Advice Needed Motorized setup

[robert w]

hi

i am trying to set up my motorized dish, i have the dish facing south and have the motor at 0 i have entered my longitude and latitude then sent the motor to thor , thing is the dish goes slightly east not west, any ideas why this is

thanks

 

[Lazarus]

Some mechanical inexactitude somewhere in the install - but whether this is actually an issue, or just a perception of one, have you tried the final alignment by moving the entire motor/dish assembly round the pole until you get a signal? (Also adjusting the dish elevation bracket if necessary)

One other point: Some receiver's are tricky with USALS Longitude entry syntax. As you are west of the meridian, the input figure will either be flagged W or might need to be given a Minus value.

 

[Mickha]

Did you remember to enter your Longitude as West?
According to dishpointer Sheffield is approximately -1.47, which equates to 1.47W, which means that your motor should slightly move East, but very slightly.
It moves East so that when your dish is aligned to o.8W, 0 should be pointing at 1.47W, your true south.

 

[jeallen01]

hi
i am trying to set up my motorized dish, i have the dish facing south and have the motor at 0 i have entered my longitude and latitude then sent the motor to thor , thing is the dish goes slightly east not west, any ideas why this is
thanks

I think I agree with Mickha.
OTOH, it might help to know which motor and receiver you are using - I have found some of the motor setup parameter fields in receiver f/w can be rather misleading, and maybe you have accidently set the sat position as 0.8E rather than 0.8W, whereas it might have to be entered as 359.2 degrees (i.e. 360 - 0.8 degrees = "0.8W"!)

 

[skomedal]

Re #4 Before edit.

Requesting satellite setup details

Details in the left hand pane :-

My Satellite Setup:
Technomate 5402HD M3 CI Super +, 1m dish with Technomate 2600M3 DISEqC H-H Motor
Only registered today so probably correct

 

[skomedal]

Tip/hint

Always read the small print before posting

#4

 

[jeallen01]

@skomedal - OOPS!

@robert w - having taken a look at the dish settings in my TM5402 M3, for my location (51.51N. 0.4182W - but I have to correct the latter to 0.1W to allow for a very, very slight misalignment of the motor on the pole - still gets the arc in my Signature though ), my Motorized Settings page shows the critical setting to be:
""DiSEqC Motor = USALS"
"Sat Degree = 000.8W"
"Position Setting = 000.1W/ 051.5N"

(FWIW: one irritating thing about the TM is that you can't set the "Position Setting" to more than 1 decimal point of a degree - whereas, with a lot of other receivers, you can set it to two decimal points.)

The motor is a Superior Dark Motor, but I don't think that would make any difference

 

[satelliteman]

@skomedal - OOPS!

The motor is a Superior Dark Motor, but I don't think that would make any difference

Only a possible backlash issue

 

[robert w]

Did you remember to enter your Longitude as West?
According to dishpointer Sheffield is approximately -1.47, which equates to 1.47W, which means that your motor should slightly move East, but very slightly.
It moves East so that when your dish is aligned to o.8W, 0 should be pointing at 1.47W, your true south.

yes i entered my longitude as west, on my receiver i can't put a minus in my longitude setting does this matter?
so my longitude should be 001.47W & latitude 53.3N

thanks

 

[jeallen01]

yes i entered my longitude as west, on my receiver i can't put a minus in my longitude setting does this matter?
so my longitude should be 001.47W & latitude 53.3N
thanks

That should be OK, because, you enter the "Position Setting", scroll down to "Antenna Longitude" and enter the digits"001.47", and then hit the right ("VOL") button, you can select either W for W or E for East by hitting the "OK" button again - then "Exit" out to the main Position Setting Menu and it should now show your position as 001.47W / 53.3N

PS: Finer position control can be achieved with the "DiSEqC Motor" line set to "DiSEqC 1.2" instead of "USALS" as you then have both "Move" and "Move fine" options. That can help point to any slight (at max, you hope) discrepancy between the nominal Longitude setting you have put in in USALS mode and the actual Longitude setting that you might need to use to correct for the Motor not actually having being set to the exactly right position on the pole to receive your southern most satellite. (That's how I found out that I needed to very slightly adjust my USALS Longitude setting from the "nominal" for my location).

 

[jeallen01]

Only a possible backlash issue

Maybe, in time, but I didn't have any issues with the previous Superior Dark Motor and the TD88 after about 18 months intermittent, but sometimes intensive, use.
I only took the older one down so that I could start afresh with similar brand-new motor a month or two ago, and the old one, which is still attached to the TD88, will go up on another pole next year when the weather is a little better and I have cleared all the dead vegetable greenery from the area in question.

 

[robert w]

That should be OK, because, you enter the "Position Setting", scroll down to "Antenna Longitude" and enter the digits"001.47", and then hit the right ("VOL") button, you can select either W for W or E for East by hitting the "OK" button again - then "Exit" out to the main Position Setting Menu and it should now show your position as 001.47W / 53.3N

PS: Finer position control can be achieved with the "DiSEqC Motor" line set to "DiSEqC 1.2" instead of "USALS" as you then have both "Move" and "Move fine" options. That can help point to any slight (at max, you hope) discrepancy between the nominal Longitude setting you have put in in USALS mode and the actual Longitude setting that you might need to use to correct for the Motor not actually having being set to the exactly right position on the pole to receive your southern most satellite. (That's how I found out that I needed to very slightly adjust my USALS Longitude setting from the "nominal" for my location).

i can only enter 4 digits so it says 001.4W should this be ok

 

[Mickha]

Set your sytem up, as you seem to have everything else correct, and see how it performs.
You can always round it up to 1.5W, after installation, and see if that improves the signal quality.
The most important thing is to make sure your pole is plumb, and secure enougn that it doesn't move when the dish/motor is added, especially in strong winds.

 

[jeallen01]

i can only enter 4 digits so it says 001.4W should this be ok

Sorry, my error as I was in a bit of a hurry, and 001.4 is what you should enter in the first instance.

Set your sytem up, as you seem to have everything else correct, and see how it performs.
You can always round it up to 1.5W, after installation, and see if that improves the signal quality.
The most important thing is to make sure your pole is plumb, and secure enougn that it doesn't move when the dish/motor is added, especially in strong winds.

Mickha is right - and, as I said above, if you set the "DiSEqC Motor" line to "DiSEqC 1.2", you can more easily and "finely" experiment by "nudging" the motor E or W with the "Move" & "Move Fine" controls to see whether the position set under DiSEqC control would be better at 001.4, or at 001.5/001.3, or at "whatever seems better" - but if the best signal is a relatively long way from 001.4 then you may not have set the motor in the correct position on the pole.

PS: regarding the pole itself, a fencing post "Post Level" like this one can be very useful for checking that it is absolutely vertical, and does not cost much (About £5)