SG2100 Help

[MrSkeet]

Hello everyone. I have an SG2100 and need help lining it up. I am in NJ at lat 40. AMC 5 is the farthest south that I can get because of trees in the way. I need to know the angles for this set up and the proper way to hit the sat.

I think that I have to have the degree on the motor set at 40 degrees, but not sure on what the elevation on the dish once it is mounted to the motor. I looked at the instructions. I am a bit confused when the instructions talk about declination of about 6 degrees.

Needless to say I am a bit lost....... I know the motor has to be set at 0 and the dish lined straight with the motor. I just need the setting for the motor and the dish to get started on AMC 5. Thanks for your help.

 

[satcom1]

On motor bracket latitude scale find the little tiny arrow on the motor and set under 40.
Disregard Declination.
set dish elevation bracket to 23.7
tune receiver to AMC5. select 12182 H new york Network
rotate motor on the pole for best reception of AMC5.
Lock it down.
All other birds should track.

 

[MrSkeet]

I will give it a try first thing in the morning. I will let you know how I make out.

 

[MrSkeet]

AMC 3 Transponder

What is a good transponder to set for AMC 3 to get a good signal to line the dish on. Thanks

 

[Lak7]

Check this out.....
SatelliteGuys.US - 87.0°W AMC 3 Ku

 

[MrSkeet]

I think I am running into another problem. The SG2100 is about 100 t0 120 feet in cable from my receiver. Is this to far of a cable run? If it is, is there some sort of an amplifier that I can put inline to boost the input/output of the receiver. I don't think that the motor is running properly. Signal strength seems low.

I managed to hit Intelstat 6 as my most south sat. I set the motor settings on USALS. I set the Long/Lat at 074/040. The motor seems to want to do its own thing. I need some advise.

Because of the location I can't really shorten the cable run.

 

[satcom1]

The SG2100 does not claim to be USALS compliant. It is a diseqc 1.2 device.

 

[brentb636]

My SG-2100 is "Go To X" Compatible, which I take to mean "unlicensed" USALS . My SG-2100 does work under USALS settings. That may not be true of ALL motors claiming to be SG-2100 . THAT might be a long story.

 

[Tron]

USALS is a function of your receiver, and as such, the SG-2100 will work properly with it. I've been using USALS since day one with my SG-2100.

100-150 feet of GOOD QUALITY RG-6 coax should present no problems. Have you checked the fittings for problems?

 

[satcom1]

If you have to return the motor to DMSI they will check it for diseqc 1.2 operation. According to Lance at DMSI they have no way of checking USALS operation.

I hope your problem is not that but something you can fix.

I've had three different SG2100 motors from DMSI 2 worked with USALS but this last one does not and they will not do anything for me. I just bought a Stab hh 90 that is USALS compliant.

 

[MrSkeet]

OK, here is the update. I was able to find the IA6. Motor elevation set at 40 degrees as instructed for my area. Horizon 75cm dish set at about 25 deg -- no real way to tell for sure on the bracket. I can get the motor to move -- painfully slow -- using 1.2 disecq. The only other sat that I can hit is Galaxy 25. Nothing further west and nothing further east. Cable run is 100 to 120 feet. Anybody have any idea what the problem might be? Spent all day yesterday and no luck with any other sats. Very frustrating. Could my elevation on the motor be off? Need Help!

Also, when I press the move button using 1.2 how far does the motor move vs fine move? Thanks again.

 

[Lak7]

If you haven't addressed the USALS issue, when entering your Long / Lat, make sure you select WEST, East is usually the default. That would cause the motor to do it's own thing.

You should be aiming for Horz 2@74west(G17, SBS6), it's Your True South Sat. Your True south Sat is the starting point, the Motor needs to know where it's at, before it can calculate how far East / West it should drive to find the next Sat. The Motor only does what it's told, the Receiver only "calculates" what it's told. There is nothing automatic or intelligent about the process, pure mechanics. The more accurate you align to your True South Sat, the better it will Track the Arc.

This page may help, enter Your location and select Your Motor from the Satellite List and click "Go"
Satellite Look Angles Satellite Heading Calculator Azimuth Elevation Skew Tilt LNBF Latitude and Longitude values

Set motor to Your Latitude and leave it.
With the Motor direction at Zero, set Dish elevation to recommended for your location
note: The Dish elevation markings are known to be inaccurate.
Rotate Motor and Dish as one on pole to recommended Azimuth (compass reading), then look for Quality, slow small moves. FYI: Depending on pole diameter, when rotating on pole 1/64" is about 1 Deg, keep your moves small.

A compass helps, keep in mind that if a compass is too close to a metal object (Dish) it will give an inaccurate reading. It takes awhile to get your first Sat, be patient, it sounds easy, but until you learn how small of moves you need to make, you need to stay cool and keep at it. When making adjustments you do not adjust the Motor settings. Just rotate the entire setup on the pole, watching for "Quality". If you don't get a Lock, Increase or decrease Dish Elevation 1deg and try again. All of this is easier if you can have the Receiver and TV at the Dish.

