Dreambox 500s Motor Setup

Fano

Hi Guys
Just setting up my 500s for my motorised dish.
Using a 500s with a Superjack DG120+.
I am wondering how I configure the 500s to handle the motor.
I've read lots of guides but I havent found one yet that details this.
At the "Please choose your Diseqc-Configuration" window I chose "No Diseqc".
Is this correct ?
In "Satellite Configuration" I chose "Many satellites via Diseqc Rotor"
A big list of satellites came up then with sections for Sat/Position ,LNB,22khz and H/V.
I left this untouched.
On the next page I enabled Gotoxx and entered my Longitude and Latitude and saved.
It seems to work in that the motor is moving the dish to the approximate positions.
Have I set it up correctly ?

I believe 8w is my true south satellite,my longitude is 8w.
My pole is attached to two T brackets about 16 inches apart (Couldnt find a K bracket )
Its a short 2 inch diameter pole ,2 feet long.Very sturdy.
The pole is perfectly vertical.
I notice that the brackets to attach the motor to the pole arent the best ,they seem to bend when I tighten them.I'd read that the U bolts were poor quality but it seems the bracket is the issue in my case.
The dish is attached to the motor but I notice there is a slight bit of movement on the motor arm,a slight wobble,is this normal ?

I have set the angle on the motor as required ,it has a scale for latitude so I set it the same as my location ,52 degrees.
I set the angle of the dish at 30-7.5 (Declination)=22.5.
Skew was set at 0.
I rotated the motor and dish to where I thought 8w was (Dishpointer).I moved the whole motor/dish together (by loosening the u-bolts on the mounting pole)
Using Gotoxx,I entered my longitude and latitude and moved the dish to 8w (nearest southerly satellite).
It moved slightly but I didnt get a signal.
I changed the dish elevation to 28deg and I got a good signal of 86% on France 24 transponder (10972, V, 27500).
I tried a few more channels on 8W and they looked ok.
I then moved the dish via Gotoxx to 5w and checked the France 2 transponder (11591, V, 20000).95% signal .
Those 2 sats work perfectly.I am definitely looking at the correct sats.
I then tried a few Eastern sats,13e,19e and 28.2 but I didnt get a lock on any of them.
Even 1w draws a blank.

I notice sometimes that the motor only seems to want to move to 8w irrespective of what position I choose .Bit odd.

Would I be better off not using Gotoxx and try manual setup instead,is that better ?
Sorry for the long winded post .

rolfw

I found GoToX to be unreliable with my DM7000, but that may not be the entire problem.

You say you adjusted the elevation when on 8 West, did you also adjust the azimuth and do it by monitoring the display of signal and quality on the Dreambox?

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Fano

Yes Rolfw,I moved the motor left and right while changing the dish angle too until I got the strongest signal on 8W.
Its a 1m Gibertini dish.
28 degrees elevation on the dish gave the best performance .
86% on France 24 transponder (10972, V, 27500) was the highest I could get after fine tuning.

rolfw

Best then to try using standard DiSEqC to find your satellites.

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Fano

Ok so at the "Please choose your Diseqc-Configuration" window I chose "No Diseqc".
In "Satellite Configuration" I chose "Many satellites via Diseqc Rotor"
A big list of satellites came up then with sections for Sat/Position ,LNB,22khz and H/V.
I left this untouched.
So I do not tick the Gotoxx and instead move the dish in steps until I get a lock and then store the position ?
Are the positions stored in the receiver or the motor itself ?
I will do a reset on the motor before I start just to make sure the sat positions havent changed .

Fano

Success at last.
I was at it today and was at my wits end trying to get it to work.
I was confident my physical setup was correct.
I deduced it must have been a software prob.
I was using Usals setup and had entered my exact location correctly.
Could only pick up 2 bloody satellites,5w and 8w.Both were very strong.
Decided I'd turn off usals and do it the manual way.
Started at 8w,then moved east until I hit 5w.
Then went to 13E and moved the dish slightly east in steps .
Hit 13e,16e,19e and 28.2.
I've manually tuned in all the sats now,slow work but its done .
30w,27.5w,24.5w,15w,8w,5w and 1w.
Eastwards then I have 5,7,9,10,13,16,19,23.5,28,39,40 and 42E
Thats most of them I think.
All give good signal >85% bar 10E .
Most of them are over 90% .
I guess my setup is good,it was that ******* Usals that scuppered me.
Very strange it didnt work,I got the exact location off dishpointer.
From reading on here though it seems alot of people have had problems with usals on the 500s.

compufunk

You'd be lucky to pick anything up there in any case, so it sounds like you are doing fine as you are

USALS / GotoX is pretty good on any image I have tried for the DM600. I cant see why a DM500 would be any different.

Fano

I cant understand it myself .
Using Usals some of the sats are off by as much as 3 degrees,which is huge.
There is no consistency.
I'm happy to use the manual method ,its giving good results.

mhku

I didn't see your post until today. I've a "how to" to the Idiot's Guide:

How to manually find and store satellite positions

Fano

Cheers M8.
I actually found your post on that through the search function and thats how I set it up.Very handy.

Have about 20 sats stored now.I think a few might need more finetuning,might be a fraction off.
I think each step of the motor is 0.15 degrees .
Should I fine tune on a good or a bad day ?

I notice that the signal strength on the dreambox starts around 70% ,any less and I dont get a lock.
Most sats are around 85-90% .
I lost alot of them this afternoon but it was desperate out there,galeforce wind and torrential rain.
They came back once the rain eased off.

I'm using a Pli Jade 2 image ,seems quite nice.

mhku

I thought it was in the Guide but when I checked it wasn't there so I had to use search as well to find the old post

I only make changes to the dish/ sat positions in good weather. When it rains heavily I sometimes lose all channels.

Tweaking the dish elevation may improve the signal (mark the original dish position); until recently I'd never been able to get 16E until I adjusted the dish elevation (I think I'd managed to corrupt the image so I spent a few hours redoing the whole thing and also sorted out the dish).

Fano

I recorded some signal reading off the 500s today.Good dry day.
Just wondering if they look ok for a 1m dish in my location.52N,8W.
These are the strongest transponder readings.
30w~ 91%
15W~90%
8W~87%
5W~90%
1W~91%
5E~90%
7E~88%
9E~88%
13E~90%
16E~83%
19E~92%
23.5E~89%
28.2E~92%
39E~89%
42E~92%
I cant seem to get 7W,4W,21.5E,26E,31E,33E and 36E.
10E is just about there .
What do ye think ?

Copers74

Have been following the thread concerning Dreambox 500 setup and although much of the discussion was over my head somewhat (jargonwise) was able to follow most of it. For what it is worth I have found a deal of published technical data available gratis at _www.kathrein.de - choose English on the worldmap then follow the various links to Azimuth/Elevation table (Great Britain) in the technical help section in downloads for motorised satellite systems. This narrows down the possibilities to cities within the UK, a bit of subtraction/addition may then be necessary for more rural locations. Good luck!