Newbie questions, attempting 1st motorised setup

Blade_uk · 09-03-2009

Hi
Sorry for the long 1st post.

I have ordered the following which will all be with me by the end of the week & have a few questions & points I would like help answering/confirming. This is my 1st Satellite system so please don’t be shy in pointing out the blatantly obvious.

Technomate TM-6900 SUPER HD COMBO
V Box
Diablo 2.3 Cam & Programmer
Triax 80cm fibre glass dish with 36-volt Jaeger 128 H to H motor,
Titanium 0.2dB twin LNB.

My motor is fixed to a 3” pole (3.2M long ¼ thick) supported by 2 K’s & 1T 24” wall brackets, the top K is 1M below my guttering. & I’ve installed the pole totally vertical (checked with a plumb line & spirit level in 4 positions around the pole)

Q1
Do the following set of angles/info seem correct?

Motor Elevation
My Latitude is 50.734 deg (Elevation Angle)
plus
Declination Angle which is 7.4 deg
Equals 58.1
Minus the 90deg that the manual doesn’t tell you about
Equals 31.9 deg

So I set my Motors elevation angle to 31.9 deg from horizontal (this seems right)

Q2
Dish Angle
50.734 deg (Elevation Angle)
minus
Offset angle of dish (apparently) 26 deg
Minus
Declination Angle which is 7.4 deg
Equals 17.3 deg

So I set my dish angle to be 17.3 deg tilted back from vertical (this doesn’t seem right)

Q3
I set my motor to 0 & point it at 182 deg (True South) tighten up motor on pole
Select 1W & fine tune any left or right adjustment by loosening bolts & moving the whole motor on pole to get best reception
Then adjust if necessary to track ARC

Q4
Can I raise my dish/motor pole up by 1M above the roof after I’ve set my motor & dish angles up & have completed any fine tuning to get all the viewable sat’s at the best signal strength/quality with a good tracking of the ARC. Obviously I would have to make sure it was still vertical & still pointing in exactly the same direction after I’ve raised it (which I can do as I have marked a centre line on the pole & on to all of the brackets to help with identifying any movements after it’s been set).
I would like it as high as possible to get the best reception, but can only get to it to make adjustments whilst it is positioned at the lower level.

Q5
Being a novice should I buy a meter/finder? Or use the receiver?
If so which one?

Thanks in advance for any advice offered

**Robbo** · 09-03-2009

Hi,

Q1-

Just set he motor body so that it is at your elevation angle i.e 90 minus your latitude.

=39.3.

Q2- Set the declination for best signal on your due south sat. The dish face will end up being tilted back by about 5 degrees. Yes 17 degrees is far too much.

Q3 Based on your longitude, motorise the motor to where it need to go to line up with 1w, with the motor body pointing directly south.

eg if you at 2W, The motor should be set at 1 degree east of zero

Q4, You could try.

The elevation would be OK, but you'd have to re-adjust the rotation of the pole, as it would have to be in exactly the same place.
Easier to adjust in situ I think. Get a longer ladder and a ladder standoff, and strap the ladder so it doesn't move. The dish only has to be high enough to see the sats you want on the arc. There's no point putting it higher than it needs to be, unless you want to.

Q5, You might have great difficulty using your receiver at the top of a ladder. A meter is needed really.

Watch out for 24inch TKs, if you extend too far above the top, they suffer from lateral wobble.
Since you have a spare bracket, you could use that to make diagonal bracing for the top K

Blade_uk · 16-03-2009

Thanks Robbo

Have spent most of the weekend getting the dish up. See attachments, not sure whether to cut the bottom of the pole off yet or fit the left over T.

Someone explained the polar mount picture with all of the angles on it to me Friday, I now understand what I need to know & more importantly what I don't.

I have now set my polar axis to 38.8 (motor pivot angle), tilted the dish a further 7.4 degrees forward (declination offset angle) + 26 degrees (dish offset value) this has put the dish approx 5 - 6 degrees back from vertical as you say.

just waiting for the reciever/V-box to turn up, should be by Friday. I'm sure this will lead to a few more posts but i'm a bit more confident about getting it all working now

**Robbo** · 17-03-2009

Crikey

That is some pole you got there. I have a feeling that it won't be going anywhere soon. I don't think it will need the extra bracket, but since you have it, I would be inclined to put it on there anyway, it will save cutting the bottom of the pole off.

**satelliteman** · 17-03-2009

Blade uk, I'd cut it, it's a overkill for a fibre glass dish but looks very strong indeed

Don't forget to motorise the motor to approx 1e on the scale before alignment on thor.