 

[rv1pop]

If you are using GOOD RG6, 120 feet should not be too far for signal. I can not vouch for motor drive, but from many of the postings, pick a horizontal traget channel when you change satellites. My shortest live run is over 110 feet! My run to the "cable junction room" is shorter - from 10 feet to 35 (or more) and from there to the closest motor home is a 100 foot run, the next motor home has a 130 foot cable. Again, for here, no motors.

 

[satcom1]

mrskeet,

If your motor is that slow then something is probably wrong with it. Request an RMA from DMSI. They will probably send you another motor and it may be a used one.

It sounds like you are a sharp FTA'r, I believe you have done everything right.

 

[satcom1]

Oh, by the way if you check recent threads about motors you will find one FTA'r with a run of 150' and it turned out to be his DG-120 motor which is the same as a SG2100. He replaced the motor and everything was swell.

 

[MrSkeet]

If AMC 5 is my most south sat, is it ok to line the dish and motor to that sat, rather than SBS6? If it is ok, do I set the settings in my receiver in the dish location spot as 74w40n as this is my area? When I do that the motor moves automatically by itself torward the west. Shouldn't it stay stationary until I give it a command to move? Again, I am talking about the SG2100. I should note that it was a used motor and it was not set at 0 when I got it. I plugged it in and manually moved it to 0 before hanging the dish on it.

Man I can't wait to get this thing set up. It sure is taking a lot of my time.

 

[Lak7]

This will probably be the most precise this you have ever had to do.
Pole must be 100% Plumb, no being close.
For better help, what receiver and LNB are you using?
Also, what is your exact Long and Lat?

For the Motor to work, it must be pointed at Your True South Sat(74west) when at Zero, even if there is a Tree in the way. When doing the initial setup, have Your TS Sat selected in the Menu, there should be a "Go to Referance" option in the Menu to bring it to Zero, recheck pole for Plumb. Since you can't get a signal from your TS Sat, you will need to use a compass to try to get it aligned, make a referance mark on the pole so you know where you started from. For USALS to work, you need to accuratley enter Your Long and Lat
Example: 40.3 North 74.1 West
Once that is done, select AMC 5 in the Menu, dish should drive west and stop at AMC 5.
Speed, about 1deg per second, it is not fast.
Make sure you have a Live Transponder selected in the setup menu(see "The List" tab at the top of the web page)
You are looking for Quality, Sig. Strenght just indicates you have power to the LNB.
No Sig. Strength, you have other problems.
If no Quality, rotate Motor / Dish as one on pole Left and Right, if nothing, Raise / Lower Dish elevation 1deg, and rotate back and forth. Once you get AMC 5, pick a Sat as far West as you can see. Have the receiver drive the dish, and tweak. Remember, the Motor Lat setting should not get adjusted, just Dish Elevation and North / South alignment.

 

[satcom1]

Some of the SG2100 had a 4 west problem. When you tell it to go to zero it always goes to 4 west. Nothing can be done about it if you have one. The motor will never track the arc correctly.

You should do a zero reset to see if you have one of these motors or you will be waisting alot of time and get very frustrated.

Because there are so many different versions of this motor you will have to follow the manual you got with the motor. different motors have different procedures and you want to get it right the first time.

After the zero reset your motor should alwys go to zero on the motor scale, if it goes to 4 degrees west, you have a bad motor.

 

[jimg]

...
I've had three different SG2100 motors from DMSI 2 worked with USALS but this last one does not and they will not do anything for me. I just bought a Stab hh 90 that is USALS compliant.

Same experience here... older SG2100 works just fine with USALS, the new one [a single button w/ separate reset switch,] overshoots more and more the farther away from the center of the arc. (Was puzzled until I removed the dish and command the motor to +70 degrees and it drives to almost +80. Then searched this forum and got confirmation I wasn't alone.)

Surprised DMSI can't "bench test" -- just need a way to send: "drive to 0", "drive to -80", and "drive to +80". It's easy to check the angle pointed to by the tube when the motor stops.



Stored positions however, work just great in both old and new. So I switched to a Sadoun DG380 for the new dish, and put the new SG2100 on a dish that is controlled by TSReader. (Like the new SG2100's, TSReader's USALS is "not ready for primetime," but "doing it by the numbers" works for the pair.)

 

[satcom1]

jimg,

Thank you for that history with your old and new SG2100. This is the kind of helpful information that will save members a great deal of frustration. Unfortunately there are vendors that know about many of these problems but keep silent, or say "We can fix that for you" $$$$$$

By the way the last SG2100 that DMSI sent me, was, when I took the cover off a DG120. This unit is the overshoot unit.

It appears that the motors were made in Tiawan until it got cheaper to make them in China. That kind of tells the whole story on quality.

By the way according to Lance at DMSI, they don't have spare boards for the SG2100 and that would explain why when I sent a motor in for repair, they sent another one back that had different troubles.