Advice Needed Actuator counting

A

Archive-8

Guest
Hi all I have just installed a gibertini 1.25cm dish, polarmount and 18" actuator. It's marked as a "superpower jack"heavy duty. But it's model is harl-3618+.

Firstly I think this is a copy of the superjack I thought I had ordered.

Every time I select a satellite the dish moves fine, but I have to move the dish upto 15 clicks if it's from the east to west. And 12 clicks west to east.

I use a gbox400 as my positioner. This was used with a superjack h2h mount for many years with out needing all the clicks to correct its position.

Is this just me? And have I been ripped off with the actuator.

Ps the end stop switches always used to come up E1 for east and E2 for west.

Now both ends trip the E2 limit.

Any advice please.

All the new equipment was purchased from hisat.com
 

Channel Hopper

Suffering fools, so you don't have to.
Staff member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
35,536
Reaction score
8,554
Points
113
Age
59
Website
www.sat-elite.uk
My Satellite Setup
A little less analogue, and a lot more crap.
My Location
UK
Can you manually move the dish slightly ( when the motor is near the centre of travel) by hand ?

If you can then there is a good chance one of the bolts of the polarmount hasn't been tightened, or is incorrect.

Also check that there is no play in the worm drive of the motor, a replacement would be required if there is.
 

Captain Jack

Burnt out human
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
11,797
Reaction score
7,980
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See signature
My Location
North Somerset
I had that before... check that both ball/spherical joints on the actuator are free to move. New ones are usually stuck solid needing lots of grease...
 
A

Archive-8

Guest
Just come back in from checking. The actuator arm has about 2mm play (as total movement) but evry sat still is widly out.
 

Captain Jack

Burnt out human
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
11,797
Reaction score
7,980
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See signature
My Location
North Somerset
The arm will always have a play in it - nothing you can do there. Did you check the spherical joints?
 

Terryl

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Apr 14, 2011
Messages
3,246
Reaction score
1,932
Points
113
Age
82
My Satellite Setup
OpenBox X5 on a 1 meter motorized dish.
And now a 10 foot "C" band dish.

Custom built PC
My Location
Deep in the Boonies in the central Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
If you didn't replace the actuator with the "EXACT" same model number and manufacture, you will have to dump everything from your G box as far as satellite positions and start fresh.

Not all linear motors have the same counts on the position, and the end to end limits.
 

wod

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2005
Messages
4,213
Reaction score
238
Points
63
My Satellite Setup
1m channel master, jaeger smr1224, Inverto black ultra twin, technomate tm-1500ci, broken receiver vantage x221ci, New additions Skybox F5s and technomate tm-5402 HD arriving soon.
My Location
yorkshire
I was just thinking the same.

Reset the vbox and try it again.

do you keep a list of the number of counts to each sat position to save you some time ?
 
A

Archive-8

Guest
Yeah I have dumped the old data from the positioner, I have written down the count numbers but they are out each time.
 

RimaNTSS

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 7, 2009
Messages
5,601
Reaction score
6,079
Points
113
Age
58
My Satellite Setup
Some SAT-related hardware.
My Location
N-E from Riga
Yeah I have dumped the old data from the positioner, I have written down the count numbers but they are out each time.
Hopefully you did not reset your receiver! You have your channels. Take one from each satellite starting from East of West and turn antenna till you get picture, remember counter number. Yes, that will probably take some time, but not a big deal.
 

Archived-1

Persona non grata
Joined
Apr 14, 2007
Messages
7,570
Reaction score
8,590
Points
113
My Location
uk
Another way that will get you very near I did it with my last change of actuator, send the dish to lets say 30w then pull the dish so your at 30w, lock the dish in place with clamps,

Disconnect the actuator send it back to 30w then wind the arm back and reconnect it will get you lots closer then fine tune and save.
 
A

Archive-8

Guest
Got the mount set to 4w now as top dead centre. The elevation set to 50 as per location. And I am just starting to look east to west and I must say things are looking very good.

Even the offset cband lnb is working very well!

The positioner seems to be behaving its self now so I will keep an eye on the numbers just in case.
 

Channel Hopper

Suffering fools, so you don't have to.
Staff member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
35,536
Reaction score
8,554
Points
113
Age
59
Website
www.sat-elite.uk
My Satellite Setup
A little less analogue, and a lot more crap.
My Location
UK
Just come back in from checking. The actuator arm has about 2mm play (as total movement) but evry sat still is widly out.

Backlash should be zero

It's faulty . send it back.
 

Terryl

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Apr 14, 2011
Messages
3,246
Reaction score
1,932
Points
113
Age
82
My Satellite Setup
OpenBox X5 on a 1 meter motorized dish.
And now a 10 foot "C" band dish.

Custom built PC
My Location
Deep in the Boonies in the central Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
Yeah I have dumped the old data from the positioner, I have written down the count numbers but they are out each time.


If the count is different each time to the same satellite then the positioner is FUBAR, and I agree with Channel Hopper, send it back for a new one.
 

Llew

cerca trova...
Staff member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
16,226
Reaction score
4,197
Points
113
Age
81
My Satellite Setup
Triple Dragon, Dreambox 8000, Echostar AD3000ip, TBS6522,6925,6983 PCie cards.
Gibertini 1.25m motorised dish driven by the AD3000, with either Inverto BU Quad or Norsat / XMW Ka LNBs . SMW 1.05m + 3 other dishes. Speccy: Promax HD Ranger+
My Location
The Flatlands of East Anglia
Backlash should be zero

It's faulty . send it back.
...and say you asked for a Superjack, not a Superpowerjack. Mine lasted for less than two years before the seal between piston and shaft cracked and let in water. Result - corroded motor laminations.
 

Captain Jack

Burnt out human
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
11,797
Reaction score
7,980
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See signature
My Location
North Somerset
Backlash should be zero

It's faulty . send it back.

Well I had a couple of new genuine Superjack actuators and they all had a very tiny play in it. Even the heavy duty 24" one has about half a millimetre play...
 
A

Archive-8

Guest
I will post some photos
2014-03-11%2018.20.46.jpg
2014-03-11%2018.26.09.jpg
That's all I could take. Happy to do some more.
 
A

Archive-8

Guest
It's on a 3" ground stand and slabs on the base. Then it's the gibertini polar mount and the 1.25 bolted to that. The ku lnb is an rt inverto and the cband is titanium c1-pll.
 
Top