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One more question, under the motorized system setup screen, I have the following four choices:
Save Position
Go to Position
Go to reference
Go to X.11.0)

and each one has an "ok" button to click on. What do these do?

cliffhanger31 said:

One more question, under the motorized system setup screen, I have the following four choices:
Save Position

and each one has an "ok" button to click on. What do these do?

Click to expand...

Cliff,

SAVE POSITION is normally associated with DiSEqC 1.2 motor control. There is memory storage in the motor itself. This is factory loaded (normally) for all satellite positions, but you can overwrite the factory positions to accomodate your own system setup. For instance, if you are trying to peak the signal from AMC 9 @ 83.0°W, you can use the DiSEqC 1.2 MOVE commands to step the motor a little to the east or a little to the west and search for the PEAK signal quality reading from a specific TP on 83.0°W. Once you are satisfied with the quality reading, highlight SAVE POSITION and press OK. This will overwrite the factory recorded position for AMC 9 / the satellite at 83.0°W and record your newly found position in its place.

If you ever perform the RESET on your H-H motor (according to your motor manual's instructions), it will erase the new position that you recorded above and reset it to what it was from the factory.

Here poses a question. Why does the factory create a predetermined satellite position list in the first place if you are going to normally overwrite it anyway? This is a very difficult question for me to answer. I simply do not know the answer. It may be rather simple, but not what we expect. I will do more research on this specific topic in the future, but for now you need not worry about it. It really is immaterial to what we are doing. Especially if you use USALS as that information (USALS) is stored within the receiver and overrides any stored satellite postion within the motor.

When using USALS, you only need three basic items.
1] Your site's latitude and longitude coordinates.
2] The satellite's orbital position.
3] Proper alignment of the dish and motor to your dead center, true south or HOME satellite position.

When using USALS, it is critically important to have your dish and motor aligned properly. USALS is a mathematical calculation which uses your site latitude and longitude and the satellite's orbital degre position to tell the motor how far and in which direction to move from the HOME position. Setting up your dish and motor with the proper HOME satellite makes your alignment process for all the other satellites a breeze as you don't need to anything for them at all (normally). The trick is getting your HOME satellite or truest due south satellite aligned perfectly. All other satellite positions are calculated based on that reference position.

Be advised, it is not an official requirement to utilize the HOME satellite (the satellite that is dead center or true south from your position) to get your dish aligned. You can use a satellite that is nearby if a good signal from the HOME satellite is not available or if you have no LOS for the HOME satellite. This will require you to take some additional steps to compensate for the slight error, but it works out the same in the end. It just means extra work at the very start. If you are within one degree, you are really well set.

If the only satellite that you can obtain a signal from is more than one degree away from your HOME satellite, you will have to apply some alternate techniques. You have to pretend that the HOME satellite is where it should be and drive the dish to the nearest satellite to it that you can get a signal from. Adjust your dish and motor alignment to peak the signal as well as you can on this satellite and then try to trace the arc.

Here you must take for granted what the dish and motor installation manuals tell you regarding setting the angles for each. Then, do NOT align your dish and motor to the nearest satellite. Align it to the HOME satellite (even though it may actually be imaginary - or has no signal). Then, with the receiver, tell it to MOVE the motor to the next nearest satellite that offers a signal and then peak the alignment of your dish and motor.

This way, you are still using the HOME satellite position as the reference, but you are "pretending" that you actually received a signal from it to peak the alignment with, although you didn't actually confirm it. You are basically skipping one step and hoping that you set the angles appropriately as you move on to another satellite to the east or the west. You are going to confirm your alignment there instead.

Doing this requires you to be more savvy. Say that the nearest satellite to your HOME satellite is actually 3 degrees away. Don't make the mistake of aligning your dish azimuth and dish elevation as if this satellite was your HOME satellite. Your arc will be off if you do this. Align the dish and motor to what you "BELIEVE" to be the HOME satellite and then use your reciever to drive the dish to the alternate satellite position and ONLY adjust your azimuth angle (move the motor on the mast east to west). If your motor and dish manuals were correct with the dish elevation instructions (angle) and you have the latitude angle of the motor set properly, you should detect a signal. When you do, fine tune it with the azimuth the best you can, then adjust the dish elevation angle. Get the signal to come in strong, but don't worry about peaking it to 100%. You don't have to be too precise at this point, you will work on improving this later, as you test more satellites across the arc. This is when and where you make compensations as you go back and forth across the horizon. Peak the signal a little on one sat to the east then go back to the west side and recheck and peak a signal a little and then back to the east side and repeak a little. You may need to adjust the azimuth and the dish elevation, but DO NOT change your motor elevation or latitude angle. If you set it correctly at the beginning, that is all you need or want to do.

I hope that you understand and comprehend my instructions. It isn't easy to put this all into words to paint the proper picture. I hope they give bonus points for trying! LOL

RADAR

cliffhanger31 said:

One more question, under the motorized system setup screen, I have the following four choices:
Go to Position

and each one has an "ok" button to click on. What do these do?

Click to expand...

Cliff,

GOTO POSITION is easy to explain, whatever satellite you have on the docket above or the one you have selected at the onset, the GOTO POSITION is supposed to drive the dish motor to that satellite.

RADAR

cliffhanger31 said:

One more question, under the motorized system setup screen, I have the following four choices:

Go to reference

and each one has an "ok" button to click on. What do these do?

Click to expand...

Cliff,

The GO TO REFERENCE is used to send the motor to it "HOME" position. If you click on OK for this option, it is supposed to drive your motor to the ZERO or HOME position. If you look at your motor tube, the pointer should then be aligned to the 0° mark on the motor houring scale. This is a sort of RESET feature. Basically, it is a command that tells the motor to go look for your HOME position. This is an alternate to resetting the entire motor as is does not erase all of your settings, it just tries to "RESET HOME". This feature commands the motor to go back to the ZERO or HOME postion and reset that position when it detects the flag signal from either a mechanical switch or a magnetic reed switch. Some sort of switch or sensor lets the motor know when it is at HOME and that is what it is looking for when you tell it to GO TO 0.

RADAR

cliffhanger31 said:

One more question, under the motorized system setup screen, I have the following four choices:
Go to X.11.0)

and each one has an "ok" button to click on. What do these do?

Click to expand...

Cliff,

This instruction elludes me. I am not sure what its function is. I have a gut feeling that it is an option to drive the dish motor to a DiSEqC recorded position, something like the GO TO POSITION command, but instead of telling it to go to a degree position, it is telling the motor to go to a stored motor postiion (like go to the satellite position that I stored as position #5).

I can only guess on this one, sorry. That instruction is something that is not available to my receivers, so I don't know how that works. Possibly I am wrong with the GO TO POSITION and the GO TO X, I may actually have the two reversed. Not knowing your receiver's operation first hand is my limitation. I have a Captive works 800S, but I don't use it. I am dabbling with the AZBox at present.

RADAR

Go to X.11.0) means "go to the angle position calculated by USALS."