another channel master polar mount attempt

[crackt]

so i decided to motorize the channel master properly. i stole a polar mount from a spare 8 footer. stripped it down and started building. cant quite say i can weld but they pass a hammer test. haha. function over form. hope to have it up tomorrow. i had to sleeve a 2 inch pole to 3 inch to work with the polar mount. we had so much snow lately i was to lazy to measure the length of the existing pole and my eyeballs left me 8 inches to short. it was to late and cold to get out the angle grinder so i hope to finish it and post a pic of it setup hopefully tomorrow.. itll be nice if it tracks proper. it has about 15 degrees of adjustability built in to it so as long as it is fairly square it should work.

crackt out,.

 

[Blindowl1234]

Crackt, Wow now that does look professional to me. Let us see some pics when its up and mounted. Blind

 

[phlatwound]

Can't wait to see how this one turns out, looks like a cool project. :up

Do you have a milling machine to make those slotted holes?

 

[1captain]

Looks good an should work out fine for getting it set up.
1 problem that I ran into doing mine here, was the elevation adjustment for the offset dish on the H-mount. I used treaded rod (5/8 stainless), an when I tighten up the nuts it pulled on their mounting points where they where bolted to the offset dishes mounts, an what I did was slot those hole an all was fine. I don't think that you will run into that problem, due to the flat mounting points on you're slotted angles that are for the elevation adjustment. also that elevation adjustment is real critical for the fine tunning to get it to track the ark, but I was going from horizon to horizon, a polar mount is more for giving. also you may want to think about adding a tap to make it a right hand drive actuator too, along with you're west side too, that will also help in the tunning or maybe in the future you may want to look at the eastern Ku satellites.

another thing that I learned setting mine up, at the time I was going blind all was trail an error, up until I read the Prodlien instruction sheet for their polar mount, an with a few hours had it tracking the ark fine. an the key factor was the offset angle of the dish is added to you're declination offset angel for you're area, an this is also you're fine tunning for the tracking too, again I was working blind because did not know my dishes off et angle.

here you may want to look at my old post an see if it can help when you start setting it up to track. mine has been up for quite some time an very happy with it, but it is comming down soon, an is going to replace the reflector with a 1.8-meter Channel Master, all parts are ready to go just need the time.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-ai...4-captain-s-1-2m-h-2-h-mount.html#post1652982

 

[crackt]

thanks guys. ive read all the posts on this site about this mod before i started. i have my declination + lat set in the middle of the slots. so i have about + or - 7 degress. i figured i may move some day and didnt want to have to build new pieces.

to make the slots, alls i did was drill the end holes and then drill a few holes in between. after i had a row of holes i used a die grinder with a nice cutting wheel to remove the rest of the metal. not the easiest method but it worked.

i was also going to add a threaded rod to aid in adjustment in between the top dish mount bracket and the bracket on the top of the polar mount. the angle of the top bracket on the polar mount made it not so nice to accomplish and i had a few hours invested in this project already so i decided to try with out it. it can always get added after if needed.

i didnt have the actuator mounting arm in the pictures. i had drilled to small a hole and when i redrilled the hole it wreckt my paint. so it was getting painted when i snapped the pics.

hopefully ill get it tracking tonight. only question left is do i hook it up to the vbox 2 or gbox 3k my 10 foot mesh is on. haha. im off to the post office. im hoping my new dvbworld pcie2006 is here.

crackt out,.

 

[brotherhood]

whats the size of the CM crackt?

 

[phlatwound]

.....to make the slots, alls i did was drill the end holes and then drill a few holes in between. after i had a row of holes i used a die grinder with a nice cutting wheel to remove the rest of the metal. not the easiest method but it worked....

The end results look great, I'll have to remember that method. :up

 

[PopcornNMore]

Very nice work! I have several CM dishes myself and love them.

 

[crackt]

whats the size of the CM crackt?

its a 1m. came with a single polarity lnb and cm matched feedhorn. i have 2 more to pick up but they probly wont have the feedhorn. they are pretty beefy. i didnt get around to getting it up yet cuz it is pretty cold here. when i do get it up ill grab the mold numbers.

crackt out,.

