Gibertini OP 125L on USALS Technomate-2600 MK3

funtime261

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West Mids
Finally got around to installing my Gibertini OP 125L on a new Technomate-2600 MK3. Now working a treat! :)
Few pictures of my install which I thought may be useful for others.

B.jpg D.jpg G.jpg H.jpg F.jpg X.jpg Y.jpg TM-2600 MK3 20KG.JPG

The first think I will remark on is the build quality of Gibetini. All feels way better than I'm used to for our home use sat hobby. The Gibertini is quality machined and all the holes line up perfectly and is a charm to put together with nice simple illustrative instructions.

Make sure you have a magnetic spirit level as shown in the picture to make sure your mount is perfectly vertical to make sure you follow the arc.
Dish installation is exactly the same as any USALS motor provision so won't cover that here. Search out the guides in the forum if that is what you require.

Took a picture of the TM-2600 manual as it now says on the front it will take up to 20KG which I haven't seen that anywhere else on the web (usually shows 15KG) so as the Gibi OP 125L weighs 15.5KG that's nice to know. Mine's on a ground mount next to a fence so shouldn't get too much stress from high winds hopefully.

The other main issue that we all know about, when mounting the Gibi on a USALS motor is the diameter of motor arm is too small for the diameter of Gibi brackets The Gibi is designed to mount on a pole 55mm-100mm so we need some brackets to "pack out" the motor arm diameter.

I used two right angle brackets which from my pictures you will see I first tried using them at the back of the bracket. But as they are right angled, the two points of contact of brackets on motor arm just did not give enough grip to stop the heavy Gibi turning on arm even after putting self amalgamating tape on motor arm to help with grip. Rather frustrating!

So back to drawing board! Time to try them at front of bracket. Got my lump hammer and (very satisfyingly after my first failure) whacked the right angled brackets until they were at a similar angle to the front brackets on Gibi. This time as the back teeth on rear bracket can do what they are designed to do which is grip nicely. Now working a treat and nice and secure and dish finding the entire Clarke belt a treat!

The LNB pictured is an Inverto Black Pro with Gibertini feedhorn which I did change to a Inverto Premium PLL LNB. I have also bought another IBU but will do LNB tests on my Gibi at a later date

However I did already manage to lock on EPL feed on 3W ABS-3A be it with break up, but I've never even had a sniff before on my 1.1m mesh offset with IBU. So 42dB Gain is already noticeable. I’m in the West Mids.

So if you’ve fancied a Gibi on a TM-2600 MK3 ….. crack on and purchase as it works! Just make sure you have your “diameter pack out brackets” or similar!
 
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Chr0nik

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Excellent, nicely done! Just be careful with the wear and tear of the motor. I've had one of these motors a while ago and I used it with a 110cm dish and it ended up moving and wobbling a few degrees when reaching eastern sats after a couple of months of use.

That being said, I'm thinking of replacing my CM 120 dish with a Gibi.
 

funtime261

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I've had one on my other much lighter 1.1m mesh offset for probably last 7 years and I find as long as you occasionally tighten motor arm with allen key it stays pretty much on arc.
 

jeallen01

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@funtime261

You have "beefed up" the mounting of the dish on the motor, but be aware that the clamps for the motor on the pole/mast will may well be the next to distort!

That happened to the clamps on my Darkmotor on a 50mm/2" pole because both of the rear parts simply "bowed" after a few months , and so I had to "beef up" with further clamping bars on both!

That was done around 18 months ago, and I don't think there's been much, if any, further distortion of those motor/pole-mast clamps.

PS: As I said some months ago, I can't find the thread in which I described the "fix" in detail - maybe someone else can have another go at doing that???
 

ozumo

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PS: As I said some months ago, I can't find the thread in which I described the "fix" in detail - maybe someone else can have another go at doing that???
 

jeallen01

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@ozumo

Many thanks for finding that thread again! :Y

There's one additional (and simple) further thing that I should have done - but didn't think of at the time - before tightening all nuts on the auxilliary clamp U-bolts :
- the large nuts along the lower parts of each clamp U-bolt were intended to act as bracing spacers to the the underside of each of the original mast clamps to stop them bowing downwards; but I couldn't keep those nuts evenly spaced along the clamp U-bolts.
- therefore I should have added lengths of split rubber/plastic tubing between the large nuts to keep them in their intended positions.
 
