Thread: Review: Sadoun PowerTech DG380

I purchased the
Sadoun Powertech HH Mount Motor DG380 DG-380 DiSEqC 1.2 Compatible

PowerTech DG380 from Sadoun on 3/25 and it arrived in 3 days, packed well and arrived without any damage. It is very similar to the SG2100 but with a few differences, mainly a larger Tube to handle a bigger dish and metal gears. I installed this with a 1m Winegard DS-3101 dish (about a 35 lb steel dish) which fit fine on the large diameter tube without problems. I clamped the bracket onto a 2 1/2" diameter pole that was already planted in my back yard and proceeded to remove the tube from the motor assembly (loosened the nut and backed out the hex bolt using an allen wrench (not included with motor). I then attached it to the mounting bracket on the Winegard 1m dish, no problem there, mounted nice and securely. I then attached the motor onto the bracket and locked it at my elevation (41.5 degrees), this is where I got into a little problem, I put the tube back onto the motor, BUT, since someone make a design change from other motors (like the SG2100 and GS120) and there is no way to put the hex bolt back in UNLESS you change the elevation back to the highest setting (~15 degrees), then it slides right in. (to me, this is a design flaw, but that is just me since it would be nice to lock in the elevation before you add the weight of the dish to the motor like the other motors do).

I got that straightened out and finish mounting the dish onto the motor and readjusting the elevation of the motor, next I adjusted the angle of the dish using a protractor to get close to the correct angle of my true south satellite (AMC6 @ 72 degrees). I then connected my Satlook 3 to the Sadoun Linear LNB that I have hanging around and connected the motor to my Coolsat 5k. I entered my latitude and longitude into the usals settings in the coolsat and hit "goto reference" and it locked back to 0. I told it to goto sat and I saw the signal on my Satlook, not very high, but it was there. I then adjusted the angle to "dial in" the sat and bang, it looked like it use to. I then looped the lnb to the motor and looped the LNB out from the coolsat to the Satlook. Scanned in and got the christian TV channel (not sure the name, but hits about 95-98 for me) and it was right on. Saved the setting and proceed to do the same on both sides of the arc, no problems, G10R locked no problems and T12 had no problems.

I tested it to see how it lifts the heavy Winegard and it definitely had no problems lifing it from G10R to AMC6, even with it in "vertical" mode, Horizontal made it fly (IMO) When I was on T12 (15 degrees) and was in "V" mode, it was slow to start, but did lift it, changed to "H" and it was more assuring in speed.

What I have not tested as of now was what it would act like if I changed the LNB to my QPH-031, I am not sure what the result would be, especially if you heard what I heard when I told it to move from T12 in "V" mode. The QPH is one heavy LNB and really not sure of this combo. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

Jim

Very nice review, I have three questions for you

How loud is the motor compared to the other motors you have tried?
Can you reset the motor like the pin hole reset on a SG2100?
Finally how is the automatic backlash feature?

Thanks.

Originally Posted by qwert1515

Very nice review, I have three questions for you

How loud is the motor compared to the other motors you have tried?
Can you reset the motor like the pin hole reset on a SG2100?
Finally how is the automatic backlash feature?

Thanks.

I did not have to do a reset but on page 5 of the manual says that a reset is done by cut power by disconnecting the cable, press and hold East and West buttons for 5 seconds, reconnect the coaxial cable, LED1 and LED2 blink for 5 seconds then it's memory erased, the receiver rewrites the satellite tables to initial ones and corrects the 0 OR

press and hold East and West buttons for 5 seconds
LED1 and LED2 blink for 5 seconds
then its memory is erased and rewrites the built in satellite table to initial one

It is just as loud as the SG2100 or just a little quieter.

The automatic backlash is transparent in operation is seems, just locks the gears so that there is not any play, seems like it is doing it's job well. Same quality when moving from sat to sat, time after time.

Jim

I did forget to mention about the 80 degree +/- capability. It seems that it can do 80 degrees +/- but NOT with USALS. I live around 71 degrees Longitude and with my math, I should be able to tell it to go to 148W and it should go to it but it does not move, you need to go into DisecQ 1.2 mode to manually move it. Not sure if it is a receiver issue or the motor is not fully USALS capable. But you CAN MOVE it using 1.2, just a FYI.

Pictures were requested from another member, so I figured others also wanted them and the weather got better, so here they are. Notice in picture #66 that the bolt could not be reinserted without moving of the elevation adjustment.

very crisp pictures.

thanks.

Thanks! Yeah, after uploading them, I noticed that too. The camera is a 5yr old camera, a Fuji S602 and highly recommend it to anyone that needs a great camera. The dish is on a 10' mast and I took the pictures from the ground and macro was not on.