Satellite Motor alignment

M5

Hi all,

I have installed a satellite motor recently and despite hours of work can only get it to align to a handfull of satellites. namely all from Hotbird 13 to Astra 28.2

This means i am tracking the arc to some degree. I can get turksat if i lower the dish angle (declination i think) and on the other side of the ark for hispsat i need to increase the angle. The pole is 99.8 degrees level (tested with calibrated equipment. Also the motor angle and dish angle are set to the recommended angles in the manual for my lattitute. The motor is a palm/motek sg2100a.

Anyone any tips for getting this aligned correctly?

Cheers,
M5

emaherx

When your sat motor is at 0 degress is the dish pointing due south?
if not then that may be your problem.

Tony

Set the centre at 5 degrees west satellite , set the motor at 36 elevation and adjust the declination on the dish for max signal.

Gargantuan

The best way I found to set up a motorised system it to align to the satellite on the peak of the arc i.e satellite located nearest to your longitude.

I live in Maynooth and found 8W was the best for me, but you could also try 5W.

Use this as you zero point and then either use Usals or manually align the other satellites, moving East of West to pick up various satellites .

Using this technique i can pick up everything (receivable in Ireland with a 90cm) from 45w to 28E , there is a house in the way past 28E.

Hope this has helped

Zaphod

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

M5

Hi all,

thanks for your replies, the motor is pointing in the right direction for all sats, the only problem is that the declination seems to be off, i think i set it up using the "true south" approach but i abandoned it when i got no joy, i then tried the usals approach but that too has given loads of hassle, I'll try the true south way again this evening,
Anyone have a strong transponder to test my receiver on?

Cheers
M5

Tony

The dish must be pointing at true south for your location to work correctly so no choice on this I'm afraid.

M5 wrote: »

Hi al,

thanks for your replies, the motor is pointing in the right direction for all sats, the only problem is that the declination seems to be off, i think i set it up using the "true south" approach but i abandoned it when i got no joy, i then tried the usals approach but that too has given loads of hassle, I'll try the true south way again this evening,
Anyone have a strong transponder to test my receiver on?

Cheers
M5

M5

Tony wrote: »

The dish must be pointing at true south for your location to work correctly so no choice on this I'm afraid.

So i should drive my motor to sirrus 5.0w, my motor to 36' and adjust the dish?

Tony

yes as per my earlier post but sirius is not at 5 w Atlantic bird is http://www.lyngsat.com/ab3.html

M5

Gargantuan wrote: »

The best way I found to set up a motorised system it to align to the satellite on the peak of the arc i.e satellite located nearest to your longitude.

I live in Maynooth and found 8W was the best for me, but you could also try 5W.

Use this as you zero point and then either use Usals or manually align the other satellites, moving East of West to pick up various satellites .

Using this technique i can pick up everything (receivable in Ireland with a 90cm) from 45w to 28E , there is a house in the way past 28E.

Hope this has helped

Ok, i'm a little confused, should i drive the motor to 8.0w ad then align or drive the motor to 0' and then align?

Cheers,
M5

Tony

Drive the motor to 0 and align on 5w if you are in the eastern part of Ireland or 8w if you live in Galway or further west.

Gargantuan

Yeah what Tony said.
Zero the motor and align it to either 5W or 8W.

I have tried both and personally I find 8W best for me, would of thought 5W myself but the signal of a few satellites was a bit low when i aligned to this.

So somewhere in between would probably be perfect , if only 7w was accessible for me

snaps

8west is def the sat to use in the west of Ireland! I have no probs finding this sat if you do what Tony says. Go to position (0), enter all your correct long and lat in the Usals. Set the motor to approx 36 elevation (Some motors have a longitute scale like mine does which is set to 53) and i the dish elevation to approx 37 as well) then when motor has gone to position 0, twist the whole motor on the mount until a FTA 8 west channel comes in (I think i use 12.566 V, making sure your reciever is on that 8 west channel). Move motor mount on pole to best signal. Then move the dish elevation up or down very slightly for best signal (DO NOT MOVE THE MOTOR ELEVATION). MAke sure you then go and make sure your long and lat settings are correct in your motor settings on the reciever. All should be well.

The pole mount should be completely straight as well, if its on the lean the arc will be out. Some sats will come in and others wont (Usually either west sats or east sats)

M5

HI again,

Cheers for the replies, I zero'd the motor and i have a good signal to 5.0w and have verified that thats actually the satellite i'm pointing at(transponder 11.591 v 2000 is ARTE chan). Now when i go to the usals menu it moves the motor to the wrong positioin, even though 0 is setup. It moves quite a bit west of 5.0w, I have my settings in the USALS menu correct (i think) I have long as 53.2N and my lat to 6.5 W and east (wasnt sure which) Have it set to 6.5E now. Here are my angles, Motor 53(lat)/37 and dish 20.5 (the manual says motor should be at 27, and the dish should be @22.4).

