New motorised problems

titty

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Hi there, i've just rigged up my new technomate 2200 motor and 80cm dish and am having problems getting more than 3 or 4 sats next to each other.
If i align to 1w, i can get a couple of sats either side, but nothing else. Similarly, if i goto 19.2, align and tighten up, i can only get 13, & 28.2.

My pole is as near as damn it 100%, the dish is central to the motor etc.
I live in Reading, so have set my motor lat to 51, and set the box up with the right co-ords.

The dish and lnb I am using was given to me and i'm not sure what make it is. Both look v. cheap though. Also the dish has a very very small dent in it.

Could the dish / lnb be my problem? I read something about focal points for the lnb as well. Would this need to be established, and if so, how?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

aba

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basicly it sounds like you arnt on the arc
 

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aba is making a good guess - true south is your starting point.
 

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Hi,
It sounds to me that you have done everything right.
Although not sure what 'as near as damn it means', when I say that I mean that I know its a bit wrong but it will do. If you can see any error on the spirit level, might be worth trying to get it exactly right.

Also I don't know how your motor is marked, but 51.5 I think would be closer.

Are you sure that you have aligned accurately. Try giving the dish a gently push, once tightened up to make sure that you have maximum signal using a meter.
Did you adjust the dish elevation, as well as the motor azimuth?

I'm clutching at straws really, because on the whole your setup sounds fine.

One thing though, is your lnb set to zero skew? that could mess things up if its not.


Oh and 1W is the correct satellite to align to, and is in fact your nearest due south, only out by a fraction of a degree (less than 0.03, which is very lucky)


The focal point of the dish is taken care of by the LNB arm. So unless it's bent it will be right. The other adjustment you can make is to slide the LNB in and and out, for max signal.

I wouldn't have thought a small dent would have made that much difference to a dish that size. Unless of course, the whole dish is pushed out of shape. I may be wrong on that though, I've only ever used brand new perfect dishes.
 

titty

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Hi there, thanks for the pointers, but still having no luck.
Have put a long pole up now which is bang on 100% vertical. Checked it with 2 sprit levels!
Have set the motor to 51.5, the dish angle to 22.5.
Aligned dish/ lnb dead central to the motor.
Bought a new lnb as well, and put this on.

I don't have a sat meter, so i'm using the satfinder option on the Gemini image i'm using with my Dreambox, and simply toggling the satellite options to move the dish.
I'm not sure if the preset settings (freq. inversion, symbol rate, polarity, FEC are important here, or i should be using the predefined transponder option?)
Got Thor 1w locked on 92% snr, 0 BER, and when i toggle to Astra 4.8E, i can lock onto this at 81% SNR. Go further east to 13, no good, go back west to 4.0W no good!
If i move the dish angle and rotate the motor i can get strong signals on 13, 19, & 28 without a problem.
I was wondering whether the dish i have is suitable for a motorised system?
Failing this, i guess i am off the arc for some reason, but i just can't figure out why 'O'-red
Any more ideas guys?
 

rolfw

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Did you move the dish via the recever to get Thor locked, it isn't clear from your post?
 

titty

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No, i swivelled the motor on the vertical post, and adjusted the dish declination slightly.
Any ideas Rolf?
 

rolfw

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Well if the motor elevation is correct and you've set Due South using the method you say, then you should be on the arc.

Can you show us a picture of the dish and motor in situ?
 

titty

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pics as requested Rolf.
I can take some more if required.
Any ideas?
 

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rolfw

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If the dish is poiting at 1W in the picture, the motor elevation looks too high, but it may be an optical illusion.

The 1.5" aluminium mast you are using is too small, it is probably bending with the weight of the motor and dish, 2" is the minimum required.
 

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Hi titty.

Thor @ 1w, is at 0.8w.

Intelsat 10-02 is the Satrllite that at 1w.
In my Humax HDCI2000 Sat list Intelsat 10-02
has the Name (Intelsat 707).

BF...
 

titty

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Hi Rolf,
There is negligable play in the mast, but i know i would be better off with 2".
Motor latitude is set to 51.5, so i don't think it's either of these.
Any more ideas?
 

rolfw

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Are you using GotoX or just Diseqc 1.2 and driving the dish manually?

PS. Interesting use of a roof ladder. ;)
 

titty

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To be fair Rolf, i'm not too sure what i'm using!
I'm running the latest Gemini image on my dreambox 7025.
I use the satfinder option which brings up the 'tune' screen. I can select the different different satellite's here, which seems to drive the motor to the right positions. I've set the longitude / latitude settings incidently.
So, i selected Thor, and the motor moved a whisker to the west. I jumped up on the ladder and moved the motor on vertical pole and adjusted the dish declination until i got the best snr levels (92%) on the on screen display. The display said the satellite was locked.
Once inside, I select another satellite on the 'tune' screen and can sometimes get a lock on 4w, but that's about it.
Is this procedure ok? I'm obviously doing something wrong!
I need to get this sorted, as it's only a matter of time before i come crashing down from that ladder!
 

rolfw

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Did you search for channels to ensure that the satellite you found was in fact Thor?
 

titty

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Hi Rolf,
It found 27 services, as follows
Alpha, ALter, Ant-1, DS test, filmnet, Jetix, Mega, star, supersport, travel channel, etc.
Does that sound right?
 

rolfw

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titty said:
Hi Rolf,
It found 27 services, as follows
Alpha, ALter, Ant-1, DS test, filmnet, Jetix, Mega, star, supersport, travel channel, etc.
Does that sound right?


I'm pretty sure that you are not on 1W, more like 13E Hotbird all those channels ARE on Hotbird.

NONE are on 1W. I used Kingofsat where you can search for individual channels.

You need to swivel some 14 degrees to the right (from behind dish)
and up a bit. No wonder you ae not getting the arc.

Also I imagine its quite difficult to adjust the dish unless you can see the telly at the same time.
Even a cheapo meter <£10, is better that nowt, you can check on the receiver after to see if its the right sat.

Alll good fun!
 

titty

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Hi Rolf,
When i try to line up with Thor, do i need to punch in the freq, symbol rate, & FEC into the dreambox?
The 'tune' screen had defaults for freq, symbol rate & FEC (11836 & 27500,& auto) which i didn't touch.
I've just punched in the settings you mentioned previously, and the SNR dropped down to 60 or so.
So i guess i wasn't locked onto that transponder properly?
Should i try to realign everything with these settings?
 

rolfw

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There should be a drop down for the transponder, see if it has the one I mention above, if not add it in the transponder edit.

Like Robbo, I think you are on the wrong satellite.
 
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