Motor alignment

MarkieS

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My Satellite Setup
Manhattan H-H Motor.
80cm dish.
Technomate 1000D.
(Sorry it's so vague. More details when I have the kit to hand.)
My Location
Southampton UK
Hi folks,

First post here so please be gentle with me. I've read everything I could find on this but I expect this won't be the first time it's been asked - sorry!

OK. Basic setup question. (I'm sure there'll be many more later.) Am I correct in saying that the motor needs to be mounted so that it is facing due south? Then the movement of the motor shaft does the positioning from there?

Or does the motor have to point towards 0deg?

I thought I understood this - I thought the motor body would be fixed to point south. But I had a play with the receiver last night. I was expecting it to allow me to set my longitude (so that it could work out azimuth for a given satellite) but it doesn't (seem to). I now don't understand how it will know how to position the motor, because it doesn't know whether I'm in England or Mongolia.

I presume I don't have to reprogram the azimuth for every satellite. There must be a way of telling it my longitude... surely!

Hope the question is clear. Very grateful for any responses!

Thanks!
Mark
 

rolfw

Believe it when I see it Admin.
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My Satellite Setup
Technomate 5402 HD M2 Ci, DM7000s, Transparent 80cm Dish, Moteck SG2100 DiseqC motor, lots of legacy gear. Meters: Satlook Digital NIT, Promax HD Ranger+ spectrum analyser.
My Location
Berkshire
If you set the motor type to USALS, or GOTO X, then it should prompt you for coordinates, although it is a long time since I've set up a Technomate.
 

claasi

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105 cm motor dish with 75E to 45 W - Openbox 820 CI
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Germany- Munich
Mark,

your dish and the motor with the zero has to face due south, after first setup, and this will stay that way. Only the little trunk of the motor turns with the dish and the zero of the main motor remains with the due south ;) You just might have to adjust the the whole lot on the pole if you did not really hit the "due south" by first setup. Use a Sat and then compare what the scale shows with the calculator from satlex for instance or use a Sat that would hit your "0" degrees on your postion. 1 West for instance but it depends on your location if you can use a bird for your "motor 0".

If your receiver does not support to enter your coordinations, yes then you have to look for every sat manually and store them so the receiver can find the sat positions later on. You would have to use the "east" and "west" buttons of the reciever till it hits the next bird. But do not forget to enter a proper frequency of that bird you expect to come, otherwise you won't find anything :)

Regards
Claasi
 

MarkieS

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My Satellite Setup
Manhattan H-H Motor.
80cm dish.
Technomate 1000D.
(Sorry it's so vague. More details when I have the kit to hand.)
My Location
Southampton UK
Thanks very much for your advice Rolf and Claasi. Got the system working nicely last weekend with not too much messing around.

(For reference the receiver does let you set your home coordinates.)

-Mark
 

claasi

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My Satellite Setup
105 cm motor dish with 75E to 45 W - Openbox 820 CI
My Location
Germany- Munich
Congratulations !

How far can you go east and west just out of interest ?

Claasi
 
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