

Apogee

That's 8w alright. The motor/dish should be almost at right angles and near the 0 degree azimuth marking.

I'd try using Diseqc 1.2 instead of USALS if you're having problems. Once on 8W, start going east or west and store sats as you go along. e.g. 8W, 5W, 1W, 5E etc...

http://bytelive.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=How+to+install+and+align+a+Diseqc+motor