Usals

N5Gooner

Member
My Satellite Setup
Spiderbox 7000 HD 90cm ***** dish, darkmotor 45E to 45W and
Sly+HD
My Location
North Essex
This has probably been asked before, and if so, please feel free to point me in the right direction for an answer.

I have a system set up on Disceq and i'd like to change it to USALS, I've asked on another (unnamed) forum and got the usual short shrift, with no result.

Anyone have a clue as to what i need to do ?
 
Hi m8 ..
Providing you are using a usals motor ...and a usals capable receiver..
ie not a 36 volt actuator and Vbox arrangement ..
(You don't say what equipment you are using)

..then the transition is an easy one ..

You simply go into your receivers setup menu..
find the motor contol option ..
set this to usals instead of diseqc ...

Enter the longtitude and latitude offset values for your location ..
You can find these values by entering your postcode into the search bar at dishpointer.com

Providing the motor/dish is accurately set up ..
The motor should automatically then find its way to any selected satellite ..as it performs a calculation based on the satellites position ...eg Astra 19.2 East ...and the offset values you supplied to the receiver..
rgds
VS
 
Some Receivers use the (probably incorrect) delineation "DiSEqC 1.3" for "USALS" ................. but they are one and the same.
 
If setup up with diseqc and then you change to usals you might not get correct alignment. You may have to offset your longitude a Little so that everything lines up.

Usals is also equiv to goto x


Posted with my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
One problem with using USALS in some locations is the data input resolution for the location.


Most receivers only have a XX.X by YYY.Y input for location, in some cases this will bring the dish up a bit short or too long when going to satellite X at YY degrees W or E.


You may have to tweak the dish a bit after it gets to the location of the satellite.


Example: Lets say your in Bath, your Longitude is 51.3503N and your Latitude is -2.3620W, but in the receivers location settings you can only input 51.4 by -2.4 or 51.3 and -2.3, this may put your dish off a bit when looking at lets say 28.2 E (Eurobird 1) you will have to manually tweak it in using the remote.
 
The VU+ allows you to input up to three decimal places under the USALS settings. I was surprised that (on a 1.2M dish) altering the setting by say .05° did make a (very small) difference. I dare say that on a smaller dish one decimal place is more than enough to allow for fine tuning.

Posted with my laptop using Pressakey.
 
Terryl said:
Lets say your in Bath, your Longitude is 51.3503N and your Latitude is -2.3620W, but in the receivers location settings you can only input 51.4 by -2.4 or 51.3 and -2.3, this may put your dish off a bit when looking at lets say 28.2 E (Eurobird 1) you will have to manually tweak it in using the remote.
That's a 54dBW satellite. You'd have to be a degree off target to notice any difference (especially with a mini dish).

sonnetpete said:
The VU+ allows you to input up to three decimal places under the USALS settings. I was surprised that (on a 1.2M dish) altering the setting by say .05° did make a (very small) difference. I dare say that on a smaller dish one decimal place is more than enough to allow for fine tuning.
Terryl said:
Most receivers only have a XX.X by YYY.Y input for location, in some cases this will bring the dish up a bit short or too long when going to satellite X at YY degrees W or E.

You may have to tweak the dish a bit after it gets to the location of the satellite.

The USALS standard only has a resolution of 0.1º (which is sufficient to get you within 0.05º of any angular position). Adding your location to more decimal places is not going to change that. The only thing that could is the algorithm used to round off the extra decimals back to one decimal place. If you need to nudge the dish to get a stronger signal it is down to the motor (bad quality, backlash, etc), or incorrect alignment/plumbness. After all 0.05º is far too small an alignment error to be noticeable on any dish that is small enough to hang on a DiSEqC motor.
 
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