geosatpro 1.2 dish and sg9120

[Chewie]

Hello Gents
I need some help with this setup, I have a geosatpro 1.2 dish on a sg9120 motor.
I had a power tech DG380 on this same dish, I had to take it down because it has a play on the motor arm, it was working somewhat OK but it was in the arc.
I decided to change it and try the new SG9120, My true south is 116.8 sat mex.
lat = 33.9 N long= 117.2 W, i have set the motor to elev. to 34 using the lower lat. scale on the motor bracket. according to the user manual, the dish elev. should be 40 - declination angle 5.5 = 34.5, I remember that on my DG380 i had to subtract
around 4.5 deg. because of the inverted dish bracket.
I did that and my dish elevation is set at 30 deg. set my receiver to the stronger
transponders, motor arm is set to zero deg. and I am not able to get a signal at all,
I moved the whole motor assy. side to side slowly, I can not hit this sat, I know my cables are good, I did change the LNB, also bypass the motor, settings on the receiver are correct, I try another sat closest to my long, and still no signal.
the motor moves the dish just fine.
I try different elev. on the dish from 20 deg to 35 deg, no cigar, my motor bracket is plum 90 deg. both sides.
If any body has any ideas, please let me know.
Thanks in Advance.
Chewie.

 

[Chewie]

Hello Gents
Regarding the signal, I do get the strength signal but no quality signal.
I noticed when I was disconnecting the cables from the motor, the connectors on the motor are loose, I will try resetting the motor tomorrow and see what happens.
Regards
Chewie

 

[phlatwound]

It sounds like you have tried everything that I can think of.

I have had cables/connectors that I "knew" were good, but they weren't.

Worth switching them out if you have any others.

 

[WSInternational]

Are you getting power from the cable going from the motor to your LNBF?

 

[Chewie]

Hello ROBBIE
I did not check on the power, should it be 13 to 18 volts dc?
When I bypass the motor, I still had the disq. switch in line, maybe something
happen to it , I'll bypass it tomorrow.
thanks for your idea.
Regards
Chewie

 

[turbosat]

How do you have the diseqc switch wired? Or was it in use when you were connected to the motor?

 

[crackt]

Hello ROBBIE
I did not check on the power, should it be 13 to 18 volts dc?
When I bypass the motor, I still had the disq. switch in line, maybe something
happen to it , I'll bypass it tomorrow.
thanks for your idea.
Regards
Chewie

itll depend what transponder your trying to tune. receiving either 13 volts or 18 volts on the lnb side of the motor will be a good sign that the connectors on the motor are not at fault. id start by removing the diseqc switch. and then sweep for your south sat again. switches can blow up easily when shorted. its best not to hot plug them, especially 22khz switches.

crackt out,.

 

[Chewie]

Hello Gents
I finally got a signal, I bypass the disg. switch first, changed cables, reset the motor, pointing at 116.8 sat mex. I set elevation from 20 deg. to 35 deg. and nothing, I also have in line a small signal meter, so i decided to put every thing back including the disq.switch. after that, I started to play with the dish elevation, so went down lower than 20 deg, somewhere around 17 and 15 deg. my meter
went nuts on me the needle peg the meter, so I adjusted the dish for max. signal.
went inside house and check all the transponders on this sat and nothing, no signal, so I did a blind scan, than started to get a signal from the sat next door.
i move to that sat. and the both signal was almost 100%, move the motor around other sats and hit just about every thing in the arc, but not the 116.8, i got to do some fine tuning on this, maybe the motor is not aligned with the dish center, i always had problems with this, maybe some of you can give some ideas.
I still concern with the play on the motor connectors, they are loose, I will call the dealer and ask if I can tight them down and DON'T VOID ANY WARRANTIES.
So I had a good day, as far as the operators manual settings, well not quit correct with this dish and motor combination
I thank all for your suggestions
Regards
Chewie.

 

[crackt]

to align the dish centered on the motor.... send the motor to 0 degrees or its reference point. standing in front of the dish, the lnb + dish + pole should make a straight line.

crackt out,.

 

[phlatwound]

Glad to hear your are making progress.

Have you been able to pick up 116.8 before? I see you list your location as Canada, I think the signal for that sat is pretty weak that far north.

 

[crackt]

Glad to hear your are making progress.

Have you been able to pick up 116.8 before? I see you list your location as Canada, I think the signal for that sat is pretty weak that far north.

it is a weak sat up here. i dont think i can lock any ku on that bird. and for cband its not strong at all on my 10 foot.

crackt out,.

 

[ashdavely]

Hi Chewie,

What did you end up using for your dish elevation?

I have the SG9120B and have not been able to get it working. I can pull in my south satellite Satmex5 but i had to set my dish elevation to 24 degrees when the manual says it should be 40 degrees minus a declination of 5.5. Which is 34.5. At 34.5 I get nothing. Started playing with the elevation cause I didn't know what else to do. When I move the dish with usals to Satmex6 on an active transponder I get nothing. I have a sadoun "90T" dish and coolsat 6000 receiver. This is my first time setting up a motor. It's about to go in the trash.

 

[Chewie]

Hello Ashdavely
First timer, well I remember my first motor, it took me a while to set it up, regarding my setup, as I stated in this thread the elevation on the manual did not work for me, I end up taking the dish down and setting up
from scratch, ensure the dish pole is 90 deg. all the way around, make sure the motor bracket is set to 90 deg, set the motor to zero deg. ensure the middle of the dish is aligned to the zero of the motor, In my setup i was able to get signal on satmex6 but when I moved the dish to satmex5 there was nothing there, I was using a ku lnb, i try a few and nothing, i order a Spitfire elite 0.1 db lnb after I installed it i got a signal on satmex5, stated to play with the dish elevation for max signal, after that all my sats came in just fine.
the ku lnb was removed and installed a c band lnb,and is working good.
as far as the motor is concern, i love this motor, i had it for about a year now and and it moves my 1.2 m dish with no problems, there is no play on the motor shaft either.
keep playing with the dish elevation, maybe go lower.
let us know how things work out for you.
Regards
Chewie.

 

[ashdavely]

I measured the tube bend on my SG9120B and got 30 degrees, not 40 degrees which is what the manual says. So it's 30 degrees minus the declination value. Perhaps the tube bend is 40 degrees on the SG9120 which has the larger 50mm tube?

I am having trouble with my mast it seems. It's bolted to the roof of my old house. I think after mounting the motor and the dish it's no longer plumb. The roofing material is very thin and it seems to flex when I tug on the mast. So, now looking at buying or making a non-penetrating roof mount. It's on the roof cause I have line of sight issues in the back yard.

 

[MikeinBaja]

I measured the tube bend on my SG9120B and got 30 degrees, not 40 degrees which is what the manual says. So it's 30 degrees minus the declination value. Perhaps the tube bend is 40 degrees on the SG9120 which has the larger 50mm tube?

I am having trouble with my mast it seems. It's bolted to the roof of my old house. I think after mounting the motor and the dish it's no longer plumb. The roofing material is very thin and it seems to flex when I tug on the mast. So, now looking at buying or making a non-penetrating roof mount. It's on the roof cause I have line of sight issues in the back yard.

With the winds we have on the "left" coast - I always prefer to use support arms/monopoles on my masts similar to those used with the DTV slimline. You can pick those up pretty cheap new or fabricate some.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Tron]

The DirecTV Slimline J-pole/monopole mounts are great for motorized dishes. They can usually be adapted easily to bolt to NPRM bases such as those sold for the Superdish. I'm in the process of installing two of these Slimline mounts on NPRMs right now (my first Spring project this year), and will start a thread on the subject when the dishes are installed.