Motorized dish issues?

[Blindowl1234]

Ok folks here we go again with another problem lol....I put in a Hotdish 90 for my brother last fall, and this week we decided to put the dish on a SG2100. True south is 85 west sat. We have the motor on "0" and 85 W test channel is strong. The motor is set at 35 on the left side of it (latitude). The markings on the dish due to the bracket on the dish are almost impossible to see.Actual latitude here is 39. Anyway we were able to get a signal from 74W to 103W. If I stand behind the dish and pull the pole towards me, which basically raises the dish, the 74W goes from just above the threshold to a booming signal. However we lose 103W etc...upper sats. If I push the pole away from me, lowering the dish, we gain a strong signal on 103W and 105w but lose the lower stuff all together. Suggestions? I've got the same motor on my 30" Winegard so I went by the settings on my Sg2100...It's set at 35. My dish says it's at 26. I can't tell what the Hotdish is really set at. I just peaked it on my true south sat. I don't think we've got a declination issue doesn't seem like. I checked my motor when I got home and 85W on my SG2100 is at "0"It was to cold after being outside for over an hour to do much more with it. Perhaps the pole which is only 1 7/8 fence post is too small for the weight of the dish and the motor? So we're looking for any ideas to try ....when it warms up lol...Thanks Blind

 

[Lak7]

The motor is set at 35 on the left side of it (latitude)

What is your Latitude?
Reason I ask, is Cinci has a Lat of 39.

 

[greg harris]

Anyway we were able to get a signal from 74W to 103W. If I stand behind the dish and pull the pole towards me, which basically raises the dish, the 74W goes from just above the threshold to a booming signal. However we lose 103W etc...upper sats. If I push the pole away from me, lowering the dish, we gain a strong signal on 103W and 105w but lose the lower stuff all together. Suggestions?

All of this is done facing the dish.

Line up on 85 West which is your center satellite.

Make several small marks on the pole and dish for reference.

Loosen the motor mounts and Slowly Move the entire motor towards 74 West. Go far enough to barely lose the signal on 85 West. Tighten the motor mounts. Then loosen and move the dish back until you have a signal on 85 West again. Check for signal loss/gain on the satellites. Repeat as needed.

Moving the entire motor towards the satellite that is low(East) should raise the dish in that direction while lowering the dish in the other direction.
The longer the motor travels, the lower the dish gets, so by moving the entire motor towards a satellite will mean slightly less travel time for the motor to drop the dish. It will increase the motor travel time in the other direction(West) which will make the dish go slightly lower in that direction. Remember to do all adjustments such as these on the center satellite. Greg

 

[McGuyver]

This simple illustration should help you understand the principal.

 

[turbosat]

blind it sounds like your east/west is off, motor and dish needs to be rotated a tiny bit to the west.
After you put it on a proper pole, that is , lol.

 

[McGuyver]

blind it sounds like your east/west is off, motor and dish needs to be rotated a tiny bit to the west.
After you put it on a proper pole, that is , lol.

Ugh I believe he needs to go east, read his post again and review my illustration

 

[Blindowl1234]

Thanks guys! I was thinking last night that maybe the east -west was off just a bit. I set up the motor the exact same way as mine is. Lat is 39 here Longitude is 84. My Sg2100 is set at 35 with no problems. So I'll try shifting it on the a little east and then a little west and see what happens. Weird thing is if you stand behind my dish the motor bolts on the left are right at the center of my post...say 6 oclock position...my 85w. The motor would be at about the 5 oclock position from the back side. On my brothers SG2100 I get 85W with the motor facing straight ahead, 6 oclock with me standing behind it....hope any of that makes sense. Sounds like I need to shift the motor to the left if I'm behind the dish? Oh well when I warms up in the next few weeks I'll see what happens. He's happy at this point to get more channels for free. Thanks Blind

 

[McGuyver]

Blindowl, when setting up a motor the slightest diviation makes a world of difference. Think about the projection of the aim, one hundreths of and inch on the ground can equal a greater spectrum 23,000 miles away. When planting the post and centering the motor's aim at the true south mark isn't always what you'd expect. I too initially had the same difficulty when installing motors. In this hobby there really aren't any absolutes when using the true south as the reference point, yes it's the only means by which we must use as a guide but isn't an absolute.

I don't know what your motor manual says about alignment but mine specifically describes that the true south reference is only a reference and it further explains how to adjust the east/west as I noted in the illustration otherwise they wouldn't recommend it.

According to your post, you definately without any doubt need to move it east just a hair, I mean one hair at a time until you get it right. Understanding the geometry of the hardware is important, once you do, setting up a motor can be a snap. Enjoy

 

[Blindowl1234]

Thanks for the input guys. Setting mine up over a year ago seemed a lot easier...probably cause I can roughly tell ya where each bird is in the sky blindfolded. So next time I get a chance to get to my brothers we'll gently move that motor to the east. Blind

 

[turbosat]

mcguyver you may be right! It was late at night when I posted that,lol. and I always tend to get that aspect of aiming @$$backward!

 

[McGuyver]

mcguyver you may be right! It was late at night when I posted that,lol. and I always tend to get that aspect of aiming @$$backward!

Yes, I knew you're smarter than that, I too sometimes absentmindedly get turned around. I just didn't want the guy to go the wrong direction.

 

[Larobpra]

Went out and played with mine yesterday. I wanted to see if I could improve signal strength on some TP's that are weak or that I just haven't been able to get (the NY network channels since they moved). Had the receiver at the dish and when changing sat positions, it would take off in the wrong direction or go completely by where it was supposed to to be going. I finally (I think) got it reset for the usual sats I frequent, but was getting very frustrated with it before I got too cold and it was starting to get dark as well. I use Diseqc rather than USALS as that was what I could get to work when I originally set it up. (The motor would go too far by a few degrees w/USALS - that issue has been covered here before)

Would a factory reset fix the motor going in wrong direction or too far?

 

[McGuyver]

Would a factory reset fix the motor going in wrong direction or too far?

Probably not, if you are talking about USALS, I would go with the diseqc 1.2 for motor control. I had troubles with this sort of issue before and I found that the receiver was assigning the wrong number to one or two satellites that conflicted with one another, assigned the same number. I used Channel Master to view the details and discovered this. The motor can only take commands for a certain number of satellites, mine was something like 68 total I think, a set of predefined numbers. You might read the motor manual if you still have it and see what it says about assigned numbers. And when you have over that amount in the receiver satellite list it may get confused. Even when you delete the unwanted satellites, the assigned numbers remain the same, it did with mine. So with editing the channel list data in Channel Master I was able to assign all the sats that I use with unique numbers that didn't conflict and it works perfectly now. This may not be your problem but it's worth the investigation if Channel Master is compatible with your receiver file system. Hope this makes sense, I'm tired after a hard days work...

 

[Blindowl1234]

The SG2100 is a pretty decent motor but still a pain in the .... I've had times when mine went crazy all over the place too. I finally had to take the receiver and small tv outside. I then maually moved the motor to each sat using the buttons on the motor. I locked them and stored them in the receiver. My motor shaft has a lot of play in it too...a good 1/8" ,sometimes I have to readjust the settings in the receiver on the lower sats 72W-83W as it tends to miss those sats by a couple degrees....Anyway I've about got my brothers setup done. Stopped by yesterday and moved the motor east on the pole about an 1/8" or so and got 72W to 125W. Still looked like I needed to raise the dish elevation just a bit. Oh well he's happy for now til I get more time and better weather too. Blind