 

[crackt]

progress

so i had an hour today. i cut the inner pole to the proper height and plumbed the sleeve. i got the mount bolted together and up on the pole. i grabbed an actuator from my junk pile and set everything roughly to ware it should be. grabbed the old cordless drill battery to check the motion. just my luck, i had to grab a seized actuator. so i swapped it out and found a slight snag in my design. east travel is limited but its an easy fix. the point of attachment on the old mount does not allow the actuator to move the dish as far east as id like before the tube contacts the mount. it also does not create an angle to have enuff effective force to lift the dish back up from this position. a few minutes drilling some lighter c channel will move the point of attachment further away from the mount and make better angles. i cant wait to see if it will track. but i have my kids for the weekend so itll be monday at the earliest before i get back to it. too cold to take them outside. notice the almost 3 feet of snow i had to shovel around the pole. haha. -38 celsius with the wind when i mounted the beast today. i actually wore a jacket. i must be getting weak. haha. everyone loves pictures so heres some more.

crackt out,.

 

[turbosat]

Sure looks too cold to be planting dishes, haha. It WILL track, once you set the angles right. I was able to make one work, about 2years back, and it is still tracking just fine.

 

[Pismire]

Looking good. I have a 1.2 that I have been wanting to motorize for a couple of years now. Gotta get on it. High's in the 50's all January here near Olympic's land. Way to warm for the bobsled.

 

[Cadsulfide]

CrackT;

Nice workmanship! It looks like all that's left to do is to find the "Sweet Spot".

 

[crackt]

i got out to this dish tonight. im not sure if i like the actuator mounting points. i had at first used the mounting tab located on the original polar mount to mount the tube clamp. it made the actuator bind at a point on the east travel i wasnt happy with. i grabbed and drilled out some 2 inch channel i thought would fix it. i drilled holes that moved the clamp 12, 9 and 3 inches from the original mounting point. after adjusting the clamp tonight i found a postion thatd net me a 130w to 30w ish movement but im still not quite sold on how i inadvertently decided to mount the actuator. im thinking im not going to attempt to aim this setup until im satisfied. i think the 12 inch angle i bolted to the top dish mount is to short. i have thought about the solution and im sure it is to extend this angle to about double its length. im going to also weld in about 20 degrees angle into the long piece. i have a feeling the longer length and the backwards angle will provide a better effective force when the actuator is moving the dish. i have to keep in mind that most of this is by eyeball and i havent used a pencil or a mathematical formula in any way while fabbing this mount up. it does look like it will track but i want to finish it proper. i hope my day will allow me to attempt to weld the new piece tomorrow. i really have to many things i am committed to at the moment and need to start snipering junk off my list. hopefully finished pics will appear tomorrow night. if not itll be saturday at the latest or this project is waiting til spring. haha.

crackt out,.

 

[crackt]

so just an update. i poorly welded up the brackets i needed and ran some control cable out to the dish before the snow got serious. i also attempted to aim it today, only to freeze my fingers. haha. it got so bitter here after the taste of warmth we just had. it definately looks like it will track and it is solid. i cant wait to finish it so i can get my other projects done. prof tuners, chap ortho feed, norsat lnbs, dg380 screw change and a 39 inch on an sg2100 i have to mount are definately pushing me to work in the cold. haha. pics of the finished setup will be up tuesday even if i have to turn myself into a cracktsicle.

crackt out,.

 

[turbosat]

How about a 5gallon metal can and some lumber scraps burning in it for a hand-warmer?

 

[crackt]

haha. all the posts about warming up make me smile. i must be crazy cuz i dont even wear a jacket for 90 % of the crazy canadian winters. a hooded sweatshirt is usually enuff for me. i guess im outside enuff with all these dishes that im severely climatized. anyways its finally done. work has been kinda crazy lately and aiming polar mounts after a few beer never gets them perfect. today was a beautiful day and i tweaked it from 63w to 129w. this 1m channel master performs really well. almost so good it makes it hard to aim (only the last few sats ever suffer from bad adjustments. here are some finished pics. only my switch box was on the ground in them. but ive since mounted the sg2100 / 39" , mounted the box and cabled everything up, swapped the screw in my dg380, tweaked the spun and started on my siamese scalar project for the 10 foot mesh. i need time to scan some sats. haha.

crackt out,.

 

[phlatwound]

That's some fine looking work. :up

If you get a chance please take a pic from above, looking down at the back of the dish and mount.

 

[crackt]

That's some fine looking work. :up

If you get a chance please take a pic from above, looking down at the back of the dish and mount.

here you go.

crackt out,.

 

[phlatwound]

here you go.

crackt out,.

Thanks!