My new toy :D

Captain Jack

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Right now, there is absolutely zero play in the dish, mount and the joints to the actuator. Where I think the play is is inside the actuator itself. As if I go from 9E, store position in VBox, then 7E, store, 5E, store, 1W store and then go back to 9E, the alignment is slightly out. However, if I go from 9E to 5E, the alignment is spot on. Likewise, going from 5E to 1W is perfect. However, going back to 5E from 1W results in an error and I have to manually push the dish slightly further.

The same principle applies if I store satellites from 1W to 9E (in that order), the alignment is perfect when travelling to satellites from the west eastwards but is out when going from east to west.

What I think is happening is that the motor in the actuator starts turning, and therefore generating pulses, but the rod doesn't start moving straight away and therefore the dish doesn't reach its final destination. This only happens if I start moving the dish in the direction it arrived from. The misalignment isn't huge (3-4% SNR) but significant on weaker satellites.

Too dark now and raining so I will have a look inside the actuator itself to see if there's anything loose there. Will also check exactly what's happening...
 

cokeaddict

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Captain Jack said:
Right now, there is absolutely zero play in the dish, mount and the joints to the actuator. Where I think the play is is inside the actuator itself. As if I go from 9E, store position in VBox, then 7E, store, 5E, store, 1W store and then go back to 9E, the alignment is slightly out. However, if I go from 9E to 5E, the alignment is spot on. Likewise, going from 5E to 1W is perfect. However, going back to 5E from 1W results in an error and I have to manually push the dish slightly further.

The same principle applies if I store satellites from 1W to 9E (in that order), the alignment is perfect when travelling to satellites from the west eastwards but is out when going from east to west.

What I think is happening is that the motor in the actuator starts turning, and therefore generating pulses, but the rod doesn't start moving straight away and therefore the dish doesn't reach its final destination. This only happens if I start moving the dish in the direction it arrived from. The misalignment isn't huge (3-4% SNR) but significant on weaker satellites.

Too dark now and raining so I will have a look inside the actuator itself to see if there's anything loose there. Will also check exactly what's happening...

Looking at your picks you have the same actuator as me.

What I did, was hook the actuator up on it's own to the vbox (so it's not connected to the dish/ polar mount), and then move it so that it's arm is fully in.

Then I manually twisted the end of the arm, so that you can feel the tension of it, turning the motor internally.

Once I was happy that it's fully wound in, I then extended it to to reach the dish (using the vbox), connected it up, and then moved the dish to the centre and Zero'd the v-box.
 

Huevos

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Captain Jack said:
Right now, there is absolutely zero play in the dish, mount and the joints to the actuator. Where I think the play is is inside the actuator itself.
Let's see some pictures. Also, if the actuator is not controlled and can fall under gravity that is where the problem is coming from. Here's how I dealt with it on my dish.
 

Captain Jack

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Huevos said:
Let's see some pictures. Also, if the actuator is not controlled and can fall under gravity that is where the problem is coming from. Here's how I dealt with it on my dish.

Ah, interesting! I am not 100% on what's actually happening since I can't see the actuator move from my living room. Will take the VBox down to the garden when it's light and will check for anything obvious.
 

Vipersan

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fwiw ...I have had _bad_ actuator arms in the past ..
..even from new there was play in them ...in that without a dish attached ..it was possible to pull on the extension arm part of the jack ..and there was between a 1/16 ...and an 1/8th inch of play allowing it to be physically pulled by this much by hand ..
There was no cure I could think of ..and I ended up sending it back ..paying a bit more and buying a different brand.

It might not seem like a lot to the manufacturer ..and maybe within tollerance ...but on a large dish with a narrow beam width ...accuracy was crucial.
rgds
VS
 

Captain Jack

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Thanks VS. There isn't any obvious play that I can see. I pulled and tugged (the actuator, that is) but it all seems solid.

I need daylight to figure out what's happening. Could even be a knackered reed sensor or Vbox not counting pulses properly.
 

Vipersan

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2x VboxII AZ-EL
2 m+ Alcoa PF + BSC421 C-Band lnbf...
+SS2/TwHnS2-3200 pci/TBS6925 pci
1.5 Fortec Star -Gbox - HtoH Ku/Ka/C
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Actually sounds like good news CJ ...at least your problem should have a solution then ..
best of luck finding it m8
rgds
VS
 

Captain Jack

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Right...... been out this morning before work (dedication/obsession), attached the VBox to the motor and it seems like there's still a slight play in the polar mount bearing. I guess my self amalgamating tape Heath Robinson fix didn't quite work.

The play is slight but I can see that, although the actuator starts moving straight away, the dish sort of moves within the hinge without rotating for a split second, which is what (I guess) causes the misalignment. I only had about 30 mins to play with it but that's what I think is happening.

Ordered a more fitting steel tube to fit more snuggly within the polar mount hole without using rubber tape to pad it out! Hopefully, this will fix it once and for all.

(The amount of money I spent on various bits to put the polar mount right could have been spent on that Jaeger 1224 motor from last week!)... Live and learn....
 

Lazarus

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Hindsight is a wonderful thing - Who among us does not wish they'd tackled a project in a different way!

