Worldsat Motor Setup

[homerhat]

Hi,

This is the first time I've installed a motorised setup. So please bear with me!
I have inherited a Worldsat motor with a French manual.
As it looks different from most other motors I've seen, I decided to use the instructions that came with it rather than the "standard" way .

What the instructions say to do is to:
- Set the dish 1cm away from the body of the motor(equiv. to 43°elevation)
- Drive the motor to the position relevant to the location and satellite . I used
_http://www.satsig.net/maps/satellite-dish-pointing and got 15.2° as Motor drive
sideways angle for Hotbird.
- Turn the whole lot to due south
- Use the motor elevation mechanism to scan up and down until you get a signal

I've done this and got a good signal from Hotbird.
However, when I drive the motor to Astra 2 (31.9°), no signal until I move the motor
elevation up by 3 degrees.

Will this work if I make some adjutments to the mount azimuth or the dish declination?
Or should I give it up and try the "standard" way?

Lat=50.81 Long=-0.78

 

[rolfw]

Can't think why they would want to complicate what is a fairly straightforward procedure. What have you set for your elevation on the motor?

In West Sussex, you are pretty close to the Greenwich meridian, so would be logical to set up on 1W.

 

[homerhat]

rolfw,
To get Hotbird, the elevation on the motor ended up at 60° and to get Astra 2 at 63°

 

[rolfw]

The elevation on the motor should be the same for all satellites, set it once and leave it, what does it tell you in the manual?

 

[Robbo]

rolfw,
To get Hotbird, the elevation on the motor ended up at 60° and to get Astra 2 at 63°

No, the motor elevation should be fixed.

It should have a latitude scale, or an elevation scale.

The elevation is simply 90 - latitude.

Latitude is your latitude, since mine's 51, yours will be lower.

 

[homerhat]

From what I understand, the idea is that, at the start, the dish elevation is fixed and you'd adjust the motor elevation up or down until you get a signal.
Then you'd optimise with some fine adjustments of the mount azimuth, dish elevation or motor elevation.
Then you'd lock to motor elevation and should get other satellites.
At the moment I'm still having to adjust the elevation from satellite to satellite.
So, I must have to do further adjustments.

Should I carry on with these adjustments or cut my losses and start again by fixing the motor elevation and aligning to Thor?

 

[rolfw]

Fix the motor elevation in the method described by Robbo, then moving the whole assembly on the mast and just the dish elevation, find Thor. You should then find that your motor is on the arc.

 

[homerhat]

Thanks Rolf and Robbo

Can you clear up/confirm a couple of things for me please.

- Motor elevation for for my latitude (90-50.8) should be 39.2
- What should my dish elevation be for Thor?
- Do I need to drive the motor by 1 degree before I align it to Thor?

 

[Robbo]

Hi, yes thats correct for you motor elevation.
(assuming it has not got a latitude scale)

There are ways of working out dish declination, based on how bent the motor pole is and the dish offset angle.

Far easier though, to just start with the dish looking like its vertical and adjust the dish elevation for max signal.

The elevation for Thor is about 30 degrees, down this way.

Yes, you need to drive it to Thor (0.8 west to be precise)

Easiest to do it using USALS.

If not move it to the difference between your longitude and 0.8W
I imagine you must be pretty close to 0.8 west anyway.

So if your longitude was 1E then you would need to drive it about 2 degrees westward.
(motor scale would read 2 W)

So, No, It is not necessarily 1 degree that you drive it to, it depends on your longitiude.
It may not need moving or move at all (USALS) before adjusting it.

 

[homerhat]

I've got a pretty primitive setup. The motor came with a manual positioner with just two buttons (east / west).
My longitude is -0.78. So, I should leave it at zero then?

 

[Robbo]

Oh yes, just looked at your OP (long -0.78), Yes leave it at zero, you could not get much closer than 0.02 degrees, thats lucky.