How to Retract Actuator Inner Tube for Bud Dish?

[jsattv]

I am trying to get my Actuator Set up for my C Band Dish and it is about half way extended out of the Innertube. That's the way it came when the previous owner disconnected it off the Dish Ring. The Uniden 9900 Manual says that the Actuator Tube needs to be Fully Retracted when connecting to the Antenna.

I temporarily hooked the Actuator + and - terminals to a 12 VDC Battery Charger and it is running very smoothly and faster than I expected. Cleaned up some Rust on the shaft with steel wool and opened up this Von Weise Actuator to check for wiring color connections for the Sensor and Motor.

Question: On the back of the Uniden 9900 Receiver there is an UP/Down Limit switch. Does anyone know if I need to hook up the Actuator to the Uniden 9900 Power Supply to retract the Actuator Shaft? Can this be done without the Dish being in the setup? Or will the Motor Shaft reverse itself after it travels the maximum 18 inches when hooked up to the 12V Battery Charger? Any comments would be appreciated.

 

[stogie5150]

If I understand you correctly, if all you need to do is run the motor, just hook the motor wires backwards from what you had before, with just the two motor wires to your battery charger. Hooked one way the actuator will move OUT, the other way it will move IN. Off the dish on the bench is fine. Just make sure you put something in the end of the actautor to keep it from turning while its running, like put the end in a vise or something. If it rotates it will destroy the hard limit switches in short order, I am told.

I use an old MTI positioner box to move my dish without the limit switches hooked up, so I use the hard switches on the motor all the time i.e. Just move the motor until it stops moving west.... EDIT: or EAST depending on which side your actuator is mounted on. Most of us the actuator is mounted on the dish so that fully retracted the dish is facing WEST.

 

[turbosat]

Unidens

I have one of those 9900, good receiver. If I remember correctly there is a tiny hole with a switch for both west and east limits. I always put the motor on, ran the dish all the way east and set the limit (if it hits the limit before the dish gets all the way east, just put the little reset switch for east with a pencil tip or something) Once you get to what you want east limit to be, run about 10 cts past the last satellite you want, then put in on that switch again to set limit.
Same thing for the west limit. Go a bit past the last sat position west too, set limit, gives a little slack to work with if your motor isn't totally accurate.
If the limits are set and the motor counts ok you should be good to start storing satellite positions.

 

[jsattv]

Thanks Stogie 5150 and Turbosat. I will try reversing the 12VDC Feed from the Battery Charger to see if I can retract the Actuator Innertube.