Newbie problem.

ikymo

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I bought the cheap receiver (SL55), dish, lmb and satmeter from Lidl last week.

I swapped my $kybox with the sl55 to check it worked, it did fine. (then swapped back)

I used the satmeter on existing $ky setup to see if that worked, but it only just managed a beep and two lights, so obviously it doesn't.

I have installed my FTA box, using the dish and lmb from Lidl, however I haven't had a picture....Yet

I fixed the polarmount absolutely spot on vertical. I have bought a SM3D12 motor and fixed the dish as instructed by manual. The whole lot is straight and pointing south (using a compass). The sun is out now, if it is still out at 1pm, I will confirm this.

I have entered my Lat and Long into my box and tried to pick up Thor at 1w with USALS without any luck. I then tried to pick up Astra 28.2 using USALS and manually using the position of my sky dish as a guide, again no luck.

The bit that is making me a bit nervous at the moment, is that, I can get my signal strength upto 75% but not a thing on the quality strength......ever.

Is this normal, as I would have thought with 75% signal I would have got something on the quality.

Could the lmb be as good as the satmeter?

Any help is appreciated.

Cheers.
 

Simba27

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Hi,

I'm a newbie at this too, having bought the same kit as you at Lidl last week. I've had a little more sucess though, so here's what I advise.

First of all, take the motor out of the equation. I have found that the meter doesn't work properly if the motor is connected (and you must connect the meter the right way around - lnb left, receiver right). Just connect the lnb and the meter to the receiver. Then set the meter to maximum and move the dish by hand to try and find a strong satellite like astra or hotbird. A millimeter or two in any direction makes a big difference. Every time you get five lights on the meter, reduce it down to 3 and keep adjusting the dish until you get some quality reading. Then flick through the channels to see if any have a picture.

The 75% strength reading seems to be meaningless. I get that even when pointing at the ground. Ignore it and concentrate on the meter and the quality reading.

This will prove whether your dish, receiver and LNB work ok. As for the motor, I've spent every night after work fiddling with mine until well past midnight. I did get it pretty much there in the end and it's worth persevering.

Good Luck.

Phil.
 

gameboy

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Simba27

Can I ask what motor you bought any any advice / problems you encountered fitting it?
 

Simba27

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Gameboy,

I bought a DiSEqu 1.2 motor from Maplin, it's made by Metronic, model number 450908. The first problem was the manual which seems to be badly translated from another language, and I had to read it (and the excellent tutorials on this site) a few times to really understand what I was doing.

One tip I haven't seen anywhere: It's useful to figure out how many degrees the motor moves when you move it one step. I found that mine moved 45 degrees in 120 steps, which works out at about a third of a degree per step.

First you set the angular position of the motor for your latitude. Then you drive the motor it to it's reference position. Then calculate the position of the satellite based on it's longitude minus your longitude. Then drive the motor the exact number of steps, so that the motor is in the right position. Then you manually move the motor mountings left and right relative to the pole and adjust the elevation of the dish moutings relative to the motor until you find the satellite, then tighten all the bolts and try driving back and forth for some other satellites nearby.

(If I'm talking BS here then I hope someone who knows better will correct me.)

The problem I have been having is that I get every working just fine, then after a few hours, it goes out of alignment and I have to start all over again. I'm not sure at this point whether my mounting is shaky or whether I have an equipment fault.

But having played with it for a few days, I'd never go back to a fixed dish again. If you have the Lidl kit, you really must get a motor for it. It's so much fun to scan backwards and forwards seeing what you can find.

Phil.
 

rolfw

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The nice thing about living in the centre of the UK, is that there is a nice reference satellite in 1W, this being as near as dannit due South. So unless your motor is moving on the mast or the mast is moving, you should always be able to easily reset to that sat.
 

iceburn

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I have to say having a motorised dish is so much fun as well, and recommending the person in London to get one as well. Esp now I work out how to use my :-). motorise system to find sats. So far I have now added upto Intelsat 907. Also found last night a NBC feed, showing the olympics but showing everything else as well!
 

Llew

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iceburn said:
I have to say having a motorised dish is so much fun as well, and recommending the person in London to get one as well. Esp now I work out how to use my :-). motorise system to find sats. So far I have now added upto Intelsat 907. Also found last night a NBC feed, showing the olympics but showing everything else as well!

Good to hear you're up and running OK. For every thousand people happy to stick to Astra 2 there's one who wants to see what else they can find up there. Great bunch of people on this forum - if you don't know, just ask.

Llew
 

ikymo

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Well I still haven't had any sign of picking up a signal from anywhere.

I made a slight adjustment to line it all up with the sun at 1pm, and then tried again with USALS.

That's it I've had enough, 2 and a half days up a ladder and nothing to show for it.

