Getting ready to install

[mrweather]

I've assembled the Fortec 90cm dish and pieced together the mouting mast and Stab HH120 motor. So far so good.

Tonight I decided to test the motor using USALS to make sure it worked with the Coolsat 5K.

Looking at the Stab it was already at zero so I figured hooking it up (power off first!) and putting in AMC-5 (my true south bird) shouldn't cause the motor to move too much. Sure enough I heard a very brief whirr and then it stopped. Alright we have motion!

Now the trouble begins...

I tried a couple of other satellites -- AMC-6 to the east and AMC-4 to the west. At first the display on the tv said "moving to 72.0 W..." but nothing happened. I tried again and nothing happened.

Funnily enough, I turned the Coolsat off then on again (with the remote) and it worked. Okay weird... anyway... let's try 101.0 W.

Same problem. The motor wouldn't move. I did the power off/on thing and it worked this time.

To add insult to injury at one point I tried manually moving the motor with the remote and had the thing go out of control -- i.e. kept turning even when it said STOP on the menu screen.

I was thinking maybe there was a cable problem but they all check out. Now I'm wondering if it's a receiver problem or a motor problem? Both are new units right out of the box.

Any suggestions anyone? I would hate to install everything and have to take it apart again to replace a bad part!!

Or... am I as a newbie overlooking something that's completely obvious to a everyone else?

Help!

PS: I haven't scanned any transponders yet; I just wanted to test everything on the ground first before the final installation. Don't know if that makes a difference or not?

 

[digiblur]

Have you ever pointed a KU FTA dish before? If not, I'd point the thing without the motor just so you get the hang of the receiver and you'll get to see how accurate the pointing has to be on this thing.

Did you set your lat & long in the receiver for USALS?

 

[mrweather]

Thanks for responding.

Can't say as I have any experience aiming Ku -- other than when I was a Bell ExpressVu subscriber a few years ago, and that was a whole different ballgame (smaller dish, higher powered TP's, etc.)

At this point I was just wanting to make sure everything worked.

I did input my coordinates for USALS (43.6 N, 79.7 W) and indeed the HH120 would stop at "0" whenever I selected AMC-5.

The problem right now is once I select a satellite and want to go to another one the motor won't move unless I power down the Coolsat box. This just doesn't seem like a normal procedure.

I searched around (Google, Sadoun, here) and found a few comments about Coolsat 4000's having issues with Stab motors because of buggy firmware. I would hope those issues would've been resolved with the newer receiver!

 

[Wildeye]

All I can say is make sure you have varified current tp signals for your refrance sat.

 

[mrweather]

Will do, thanks.

AMC-5 is my TS satellite. Can anyone confirm that 11742 V is a strong transponder?

Unfortunately due to some stupidity on my part (slicing my finger open with a screwdriver while working on another project) I was unable to complete the installation.

Hopefully later in the week when the stitches come out I can continue.

 

[Mr Tony]

11742 V 11110 is a strong transponder

 

[Sadoun]

I searched around (Google, Sadoun, here) and found a few comments about ......

mrweather, I am glad you've searched in our website. We have updated our site search engine and hopefully you can find the Search results much more relavent now. Check out the search at the top of each page on Sadoun website. Let me know through PM or here if you see any changes or improvement needed in the site seach function.

 

[mrweather]

Update!

Just thought I drag up my old thread.

I got the dish and motor installed last week. Found my true south (AMC-5) and received the NYN and University of Utah programs okay.

However, the motor problem I referred to earlier is still there. It will sometimes move when I tell the Coolsat 5000 to move it. It will sometimes not move.

I tried three different cables and no difference.

I tried my buddy's 5k and no difference.

This leads me to believe it's a motor issue.

When it does work it tracks the Belt just fine. It's just getting the darn thing to work in the first place!

 

[mrweather]

Another update!

I've taken the motor out for now and am waiting on a replacement.

Got the dish pointed at G10R in the meantime so at least I can watch some 80's videos!

I'm pretty certain the motor had issues. I replaced all the connectors on the coax and I even tried using a different Coolsat 5k and still had motor control problems!