Post Size For Motor

[ShaneLinder]

I finally got the tech out to install my motor. He said he hadn't installed one before but it looks like I need a bigger post. He said the U bolts a large enough for a 2 1/2 or 3" post. This is a link to the motor I bought. GEOSATPRO GS120 FTA SATELLITE MOTOR - Adventist Satellite - Glorystar Christian Satellite Systems

I bought my dish from the same company. I called them and they said the motor will work with the post that came with the dish. Can anyone offer some helpful advice I can print and give to my tech when I get him back out?

 

[voomvoom]

The stats from your link, at the "Post Clamp" says 1 1/2"- 2 5/8". I have one on a schedule 40 pipe at 1 7/8". But I think a bigger post would be better. My set-up is temporary for testing purposes. Eventually, I plan to place it on a 2 3/8" pole.
With all that said, I'm sure the Company of your purchase, knows what they are talking about. It should be OK to use the post that came with it!

Al

 

[Mr Tony]

Shane
The mast that came with the dish originally will work. I have a long mast that is 1 5/8" and have had a motor like that on there for 4 years now with no issues

The brackets will take a larger mast if you had one but it will work on what you have

 

[ShaneLinder]

I went home at lunch and looked at it. I am just going to install it myself. It doesn't look too hard. However I wasn't able to aim it before and had to call this same tech. Now the motor has an angle adjustment and the dish. So that looks like it will make it all the harder to aim. Installing it will be easy. Aiming it is likely to be what I won't be able to do.

 

[gabshere]

another thought is not to overtighten the bolts , some brackets bend lol my post bent lol had to dig it up and do another ...

 

[Larry1]

Try to find someone who has installed a motor before. It can be quite a learning experiance if the tech has not installed one before. I know from experiance as I had installed a few Bell and StarChoice dishes before I installed my motor. It was quite a job getting it all adjusted correctly to track the arc. Took me a few weekends of tweeking to get it to the point that I was satisfied. There are little things that a person who has installed many of them will learn like, tighening the ubolts on the motor in a different sequence can pull the motor in one direction or the other. Tighening oposite/diagonal bolts can skew the motor one way or another. This may not make a big difference, but can make those satellites at either end of the arc have a good or a great signal.

 

[SatelliteAV]

With the Dish aimed towards true South in your area, Mercedes, Texas, (compass reading / azimuth 174 degrees) set the LNBF rotation straight up in the 12 o'clock position.

Place your receiver on 3ABN and press the Menu button.
Select Antenna Setup
Select AMC4
Select Positioner and change to USALS and press OK
Enter Longitude 97.9 W / Latitude 26.2 N
Press Store and Exit two times then press OK to save changes. The dish will swing slightly right into position on satellite AMC4.

On the dish set the Motor Latitude scale to 26.2
Set the Dish Elevation to 25.6

Press the SIG button

Slowly sweep the dish east / west a few degrees. If no Signal Quality is found, increase the dish elevation setting by one degree and sweep the same small area of the sky. Repeat this process between 5 degrees above and below the estimated dish elevation setting.

Once the signal Quality is found and peaked, enter the menu and add IA5 at 97W, select your LNB type (Standard) and turn on the positioner USALS. The dish will swing into position. Select Transponder 12177, You may need to make a slight dish elevation or Azimuth adjustment to peak the quality. Power scan in the FTA mode and add the Galaxy25 (IA5) channels.

Programming is available from many KU satellites, so you will want to check Lyngsat for regular 24/7 broadcasts. Many satellites carry occasional programming, so what you might not find a 4 pm might be broadcasting at 5 pm!

 

[ShaneLinder]

OK, I installed it but now I don't know how I figure out if it is right. What do I do with my remote control? I can rotate the dish manually but have no clue what to do from inside the house.

 

[SatelliteAV]

You need a small TV next to the dish and follow the suggestions in the above posting.

 

[ussexplroer]

tv in a window

For mine I stuck a tv in a window that happened to be right next to the dish. I also took a tv outside. The best way I found to do it and the help from these guys. Once again guys thanks for the help.

1. Make sure post is level. 100% I cannot tell you how much a tad off make a difference. (don't tighten the bolts to the post of the elevation down all the way. AKA fine tuning. But tight enough so the motor will turn but not fall off.

2. Setup your receivers for usals. Each receiver is different and I honestly don't know how they did it without usals. Then tell the receiver your closet south satellite after ending in your usals information. THis will them move the dish over. Then line up the dish to get a signal and you should get some channels.