I'm ripping the whole lot down tomorrow !!!!

And then I'm gonna start from scratch all over again :-)

I'm not giving up that easily, I hope it's worth it.
 

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ikymo said:
I'm not giving up that easily, I hope it's worth it.
a) We won't let you.
:cool: It will be, and it'll be all your own work! :cool:
 

Channel Hopper

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rolfw said:
The nice thing about living in the centre of the UK, is that there is a nice reference satellite in 1W, this being as near as dannit due South. So unless your motor is moving on the mast or the mast is moving, you should always be able to easily reset to that sat.

If we all pooled together and bought something to launch at 0W, it would make things a lot easier for setting up the arc.
 

rolfw

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ikymo said:
I fixed the polarmount absolutely spot on vertical. I have bought a SM3D12 motor and fixed the dish as instructed by manual. The whole lot is straight and pointing south (using a compass). The sun is out now, if it is still out at 1pm, I will confirm this.

I have entered my Lat and Long into my box and tried to pick up Thor at 1w with USALS without any luck. I then tried to pick up Astra 28.2 using USALS and manually using the position of my sky dish as a guide, again no luck.

You are jumping a step.

Install your motor onto your plumb pole and set the lattitude on the motor body.

Using a compass as a rough guide you point the whole assembly to South.

Using the lateral movement of the motor on the pole and the elevation on the dish mount, try and find Thor 1W, have the meter inline between the receiver and the LNB, the motor does not need to be inline at this stage.

Once you've found 1W, lock up the fittings and try a scan with the receiver on 1W then the others. If you are like me and located almost directly on top of the 1W longitude line, then the result will be pretty close to perfect. :)
 

BGonaSTICK

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Channel Hopper said:
If we all pooled together and bought something to launch at 0W, it would make things a lot easier for setting up the arc.
Might be easier to turn the planet round 1 degree..... But then Rolf will be unhappy....
 

ikymo

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The day is getting on, but I'm off for another bash. :confused

Thanks Rolfw, for the advice, I notice that Simba27 also said to leave the motor out while I'm using the meter to line up.

The neighbours all think I'm mad, but I know who'll be laughing last.

P.S. I'm located almost directly on top of the 2W longitude line, but what's a degree between friends.
icon12.gif
 

ikymo

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I finally have pictures. :D :D :D I'm like a dog with two d***s

I started from scratch and lined it all up again using a compass and mounted the motor on the pole at 51 deg as shown in my manual. The problem was that the manual showed a conversion chart that said if my latitude was 51 deg then mount the dish to the motor and set the dish elevation angle to 39.0 deg. This is what I did for the last 2 days, playing about as you advised today, I had a good signal with the dish elevation angle set at 34 deg. My polar mount is still vertical, has the planet tipped over slightly?

I can pick up Turksat 1c @ 42 E across to Hispasat @ 30 W. Is that to be expected with an 80cm dish or should I be able to go wider than that?

Could someone tell me exactly what 'feeds' are. It's probably a stupid question, but once I've asked it I'll know the answer. :-ohmy

I've been up all night playing with my new toy. It was a bit tricky learning how to erase the birds for China and Asia and adding a few that aren't pre-programmed in, as my receiver manual is a bit light on information.

Guess who's watching Blackburn v Man Utd today on 42 E :)

And as for all my neighbours who were laughing at me being up my ladder for the last three days......({})
 

rolfw

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Well done, cracking result, the birds you are receiving are not as far out as you can get, but there isn't too much of value past those points, www.lyngsat.com will give you an idea of what else is up there. 43W has a few watchable channels http://www.lyngsat.com/pas43.html .

Feeds are non-public channels used to feed news and other items to TV channels, some may even hold sport footage and sometimes they may be for private companies. Many are not permanently running, so finding an active one can be hit and miss.

There are a couple of feed hunting forums around if you find that this is interesting to you.
 

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ikymo said:
The problem was that the manual showed a conversion chart that said if my latitude was 51 deg then mount the dish to the motor and set the dish elevation angle to 39.0 deg. This is what I did for the last 2 days, playing about as you advised today, I had a good signal with the dish elevation angle set at 34 deg.
Well done.

My manual was b*****ks as well!

Enjoy.
 

iceburn

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oh feeds can be so much fun, couple days I found one for an italian channel. (to do with the russian plane crash.) And she just sat there for god one hour, and than dead on 9pm she started talking in italian for 3 minutes and than that was it!. Surely she could of come in a bit later than that :-)

for the OP, aim your dish at NILESAT. (I am base in Swansea with 88 Trax dish,so you should get it with your setup.) assuming you are in England. Since that has some good channels. (in fact one I watch all the time inbetween my wife watching her russian channels.
 
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