Disappointed in Sadoun Satellite System

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ThomasU

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Jun 1, 2016
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Hollywood, Florida
This concerns the Free-to-Air satellite system I purchased from Sadoun. I am very disappointed in it. For the reasons that follow, I do not recommend that anyone buy their system.

About 2 years ago I purchased the Sadoun so-called motorized system. At first I only attached the dish to the horizontal pole, and kept moving it back and forth until I found the signal for satellite Galaxy 19. My wife was then happy at being able to watch some Asian stations.

After a year I decided to install the motor on the dish, so that I could watch other satellite stations. That was five (5) months ago, but I still cannot pull a signal from any other satellite! I have probably spent 50+ hours on this project since November, including calls to Sadoun, several calls to Glorystar, and climbing up on the roof about a dozen times to make adjustments. I will say that the engineer for Glorystar has been very helpful, and without him I never even would have found Galaxy 19 using the motor.

I will make some specific observations in bullet format regarding the numerous problems I have encountered, as follow:

a. The so-called “system” is not a compatible set of parts. The dish is made by one manufacturer, the motor is made by another manufacturer, and the receiver is made by yet another company. The scales on the motor are in 5 degree increments, which makes it very hard to find a correct setting when only 1 degree makes a difference at trying to aim at a satellite some 20,000 miles up in space. Also, although the motor I was sold has several pre-set satellite positions, they are all satellites over Europe, and the list does not contain any satellite capable of being received in the USA. Finally, the receiver I was sold is not the latest model.

b. There are no detailed instructions on how to set up the receiver & motor. The booklet they provide does not go into that type of detail. Neither are any detailed instructions on-line. After getting only a little help over the phone from Sadoun, I had to call Glorystar, and their engineer walked me through menu screens and steps until I could finally get set up to receive Galaxy 19. But still no signal. So I then needed to send photographs to him so he could see if my motor & dish settings were correct. As the dish scale did not have any hash mark on it to tell me exactly where to set the angle, it turned out I was off about 3 or 4 degrees, which was enough to cause me to miss the satellite signal completely.

c. Once I was able to pull Galaxy 19's signal, I thought that I would be okay from that point forward. Note there is a button on the menu to save, or “store” the motor/dish position, so that you should be able to find it again easily. But this is not the case. Almost every time I turn the receiver off, I lose the signal when I turn it back on. If I was lucky, it would only takes a few clicks on the remote to find the signal again. If I was not lucky, then I had to climb up on the roof and do the back-and-forth drill with the motor until my wife told me she was getting a “quality” signal.



d. Several weeks ago I decided to try to connect with a different satellite for the first time I did some research online and then picked one satellite on the menu. I started clicking a few degrees to the west of Galaxy 19. But I could never obtain a signal from it. This turned out to be another disaster, as then I had then lost Galaxy 19 again.

e. So I went back up on the ladder and started using the buttons on the motor until I finally got a quality signal for Galaxy 19. We watched it for a week or so, but then I had to pull the power cord from the receiver due to going away on a vacation. When I returned and plugged the receiver in, the stations weren’t there anymore. I never pushed any buttons that would have caused the motor/dish to move, but it must have moved anyway. It has now been over a month since we returned home, and despite a couple hours with the menu screens and remote, I still have not been able to find Galaxy 19's signal again.

In summary, all of this has led me to conclude that I paid over $300 for some Chinese-made junk that does not work as advertised. Unfortunately, I procrastinated on putting up the motor, so now I am out of warranty. I would strongly urge anyone who is thinking of buying a Sadoun motorized FTA system to reconsider. There should be some other companies out there who, although they might charge a little more money, will sell you a truly integrated system that has up-to-date software which will work without undo effort and frustration.
 
Welcome to SatelliteGuys.

Sorry to hear about the troubles installing the motorized KU dish. Very often we hear similar stories from newbies installing almost any dish, LNBF, receiver or motor purchased from any reseller. It is a steep learning curve to understand menu settings and to apply the theory of aiming a fixed dish and even more difficult to install a motorized dish.

I am sure that we can assist with getting your system tracking the arc and viewing programming from multiple satellites.

Would you share the brands and models of the equipment that you received?

Receiver:
Dish:
Motor:
LNBF:

What city/ state are you in?

Could you take a photo from behind the dish pointed towards the southern sky?

Photo of the LNBF mounted in the clamp?

