Setting up a motorised dish and I'm stuck!

As some of you know, I've bought a motorised dish. It's not a new setup and has been working. It was setup 15 miles away so I didn't think that I'd need to setup the latitude on the motor. It was setup at 37º and my lat is 56º so I was kinda confused at that.

Here's my lon/lat readings...

http://www.multimap.com/maps/#hloc=GB|g74%203ru

Should the lat on the side of the motor actually be at 56º or will I leave it at 37º? When I tried it at 56º I didn't find any sats at all .

I found due south using a compass and layed a piece of wood on the ground to mark it out. I've selected BBC World on Thor 1ºW so the motor is in the middle. I've checked my mount and it's almost verticle (a baw-hair out) but I can't adjust it as it's screwed to my wall. I've got a satellite meter, I connected it to the reveiver end and turned the gain up 'till it whined then back down until it turned off, then connected it to the dish. I've been adjusting it left and right and I think I've got it because the meter whines like mad. But I've checked by signal strength on the DM7000 and it says SNR 45%, AGC ~40%, BER 512 and obviously no picture.

I've been reading all last night and thought I knew what I was doing but....

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I really don't want to pay someone to do it and I enjoy doing things myself.

Thanks

P.S. Digi...you don't fancy a trip to Scotland do you? I hear the going rate is tea and biscuits lol

what sort of motor and dish you got. gotta picture?

It's an 80cm dish, don't know what manufacturer, Technomate 2100 motor, 0.2 LNB.

I seen it working before I bought it so I know it all works ok. I just need to align it.

EDIT: I've moved to Channel 4 on 28.2ºE and I'm getting EPG but still no picture. SNR is still about 45%.

the going rate is lager and choc digestives m8 lol

click sat help in siggy below, then how to set up a motorised system, the guide was made using the exact equipment you have

if the scale on the side of the motor says 'latitude' then this ought to be set to 55.5 degrees. (for you location)

if its an 'elevation' scale then it should be 34.5 degrees



over to you digidude you got all the info in your sig

I've went through your guide several times m8. Thing is, it was already setup so I didn't put the dish on the motor or set the latitude. Being 15 miles away, would I need to adjust the latitude or not? I calculated the lat using this page.

My lat - 55.8
My lon - -4.1

But the latitude on the dish is at 37º. But when I adjust the motor to 56º I get nothing on my sat meter.

nochance61 said:

if the scale on the side of the motor says 'latitude' then this ought to be set to 55.5 degrees. (for you location)

if its an 'elevation' scale then it should be 34.5 degrees



over to you digidude you got all the info in your sig

Click to expand...

Yes m8 the motor has both those scales. I'll go and adjust it to what it should be. Thanks.

EDIT: OK done.

check you are using the correct reading for the correct side of the motor m8, ie not putting the latitude setting on the elevation side. you only need to set one and the other will match

digidude said:

check you are using the correct reading for the correct side of the motor m8, ie not putting the latitude setting on the elevation side. you only need to set one and the other will match

Click to expand...

Yeh I got it set correct now.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k_yhxmGlEA[/ame]

try watching this may give you a better idea of how its meant to look like, btw your rotor arm points downwards but its the same principle

I was just about to ask about the motor arm, mine does point downwards then I saw the video and thought 'Shit' lol.

Here's a pic of the setup.

I tried setting it up as a fixed dish. I selected a channels on Astra 19.2ºE and the motor tried to go there. I then set the motor to 0º using the button. Then found 19º with my compass (I think) then pointed the dish in that direction. Still found nothing.

Can someone look at the attached compass picture please? If I wanted to point the dish to 19.2ºE would I use point A or point B? Still trying to grasp this due south malarky! lol

P.S. Thanks for that youtube vid nochance, nice information.

easiest way to start m8 is tell it to go to 1W, put the reciever on BBC world then turn the dish to get a picture, if you are at 4W longitude then the dish will point at 177 degrees in the compass as when trying for ANY other sat the dish will be twisted and VERY hard to estimate the angle then even with a proper sat meter

OK m8 I'll try again.

OK I'm up about SNR 65% now for BBC World on Thor, I guess that's progress.

dont worry about astra or hotbird yet.

you got to get 1 west properly first

you have fixed the latitude on the motor to 56 degrees -good, do not adjust again. (leave it)

move the dish to 1 west on the rx usals mode


make sure to set the dish so the lnb support arm, the dish brackets, the rotor arm everything is in a straight line pointing south. see pics attached

rotate the dish on the mast only, untill you pick up the Thor signal it may be weak so try adjusting the dish elevation bracket (this actually is the declination offset angle which needs adjusting.

0nce you have the left/right up/down done tighten things up and see if the other sats fall into place.

Thanks nochance that's good pics.

I had the lat set to 56º but I wasn't getting anything at all. Maybe if I adjusted the declination it would come in.

I'll have a go.

If my bracket is not perfectly vertical would that through my latitude out?

If the pole is not perfectly vertical it should not affect you from getting a good signal from thor on first set up but will make a difference when dish turns to other sats.

Devilfish said:

If my bracket is not perfectly vertical would that through my latitude out?

Click to expand...

you want your pole to be 100% vertical ideally or else your tracking will be out on the other satelltes.
Thor might be ok, but if you spin round to other ones you might be out.
In order for usals and these diseqc motors to work correctly, the mast needs to be as near perfectly strsight as is possible. its worth taking time to insure this.

keep goin m8 your gettin there

Thing is the bracket is screwed to the side of my wall on the upper level of my house, there's no adjustment.

If I set my lat to 56º I'm just getting nothing at all, not even a little beep.

I appreciate your help guys...thanks!

The pole MUST be exactly vertical. You will have to use packers behind the bracket to level it if need be. Whatever the latitude you have set your motor to right or wrong will not affect you from getting a strong signal from Thor at 1W it will affect the motor from finding other sats. Make sure the pole is 100% vertical. Make sure your motor elevation is set correct, make sure the dish points out from the motors pole dead straight and make sure the motor is set to 0 degrees and then tighten and do not touch again. Look for a sky minidish to get an idea of where 28E is then roughly point your dish at an angle of about 5-10E. From there spin the dish AND MOTOR together slightly west then try different elevations at that point(at the dish not by the motor). If no success move west a nats cock and try elevations again. Keep repeating this and eventually you should find Thor and at that point you need to play a bit to fine tune to get good signal strength. Once thor is sorted the other sats should all fall into place.