Thread: dead dish motor?

I had discovered last night that the dish motor is not rotating the dish. My Fortec Star Dynamic receiver shows on screen that it is rotating the 90cm dish, but still no picture. I went outside and saw that the dish is stuck in the 121 degree position. I know it was working before and yes, the cables are connected correctly (LNB-motor-receiver). A couple of nights ago it was working great when I rotated between AMC9, AMC21, and G19. Last week, there was a 50 mph windstorm blowing through and seemed to have stopped the rotation of the dish for a while. Two weeks ago, there was another big windstorm and a huge downpour of 4" of rain (similar to what others reported here). Could it be that the big windstorms put a lot of stress on the DG280 motor shaft and damaged it? I will get up on the roof tomorrow (weather permitting - rain being forecasted) and test the manual rotation buttons.

I'm now seeing this as a potential opportunity to upgrade to a 180cm dish with an actuator, mounting the dish on a concrete-filled pole, and running an underground conduit directly to the living room where I mostly watch TV. I'm possibly looking at a whole weeks' worth of work to get the upgrade work done. At least it will give me a good reason to intensify my FTA fever while making it easier to service the dish.

Originally Posted by spacebug42

I had discovered last night that the dish motor is not rotating the dish. My Fortec Star Dynamic receiver shows on screen that it is rotating the 90cm dish, but still no picture. I went outside and saw that the dish is stuck in the 121 degree position. I know it was working before and yes, the cables are connected correctly (LNB-motor-receiver). A couple of nights ago it was working great when I rotated between AMC9, AMC21, and G19. Last week, there was a 50 mph windstorm blowing through and seemed to have stopped the rotation of the dish for a while. Two weeks ago, there was another big windstorm and a huge downpour of 4" of rain (similar to what others reported here). Could it be that the big windstorms put a lot of stress on the DG280 motor shaft and damaged it? I will get up on the roof tomorrow (weather permitting - rain being forecasted) and test the manual rotation buttons.

I'm now seeing this as a potential opportunity to upgrade to a 180cm dish with an actuator, mounting the dish on a concrete-filled pole, and running an underground conduit directly to the living room where I mostly watch TV. I'm possibly looking at a whole weeks' worth of work to get the upgrade work done. At least it will give me a good reason to intensify my FTA fever while making it easier to service the dish.

I like that ATTITUDE ! Every time that I have a component fail, I upgrade to something better, too . Good luck on the project, and take lots of pics for us.

Try the manual buttons to move it. Mine has a reset on it too. Just use a paper clip to reset it. I've had to reset mine once in the last year. Blind

Originally Posted by Blindowl1234

Try the manual buttons to move it. Mine has a reset on it too. Just use a paper clip to reset it. I've had to reset mine once in the last year. Blind

Blindowl1234, you gave me a good idea in fixing the dish motor problem. I know that there is a reset in the receiver, but I'll check on the motor. I'm still committed to the idea of getting a bigger dish, but I want to extend the operating time on the motor until the bigger dish is in place. After that, not sure what I'll do with the old 90cm dish - perhaps put it on eBay?

I just went up on the roof to check out the motor and tried pushing the manual buttons - didn't budge. I didn't see the blinking LEDs on the back of the motor housing (indicating it was receiving power). I had two of the four Invaquad QPH-031 outputs put through a 2 x 1 switch which was not weatherproof. I had previously put the 2 x 1 switch inside a Ziploc bag and tied it shut with a rubber band. Bad idea! I found about 1/2 cup water inside the bag and it was rust colored. This explains why the dish was not turning - the switch is most likely shorted out. There was a big rainstorm two weeks ago and I'm surprised that the switch lasted that long before shorting out. Today after lunch, I'm going to run one cable from the LNBF to the motor and then to the receiver hooked up to a 7" LCD TV set and see if the motor still works. The 2 x 1 switch was meant to be a temporary setup until I run all 4 cables from the LNBF to the 5 x 8 switch inside the central multimedia panel in the house. I'll update everyone on the test results - it should still work.

Hi Spacebug,

Yes, sealing any outdoor device in a plastic baggie is a bad notion. You need to have some method of draining moisture as even a totally enclosed box will draw moisture into it. I believe that it is best to simply cover the device from above and leave the bottom open. This way any moisture that may collect will naturally drain to the open bottom and not collect in a pond-like manner.

Kinda like the tail lamps of a boat trailer. They are usually better off if the bottom is open to the atmosphere and the top sealed. You need a method to drain that water away.

Just remember this.... "Water always wins". That is why the Grand Canyon is there.

RADAR

I unplugged the receiver, went up on the roof, connected one of the LNBF outputs to the motor, and came back down to plug in the receiver. There's good news and bad news. Bad news - the motor LEDS are still out and manual buttons still don't work. Good news - the motor does work, but with limited rotation. The dish will rotate between 125 degrees (AMC 21) and 105 degrees (AMC15), but it won't go eastward away from AMC15. This leaves me with just a few birds to watch. I saved the channel lists, reset the receiver, and restored the channel lists - still no change in operation. I find this problem a bit wierd.

I believe that I did a stupid approach in temporarily protecting the 2 x 1 switch with a plastic bag - causing more harm than good. I not only ruined the switch, but the motor is ruined as well. I think it's time to get the ball rolling towards a bigger dish system.

spacebug do you think the motor limits somehow got changed/set to where they are stopping your motor in those locations? I would research how to change or erase the limits-perhaps a simple disconnect of the power might clear it up.

Originally Posted by turbosat

spacebug do you think the motor limits somehow got changed/set to where they are stopping your motor in those locations? I would research how to change or erase the limits-perhaps a simple disconnect of the power might clear it up.

Turbosat, it had not occured to me that it might be a limit setting issue. I have the manual near the receiver and will look at the limit setting. I may have pressed some buttons while trying to get the system to work.