SG-2100 Motor Referencing

[NCElecTech]

I have a Diseqc 1.2 (SG-2100) motor and am looking for info on the reference
position. All the information I have tells me that it should move to the "0"
position when told to go to the reference position....and I believe that it
used to do just that.
Now, when I reference it, it moves to the "20" position (er...on the west
side [pointing south]).
I tried the following:
1) Sent to reference via the Receiver (Fortec Lifetime Classic)
2) Manually moved it back to 0
3) Powering down the Receiver
4) Powered up and told it to reference...went back to 20.

I moved the dish and tried to reestablish alignment, sent it to one of
my favorite satellite and found out I was between 15 and 20 degrees off.

Anyone have any suggestions? I thought about hooking up a power
supply and just move it manually without the receiver...or is there something
I can reset in the receiver? (factory reset?)

 

[Skjellyfetti]

Have you set latitude and longitude of your location in your USALS set up menu? (Dumb question) Reset: remove your lat and long in your receiver, reboot and manually motor to "0" and hit the reset button.

 

[Larobpra]

I'm not familiar with the Fortec Lifetime Classic, but on my Mercury II, I use DiSeqc instead of USALS for moving the SG2100 motor. Mine would run a few degrees past where it was supposed to go when moving west from my true south sat - 74°W. Have you tried resetting the motor with a paper clip?

 

[Tron]

I would manually move the motor to exactly the '0' position (you may need to use a mirror or reflective surface such as a knife blade to see the pointer clearly if a dish is installed). Once it is at '0', reset the motor using a paperclip or wire inserted into the small hole just right of the LED cover. Push in the paperclip, keep it pressed in, and watch the LED. It will alternately flash orange and green for a moment, then stay green. Once it stops flashing, remove the paperclip. Your motor should now be correctly reset.

 

[B.J.]

I would manually move the motor to exactly the '0' position (you may need to use a mirror or reflective surface such as a knife blade to see the pointer clearly if a dish is installed). Once it is at '0', reset the motor using a paperclip or wire inserted into the small hole just right of the LED cover. Push in the paperclip, keep it pressed in, and watch the LED. It will alternately flash orange and green for a moment, then stay green. Once it stops flashing, remove the paperclip. Your motor should now be correctly reset.

I agree. THis is the correct procedure. Doesn't involve the receiver at all, although I'm still unclear about whether the software re-sync command available on some receivers might do the same thing.

But yeah, my SG2100 came from the factory off by a couple degrees. I lived with that. But then occasionally, it would seem to get some bogus signals that would change the zero point, I assume due to noise in the coax , and the first time this happened it was off by about 12 degrees. So whenever that happens now, I use the above procedure, right down to using a mirror to see the scale, although I use a tooth-pick (from one of my Swiss Army Knifes).

Basically, if that zero is in the wrong place, diseqC-1.2 can still work, but USALS won't work right. Once you reset that zero to the correct point, both diseqC-1.2 and USALS work.

 

[AcWxRadar]

NCElecTech,

For you or anyone who might have a slight variation to the SG-2100 motor.

Some SG-2100 motors are branded under the name DigiPower and some are branded under the name Moteck. One might be manufactured in China and one in Taiwan (I don't know which is which here).

The Digipower branded SG-2100 that I have has an actual RESET button next to one of the manual control buttons. The Moteck branded motor may not have this RESET button and therefore you have to follow a special procedure using the two MANUAL motor positioning buttons to reset (resync) the motor.

NOTE: I couldn't find the procedure that was specifically for the SG-2100 motor without the RESET button, but this is the reset procedure for a DG-280 motor:

1] Manually position the motor to the 0.0° position.
2] Remove power by disconnecting the cable from the motor.
3] Press and HOLD both EAST/WEST buttons for 5 seconds.
4] Reconnect the cable.
5] LED 1 and LED 2 should BLINK for 5 seconds
6] The memory is erased and the satellite table is restored to factory settings and corrects the 0.0° position.

If I recall correctly, there may be a slight variation to this procedure to apply it to the SG-2100 motor. I recall that it was rather cumbersome and almost required two people (or you had to be rather versatile). I think that you had to press and hold the two manual control buttons at the same time that you reapplied power (reconnected the cable) and held the buttons in until the LEDs flashed for five seconds.

RADAR

 

[starman345]

If the excellent advice above fails to improve things, have a look here http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=94601&highlight=sg-2100+slack. If your unit is still under warranty you could always send it back?

 

[NCElecTech]

Thanks for all the replies, for some reason I wasn't notified (via email) of any of them.
Will have time to play with it tonight and tomorrow....will update when I get it figured
out. That's why I love this group, plenty of knowledgeable people around!
Thanks all!

 

[NCElecTech]

If the excellent advice above fails to improve things, have a look here http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=94601&highlight=sg-2100+slack. If your unit is still under warranty you could always send it back?

I don't think it's still under warranty, I've had it since 2007 (I think)...
I'd rather fix it an save everyone the hassle anyway, might learn
something in the process

 

[NCElecTech]

NCElecTech,

For you or anyone who might have a slight variation to the SG-2100 motor.

Some SG-2100 motors are branded under the name DigiPower and some are branded under the name Moteck. One might be manufactured in China and one in Taiwan (I don't know which is which here).

The Digipower branded SG-2100 that I have has an actual RESET button next to one of the manual control buttons. The Moteck branded motor may not have this RESET button and therefore you have to follow a special procedure using the two MANUAL motor positioning buttons to reset (resync) the motor.

