DiseqC Motor plus 150cm dish

cybertomanek

cybertomanek

Member
My Satellite Setup
Laminas AS-1500 +Jaeger SMR 1224 80E - 45W
U2C Denys H.265
My Location
Poland
Hi Guys, I'm jus wondering if someone has dish size 150 like either Emme Esse 150 ( 15kg) or Laminas AS-1500 (18kg) with DiseqC motor.
Is to too heavy for recent motors available on market right now?
 
The main problem with big dishes mounted on Diseqc motors is not their weight but the possible wind-load. The weight of the antenna mostly affect moving antenna from the end positions. In some cases it is almost impossible for the motor to bring antenna from the end position. To avoid this situation motor and antenna should be connected in the proper way, when turning axis go throw center of gravity of the dish. There is the picture of 1.4m antenna I attached to Diseqc motor. Weight of the dish+mount is more than 15kg.
 

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I have a Laminas 1.2m on a diseqc usals motor and wouldn't think of going any larger, not because of weight but, as Rimants states, the wind load factor.
 
The issue of a large dish on a DiSEqC motor is the current limitation of the receiver powering via the tuner, which varies dramatically between different manufacturers.

Some will flag up a warning (LNB short) whilst other models won't, and a few will suffer damage of the psu or the power tracks on the pcb, older Dreamboxes were particularly prone to breaking in this way.
 
There was a guy on YouTube (I think he was Russian, not sure) that made amazing patents with diseqc motors. He once mounted a 2.10 mesh C band antenna on a motor like this and it was moving with no problem. Very impressive to see, of course he made an appropriate mount to the motor as the edges of the dish would easily touch the ground otherwise. His channel was deleted unfortunately.
Anyway a good metallic gear motor could handle up to an aluminium 1.40 dish with the wind load risk factor always present! Mine handles my 1.30X1.44 dish with absolutely no problems so far.
 
It's the MABO 1.30X144 dish, measured (to clarify this is not the 1.25X1.40 model). I know it's not high on DXers appreciation but so far I'm very satisfied with it.
 
I can not find 1.3m MABO dish. Inly found the list of the offset dishes they made (Satellite antennas “MABO” {} Poland: 0,85 m; 1,05 m; 1.10 m; 1.25 m; 1,85 m). Do you have more details about your antenna? Is that really MABO?
 
RimaNTSS said:
I can not find 1.3m MABO dish. Inly found the list of the offset dishes they made (Satellite antennas “MABO” {} Poland: 0,85 m; 1,05 m; 1.10 m; 1.25 m; 1,85 m). Do you have more details about your antenna? Is that really MABO?
Click to expand...

MABO
 
Well, they sold it to me as a MABO if this is what you're asking, there's nothing on it to prove it really! The seller told me there were two models, initially they told me to go with the "new" 1,25X140 and they had an "older" 130X144 in stock. I made sure I measured the dish before I bought it and indeed it was like I was told. Now if MABO used to manufacture this size and now has stopped I don't know. What matters is I have a good dish, the name is not important to me. The code on my receipt said MABO T144.
 
Well kids it's not if the motor can turn the dish but several other things to consider, things like wind-loading, (as mentioned by RimaNTSS) and starting torque, (as mentioned by Channel Hopper) but the main thing is the weight of the dish in a downward direction, 15 Kg is about the max on most Diseqc motors, this is the combination of the dish, it's mount and the LNB, the downward torque on the motors elevation adjustment is seriously stressed when you go beyond the 15 Kg limit.

And most of the lower cost motors use a plastic gear to move the dish, the newer SG9120 motors have a metal gear, so stripping out with a heavier dish is not a problem, but again the main problems would be the extra stress on the EL adjustment locking bolts, too big (or too heavy) a dish and the added mechanical advantage would/could exceed the design limits of the mount, adding ice or snow to this and it could cause the dish to drop.

The main dish size spec on most motors is 1.2 meters, an extra .3 meters may not sound like much but will it put it beyond the 15 Kg weight limits on most?

This is why the bigger "C" band dishes use a polar mount, this type of mount transfers the main weight of the big dish directly down to the mounting pole, thus saving the motor from having to hold and move the main load by it's self.
 
BTW I use this "unknown" motor to move my dish, but for a whole year and after a very windy last winter everything is still in place! It has a metallic gear and an automatic backlash system that quite surprisingly seems to work very very well. The label is Dragonsat but I found a video with it as Alsat, the same motor exactly.
 
MCelliotG said:
BTW I use this "unknown" motor to move my dish, but for a whole year and after a very windy last winter everything is still in place! It has a metallic gear and an automatic backlash system that quite surprisingly seems to work very very well. The label is Dragonsat but I found a video with it as Alsat, the same motor exactly.
Click to expand...

It will be a clone of the Powerteck DX series, either 240 or 380.

DiSEqC Motor DX-240 - Powertech Electronics Inc.
 
FWIW, I had many problems with a version of that ("Supreme Dark Motor" with the position display) with the Vu2 Solo2 in that it would not work with a Linux-based Rx - it just did not work!
 
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