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smithysmudge

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Now that you have had about 6 months to play with your new setup @funtime261 what are your thoughts now?
I currently have a 1m technomate dish with a TM2600 M3 motor on a ground mounted scaffold pole and was toying with carrying out the same modification. I didn’t think the Gibi would fit on a down facing motor pole as previous pictures I had seen it looked like a bracket on the dish mount prevented this configuration but apparently that’s not the case.
I’m located in central Scotland and I get feeds on 7e/10e but n room whatsoever for rain margin etc so hopefully a bigger dish would give me a stronger signal on weaker feeds.
 

John

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Finally got around to installing my Gibertini OP 125L on a new Technomate-2600 MK3. Now working a treat! :)
Few pictures of my install which I thought may be useful for others.

View attachment 135740 View attachment 135741 View attachment 135744 View attachment 135745 View attachment 135751 View attachment 135748 View attachment 135749 View attachment 135750

The first think I will remark on is the build quality of Gibetini. All feels way better than I'm used to for our home use sat hobby. The Gibertini is quality machined and all the holes line up perfectly and is a charm to put together with nice simple illustrative instructions.

Make sure you have a magnetic spirit level as shown in the picture to make sure your mount is perfectly vertical to make sure you follow the arc.
Dish installation is exactly the same as any USALS motor provision so won't cover that here. Search out the guides in the forum if that is what you require.

Took a picture of the TM-2600 manual as it now says on the front it will take up to 20KG which I haven't seen that anywhere else on the web (usually shows 15KG) so as the Gibi OP 125L weighs 15.5KG that's nice to know. Mine's on a ground mount next to a fence so shouldn't get too much stress from high winds hopefully.

The other main issue that we all know about, when mounting the Gibi on a USALS motor is the diameter of motor arm is too small for the diameter of Gibi brackets The Gibi is designed to mount on a pole 55mm-100mm so we need some brackets to "pack out" the motor arm diameter.

I used two right angle brackets which from my pictures you will see I first tried using them at the back of the bracket. But as they are right angled, the two points of contact of brackets on motor arm just did not give enough grip to stop the heavy Gibi turning on arm even after putting self amalgamating tape on motor arm to help with grip. Rather frustrating!

So back to drawing board! Time to try them at front of bracket. Got my lump hammer and (very satisfyingly after my first failure) whacked the right angled brackets until they were at a similar angle to the front brackets on Gibi. This time as the back teeth on rear bracket can do what they are designed to do which is grip nicely. Now working a treat and nice and secure and dish finding the entire Clarke belt a treat!

The LNB pictured is an Inverto Black Pro with Gibertini feedhorn which I did change to a Inverto Premium PLL LNB. I have also bought another IBU but will do LNB tests on my Gibi at a later date

However I did already manage to lock on EPL feed on 3W ABS-3A be it with break up, but I've never even had a sniff before on my 1.1m mesh offset with IBU. So 42dB Gain is already noticeable. I’m in the West Mids.

So if you’ve fancied a Gibi on a TM-2600 MK3 ….. crack on and purchase as it works! Just make sure you have your “diameter pack out brackets” or similar!


I use the 1.2 Gibby on my Ka band set-up - found it to be an excellent performing dish all round :Y
 

funtime261

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Octagon SF8008, Vu+Duo2. ZGemma H9S, GT Combo, 1.1m offset USALS, inverto black ultra single, Gibertini OP125L , inverto black ultra single.
My Location
West Mids
Now that you have had about 6 months to play with your new setup @funtime261 what are your thoughts now?
I currently have a 1m technomate dish with a TM2600 M3 motor on a ground mounted scaffold pole and was toying with carrying out the same modification. I didn’t think the Gibi would fit on a down facing motor pole as previous pictures I had seen it looked like a bracket on the dish mount prevented this configuration but apparently that’s not the case.
I’m located in central Scotland and I get feeds on 7e/10e but n room whatsoever for rain margin etc so hopefully a bigger dish would give me a stronger signal on weaker feeds.