NOTE: I couldn't find the procedure that was specifically for the SG-2100 motor without the RESET button, but this is the reset procedure for a DG-280 motor:

1] Manually position the motor to the 0.0° position.
2] Remove power by disconnecting the cable from the motor.
3] Press and HOLD both EAST/WEST buttons for 5 seconds.
4] Reconnect the cable.
5] LED 1 and LED 2 should BLINK for 5 seconds
6] The memory is erased and the satellite table is restored to factory settings and corrects the 0.0° position.

If I recall correctly, there may be a slight variation to this procedure to apply it to the SG-2100 motor. I recall that it was rather cumbersome and almost required two people (or you had to be rather versatile). I think that you had to press and hold the two manual control buttons at the same time that you reapplied power (reconnected the cable) and held the buttons in until the LEDs flashed for five seconds.

RADAR

I might be wrong, but I believe this motor only has one button, the other
side is just a LED.

 

[NCElecTech]

NCElecTech,

For you or anyone who might have a slight variation to the SG-2100 motor.

Some SG-2100 motors are branded under the name DigiPower and some are branded under the name Moteck. One might be manufactured in China and one in Taiwan (I don't know which is which here).

The Digipower branded SG-2100 that I have has an actual RESET button next to one of the manual control buttons. The Moteck branded motor may not have this RESET button and therefore you have to follow a special procedure using the two MANUAL motor positioning buttons to reset (resync) the motor.

NOTE: I couldn't find the procedure that was specifically for the SG-2100 motor without the RESET button, but this is the reset procedure for a DG-280 motor:

1] Manually position the motor to the 0.0° position.
2] Remove power by disconnecting the cable from the motor.
3] Press and HOLD both EAST/WEST buttons for 5 seconds.
4] Reconnect the cable.
5] LED 1 and LED 2 should BLINK for 5 seconds
6] The memory is erased and the satellite table is restored to factory settings and corrects the 0.0° position.

If I recall correctly, there may be a slight variation to this procedure to apply it to the SG-2100 motor. I recall that it was rather cumbersome and almost required two people (or you had to be rather versatile). I think that you had to press and hold the two manual control buttons at the same time that you reapplied power (reconnected the cable) and held the buttons in until the LEDs flashed for five seconds.

RADAR

I would manually move the motor to exactly the '0' position (you may need to use a mirror or reflective surface such as a knife blade to see the pointer clearly if a dish is installed). Once it is at '0', reset the motor using a paperclip or wire inserted into the small hole just right of the LED cover. Push in the paperclip, keep it pressed in, and watch the LED. It will alternately flash orange and green for a moment, then stay green. Once it stops flashing, remove the paperclip. Your motor should now be correctly reset.

I will try this first...I didn't know about the 'reset hole', none of the info I
had mentioned it. Thanks much for the info and I will update the thread
soon.

 

[Tron]

It is a very small hole, just a bit larger than a large paperclip wire. It MAY be partially (maybe even fully) hidden behind the edge of the LED cover. Just be sure your motor is exactly at '0' first so the reference point is set correctly. The reset should do the trick, let us know ...

 

[AcWxRadar]

I would be extremely surprised if there was only ONE button. The reason for having two buttons is that one manually moves the motor east and the other moves it west. All of the H-H motors that I have been exposed to have two buttons.

Many have a grey, opaque rubber covering over one button and the other has a semi-translucent covering so that the LED light can shine through it.

Just as TRON mentioned, on one of my motors, the reset "pin-hole" it is mostly obscured by the edge of the rubber covering and I have to push that back slightly to insert a paper clip into the hole. So, you might want to lift the edges of these rubber covers to investigate if you don't see the pin hole readily.

RADAR

 

[B.J.]

I would be extremely surprised if there was only ONE button. The reason for having two buttons is that one manually moves the motor east and the other moves it west. All of the H-H motors that I have been exposed to have two buttons.

...

My SG2100 does all that with one button.
It's all about how you push the buttons. One press--> west two presses--> east, both just one step. Same thing, but hold causes continuous run in that direction.

 

[starman345]

My SG2100 does all that with one button.
It's all about how you push the buttons. One press--> west two presses--> east, both just one step. Same thing, but hold causes continuous run in that direction.

I had to go look, but I too have one button motors, it seems there are many different versions of the SG-2100, of course everyone claims to sell the origional I have three newer ones that are two button. Actually they all look like they are two button, but on the one button model, only one button does anything, the other just has a rubber cap over the hole. Even the newer ones that use the two button method to re-set still have the tiny hole for the paper clip but there is nothing in there, it isn't functional. It looks like the housings have remained pretty much the same but the electronics have been modified.
The one button models I have are Motecks from Taiwan, the others are from China.

 

[Mr Tony]

The one button model was the original...then they decided to make it a 2 button model and continue to call it the same model

Both of mine (now that I think about it) are the original one button model

 

[brex2001]

SG2100 from Taiwan

I just received my SG2100 yesterday evening to replace a really awful Pansat PM900S.

This SG2100 appears to be the same as your description BJ, so I attached some pics for clarity. It is a DMS Intl 'Digipower' product, made in Taiwan. The instructions for resetting & moving are clearly visible in the pics. The long oval shaped "warranty void if seal is broken" I believe is where you could adjust the gear backlash someday in the future if needed.

Too bad there aren't pics of the other SG2100 motor.

Hope this helps.

 

[Larobpra]

My SG2100 does all that with one button.
It's all about how you push the buttons. One press--> west two presses--> east, both just one step. Same thing, but hold causes continuous run in that direction.

Mine is like that too.

 

[Tron]

In the second and third pictures posted by Brex2001, the reset hole is visible at the right edge of the LED cover.

 

[NCElecTech]

Ok, so I did the manual move to "0" (I have a small mirror to verify) and held in the
reset button on the motor, that DID take care of it. Now I can send it to REF and
everything is happy.

Now, if I could just get the alignment right I will be back in business...
Thanks to all!