DiSECQ motors and wind

farr

I'm just wondering, is it normal that you lose weak satellites for a few seconds at a time in moderately strong wind (gale force or just below?) I am currently losing reception of 21.6E for instance and 26E for a few seconds at a time during strong gusts but strong sats are fine.

compufunk

In my experience, yes . Although my setup is different to yours.

As long as you only loose signal and not the dish your fine

Topper

It is understandable, a diseqc motor is essentially a worm and wheel and backlash will always be there especially under severe reverse loading as with strong winds, you should really park your dish to give the least resistance to extremes of wind.

War does not determine who is right, it determines who is left!

Formerly toppervte33h
whose six pack has turned into a keg

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farr

Where is it best to park the dish? In my location, at 8W, the dish is more or less exactly parallel to the wall which should mean the least wind resistance? Moving it to the extreme east would mean it would be merely a few centimetres from hitting the guttering and so I guess that's not a good idea anyway (plus it would mean being further exposed away from the protection offered by the other side of the house). Moving it west would mean protection is offered by the other side of the house but it still wobbles a fair bit even at 58W - any ideas?

wod

when its windy move the dish so that its side on to direction the wind is blowing

you can minimize the effect of the wind by using a stronger 36volt motor which will hold the dish better in strong winds

Channel Hopper

There is really not a lot that can be done with the modern HtoH motors on the market, all the play is within the housing. But there may be two other factors causing loss of signal (unless you have a screw loose somewhere );
twisting of the offset reflector on the back mount in relation to the single feed arm, and the mounting bracket twisting on the wall.

The best you can do is to go and have a good look in the windy conditions, check what happens when the dish is head on, and again when side on to the wind. Then you can see which parts need reinforcing before junking.

As Wod has posted, polarmounts using the older linear motors have distance from the bearings in their favour, and I believe there are a couple of specialist manufacturers that make DiSEqC equivalents, but the better route would be to add a VBox converter to the package.

There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"