Setting up a motorised dish and I'm stuck!

[nochance61]

if your latitude is 56 degrees then the scale on the motor has to be 56 degrees also. (the scale may be out a wee tad but not a lot so have a bit of faith in it.)

stick with that angle for the time being, find thor albeit weak, then try to adjust the angle of the dish (declination) on the dish itself.Check a fta picture on thor ie bbc world news. lock the dish up so it cant go left or right then lift or lower the dish on the elevation bracket ( not your 56 degrees angle) to see if the signal improves.
Get thor right and you will hit the other sats. may need a bit of fine tuning.


remember to tighten things up accordingly as you go

 

[nochance61]

btw your bracket doesnt look THAT bad

the stand i got in my pics is well pissed and i still get 28 east to 8 west spot on,
the house and a fir tree then obscure line of sight.
its only temporary to test a couple of motors and dishes out.

 

[Devilfish]

I took the dish off the bracket and checked the level, it's spot on vertical.

I've adjusted the latitude while the dish is on the ground and tightened it up so that's set.

The dish, motor and bracket are perfectly in line with each other.

Tomorrow I'll get it back up and try again. Hopefully a new day will being better luck!

Thanks again all.

 

[Mark_The_Yid]

Anytime DF. To be honest it makes a nice change to help you for once instead of the usual reverse roles!:Cheers:

 

[krazylegz]

good old teething prbs glen eh


i know u said bracket is straight,but is that all round it m8 and not just the sides?

you'll get there in the end m8

 

[Devilfish]

Yeh I checked both sides m8, it's straight!

I know I'll get there, I'm not one for quiting! I just hate it when it gets dark and I have to pack it in lol.

Ah well 8am will come soon enough.

 

[nochance61]

had a thought this morning

one point is that your motor may have an elevation scale as opposed to a latitude scale(56 degrees).

if your motor does you have to set the angle on the motor to 34degrees.

the rest of the instructions are the same, its just that some manufacturers make the scale on the dish latitude and some elevation, i mentioned this at the start of this thread.

Your elevation is 90 minus latitude (90-56=34)

I'm pretty certain the technomate is a badged moteck.

So change the angle on the motor from 56 to 34 and see how you get on

 

[Devilfish]

The motor has both scales m8. It's fixes at 56º latitude so we'll see how we get on today.

It's pretty windy and raining too so not the best day to be up a ladder

 

[digidude]

It's pretty windy and raining too so not the best day to be up a ladder

theyre the best of them all m8 lol

 

[Devilfish]

OK I think I've done it ok.

Set the lat on motor to 56º and tightened.
Mount is perfectly vertical.
Mount, motor and dish are in a straight line.

I started with the dish out west and gradually moved it towards south and adjusting the slide on the actual dish to fine tune. I eventually got a signal but it's not very strong...I still don't get a picture on my tv. In fact, if I remove the coax from the back of the receiver the SNR value doesn't drop, still stays the same.

One thing I was wondering, (please see attached pic) could the house be obstructing Thor and I'm eventually picking up the sat at 5ºE? If this is true then the channels on Thor would never come on.

The picture is taken on the ladders under the dish.

 

[nochance61]

no your way over the top of the houses

those beepy meters dont tell you what sat your on

its a pain but it might be better to put a tv outside (better still with the rx) and set that to thor then go to dish setup menu, which will display 2 bars(signal and quality) and align thor that way. Try to use the BBC World transponder its strong and fta (settings 11.325H 24500 7/8)

or keep going with the meter but its hit and miss

 

[digidude]

youre missing that house by miles m8 so no worries there, put the reciever on bbc world and slowly turn the dish then as you pass thor youll get a picture, you can then switch to the signal level screen to fine tune the alaignment

 

[Devilfish]

OK thanks guys...I kinda thought that anyway by looking at other dishes in my area (some are pointing into the roof lol) but I just wanted to be sure.

I've attached another pic, should I be adjusting this, it's on the back of the dish. I can only get a signal by moving this adjustment.

 

[nochance61]

yes you adjust that once you found thor.

on a fixed dish its your elevation setting.
on a motorized dish its your declination.

post a sideways piccy of your dish see if your elevation is right

 

[Devilfish]

OK I've found BBC World. Ya fookin beauty!

The sat finder beeper thing isn't worth a ****! I've got my TV hanging out the window lol, one gust of wind and it's a gonner! :Laugh:

The SNR is about 80% and I'm not clearing anything else on Thor. I tried switching to 19ºE and 28.2ºE and didn't clear anything, SNR was about 50%. I heard the sat finder beeping as the dish was turning but it didn't finish on a beep.

At least I'm getting somewhere. I'll post a pic in a few minutes.

EDIT: Here's the pic, almost straight up and down.

 

[Devilfish]

OK I went to 28.2ºE and selected BBC1 Scotland. I heard it drive past the satellite and of course nothing came on the screen. Now I pressed the rotate button on the motor to manually turn it and it found the satellite and BBC1 Scotland came on. I'm now getting all FTA channels on 28.2º. But shouldn't it have found the sat on it's own without me adjusting it?

What could be out of alignment to cause this? The mount not being vertical? Can I reset the motor to 0º and try again?

 

[nochance61]

thats good you got 1 west . get it as good as you can moving it left and right, and tighten it up on the mast.

looking at your pic it looks like your declination angle is out. (and maybe elevation)

your dish should pointing up more.(looks like anyway)

you said in your first post the motor angle was set to 37 degrees when you first got it.

maybe try setting it back to that ( or 34 degrees) and then adjust your declination (dish angle).

the declination is what allows the dish to track the satellite arc in the sky, and your declination seems a bit vertical.

these are my pics at 1 west. your setup should look fairly similar

 

[nochance61]

OK I went to 28.2ºE and selected BBC1 Scotland. I heard it drive past the satellite and of course nothing came on the screen. Now I pressed the rotate button on the motor to manually turn it and it found the satellite and BBC1 Scotland came on. I'm now getting all FTA channels on 28.2º. But shouldn't it have found the sat on it's own without me adjusting it?

What could be out of alignment to cause this? The mount not being vertical? Can I reset the motor to 0º and try again?

could be any setting, it may not have been tracked spot on when you got it even though matey still got pictures.

depends if you get the other sats or not, if you get all and the pictures are good then i'd just move the dish via the rx and store that position.
or try adjusting the dish angles (may be azimuth left/right a tad aswell but not much)

 

[Devilfish]

I've adjusted what you said in your previous post and here's the new pic. You can see the difference in adjustments from the pic in my last post.

I'll try adjusting the motor from the dream and see if I can save the positions.

 

[Devilfish]

Update

BBC World on Thor 1ºW is OK
BBC World on Hotbird 13.0ºE is OK
BBC World on Astra 19.2º is OK

What are the main satellites that I want to be getting?

I.e. movies, sports, 3pm games, etc.

I'm getting nothing on Hispasat though.