Help : Nikkai motor & fortec star dish

C

chands

Member
My Satellite Setup
Nikkai motor A16FB
Fortec star dish 60
Humax Foxsat HDR
My Location
London
Hi,

My stab motor became faulty after working for few years. The motor would not move all of a sudden or won't be any signal. So has been looking for some time to replace the motor.

I bought the fortec motor but when I opened the box it had the Nikkai motor A16FB and the fortec user manual. So tried to make use of the Nikkai motor by using the fortec motor manual.

My location, latitude 51.5. So set the motor elevation to 38.5. I noticed that my fortec star dish (60) had a different elevation earlier than the required angle so I changed the dish elevation to 22.5.

Then fixed the motor assembly to the pole and pointed to true south. Motor set to 0. Unfortunately no signal. The motor moves left and right but no signal received at the STB. Tried to get signal at 1W but with no success.

I am not sure whether I should have changed the Fortec star dish angle or left as it was.

I have read in the forum that the dish should be vertical but mine looks like an angle as in the attached picture.

Need help.

My set up:
my site : Latitude 51.5, long 0
Fortec star dish (60) : elevation set at 22.5 ( it was set to different angle earlier with saab motor and working)
Nikkai motor : elevation 38.5
Nikkai LNB : was working earlier before changing the motor
STB: Humax foxsat hdr

Thanks
 

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The dish is obviously pointing up far too much. It needs to come down. Send the dish to 1W with USALS and tilt it down until you get a signal on 11325H
( and swivel the motor around the pole if it needs it)

Also, if you want to get all the available satellites on the arc, I suggest that you check that the wall bracket is vertical too. That type of wall bracket is pretty bad for motorised dishes.


Just also noticed the back part of the az/el mount on the dish appears to be upside down.
 
Thanks for a quick response, will try and post the results back.
 
chands said:
Hi,
I am not sure whether I should have changed the Fortec star dish angle or left as it was.
Click to expand...

Motor inclination should be set to the site Latitude and left. Elevation adjustments should be made on the dish. As some dish El brackets are inaccurate, start by pointing the dish slightly up from vertical.
 
Hi,

Do you mean the bracket assembly that is in between the dish and the motor shaft has to be upside down ?

Thanks
 
Yes, I think so, as it appears that tilting the dish down a bit is not possible the way it is at the moment, whereas turning upside down, looks like it may work.
 
They are often designed to be reversible to cater for use over locations at a wide range of Latitudes.

So "upside down" is actually "correct for your Latitude"!
 
ok, thanks. I am planning to venture out tomorrow to get it done
- point the assy to true south
- send the motor to 0.8W
- move the motor & dish assy left & right to get a signal
- move the dish up & down till get a strong signal

that is it if it works
 
chands said:
- move the motor & dish assy left & right to get a signal
- move the dish up & down till get a strong signal

that is it if it works
Click to expand...

With the dish pointing up like that it won't get a signal. It will need to come down, so it is just looking up a little bit, to stand a chance with adjusting the azimuth of the assembly.
 
I have tried to get a signal over the weekend by following all the steps as above, but no luck. I will have to try again over the weekend.

Strange that I could not get any signal at all, absolutely 0 strength, 0 quality. Disappointed.
 
Zeros could indicate poor connection somewhere.

A powered up LNB on a totally misaligned dish generally gives a positive quiescent reading - often misleading people to believe they must be "getting a strong signal, but no channels."

As you don't have that, I should check everything, from connections throughout to LNB settings in the receiver.

Are the readings (or absence of them) from the Foxsat, or are you using an in-line meter near the dish?

Also, have you correctly set up the Foxsat for USALS operation? They can be tricky little blighters at first.
 
The motor seems to be moving correctly using USALS from STB when I select satellites to hotbird/free sat/. So the connection from STB to motor is ok. I have LNB with 4 outputs (quad), I tried changing the connection from motor to different outputs on LNB. The LNB is new and was working few weeks back when attached to old saab motor.



Now I started doubting the dish (Fortec star), whether the arm got out of centre when I was taking it down and up. I took care not to handle it by the bar.



Now I have assembled everything once again at my garden using a 6 feet pipe. I think I have clear view to the south without any obstruction. So I was hoping to get some signal as I can easily move the dish up/down or rotate the motor assy. But no luck. By looking at my neighbours their dish is pointing at 10 when mine is at 12. May be I should point in their direction to see whether I can get a signal.







I am thinking of putting it back on the wall where it was and try again.



I am also using a meter to check the signal. At one point I had a strong signal in the meter but that was only for a short time.
 
Sounding very much like a connection problem as highlighted above. Try the meter straight into the LNb first for testing and then work backwards.
 
Yes, Paul is right, I think.

As you are using a meter, let me hazard a guess that it's a simple needle meter supplied with a short cable stub?

The stub is of poor quality, with a centre core so thin and flimsy that it can either break off, or fail to make proper contact with the socket, or can bend over and short out.

Replace it with a custom stub made of a metre of coax and two F plugs, to eliminate all three of those common failure modes.
 
I will check all the cables/connections and start again.

It is a simple meter with LNB input on one end and the other end for STB.

I checked all the cables for continuity and short using a multimeter, anyway have to do it again.
 
chands said:
I checked all the cables for continuity and short using a multimeter, anyway have to do it again.
Click to expand...

Yes, but problems can arise in the act of mating the short cable, at one or both ends. I strongly advise you make one up yourself, using decent cable.
 
Hi,

I have taken everything down. Fixed T&K bracket to the wall then connected the motor and the dish. Using a meter found a strong signal by rotating the motor assy which helped me to get some channel from a satellite. I thought it was Euro Bird 9 but infact the signal was coming from Astra 19.2

So went again and started the aligned once again. Finally managed to get a very good satellite from Hotbird 3 (13). The motor (USALS) nicely steering to other satellites eurobird 9 and Astra 28.2 and got very good signal ( strong 80/quality 40).

I am not sure whether I could fine tune. However I am receiving all the channales that I wanted see clearly.

My initial problem was with dish not set at the correct angle.

So I am happy and thanks for the help Robbo, Satelliteman and tivu.

Cheers
 
Nice result chands :)

It's always best to set up on a satellite at the top of the arc ie. 1west for London.
 
Yes, well done.

You could try a few other satellites to see how it is on them as well.
 
I echo the sentiment - nice result.

Best to use Thor, using a strong TP eg BBC World, first, then fine tune using a weaker TP.

But as you are reasonably happy for now, just enjoy your viewing!
 
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