***CROSSBONES*** · 17-03-2009

Very nice! Great to see some one using 36v instead of diseqc

With that pole, its strong enough to hold a bigger dish if needed

Blade_uk · 17-03-2009

Thanks guys

anyone wanna buy the bottom of me pole? free to anyone with a large hacksaw lmao

Ive set the motor to 0 & have pointed it as best as i can to true south, plan to send motor to 0.8W then lossen bolts & align to Thor, dont know anything about setting up the V-box or reciever yet but hopefully that will all change this weekend, I do work for an engineering company so everything gets well over engineered lol

**satelliteman** · 18-03-2009

Originally Posted by Blade_uk

Thanks guys

anyone wanna buy the bottom of me pole? free to anyone with a large hacksaw lmao

Ive set the motor to 0 & have pointed it as best as i can to true south, plan to send motor to 0.8W then lossen bolts & align to Thor, dont know anything about setting up the V-box or reciever yet but hopefully that will all change this weekend, I do work for an engineering company so everything gets well over engineered lol

Your need to drive the motor to 1e position as that will be Thor 0.8w from your longitude.

Blade_uk · 18-03-2009

ummmmmm im not sure i get that, but looking at 0,8w on satellite antenna alignment it does show Thor 3,5 as 1e. will see tomorrow as my reciever is turning up, typical i wanted a black one & had to wait an extra couple of weeks.

Thanks for pointing that out

**satelliteman** · 19-03-2009

Originally Posted by Blade_uk

ummmmmm im not sure i get that

Zero on motor equals your longitude (2W) so 1W will be 1e on motor. Not having usals, you need to manually drive it to a rough 1e position. Bit daunting to get grips with, me to at first

Blade_uk · 19-03-2009

Now i'm confused "Not having usals" I thought that is what i was going to use through the TM6900 by putting in my lon/lat & all i had to do was get 0 on the motor set to aprox true south?

The way i had previously understood
1, set motor to 0 & point aprox true south
2, set up lon/lat & drive dish via USUALS/TM6900 to satellite 1w
3, lossen motor & fine tune. then retighten motor once tuned to 1w
4, try & pick up sat's & tune at either end of the arc

**Robbo** · 19-03-2009

It will still be as you described,except that you can't send to 1W using USALS, because the motor and V-box don't support it.

Using the V-Box or the receiver, turn the dish to 1 degree east, as already mentioned by SMM, instead of the USALS bit.

Blade_uk · 20-03-2009

Im sure it will all become clear once i get it set up tomorrow afternoon (if my v-box turns up)

I presume the reciever will be controlling & moving the dish to the selected sat without having to move the dish with the v-box remote?

**Robbo** · 20-03-2009

Yes, that is the idea, though I have never used one, the V-box behaves like a Diseqc 1.2 motor and stores the positions of the satellites when commanded to by the receiver. Once stored, when the receiver requests a particular satellite, the V box sends the dish there.

**satelliteman** · 20-03-2009

Connect up Vbox to receiver and motor. Start off at 1W then with the TM6900 store that position and then move the dish round the arc with the receiver and store other positions using DiSEqC 1.2 commands. The receiver will send commands to Vbox to move the dish to the stored position although you can also move the dish using the Vbox remote.

Blade_uk · 20-03-2009

Thanks for your help & advice, Will hopefully be able to have a go at it this afternoon.

Blade_uk · 24-03-2009

nothing like a well put up pole lol

got it sorted quite quickly on 1W, drove it to 45E good signal, then to 45W good signal & then got everything between 45E & 45W apart from 31.5w, 22w, 18w, 11w & 31.5E

Is there a reason why i cant get these but have everything else?

**Mickha** · 24-03-2009

Have a look here:
_http://www.lyngsat.com/atlantic.html
If you click on the satellite you're searching for you will see what channels are available and you can check the approximate size of dish required to pick them up.
Click on the link under the heading beam.

**Robbo** · 24-03-2009

Try 12735H, 18085 on 22W, very strong signal there.

**Channel Hopper** · 24-03-2009

Originally Posted by Blade_uk

nothing like a well put up pole lol

got it sorted quite quickly on 1W, drove it to 45E good signal, then to 45W good signal & then got everything between 45E & 45W apart from 31.5w, 22w, 18w, 11w & 31.5E

Is there a reason why i cant get these but have everything else?

Have you got the best/most up-to-date channel list in the receiver ?
Are you trying a network search when scanning ?
Have the neighbours put up a brick wall ?

Blade_uk · 29-03-2009

I presume so as it came with a pre-installed channel list 1 week ago

No

&

No

**Robbo** · 29-03-2009

Pre-installed channel lists cannot be presumed to be correct, you will need to confirm with the likes of lyngsat, flysat ,kingofsat etc.

Blade_uk · 29-03-2009

I have re-scanned 1W & have now got all of the HD channels on 08W which i didn't have before.

I have just found 22w & 18w,

guess i'm still learning to drive the TM6900, not sure what all the different types of scan are all about? they seem like they do the same thing but from different menu options

a 13 week baby doesnt help when trying to play with a new toy

***kenny1234*** · 29-03-2009

Lol wait while your baby gets a little older your gonna lose your tv all together,enjoy it while you can

Blade_uk · 29-03-2009

He can have Danish tv in the Dining room if he's good

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Newbie questions, attempting 1st motorised setup Information exchange on LNBs, Single satellite, motorised and multi-satellite systems. DiSEqC switches, positioners, motors, actuators, dish-alignment etc.