Looking for a little advice on motorised install.

T

tonybod

Member
My Satellite Setup
Technomate TM 600, 1m dish and motor all installed and working correctly. Still a complete newbie for now though (but learned a lot already)!
My Location
South England
Hello all,

I've spent the best part of two days trying to get the dish and motor aligned.

At the moment, I am 4deg out (I know that for a fact as for 13E I am getting channels from 9E, 26E I am getting channels from 23.5E and 23.5E and 23.5E I am getting channels from 19.2E).

I cannot seem to get a lock on the Thor satellite at 1W. I am using a sat meter I bought when I moved house over 12 years ago (so it was sold with analogue dishes in mind). Could this be the reason I cannot get a lock on Thor? Is there any difference between meters you can buy today and those from years ago?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Tony.
 
Moved your post to the appropriate section :)

Whilst you can align a dish with a squawker, it is recommended to use a digital type meter with satellite identification. For the enthusiast, the receiver signal screen can be good enough for setting up on as long as a rough South has been located.

Are you setting up on USALs or DiSEqC 1.2?

In addition, have you had a look at the motor set up guides in this section?
 
Hi,

If you can't find Thor, send the dish with USALS to one of the others eg 13E and find that instead. Once you know that is correct, send it to thor, you may be able to find it then.

It does depend on dish size though.
 
>> Moved your post to the appropriate section
Thanks.

>> Whilst you can align a dish with a squawker, it is recommended to use a digital type meter with
>> satellite identification.
By squawker, do you mean the cheap meters as on ebay (mine looks just like them (got it from Maplin many years ago)). It has a needle and db adjustment.

>> For the enthusiast, the receiver signal screen can be good enough for setting
>> up on as long as a rough South has been located.
I am pretty sure I had it spot on south (I had a vertical pole at 1pm today to give true south).

>> Are you setting up on USALs or DiSEqC 1.2?
USALs.

>> In addition, have you had a look at the motor set up guides in this section?
Yes, I've looked at loads of guides. Just cannot find Thor for some reason.
 
>> If you can't find Thor, send the dish with USALS to one of the others eg 13E and
>> find that instead. Once you know that is correct, send it to thor, you may be able to find it then.
Thanks, I'll give that a go tomorrow.

>> It does depend on dish size though.
It's a 1m dish, all the guides I have seen suggest it should be ok for Thor/others (and I can definitely get channels from 9E, 23.5E and 23.5E and 19.2E (the box just thinks they are on different satellites)).

Tony.
 
You can use the 'reply with quote' tab :)
 
satelliteman said:
You can use the 'reply with quote' tab :)
Click to expand...
I did actually click that first (but the page timed out on me). Seems ok now though.
 
Follow Robbo's advice ............. For a USALS based system it is not essential to use the South Satellite method if for any reason it proves difficult.

With USALS (and subject to the usuaul proviso that the pole must be absolutely plumb), all you need to do is fix a single point on the arc.

You've done that, albeit with a known error.

So:

1. Select Hotbird on the receiver and wait for the dish to settle at the erroneous c.9E position

2. Move the dish/motor assembly about four degrees further East so that you get Hotbird Channels with Hotbird selected, rather than the 9E Channels you get know.

3. Fine tweak, including Dish Elevation.

4. Check all Satellites of interests (Thor should now be available, even though you never found it before).

5. You might then squeeze a tiny bit more performance out of the system by selecting a weaker Satellite, perhaps even Thor itself and fine tweaking once more.


Edit: Just noticed you did acknowledge Robbo's advice! I got confused by the curious "quoting"!!

Good luck with today's efforts :D
 
A further thought: It isn't uncommon for people to use the wrong syntax when entering Longitude into USALS.

Most important that Westerly figures are definitely and irrefutably entered as such ie "W" or "-" (as appropriate to the receiver).
 
If there are no satellites currently available west of an Eastern satellite (9E) there could either be something large int he way of anything west to it, or the north south alignment of the whole system is off.
 
Tivù said:
A further thought: It isn't uncommon for people to use the wrong syntax when entering Longitude into USALS.

Most important that Westerly figures are definitely and irrefutably entered as such ie "W" or "-" (as appropriate to the receiver).
Click to expand...

My long is -1.49 (on the receiver I entered it as 1.49W).
 
Thanks for all the advice, I really appreciate it. Going to wait for another sunny day before heading back up the ladder.

Can someone recommend a good sat finder as well? I cannot seem to find any reviews of any, but did see somewhere someone mentioned the "Digisat Pro"?
 
tonybod said:
My long is -1.49 (on the receiver I entered it as 1.49W).
Click to expand...

Ok. That's clearly fine.
 
tonybod said:
Thanks for all the advice, I really appreciate it. Going to wait for another sunny day before heading back up the ladder.

Can someone recommend a good sat finder as well? I cannot seem to find any reviews of any, but did see somewhere someone mentioned the "Digisat Pro"?
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with a cheap needle meter for home use - just be aware that the short cable stub they come with is flimsy and can either fail completely or the thin centre core can fail to make adequate contact or the centre core can bend over and short out.

Best to make up a stub of your own with decent cable and a couple of F connectors.
 
Thanks again. I'll get a replacement meter and see if I can fare any better with that.

Tony.
 
Just to reinforce Tivù's post. I've used a needle meter to set up my dishes, right up to my current set up. I also have a Digisat Pro, but prefer the needle meter due to it's ease of use. It's worked for me!!
 
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone.

I ordered a new meter, plugged it in, tuned into a channel, turned the dish until I picked up the next satellite and then all seems ok. I can now find Thor and all the others.

Thanks again everyone,

Tony.
 
Brilliant!

Thanks for letting us know how you got on - and enjoy the latest aspect of this great hobby.

PS ............ You can happily update your User Profile now :D
 
Tivù said:
PS ............ You can happily update your User Profile now :D
Click to expand...

Done. Going to spend a few hours over the weekend searching and learning. I had no idea there were so many channels available (the box lists over 4000 and I haven't scanned all the satellites yet).
 
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