Triax td88, technisat hdfs and technomate 2600 setup problems

[owain]

I had old nokia dual lnb dish on technisat hdfs and though it should be a doddle to replace with a motorised dish so i can get some french channels from 5w.

Old system was picking up astra 19.2e and hotbird 13e. So i assume poll was long enough and positioned ok so i should be able to receive these least.

Well dish is on wrong side of tall house and peers up over the ridge and after much faffing i managed to fit dish and align approx south according to technomate manual. Ok no reasonable signal off thor? Ok run out to maplin to get a "digital meter"..... Show No signal...ummmm but sat receiver should 65% level, 0db quality....ummm motor moves ok....jiggle around no better. Motor stops working....ohhh no did i short cable and blow receiver....run out to maplin get camping setup..... Feed camping dish to old receiver...get ard off astra ok.....reset motor....ok motor does.still work and i now have camping setup as well.

Weeks pass, sick of going up ladder jiggling....ahhh try that meter on a neighbours dish...wot no signal, but hes watching sky???? Oh bugger.

Borrow scaffold tower. Jiggle in comfort. Um poll is a bit off..correct that. Still not getting any quality indicated at receiver. Is it a duff lnb....swap for the camping one...signal strength is weeker. Swap it back.

Is technomate motor doc correct. Says for my location elevation angle on motor 37degrees and on dish mount 22.4degrees. But when i look on various web sides it says dish face should be basically vertical...but it is not.

Any hints advice gratelly accepted. Would have pulled me hair out but i have none.

I can't be that stupid...or is it just bad kit/luck?

I have tower for rest of week so will try juggling again tomorrow after work....

 

[Mickha]

Can you please post some pictures, of your satellite set up, and meter.
The first thing is even a cheap meter should show some activity, if connected correctly, even if it is just the back light.
First try connecting the meter to the LNB then to the cable to your receiver, taking the motor out of the system.
If it is a cheap meter turn the sensitivity all the way up, by turning the knob to the left.
If you're still getting nothing check all your connections, especially the cable connections, to ensure the braid hasn't been cut off, I had this happen when the F Connector was too tight, to fit the cable, and when I forced it, it cut off all the braid.

 

[owain]

Can you please post some pictures, of your satellite set up, and meter.
The first thing is even a cheap meter should show some activity, if connected correctly, even if it is just the back light.
First try connecting the meter to the LNB then to the cable to your receiver, taking the motor out of the system.
If it is a cheap meter turn the sensitivity all the way up, by turning the knob to the left.
If you're still getting nothing check all your connections, especially the cable connections, to ensure the braid hasn't been cut off, I had this happen when the F Connector was too tight, to fit the cable, and when I forced it, it cut off all the braid.
View attachment 77285 View attachment 77286

 

[owain]

Forgot to say also metered all cable for shorts, and made loopback plug to check connectivity. This was all ok.

The maplin meter as a switch for backlight, attenuation on and off, and a dial which i thought was just volume, but maybe it is sensitivity like you said. Will check.

Will make photos after work tomorrow. Thanks for hints and tips. I hope that is a sensitivity dial !!!!

 

[Mickha]

It probably is a sensitivity dial, check the manual, or post a picture.
When setting up a motorized dish, using Usals, you first zero the motor, dish, and LNB, so there is no skew, on the LNB.
You then enter your Latitude, and Longitude, into your receiver, and send your motor, and dish, to the satellite you wish to use to align it.
Once done you manually m0ve your dish, and motor, to find the satellite, using your meter.
You adjust the meters sensitivity, until it reads 5, half way, it will do this even when not pointing at any satellite, you then adjust the dish, East/West, until it reaches 10, maximum, then decreas the sensitivity, by turning the knob right, until it reads 5 again, adjust the dish to read 10, and ontinue with this operation until you get the maximum possible signal quality, then do the same with the elevation.
Once done check with your receiver to see what satellite you're on.
Two useful sites are dishpointer.com, to help with alignment, your Latitude, & Longitude. Then lyngsat.com, to help scan in channels and confirm which satellite your pointing at.

 

[owain]

Above on thor? 10778 h 24500.
Lnb disconnected



With lnb connected.





Sat meter connected with that 90% signal strength indicated at receiver....is it broken?






Finally dish showing 22.4 approx on dish mount and 37 on motor mount. Now that is what technomate manual said. But i think dish face should really be vertical ish????


Any ideas?

 

[Analoguesat]

The dish is leaning MUCH too far back if its an offset - the dish face should be more or less vertical, maybe leaning back just a tad.

 

[sonnetpete]

Finally dish showing 22.4 approx on dish mount and 37 on motor mount

37 degrees latitude on the motor mount would be fine in you were in the south of Spain and as you show UK on your profile I'm guessing this is wrong. Get your latitude from Google maps or a sat nav and set up the motor to that. Analoguesat is right, the dish face should be almost vertical.

 

[Mickha]

If using Usals just remember that negative Longitude readings = West, positive = East.
Your meter looks better than my cheap meter, press the < ATT button until you get a signal, once you have got your dish more vertical.

 

[owain]

Super. Some success today.
Picking up stuff off thor, some success with astra 19.2 also.

Key issue was the elevation. As soon as dish was approx vertical started receiving stuff.

Major issue was technomate shitty documention and trying to do this up a ladder. On the moter it shows elevation on one scale and latitude on other side. Shunned up ladder i only saw one scale, hence i set elevation 37 degrees from handbook but on latitude scale.

Ignoring both motor and dish mounts but setting dish vertical i started getting quality. And then maximise quality with a little jiggling/flexing.

At least i know all components and cabling is OK. I will now have a serious play tomorrow.

Triax dish is manufactured in UK and hence offset and mounting is tuned to be simple for uk.

If it had just been fixed dish without the confusing technomate motor stuff. Well thats my excuse.

Thanks for all advice. Will try again tomorrow.

1, move poll. Avoid dish coming too close to roof.

2, try and set motor latitude correctly and still get correct elevation.

3, not only download channels from astra 19.2 but get a picture.

4. Pick up hotbird 13 and eutelsat 5,

5. Pick up astra 28. But not sure if my receiver will handle that if not in freesat mode.

Watch this space.....

 

[Analoguesat]

You are getting there

 

[Analoguesat]

And remember if you get well east or west the dish will lean forward - my 53E dish looks very strange indeed as it appears to be pointing at the floor!

 

[Piltdownpaul]

And remember if you get well east or west the dish will lean forward - my 53E dish looks very strange indeed as it appears to be pointing at the floor!

Yes true, i'm still waiting for a passer by to knock on my door and tell me the dish has been blown round in the wind!

 

[satelliteman]

Most common installation mistake is El and Latitude scale confusion. Many set main polar axis to the wrong scale markings.

 

[owain]

Many thanks to you all for all the good advice. All is working fine now. Picking up all sats except 28e which is below ridge height.

Even picking up hispsat....but i don’t do spanish :-)

Thanks again.
Owain