3. THen after I got my closet south satellite working. I went to some other and tweaked it between then. Some will be lower in picture quality and not. SO if you tweak say G10 and then go for 129. White springs. THen tweak for white springs. Then G10 will be down a little. (Somebody said to check at both ends from east to west.) So I did that.

4. I tightened everything down carefully not to bump it and let the thing scan through the complete list. From 61.5 - 148.0 and watch it light up like a christmas tree.

Laters,

Josh

 

[ShaneLinder]

Thanks all. I printed all the advice and will call the tech tomorrow and let him fine tune it. His boss told me that this tech does all the C-band service. The tech is the one that told me he hadn't installed a motor like that before.

Just as well that I did it. I didn't need to pay him $45/hour for a learning experience. If he works with C-band dishes he should be able to fine tune this one.

 

[voomvoom]

Shane, I don't know if this will apply to you and your dish or not. But, with my GS120 motor, and I placed a GeosatPro 1.2m dish on it, and used a 55mm tube, the tube angle was different from the standard tube that came on the motor and it caused the bolts from the dish to stick out too far and they wound up hitting the coax inputs on the motor. I had to cut the bolts to keep them from hitting the coax inputs. Hopefully, this will not apply in your case.

Al

 

[Tron]

another thought is not to overtighten the bolts , some brackets bend lol my post bent lol had to dig it up and do another ...

If it is the same as an SG-2100, be VERY careful about overtightening the U-bolts. They will strip and/or actually break off very easily. They seem to be made of some sort of porous metal.

 

[ShaneLinder]

The tech came out today and was able to tune in AMC4 but when he hits "save" he said the motor moves and he loses it. I haven't been home yet and am kind of afraid to mess with it at this point. I am going through the Yellow Pages and trying to find another tech. Any more advice>

 

[ShaneLinder]

OK, I got home and looked at it. He has it tuned into AMC4 with the motor pointing at 0.

So when he goes through the process and clicks on save for AMC4 the reason the motor moves is because it is looking for AMC4 and doesn't realize it is already looking straight at it. Right?

Is that right? Should he save AMC4 first and then adjust it to find it?

 

[lumpkin666]

That's right Shane. You seem to already know more than the pro, so get your compass out and finish up the job without him. You'll be happy you did, and also have a great sense of comfort in knowing that you can do it again if/when you need to make adjustments and/or additions to your setup

 

[ShaneLinder]

I got 3ABN at 90% but after switching a couple of channels the dish moved, I am assuming the motor moved it, and now I can't get anything. This was after I followed all the steps Brian laid out. I stored the USALS at the longitude and latitude.

 

[ShaneLinder]

Another thing: I noticed the tech set the elevations of the dish and motor far from the 26.2 latitude on the motor and 25.6 on the dish. Although they way it was, the 25.6 on the dish was as low as it could go because the dish was prevented from going any lower by the post coming out of the motor.

BTW: I am not an electrical engineer so I will not be offended by anyone's advice

 

[Mr Tony]

Shane
On the motor elevation, there might be writing on 2 sides. One side says elevation and one says latitude. The Latitude side should be set to 26. On the Elevation side, it would be 64 (90-latitude).

The easiest thing is to always work with the side that says "Latitude"...which is the same as the latitude of where you are (which it looks like SatAV says its 26). For me in Minnesota, I have it set to 45 (45N here in Minneapolis).

Your true south satellite (the satellite that is at the same longitude as you) is almost a degree off (which is fine). I would do as Brian recommended to aim for AMC4 first. I'll try and recreate it from my Ultra

1. In the antenna setup, bring up AMC4 and select
2. scroll down to positioner setting and and scroll to USALS and hit OK
3. in the next menu put in longitude & latitude as Brian noted above and then scroll down to "move" and press OK...the motor should move.
4. Scroll to store and press OK.
5. exit back to the main antenna setup screen where it lists the LNB info, transponder, etc.

Now the motor is moved to where AMC4 would be on the motor. This is where you need to maybe move the motor & dish as a whole outside to lock on AMC4. Once that is stored and you have good quality, save the settings. Now scroll to IA5 and select it. Repeat step 2 then in the next menu the latitude & longitude will be in there. Select move and the dish should move to IA5.

 

[ShaneLinder]

OK, but I was able to get 3ABN at 90% with it set where it is. However something moved. Could have that been because the latitude is wrong?

I am about at my wits end and with no one in South Texas that knows anything about it, my only option is to put it back in the box if I can't get it to work right.