But these little issues reported on Forums might at least provide some signposts for the rest of us :)
 

nelson_b

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Strong 4375 driving a 2.4 m Channel Master dual focus offset + Invcom Quad C120 K/U l.n.b. + BSC 421 and Zinwell C band l.n.b.,s - DR HD F15 - TM5302 - Octagon SX88+Optima - GT Media V7 - HD receivers. + other dishes currently in use - Antique 3.0 m Prodelin P.F. - Channel Master 1.8 m offset - Channel Master. 1.2 m.
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Captain Jack said:
The arc I receive is 13E (just about lockable - house in the way) to 37.5W, beyond which I cannot find any usable signal, those 37.5W is booming in on 11684 V carrier. Can someone give me some definitely live and relatively strong frequencies further west? The next Ku band over Europe further west is on 45W and I am not getting anything from there.

hi - C.J.
try - 11566 H DVB-S/MPEG-2 1852 3/4 RASD TV at 45 west --
i,m getting this one ok - but no other t.p.,s at this position - with the 1.2 channel master - and inverto black ultra l.n.b.

cheers -- :)
 

Captain Jack

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nelson_b said:
hi - C.J.
try - 11566 H DVB-S/MPEG-2 1852 3/4 RASD TV at 45 west --
i,m getting this one ok - but no other t.p.,s at this position - with the 1.2 channel master - and inverto black ultra l.n.b.

cheers -- :)

Thanks Nelson... I think this one is out of reach. I tried this frequency but no go. According to Dish Pointer app on my HTC, a large house is in the way of that... According to that, 43W is the further one I have a clear line of sight of. But I won't know till I get a C band LNB.
 

satelliteman

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Captain Jack said:
(The amount of money I spent on various bits to put the polar mount right could have been spent on that Jaeger 1224 motor from last week!)... Live and learn....

...Yes but actuators are more fun to set up ;)
 

cokeaddict

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Captain Jack said:
Thanks Nelson... I think this one is out of reach. I tried this frequency but no go.

I just read something on another thread, that might be the answer as to why neither of us can find 45°W.

I used to get it no probs with my old DM800, but since changing to the Vu+ Duo I don't recall seeing RASDTV.

I just noticed that you also have a Vu+ receiver, so this might be your issue also.

See here: http://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/...1n-@-28e-about-go-air-air-37.html#post1008354
 

Captain Jack

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Interesting. I noticed some low SR channels on other "feed" satellites (8W, 11W etc.) also took their time locking on on the Uno. Took maybe up to 10 seconds to realise there's a signal there and another 5 seconds to come up to maximum reading. Can you try getting a lock on one of the higher SR rated data transponders?

Also, on 37.5W, I cannot get DoveVision for some reason but the data transponder on 11684 V is almost off the scale. I know DoveVision is there as I could receive it on an 80cm dish on my DM800HD.

Odd...
 

cokeaddict

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Captain Jack said:
Interesting. I noticed some low SR channels on other "feed" satellites (8W, 11W etc.) also took their time locking on on the Uno. Took maybe up to 10 seconds to realise there's a signal there and another 5 seconds to come up to maximum reading. Can you try getting a lock on one of the higher SR rated data transponders?

Also, on 37.5W, I cannot get DoveVision for some reason but the data transponder on 11684 V is almost off the scale. I know DoveVision is there as I could receive it on an 80cm dish on my DM800HD.

Odd...

DoveVision I can get with no probs, but when I went looking for the data transponders yesterday I couldn't find them lol
 

Captain Jack

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I don't think you'd be able to scan anything in on the data transponders (haven't tried) but I do get a lock and a high (92%) SNR reading in "Signal Finder".

Why can't I scan DoveVision then...
 

cokeaddict

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Captain Jack said:
I don't think you'd be able to scan anything in on the data transponders (haven't tried) but I do get a lock and a high (92%) SNR reading in "Signal Finder".

Why can't I scan DoveVision then...

Yes you are correct, they don't come in with a scan, but in sat finder it does show up.

Currently 74% signal with 66% AGC on the data transponder 11684, and 64% snr with 65% AGC on DoveVision
 

Captain Jack

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Hm, will try again, once I fix the bloody wobble on the dish!

By the way, you mentioned the zeroing of your VBox.... I only have an option of a full blown reset and no the zeroing. I thought this option was only for native DiSEqC motors? What is the function of this?
 

cokeaddict

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53°E - 45°W
Captain Jack said:
Hm, will try again, once I fix the bloody wobble on the dish!

By the way, you mentioned the zeroing of your VBox.... I only have an option of a full blown reset and no the zeroing. I thought this option was only for native DiSEqC motors? What is the function of this?

Yeh it is a full reset, to Zero it.

But as I hadn't scanned more than 2 or 3 sats in, it wasn't a big problem.

I also found that once Thor (0.8°W) was set as 0000 on the v-box, it was very easy to use that as a reference to find the other sats.

I currently get pretty much everything from 53°e - 37.5°w, but I am certain 45w is there somewhere, just my duo not seeing it. 39e and 26e both weak as tree's are blocking them out :(
 

Captain Jack

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Right - I'll give that a go and see if it helps. But I think mine is a mechanical issue rather than an er... electrical one.
 
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