I can't pretend that I haven't had to pop out with my Ibravebox sat meter a few times (mainly due to my ground mount being on a flagstone on soil rather than concreted in) . Usually to tweak alignment to weaker sats such as 3W but has been fine with stronger sats Thor, Hotbird, Astra etc. I have a light 1.1m generic mesh dish on another TM-2600 for day to day use so Gibby used mainly for feeds and recording whilst I watch another channel etc. TBH tweeking the dish is all part of the hobby and quite enjoy it! Deffo one for a ground mount though, wouldn't play withh Gibby up a ladder. Way too heavy and dangerous! :) So all in all yes TM-2600 and Gibby OP125L been working a treat overall and well happy! Saying that the EPL on 3W in West Mids is still a bit elusive (on the cusp can get them with break up sometimes)....more tweaking and LNB testing needed for Absat 3A! Been fine for feeds on 3.1E, 7E and 10E but then again so has my 1.1m mesh. Gain is better on Gibby 1.25 though pulling in a few dB more than the mesh 1.1.
 

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smithysmudge

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Thanks for the update my scaffold pole is well concreted in so won’t move. I also have a sky dish to keep her indoors happy while I’m scouring the arc for a sports fest :D.
Did all the brackets you have in your pictures come with the dish as the picture below is what confused me as it didn’t look like you could fit it to my motor but you seem to have fitted a spacer.
CE31CE2B-33AD-4161-A1A4-9AE93DC6BA3E.jpeg
 

funtime261

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West Mids
Yes all came with dish apart from my “diameter pack out brackets” :p:Y
 

Peterj10

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I also use the excellent Gibertini 1.25(non motorised) only for QO-100 which is quite a weak signal, I have found that the LNB is around half inch too forward so I drilled the arms to take it further back, with around 2db improvement.
 

funtime261

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Octagon SF8008, Vu+Duo2. ZGemma H9S, GT Combo, 1.1m offset USALS, inverto black ultra single, Gibertini OP125L , inverto black ultra single.
My Location
West Mids
I also use the excellent Gibertini 1.25(non motorised) only for QO-100 which is quite a weak signal, I have found that the LNB is around half inch too forward so I drilled the arms to take it further back, with around 2db improvement.
Any chance of a picture?
 

Manikm909

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I can't pretend that I haven't had to pop out with my Ibravebox sat meter a few times (mainly due to my ground mount being on a flagstone on soil rather than concreted in) . Usually to tweak alignment to weaker sats such as 3W but has been fine with stronger sats Thor, Hotbird, Astra etc. I have a light 1.1m generic mesh dish on another TM-2600 for day to day use so Gibby used mainly for feeds and recording whilst I watch another channel etc. TBH tweeking the dish is all part of the hobby and quite enjoy it! Deffo one for a ground mount though, wouldn't play withh Gibby up a ladder. Way too heavy and dangerous! :) So all in all yes TM-2600 and Gibby OP125L been working a treat overall and well happy! Saying that the EPL on 3W in West Mids is still a bit elusive (on the cusp can get them with break up sometimes)....more tweaking and LNB testing needed for Absat 3A! Been fine for feeds on 3.1E, 7E and 10E but then again so has my 1.1m mesh. Gain is better on Gibby 1.25 though pulling in a few dB more than the mesh 1.1.

i agree about faffing about with a Gibertini 1.25 up a ladder, and being dangerous - i was shocked at the weight when i nearly bought one (but couldnt get in car) - was quite releived that it didnt fit in a way - as i would have been petrified getting it up, plus at the time, i didnt have a serious viable mounting option at the time, other than a TM2600 diseq motor, im sure it wouldnt have lasted long.
 
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