Tracking the Arc?

L

LoTech

Member
My Satellite Setup
Receiver - Coolsat 5000
Dish - Winegard DS-2076
LNB - ROC CSS11G
My Location
Kentucky
OK, I just installed a nice plumb metal pole for the first time. Before that I had my dish and SG2100 motor mounted on a shaky landscape timber.

I installed the motor elevation according to the manual for 37 N latitude at 52 degrees. The dish declination I set at 30 - 5.897 = 24.103. I entered my correct longitude and latitude into the receiver, set to USALS, and bam... true south 83W at 99%.

Now here's my problem. The farther out I get on the arc in both directions, USALS passes the correct location and I have to move the dish back with DiSEqC. For example, the motor passes 125W, and I have to move it back about 2 degrees to get signal. I have forgotten since I first set up my motor how to adjust the elevation/declination to fix the problem. Do I increase the elevation and decrease the declination or decrease the elevation and increase the declination? Or... is there some other reason this might be happening?
 
I am not sure but this may help you
 

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Thanks Topper. From the picture I think I have too little declination. I'll adjust it in the morning.

whose six pack has turned into a keg
Click to expand...

I've got a six pack too. But mine's inside a cooler.
 
LoTech said:
Thanks Topper. From the picture I think I have too little declination. I'll adjust it in the morning.
Click to expand...


Let us know how you get on
 
Did you set up the dish on your reference satellite?

Appreciate your location but take a browse at the motor set up guides below for a detailed explanation of the set up procedure.
 
It does not sound like a declination problem to me, as if you weren't tracking the arc properly, you wouldn't be be able to get the sat using Diseqc 1.2.


If you send the motor to zero, does it go to zero on the motor scale?

I suspect that the zero of the motor has got messed up and needs resetting.
 
Also worth mentioning that USALs info needs to be entered at the zero motor position :)
 
I adjusted the declination angle, and I now have USALS tracking about 2/3 of the arc. On the extreme ends I still have to use DiSEqC to make the fine adjustments.
 
If you have to move the motor to tune in on the outer satellites, rather than tilt the dish up or down, then your zero is not right.
 
It could also be that the dish is not central on the shaft of the motor.

If this is the case the dish will only track about 2/3 of the arc.

:-beer

Nano
 
I'm beginning to think that the problem may be with the motor itself. When I peak the receiver on my true south sat using the suggested elevation and declination I get near perfect signal all through the arc using DiSEqC (with the exception of AMC1 KU - 101W - which has a 24 degree offset on its skew.) Even on that sat I get 78% signal quality on my Coolsat 8000. When I adjust the declination to compensate, I get reduced quality the farther I go east or west. I think I'll just go with using DiSEqC and the increased signal quality.
 
It could be as nanochickin mentioned in regards to the aligning to the central line on the motor Tube, than again you have to see to the tightening of the Dish Brackets (yes they do make a difference as well) see that they are tightened equally (thread wise) the same on both sides otherwise they tend to ''distort'' the centralising of the Dish on the Motor tube, even though you might have earlier had the Dish correctly aligned on the Motor Tube central line. Another thing with Usals although its mostly bang on, there might be some fine tuning to be done due to varying (sometimes beyond your control) factors effecting the whole aligning proedure.
 
Thanks for all the info guys. I would like to reply to a few comments. First, I'd like to mention that the dish has to be centered on the motor shaft as there is a bolt hole in each that match up to center the dish on the shaft. With the bolt inserted the dish can't move on the shaft. I did make sure that the motor was at the zero position before I started alignment. I went as far as taking the dish face loose from the mount so I could visually check that the motor was zeroed. Next I did a factory reset on my receiver. I went into the menu and selected 83W (my actual true south is 82.9). I entered my longitude and latitude, set up the LNB type, and manually entered the tp numbers. Next I adjusted (per instructions) the elevation and declination, and manually adjusted the azimuth until I got the best signal. I then re-checked the elevation by loosening the motor and moving it up/down slightly to peak the signal. After peaking 83W I then used USALS to move to 125W. This is as far west as I can see from my position. I had no signal there so I nudged the dish back to the east a few clicks until the meter maxed out. I then stored the USALS position. I repeated this process for all the sats that I couldn't lock with USALS and nearly every one maxed the meter on the receiver. I then repeated the process for the eastern part of the arc. The eastern sats were off by almost exactly the same amounts as the western ones. Any adjustments that I made to the elevation/declination only reduced my signal on the extreme ends of the arc.

I've checked and re-checked everything, and finally come to the conclusion "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I get exceptional signal all through the arc with DiSEqC, so I think I'm going to stick with it.
 
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