Motor install pretty much impossible

A

abc27

Member
My Satellite Setup
dreambox
My Location
dub
Ok here's the situation. I've got a 110cm dish, a dreambox 500s and a Moteck SG2100 motor and i've been trying to get it work properly since about January this year. After about three weeks of trying early January I gave up and decided to just bypass the motor and just use it as a fixed system again. Now i've been attempting to redo the install and I can't manage to get a signal on ANY satellite. I've tried Thor, Astra 1/2, Hotbird, Atlantic Bird, Badrsat and Eutelsat. The only one that managed a semi-decent signal was Atlantic bird which got a lock and was able to display about two channels. Nothing else works.

I've tried every tutorial across the net. I've bought a digital compass and made 100% sure the motor faces 180 degrees south and i've set my elevation to 29 degrees as recommended for Dublin. What's worse is my Dreambox shows 90% signal SNR no matter what occurs. It even shows that with the coax cable unplugged. The AGC is always 63% as well but that managed to go to 91% on atlantic bird.

What's even worse is that I can't even get a single satellite signal again. I'm completely stumped as to what i'm doing wrong.

I even tried one of those sat finders and it apparently got a very good signal, I tried plugging it in to the receiver and nada. Tried about three different LNBs and two other receivers.
 
Welcome to the forum.

abc27 said:
and i've set my elevation to 29 degrees as recommended for Dublin.
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It really is easy if you follow the motor set up guides. 29° will be for a fixed dish setup not motorised. Reference satellite will be 5°W.


Motor Latitude: 53.3° or 37° Elevation scale.
Dish Elevation: 22° although dish elevation scales are fairly inaccurate. Set slightly facing up.
 
Just to clarify, i'm in Dublin and i've set declination to 22.5 and latitude to 53.5 on the motor.
 
satelliteman said:
Welcome to the forum.



It really is easy if you follow the motor set up guides. 29° will be for a fixed dish setup not motorised. Reference satellite will be 5°W.


Motor Latitude: 53.3° or 37° Elevation scale.
Dish Elevation: 22° although dish elevation scales are fairly inaccurate. Set slightly facing up.
Click to expand...

Done that already.
 
abc27 said:
Just to clarify, i'm in Dublin and i've set declination to 22.5 and latitude to 53.5 on the motor.
Click to expand...

Go buy a meter or failig that , call in a reputable installer. For the price charged, you would at least get some answers
 
Dish elevation of 22° maybe inaccurate. A starting point would be slightly facing up as mentioned. Also note 500's do have problems driving motors, although may not be related in this case.
 
Channel Hopper said:
Go buy a meter or failig that , call in a reputable installer. For the price charged, you would at least get some answers
Click to expand...

Tried a meter, no signal no matter what I do. When I set it to Atlantic Bird I do get a slightly higher pitch on the meter and get about 12 channels or so but nothing else.
 
Can you upload a photo of the current dish setup, together with the view that the dish has. It is possible that you have mis-assembled the dish or have line of sight issues. As I;m wondering why you are getting a poor signal on the satellite you did manage to find.
 
Robbo said:
Can you upload a photo of the current dish setup, together with the view that the dish has. It is possible that you have mid-assembled the dish or have line of sight issues. As I;m wondering why you are getting a poor signal on the satellite you did manage to find.
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Will do tommorrow morning, too dark now to get a good photo.
 
Also, in the meantime, could be a good opportunity to download an up to date channel list, or at least make sure that your transponders for 5W are all up to date, that may also be a cause why you're only getting 2 channels.
 
You haven't mentioned what type of mount your setup is on. Make sure it's vertical in both directions with the dish and motor mounted. If you managed to get it working as a fixed system, it's possible that you overcame any 'out of plumb' issues, but not with a motorised setup. That size and weight of dish will apply an outward force to the mount unless you have it on T&K mounts with a substantial pole. We'll be able to offer more advice if your photo's include the dish/motor mount as well.
 
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