Think I've damaged my Motor

TV_From_The_Sky

Hi Folks

Bought one of the motorised satellite systems from Maplin.

Fortec Star 90cm disk
Fortec Star HH120 motor
Fortec Start Mercury II Receiver

Got it all setup ready to go. (Check pole was straight, pointed Due south etc.) and choose Thor at 0.8w as my nearest to south sat.

Went out onto flat roof, pressed manual button under motor, dish moved no probs.

Went inside and in the Motorised dish menu choose 'Goto Center'

Dish proceeded to move East until it was basically pointing downwards and stopped.

Now the motor will not respond.

Tried reset (press both manual buttons and turn on), the red light flashes then goes green.

Press the West button, Red light comes on continuously.

Press the East button same thing, Red light

If you just jab the buttons the right light flashes and you hear a click, then the green led comes back on.

I also tried a Factory Reset on the Mercury to see if that would help.

I think I have cream-crackered the motor?

Chris

Robbo71

The only thing you haven't tried is to disconnect it from the receiver (and thus power) and re-connect. If the reset deosn't work then, it sounds like it is a duff unit and time to take it back to Maplins for a replacement/refund.

Robbo

TV_From_The_Sky

Thanks Robbo

I've now tried disconnecting and reconnecting and I've tried a different receiver as well (A Porty I got from Lidl some time ago) as I saw that in a thread about a duff Moteck unit.

I'll see what Maplin will do for me. Don't want to have to send the whole lot back! It arrived in a huge box.

Cheers again

Chris

TV_From_The_Sky

So I got the replacement motor, exactly the same but a different name.

Tested it out before climbing out onto roof all ok.

Double checked pole, etc. Tried Thor 0.8w but couldn't get any channels.

Next I moved the dish to Hotbird and picked up Astra 1 (opps a few degrees off me thinks). Quick trip up onto roof and now I have Astra 1, Hotbird.

Tried to get Astra 2 for the FTA stuff, no joy at all. Signal 31%, Quality 1%.

Thought my arc might be a bit off?

But heres the rub. If I choose Astra 3, it pulls in all the Astra 2 channels.

Is this more likely to be an error in the USALS software, in that the receiver has calculated the wrong place for Astra 2 and see it as Astra 3?

Weird.

I'm happy as I can pull in the 3 main ones I wanted.

Any other good FTA sats? had a look at some of the Eutelsat ones

Robbo71

I don't know if you have read rolf's guide:-

http://www.satellites.co.uk/satellit...or-others.html

But if you follow that you should be pretty well on the arc.

Just make sure the pole is 100% vertical, set the elevation/latitude on the motor, send the dish to 1W, then adjust the elevation of the dish and swing the motor round the pole for max signal quality on 11325H.

You should be able to get 1W with that dish, what is your location approx?

USALS isn't very inaccurate, it can be more accurate to use Diseqc 1.2 for the weaker satellites though.

Did you remember to enter you lat and long into the receiver?, since you are using USALS.

Robbo

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TV_From_The_Sky

Cheers Robbo

Yes I used Rolf's guide, it is excellent.

I am at 51.663,-0.694 (Nr High Wycombe)

On the motor I choose 52 as the Latitude
In the Fortec Mercury I entered 51.7N and 0.7W as it only allows 1 decimal.

I will have a further play with it once this wind calms down!

I think there may be a tree in the way of 1W

Cheers

Chris

TV_From_The_Sky

I wasn't sure what to set the Elevation as. The instuctions said.

Set the motor scale to your Latitude
Set the Declination angle according to the table, mine showed 22.6 or something
Then underneath it said set the dish angle to 30 degrees

So which is it 22 or 30?

Robbo71

To be honest I didn't take any notice of my manual, as the numbers it was coming out with were nothing like what I expected. What I did last time I set mine up was to measure the angle from vertical that the motor shaft is at when pointing at 1W and then simply added this angle to the required elevation for 1W and set the dish to that using the scale on the back.

I then re-adjusted it for maximum signal.

If your view to 1W is blocked try the closest one to it, like 5W for example.
Just motorise the dish there using USALS and andjust the motor azimuth, and dish elevation as you would for 1 west.

Robbo

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TV_From_The_Sky

Light bulb moment!

Whilst looking at Lyngsat I made a discovery.

What my receiver thinks is Hotbird 13 is actually Astra 1F etc @19.2

Hence why it can't see Astra 2 @28.2 but it thinks Astra 3 is Astra 2

Also if I send it to Astra 1 I get Astra 3.

Doh!!

I blame the numpty who set up the dish (me)

A nice trip onto the roof over the weekend methinks.

Thanks again for all your help Robbo

Robbo71

It's a common mistake to make. When I'm aligning a dish I always do a quick single transponder scan and check if the channels I get correspond with what Lyngsat says should be there.

Kingofsat also has a very useful channel search facility if you are completely clueless where the dish is pointing.

_http://en.kingofsat.net/search.php

Good luck on the roof

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