Photo of the motor Latitude scale?

Photo of the dish bracket and Elevation scale?

Are you using DiSEqC 1.2 or USALS motor control? If USALS, what is the latitude setting that was entered? North or South? What is the Longitude value that was entered? East or West?

What is the true south satellite that you are first trying to aim at?

What is the motor latitude setting provided for your location?

What is the dish elevation scale setting provided for your location?

With all respect, the installation challenges are likely related to an incorrect menu or mechanical setting and probably isn't related to buying from Sadoun or the equipment package that you selected.
 
Welcome to SatGuys, ThomasU!

It sounds like part of your problem may be that your mounting pole isn't plumb and the dish isn't tracking the arc. Setting up a motorized system can be a tough deal, even for experienced people, never mind on your first setup.

If you want to try and get your system set up right, you're at the right place, there's a lot of people here that will be willing to help you out!
 
:welcome to the site!
We would be happy to assist you in finding a solution.
 
Welcome to SatGuys, ThomasU!

It sounds like part of your problem may be that your mounting pole isn't plumb and the dish isn't tracking the arc. Setting up a motorized system can be a tough deal, even for experienced people, never mind on your first setup.

If you want to try and get your system set up right, you're at the right place, there's a lot of people here that will be willing to help you out!

Your 100% right on that!. It takes some time an patience so take a break to clear your mind. As Raine pointed out that a plumb pole is very important and the whole motor and dish somehow have moved a bit on the plumb. A couple of years I installed a 90cm dish on a Stab H120 to move the intended satellite. Turns out the non penetrating room mound used on the ground was not plumb. Used some weather proof shims and I was able to plumb the pole. It was not too bad then checking original plumpness, but a perfectly plumb pole made whole lot of difference. Not us USALS as I find it not too reliable and KU birds are real touchy to tune in. Check that pole and try again, you will succeed and be happy!.
 
thomasu, I started with a setup from sadoun when they were in ohio. fortunately I had some sense about signals because I spent some time putting in and trouble shooting radio system signals with 4g and 6g signals. critical is getting your pole level. when I got mine from sadoun it had a center level with an air bubble so I could position the pole level. the bit of information in the pamplets with the motor did have all the information I needed to position the dish and motor but it was hard to understand and it took several days to understand it with trial and error. fortunately g17 is my southmost antenna and that helped me out. where are you located? I see you are in Hollywood florida? what receiver did you get? will be glad to help you get your system running right... chas

Hollywood is located at 80 longitude, 24 latitude. those are important to remember. the only signal to point your dish is at 82w which is close to south of you, just a little to the west and the signal is 12224v. once you have that located with your motor also installed, then you can try to move your dish by using the motor to 83w and 87w which have channels to help you adjust the antenna. for example using 83w the signal is 11900v30000. there are no channels on 83w. 87w has many channels. 11736v8333 is lots of Arabic channels and there are pbs channels there also. hope this helps. chas
 
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Ah the memories. Luckily though ThomasU this place is flooded w/ a wealth of experience to guide you.
In my experience, a few years back, I had the motor angle wrong with threw everything off.
 
Welcome to SatelliteGuys.

Sorry to hear about the troubles installing the motorized KU dish. Very often we hear similar stories from newbies installing almost any dish, LNBF, receiver or motor purchased from any reseller. It is a steep learning curve to understand menu settings and to apply the theory of aiming a fixed dish and even more difficult to install a motorized dish.

I am sure that we can assist with getting your system tracking the arc and viewing programming from multiple satellites.

Would you share the brands and models of the equipment that you received?

Receiver:
Dish:
Motor:
LNBF:

What city/ state are you in?

Could you take a photo from behind the dish pointed towards the southern sky?

Photo of the LNBF mounted in the clamp?

Photo of the motor Latitude scale?

Photo of the dish bracket and Elevation scale?

Are you using DiSEqC 1.2 or USALS motor control? If USALS, what is the latitude setting that was entered? North or South? What is the Longitude value that was entered? East or West?

What is the true south satellite that you are first trying to aim at?

What is the motor latitude setting provided for your location?

What is the dish elevation scale setting provided for your location?

With all respect, the installation challenges are likely related to an incorrect menu or mechanical setting and probably isn't related to buying from Sadoun or the equipment package that you selected.

Just to add to Titanium's list. What kind of cable are you using and how long? Straight cable or are there couplers in between?
 
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