Motek Problem???

[IjonT]

Why set to 1E and then move 1W?

I borrowed a compass tonight

You can not find exact south with a compass (because of magnetic declination and other reasons). That is why you have to use the southernmost satellite in your location to set up your motor and dish. You have to move your motor tube to 1.5°E in your location and then try to find Thor 1°W by rotating the motor body on the mast and by adjusting the dish elevation to get the maximum signal quality.

 

[mhku]

Rolfw, I didn't do #32 at that time as I couldn't get the motor to move at all. I will do it when I get a chance and adjust the position by 20° and start again. The biggest "why" has been why the motor wouldn't move when told to by a menu and why the green light wasn't on. I set up 19.2E in on of the sat config pages (set voltage to 18V) and it now seems to respond to "turn east to west" commands (well it did yesterday, who knows next time I try it ;).

ps there is no USALS menu option but I have set latitude/ longitude on the gotoXX page.

Can see some light at the end of the tunnel...

 

[Aiadi]

I am sorry but I am quite new to this thing. when you say elevation should be 22.5 is that for the dish only ignoring the moteck tube angle or is that what the final elevation of the dish should be at (i.e the combined elevation and declination angles)? My latitude is 55.6 which would make my moteck elevation angle 34.4 according to the manual and the declination 7.7 for the dish. the actual elevation of the moteck tube would be 34.4-30=4.4 (as the mount has a downwards tilt of 30 degrees according to the manual) according to my calculations but I don't know what the declination means and how I should achieve that 22.2 angle eventually. Thanks for your help in anticipation.

 

[IjonT]

My latitude is 55.6 which would make my moteck elevation angle 34.4 according to the manual and the declination 7.7 for the dish. the actual elevation of the moteck tube would be 34.4-30=4.4

You mix two things together: the motor elevation and the dish elevation.
You should set your dish elevation (on the dish elevation scale) to 30-7.7=22.3°.
Elevation 34.4° applies to the motor elevation scale (not the dish scale).

 

[Aiadi]

You mix two things together: the motor elevation and the dish elevation.
You should set your dish elevation (on the dish elevation scale) to 30-7.7=22.3°.
Elevation 34.4° applies to the motor elevation scale (not the dish scale).

Thanks for the reply. so the 22.3 will essentially be on top of whatever the motor elevation is and is not the final elevation of the whole thing.

 

[Aiadi]

The problem is that my dish bracket doesn't have a scale on it and I would have to use a protractor on the dish surface to decide the final elevation of the dish.

 

[IjonT]

so the 22.3 ... is not the final elevation of the whole thing.

The "final elevation" is the elevation of the satellite you point the dish at, of course. But you do it by setting up the "partial" elevations on the motor scale (34.4° in your case) and the dish scale (22.3° in your case).
One more thing: do not forget that you should fine tune the dish elevation (by moving the dish slightly up or down) while locating your southernmost satellite in order to achieve maximum signal quality.

 

[Aiadi]

Thanks for your advice IjonT. I'll try that.

 

[IjonT]

The problem is that my dish bracket doesn't have a scale on it and I would have to use a protractor on the dish surface to decide the final elevation of the dish.

I see. In that case you probably really need the elevation of your southernmost satellite, which is about 26° (for satellites in the range of +- 5° from your longitude).

(My post #47 was a reply to your post #45 and this is reply to your post #46 so don't get confused.)

 

[Aiadi]

Thanks again. I realised the posts' overlap.

 

[mhku]

As an aside, don't use an aluminium tube to mount the dish to the wall- it is too soft, as I found out last night Will have to replace with a steel one, which is gonna be fun!