Cheers,
M5

snaps

Perhaps you can see if you can reset all your stored motor settings on your reciever and re input. What i have done before is zero the motor align on 5 or 8 west and then drive the motor to that position after inputting correct long/lat and then re align motor to the said satellite e.g 5 west?

Ive actually found if i input Usals 1st, then zero motor and then select 8 west the dish just nudges slightly (Due to my position in Ireland 9west) Ive aligned dishes up around here like that and then found all sats come in on the arc. 42east is tricky here as its low.

M5

snaps wrote: »

Perhaps you can see if you can reset all your stored motor settings on your reciever and re input. What i have done before is zero the motor align on 5 or 8 west and then drive the motor to that position after inputting correct long/lat and then re align motor to the said satellite e.g 5 west?

Ive actually found if i input Usals 1st, then zero motor and then select 8 west the dish just nudges slightly (Due to my position in Ireland 9west) Ive aligned dishes up around here like that and then found all sats come in on the arc. 42east is tricky here as its low.

Hi,

I reset all my setting and drove th emotor to zero and "tuned in" 5.0w again. Once o enabled usals it drove the motor west as before, :mad:, going to be a satellite motor going through something solid fairly soon i think

M5

Zaphod

53.2N, 6.5E is Groningen, Netherlands(!)

53.2N, 6.5W looks like a field somewhere in Wicklow.

M5

Zaphod wrote: »

53.2N, 6.5E is Groningen, Netherlands(!)

53.2N, 6.5W looks like a field somewhere in Wicklow.

lol, Tried both earlier, Now set to 53.4N and 6.6W and it looks a little healthier. Had tried the west setting before but had no joy at all so went back to the west setting and its working to a degrree, but a lot better than before, most sats are still a little off, a bit of fine tuning required i think, i'll have a look tomorrow, spending a day like today in fornt of a PC is not good

fat-tony

My location is Wicklow, just West of the 6 degree meridian. Just about now, 1.40pm, the sun is just past due South. My dish points South when it is on the zero position on the motor. The important bit is that the dish must be absolutely central on the motor pole. When I'm aligning I drive the dish to 5degrees West satellite using USALs. Then I peak the signal by moving the whole motor/dish assembly as one on the mounting pole. It helps that the back of my house faces due South, so the initial setting is relatively easy. I found, though, that the slightest misalignment of the dish on the motor pole, resulted in losing the tracking of the arc at the edges. I can receive from 56 degrees East to 58 degrees West.

fat-tony

M5, if you are in the Wicklow area (and not just fooling the sat receiver with invalid coordinates ), then PM me and I may be able to contact you directly with assistance. You seem to be almost there with the settings ....

M5

fat-tony wrote: »

M5, if you are in the Wicklow area (and not just fooling the sat receiver with invalid coordinates ), then PM me and I may be able to contact you directly with assistance. You seem to be almost there with the settings ....

Nope it was a brain f*rt , Im actually in Maynooth, looks pretty close alright, couple of hours on it tomorrow should get it sorted! Cheers for the offer, ll PM u if i run into any probs tmrw

fat-tony

Will be away all Thursday and Friday. Main thing is to get the motor zero'ed and the dish mounted exactly fore and aft on the motor pole. If this is out by a degree or so, then the pointing error gets worse as the motor moves to the extreme West or East. With the dish pointing approximately South (this is not critical), then you use USALS to point at 5W and peak the signal by adjusting the dish declination (not the motor elevation) and by twisting the the whole motor on the mounting pole. Once you have done that, you should be good to go. If you find that the USALS in your receiver is not accurate enough for your purposes, then you can initially move to dish using USALS and then store the satellite position in the motor using the Diseq menu in the receiver. Up to 40 positions can be stored. I use this in preference to USALS as my dish is 1.1m and made of steel and so is just that bit too big and heavy for my motor. Any slackness in the positioning can be tweaked by nudging the dish E or W with the menu and the new position stored.

snaps

M5
Try what i suggested. Drive motor to zero with your long/lat settings in and then drive it to either 5 or 8 west and see how much the motor moves. The motor should just nudge either east or west slightly to go from zero to 8 or 5 west. Are you sure your mounting pole is square? The pole has to be level. Use a spirit level to check this.

M5

Hey guys,

Success at last, thanks for your help. Connecting to the satellites i should be now:D, bext project is th stick a bigger dish up:)

M5

fat-tony

Glad you got it working. I'd suggest you hold off on the bigger dish until you have quite exhausted the possibilities of the current one. If you thought that aligning that was tricky, wait until you try 1.1m or bigger:eek: Plus they are heavy once you go over 90cm or so....

Tony

I agree you should be able to get most of what you need on your current dish.

M5

Tony wrote: »

I agree you should be able to get most of what you need on your current dish.

Id imagine id get 90% or so with the current dish alright, Just letting you all know that everything is still working fine! cheers again

Tony

Good news, well done

M5 wrote: »

Id imagine id get 90% or so with the current dish alright, Just letting you all know that everything is still working fine! cheers again