Questions on dish mover

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olliec420

SatelliteGuys Pro
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Jun 4, 2007
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Pensacola, FL
Ok so right now (remember c-band newbie) I am parked on 87°. I have the actuator hooked to the old Uniden analog stb. I can press east or west on the remote once and it will move just a little bit or I can hold it and it will keep moving. When I push east or west once, and it moves a little, is that movement 1°? Am I telling it, 91°, 90°, 89°, 88°, 87°? Or is it just moving one rotation of the screw inside and it doesnt correspond to anything, just hoping I hit a bird?

Now that being said, if I get an ASC1, can I be on 91° and want to go to 103° and tell it to move to 103° and it bring me right to 103°, or do I need to bump it over until I'm in the right area, then fine tune by pushing east / west?

Also, the skew. I'm now running the voltage controlled geosat pro c-2 LNB. I don't need to do anything like turn the lnb by hand when moving it right? The skew change is in sync with the movement of the dish in relation to the angle of the dish to the horizon? Just like with a offset ku dish on a motor, correct? I remember talk many years back of the skew of I want to say 103° being crazy off. One of the main reasons I got the c-band is infowars on 103° so if I can't tune that one cuz of skew, before I beat my head against against the wall, it'd be nice to know if that is still an issue. Thanks guys.
 
No, you are probably not moving one degree of arc with each short button press, probably take a couple or a few to move one degree. And I think that amount will vary as you get nearer to the extreme east or west.

And no, the movement of the dish on a polar mount (or H2H) takes care of the skew as it tracks the arc. Just make sure the LNBF is skewed to zero (probes vertical and horizontal) when you are pointed due south.

And yes, the weird skew on 103, I think it was Ku only but even that has been cured, by a new satellite.
 
The amount of movement is different on each controller, actuator and dish. It also depends if the dish is near the center of the arc where there is more visible spacing between the satellites or near the horizon where the satellites appear to be closer together. After you have located a few satellites you will notice a pattern. On many systems it is typical to have 10-15 counts per degree. You can guestimate where the next satellite location will be by multiplying your systems counts per degree by the number of degrees between the current satellite and the target satellite. Example: If your system counts 10 counts per degree and the target satellite is 20 degrees away, multiply 10 x 20 = 200 counts. The dish controller display will be approximately 200 counts difference when the target satellite is located.

Locating the satellites will be the same on all controllers. Select the target satellite and an active transponder on the receiver and move the dish East/West until the Signal Quality reading is locked and optimized, then save the position. When using the ASC1 with any DiSEqC 1.2 receiver, I recommend using the receiver's DiSEqC 1.2 motor control menu to move assign and save each satellite position. This will automatically save and synchronize the receiver with hte ASC1 to providse automatic dish positioning when the receiver channel is changed. :)

A polar mount dish will change the skew as the dish moves across the arc. With the dish positioned at the top of the arc (True South), the C2W-PLL "0" skew mark will be aligned with the vertical axis of the dish (12 o'clock / 6 o'clock). 103w KU is now normal skew, but 103w C-band was always normal skew.

Edit: Phatwound types faster than I do! LOL!!!
 
No, you are probably not moving one degree of arc with each short button press, probably take a couple or a few to move one degree. And I think that amount will vary as you get nearer to the extreme east or west.

And no, the movement of the dish on a polar mount (or H2H) takes care of the skew as it tracks the arc. Just make sure the LNBF is skewed to zero (probes vertical and horizontal) when you are pointed due south.

And yes, the weird skew on 103, I think it was Ku only but even that has been cured, by a new satellite.

The amount of movement is different on each controller, actuator and dish. It also depends if the dish is near the center of the arc where there is more visible spacing between the satellites or near the horizon where the satellites appear to be closer together. After you have located a few satellites you will notice a pattern. On many systems it is typical to have 10-15 counts per degree. You can guestimate where the next satellite location will be by multiplying your systems counts per degree by the number of degrees between the current satellite and the target satellite. Example: If your system counts 10 counts per degree and the target satellite is 20 degrees away, multiply 10 x 20 = 200 counts. The dish controller display will be approximately 200 counts difference when the target satellite is located.

Locating the satellites will be the same on all controllers. Select the target satellite and an active transponder on the receiver and move the dish East/West until the Signal Quality reading is locked and optimized, then save the position. When using the ASC1 with any DiSEqC 1.2 receiver, I recommend using the receiver's DiSEqC 1.2 motor control menu to move assign and save each satellite position. This will automatically save and synchronize the receiver with hte ASC1 to providse automatic dish positioning when the receiver channel is changed. :)

A polar mount dish will change the skew as the dish moves across the arc. With the dish positioned at the top of the arc (True South), the C2W-PLL "0" skew mark will be aligned with the vertical axis of the dish (12 o'clock / 6 o'clock). 103w KU is now normal skew, but 103w C-band was always normal skew.

Edit: Phatwound types faster than I do! LOL!!!

Thanks, thats what I needed to know! :)
 
The dish,actuator and Uniden were all used together correct?And you got it from relatively close to you and reassembled as it was when you took it down?If so you should be able to push the SAT button on the remote,pick a sat from the list ,hit ok and the dish should go there.Note the sat names are probably different from what they are today,example 97w is likely named T5 in the Uniden.So pick a sat,fine tune position and then there should be an option to reset all sats,do that and you should be pretty close for the rest of them.
It's been a long time since I used my Unidens but I think the above applies.
Oh and forgot,you will need to have the Uniden hooked to something to see the menus.
 
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The dish,actuator and Uniden were all used together correct?And you got it from relatively close to you and reassembled as it was when you took it down?If so you should be able to push the SAT button on the remote,pick a sat from the list ,hit ok and the dish should go there.Note the sat names are probably different from what they are today,example 97w is likely named T5 in the Uniden.So pick a sat,fine tune position and then there should be an option to reset all sats,do that and you should be pretty close for the rest of them.
It's been a long time since I used my Unidens but I think the above applies.
Oh and forgot,you will need to have the Uniden hooked to something to see the menus.

Yes and yes. I will give that a shot thanks.
 
FYI, I've found it's much easier to add satellites by doing them one after the other in order without much distance of movement, ie, start at your true south and work either East or West one satellite at a time. Reason for this is that the counts between satellites at the extreme ends of the arc will be very different. With the actuator almost fully extended your count numbers between satellites will be MUCH LESS than it will be with the actuator only a short distance out.

EDIT: One point to note here is that you need to start your count from the END of your actuator travel, ie, on either the full out or full in mechanical travel limit switch. THAT should be your 000 or zero point on your dish controller.
 
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