help installing small dish and motor

[drspastic]

ex pat in bulgaria here
DD (decimal degrees)
Latitude
43.84596252441406
Longitude
25.96019744873047

im replacing a 1.2m plus jack with a 65cm on diseqc. i have not installed a diseqc motor before and all guides i see are for other areas or just poor.
its mounted to a heavy vertical iron tripod that is magnetic enough to thow a compass out.
im not used to ofset dishes either, all my others are big PF with jacks.
mainly i want this little baby dish for sky news, bbc news, france24, aljazeera, etc mostly on astra1k or hotbird. the location is an upper flat roof section that can see almost the full arc down to hispasat just over the ridge tiles.

i have a v8 finder with the tv screen. my nearest to damnit south satellite is badr4/eshail2 with is my allighnment point for my 2 big 2.4m PF dishes although that constellation is going to be very weak on a tiny 65cm offset.

please help get this running right, i already spent 2 days on the roof. i need to know where to set the actual dish elevtion bracket, the motor elevation, and perhaps a way to confirm south more precisely as the compass spins when it gets near.

ps: feel free to move this thead if it should be elewhere

 

[Mickha]

You can set up a DiSeQC motor using USALS, using your Latitude, and Longitude, or by using DiSeQC 1.2. then use the receiver, to manually find each satellite, and store at a different position.

Using USALS, just enter your Latitude, and longitude, negative Longitude = West, Positive = East.
You then send your dish, to a suitable satellite, and physically adjust it to get the best signal quality, then use USALS to locate other satellites.

You can use sites like dishpointer.com for approximate directions of where to point your dish, just enter your location, select a satellite, then zoom in on the map, moving the green icon to where your dish is located.

Check the beam maps, of a satellite, to see which satellites/transponders, can be received with a 65cm dish, in Bulgaria. I tend to use lyngsat.

Please post back with updates.

 

[drspastic]

this is an old maplin motor without usals. dishpointer cant give me any useful markers unless i remove all my roof tiles. i know im pretty much in the right direction because the small dish pulls in astra5c a nudge to the side and being a tiny dish the focus is rather wide. i set up a 2.4m dish spot on eshail2 for uplink to the ham radio transponder so im not exactly a numpty at it. my main problem is knowing where to set elevation on the dish bracket and where to set elevation on the motor bracket. as it stands i set the dish mount to the bottom of the slot so the dish is paralel to the motor arm, and set the motor elevation o max signal on the spectrum analyser. but the arc looks all wrong and doesnt centre on anything properly

 

[Mickha]

Astra 5C? Astra 1K?
There is a Astra 1KR satellite, listed on Lyngsat, but only lists feeds.
Can you please confirm which satellites, you're trying to pick up?

https://www.lyngsat.com/europe.html

 

[a33]

please help get this running right, i already spent 2 days on the roof. i need to know where to set the actual dish elevtion bracket, the motor elevation, and perhaps a way to confirm south more precisely as the compass spins when it gets near.

- Does the motor go to exactly zero, when you give the command "GotoZero" or "GotoReference"?
- When motor and dish and LNB arm are exactly in line with each other, motor elevation scale should be about 46.2 (or better: 45.5), dish elevation scale should be bend.angle.of.the.motor.tube minus 6.7 (or better: bend.angle.of.the.motor.tube minus 6.0)

- Confirm south, using the sun: Use Satellite Look Angle Calculator, enter siteLAT and siteLON, enter SatellitePosition: your exact Longitude, then find "Time when Sun Azimuth equals Satellite azimuth", and check the (current) date below that.
Then at that time/date, when the sun shines, you can exactly find the south, and aim to that.

After that, use the USALS procedure as described by Mickh. Send the motor to the satposition that you choose, and rotate the whole setup on the mast till you find your satellite.

Does this help?

greetz,
A33

 

[Channel Hopper]

Take a picture or two of the motor, local Maplin shops as far as I recall did not have a DiSEqC mount in their brand, so it may be a clone of something more familiar to forum members.

 

[drspastic]

Does the motor go to exactly zero: yes it will go to zero which is top dead centre, on command.

motor elevation scale should be about 46.2 (or better: 45.5), dish elevation scale should be bend.angle.of.the.motor.tube minus 6.7 (or better: bend.angle.of.the.motor.tube minus 6.0)

brilliant concise info! i will try to measure. the motors are out of production and no manual available.
its not going to have usals.

so far i do have astra 2 constellation and hotbird. that will kind of do for the international news channels i watch. the tuner im using in the house is not great. a noname device from the bin and a gtmedia style interface. i might try to swap it out for one of my others. its all junk really bt thats how i roll. the motor was 5 quid on fleabay last time i visited uk so i got it to try. if i bought a new one i would get usals of course. i thought at the time i could just set south on a vertical pole and dial up degrees! LOL.

tomorrow i will see if i can tweak it to get helas as well and do measurements. its never ging to match the bigger dishes but it might not blow over in the wind.

thanks for the help people.

 

[drspastic]

Take a picture or two of the motor, local Maplin shops as far as I recall did not have a DiSEqC mount in their brand, so it may be a clone of something more familiar to forum members.

its nikkai. i hear maplin sold loads of them a couple of decades ago

 

[a33]

the motors are out of production and no manual available.
its not going to have usals.

OK.
You could "manually" do the USALS procedure, by manually rotating the motor to angle 14.5 (in your case) to the west, I assume it has a rotation scale, and then rotate the whole setup on the mast till you find/finetune 13E.
When you have set your motor- and dish- elevation angles correctly, you should find the satellite without much difficulty. (Otherwise, try small changes in motor elevation.)

Or, to angle 2.7 to the east, for 28.35E.

This USALS procedure also sets your south correct. So if you have a rough notion where south is, maybe the sun is not needed.

Greetz,
A33

 

[Channel Hopper]

its nikkai. i hear maplin sold loads of them a couple of decades ago

Nikkai is not a manufactuer, but Maplin brand.

As earlier, post a picture.

 

[a33]

i will try to measure.

This nikkai motor has a bend angle of 35 degrees:
xxx.ebay.ie/itm/226670129830

But it supports USALS/GotoX, so yours is probably different.

Greetz,
A33

 

[Channel Hopper]

This nikkai motor has a bend angle of 35 degrees:
xxx.ebay.ie/itm/226670129830

But it supports USALS/GotoX, so yours is probably different.

Greetz,
A33

Odd that the Tamworth supplier is selling as new yet there is a gland missing from the product.