There goes my third motor

[ftamart]

Hi guys,
When I started with FTA, I purchased a Skywalker DG-120A. It worked great until the temperatures dropped to -20C (-4F). I fried. Tried a second one the same winter, and that one too went on me with the cold. Now imagine when it goes down to -35C (-31F) or colder, which is common here in Manitoba.
Next I bought a DMSI Digipower SG2100, as Iceberg said his always worked fine in winter in Minnisota, just south from where I live. When I got it, I found out it was the so called new model, the one with two buttons and no reset, unlike the one Iceberg has. This one worked fine for almost two years. Now it has problems. I turns fine going west, but going east it starts turning, but then slows down until it stops turning completely before it gets to the sat it's suppose to go. The way I use the motor is that I mostly watch G25 which is almost true south for me and from there I go west to G18. Which means that is usually goes 'downhill' going west and 'uphill' going east, so it always works harder going east.
I took the motor down and tried it inside, and it does the same thing. I don't think the it's the little motor inside, because then I would behave the same going east or west. I think the problem is one or more components on the circuit board. I opened it up and transposed two capacitors that were the same (one for east one for west), and after doing that, it still did the same thing. Going west was fine but going east it started at a good speed and then slowed down until it stopped. One it stops, the LED flashes red. I reset it by turning off the receiver and pressing the two buttons at the same time and turn the receiver back on. If I wait long enough, the east works again, but again, it starts slowing down coming to a halt.
It might be fixable, I don't know.
I am using it on an Ariza 36" dish.

Has anyone experienced something like this?
What motor would you recommend I should get next? Please take into account the size of my dish and the cold Manitoba winters.
Iceberg, is your digipower motor still working great?

Thanks in advance for your help,

 

[brentb636]

With your luck, get a STAB motor ( long warranty period ). My hh90 works fine on my Fortec 90cm dish, but you get the HH100 just to have the extra drive.

 

[Swamp_Rat]

I just bough a DG380 from Sadoun. It has a LOT more power and a LOT faster the the old HH120 I had. I can't tell you about how it will react to the cold but it appears to be better made the the old HH I had. It sounds like the grease inside could be freezing at those temperatures.

 

[Greg Mueller]

It might be that the grease is freezing in the motor. You may have to figure a way to keep it warm, like with water pipe heater wire.

The reason I think this is that we have tried to use those little milk house heaters to keep pipes under the house from freezing in New Mexico where it can hit -5° F in the winter. But the grease will freeze in the fan bearings and the fan won't turn and the circuit breaker pops. You need a heater to keep the heater warm.
We finally had to go to the water pipe electric tape as there is no moving parts

 

[ftamart]

I have to add that this motor quit working just before it started to get cold. November was an unusual nice month as far as weather goes. So I wouldn't blame this particular problem on the cold temperatures. Last winter it worked fine. After the problem started, I tested the motor inside the house, and it was doing the same thing.
Greg, I like your idea about heating with water pipe heater wire (had never heard of it though).
The PowerTech motor looks like a good one.

 

[SatPhreak]

I'm going to agree with brent as I also have a stab hh90 and have had no problems with it. I have a 90 cm dish on it so with a 36" I'd go with the hh100 or the monster hh120. It might cost a couple dollars more than the competition, but quality pays for itself in the end.

 

[Sadie]

I had a similar problem with my SG2100 slowing to a stop going up hill this winter (this is its third winter)
My set up is somewhat unusual in that I have a over 200ft of cable and a poor little underpowered Twinhan 102g trying to drive it, the power supply in the twinhan card is not up to the job so when I first got it I modified it to run the motor but not the circuit board on an external power supply, it worked great.
This year I started to have problems maybe the grease is getting old, normally the motor gets it power from the LNB supply line which varies between 13 and 18 volts depending on the LNB polarity selected (vertical or horizontal).
With the mod I did it was receiving 13v all the time, I changed the power supply so it now receives 18v at the motor under load (about 20v off load due to the cheap power supply), end of problem its working great again.
I can find the mod if your interested but it does involve some pc board work and running out an extra cable to supply power.
A couple of you things you might try.
Does it work better with different polarity selected for the LNB, sorry I can't remember right now what polarity results in 18v to the LNB.
Check the voltage you are getting as close as you can get to the motor when under load, on my board the switching to the motor is handled by 2 small relays, nothing fancy just good old mechanical switching, maybe one of them or a connection along the way is bad.

 

[Tron]

18V corresponds to horizontal polarity. If you want to send 18V to the motor, selecting a transponder that is horizontal should give it an extra kick.

 

[ftamart]

Thanks guys for you responses. I don't think that a mod to feed the power directly would help to fix it, because as I said, one way it turns perfectly and with the other direction it has problem, even inside with the dish off and a short cable. Although, I wouldn't mind the constant 18v. to have it turning at the fastest speed all the time.
I think I am going to follow the advise of getting a Stab HH100. I might even be able to get it in Winnipeg. I would love to buy it from one of the sponsors of this forum, but if I can buy it here I will save myself the shipping and customs fees.

Thanks again to all of you for you help.