Issue with 10 ft solid I cannot figure out

[montana16]

Good day to all.
I tried searching but cannot find what I am looking for so I decided to post.

I have a 10 ft fiberglass with a Titanium lnb and a ASC1.
Last weekend I replumbed my pole and added 8 bags of 80 lb cement. Perfectly plumb now.
I live in western NY.
I get 80% signal quality using DVB Dream on everything between 131W and 89W. All seems good.
When I go east past 89W I cannot seem to pick up anything.
Not only that, now I have to re-adjust my locations in the ASC1 or so I thought when I go back west.
It seems if I come back to lower satellites (127W,131W...) the signals are off again but back close to where they were before I moved dish to east past 89W.
It is like I have something loose and when dish passes the azimuth, the weight of the dish makes it stretch the actuator (unlikely) or something is loose.
I went out and WD40'ed any pivot points I could find. Tightened any bolts that I saw were loose. I moved the dish with the actuator while out there and did not notice any play in dish when it went past azimuth.
I used to be able to get 58W but I have tried multiple times to get it now but no luck.
I did not move the dish for a couple months as I knew the plumb was off and didn't have time to go out and replumb it and add cement.

1) If I get half of the arc at 80%, I would think alignment was on and that wouldn't necessarily be what I would check first?
2) Is there any way the actuator internals could come loose that would cause the dish to be off that I get no signals east of 89W? I would think no as I have stepped by 3 through the ASC1 (650 to 1200) with 58W 4160-H-26590 in Progfinder 2.39 and never get any signal.
3) There are some trees across the street and they are taller than I remember but with elevation around 36 degrees, it looks like they shouldn't be in the way but I could be wrong. If problem persists into fall, maybe I can check then to see if it is an issue.

Any hints or tips would be appreciated. Thanks for your time.

 

[FTA4PA]

I get 80% signal quality using DVB Dream on everything between 131W and 89W. All seems good.
When I go east past 89W I cannot seem to pick up anything.

1) If I get half of the arc at 80%, I would think alignment was on and that wouldn't necessarily be what I would check first?

If you are coming back west after moving east and finding lower signals it seems as you say that something is moving and/or not staying aligned or you could be losing counts. That could be binding or an issue with the actuator. Do you need to move the dish a few clicks to regain the signals levels you had before the move?

As far as only getting the eastern or western part of the arc you will find this image helpful in diagnosing that issue.

 

[N6BY]

What he said ^^^. But I will add that from western NY, satellite 58W is at about 36 degrees. So the trees across the street could now be blocking it.

And I would recommend checking your declination. It should be about 6 degrees.

When lining up satellite dishes to the arc, I have found that a laser level is the most useful tool to have. I use it a lot. I'm in California and I can receive 55.5W to 129W, thanks to the laser level and a lot of careful adjustment.

 

[arlo]

I live a bit South of you. A few things.
"Dish bumping" or moving the dish E-W in little increments while searching for or peaking signal will cause counts issues. Once everything is saved in the ASC1 memory you should be able to commit to a satellite channel and have it stop spot on. But when going a few counts this way and a few that while finding and peaking will make you lose signal strength or signal all together on previously found sats. Make sense?
Keep a cheat sheet of how many counts there are for 2 degrees of satellite separation at the lower arc, middle, and upper arc. For me:
123-125, 125-127.....60 counts/2 degrees....30 counts per degree.
101-103, 103-105.....54 counts/2 degrees....27 per degree.

My preference when I peaked my dish was to land on a strong satellite and pull the motor from the actuator shaft.
Then vice grip the actuator shaft and turn it that way. I use my receiver for a signal finder.
You probably have a 6 pulse per revolution encoder. Do the math. You'll find that you need to turn it X turns to ballpark your next sat. And you can always turn it back to the sat the motor was parked on, line up the coupler, and bolt it back on. If there's a pin in the actuator. Don't lose that.
If you go "over the center" look for the dish weight to pull the actuator shaft. You'll lose/gain a butt load of counts reference if it does. I garage spring and cabled my dish so above a certain point there is always pull back on the actuator. Works slick.

Okay. So you got the last highest sat that you can get, 89W. The next east sat 87.2W.
There is a pretty strong radio station on 4175H DVB-S QPSK 2894.
On your receiver. Leave it on 89W. But go into signal finder and stab in those settings in User defined Transponder.
Doing this, not changing the receiver to 87W, will not actuate the motor if a slot happens to be saved in the ASC1.
Crank the vice grips to move the dish East a little bit looking for a signal.
Grab the lowest part of the dish rim and see if pulling or pushing on it to lower or raise it towards the horizon gets you a signal. Crank the dish a little bit at a time. Do you eventually get a signal. Even if getting it means you have to put some elbow grease into the dish?
Yes? There's your first clue as to getting alignment tweaked in.
The chart above was my kindergarten wtf lesson in figuring out why my dish needed tweaking.

You mentioned lubing the pivots. Are the bolts or dish pivot bushings all wallered out? If so, no bueno.
I put pillow block bearings in mine. Rock solid now.

 

[Comptech]

I have found my ACS1 is always of a couple of clicks if I move from one end of the arc to the other. Close enough for signal, but always needs bumped. Could be my wiring but lands close enough.

 

[Houston Rockets]

I have found my ACS1 is always of a couple of clicks if I move from one end of the arc to the other. Close enough for signal, but always needs bumped. Could be my wiring but lands close enough.

I have the same trouble I never could understand why.. I have replaced the actuator wire and the actuator it self same thing
I couldn't tell you why that keeps happening

 

[Comptech]

Not a big deal for me, I always save the new position, but if I take it from say 125W to 87W it will land pwerfect, but if I move back up the arc I still land on the sat, but need to bump it a couple clicks. I agree, more magnets in the wheel as Arlo said.

 

[wagonman76]

My dish used to do that near the top of the arc. When coming back down I’d have to go to the next satellite then go back up, to take up the slack. I did rework one of the pivots to tighten it up.

Not sure exactly the details of the ASC1, but my analog receiver has an option to realign all satellites by adjusting a single one. I have to do this every now and then. My wheel only has 4 magnets per revolution.

 

[arlo]

One thing I saw when building and tweaking a hall encoder with more magnets.
The counter in the ASC1 stops, or shuts off, when the motor relays open.
Therefore if the actuator motor "coasts down". You lose counts. A bit more when the actuator is retracted if dish weight is on it. I picked that up while looking at my 'scope tweaking the sensor for the best pattern.
In a coarse magnet, the common 6 segment type. If the reed switch is 'in between' or close to tripping the reed when the motor is commanded on. Before the internal sensing circuit switches on. It looks it is missing an occasional magnet trip. You see this the most when bumping the E-W button while tweaking sat positions.
Hall effect conversion did help a lot.
Of interest also is in my box-o-junk, a few magnets have a 'fat' segment. You get 5 evenly spaced pulses and one longer one.
Also. The realignment function works IF you didn't tweak in and save positions of the other sat's.