SG2100 locked all the way east

[highskies]

This is like the 2nd time this has happened to me. The last time it took forever to get the motor moving west again. But this time nothing is working. For some reason, sometimes the offset dish moves on it's own, like during the night. The dish is outside of my window, so I know no one is messing with it, and besides, not a single person around here even has a clue what I've got here. With that out of the way, it still moves on it's own at times. Once again, even tho I have limits enabled, the dish has moved all the way to the end of it's excursion. It is pointing as far east as it can, and with it being H-H, that's pretty far, well past the limits I had set, which was around 60W or so.

On my dvb-s stb there is an option for disabling the limits..I tried that..still won't move west. On the motor itself, there is a small hole for reset. But when I stick a small pin in the hole, it never engages with anything, like there's nothing there. What exactly is the point of the reset then? Does anyone know how I can get the dish moving west again? The LNBF power is on. Nothing is wrong with the RG-6 or anything. Like I said, last time this happened, it took forever to get it moving again. But nothing is working this time. The green light is lit on the motor, so I'm pretty certain the motor is still working, except it won't go west.

 

[Larobpra]

Are you probing the right hole for the reset? If I recall there is one close to the reset that could be mistaken for it. Will the motor move using the button on the motor itself?
My SG2100 started doing wacky things like that a few months back. An SG9120B has now taken its place. Working great so far!

 

[SatelliteAV]

Do not reset the motor unless it is in the zero position!

The green LED indicates power. Does the LED flash orange when the receiver issues a move command? Is the motor controlled with USALS or DiSEqC 1.2? If USALS is used, no limits need to be set as the receiver will not drive the motor to the default mechanical limit. If DiSEqC 1.2 is used, then set the software limits in the receiver.

Power off the master power or unplug the receiver for 15 - 20 minutes. Power up the receiver then try to move the motor using the drive button on the motor. If this works, drive the motor to zero and reset both the motor and the receiver. There is a reset switch located in the small hole next to the LED. It is sometimes not exactly aligned with the hole.

 

[highskies]

Do not reset the motor unless it is in the zero position!

The green LED indicates power. Does the LED flash orange when the receiver issues a move command? Is the motor controlled with USALS or DiSEqC 1.2? If USALS is used, no limits need to be set as the receiver will not drive the motor to the default mechanical limit. If DiSEqC 1.2 is used, then set the software limits in the receiver.

Power off the master power or unplug the receiver for 15 - 20 minutes. Power up the receiver then try to move the motor using the drive button on the motor. If this works, drive the motor to zero and reset both the motor and the receiver. There is a reset switch located in the small hole next to the LED. It is sometimes not exactly aligned with the hole.

On my dvb-s stb it was doing some strange things awhile back, unrelated to the SG2100, so I did a MR. In the past, I had setup everything using USALS. But on the remote, several keys no longer function, namely the '4' and '7' keys. Both my lat and longitude
have a '4' in them. So I wasn't able to program my settings into the stb, so I instead had to use DiSEqC 1.2. This was probably a month or so back. No problems until the other night when the dish moved all the way east for some reason. Right now I'm taking your advice, I've got the stb unplugged for about 20 minutes. When I plug it back in, are you saying to try and drive the motor west using the stb menu, or are you meaning outside at the dish, with the east/west button on the motor?

I've already tried both ways before I unplugged it, but nothing worked. Outside at the dish, when I engage the button for it to go west, it will move a fraction, then you can hear something that seems to stop it from going any further. So then if I go back east, then try west again, it stops at a certain point and won't continue any further.The bottom of the dish is touching the pole, but it will move west about an inch or so, then no further. Pretty strange. Don't know what to make of it.

 

[highskies]

Does the LED flash orange when the receiver issues a move command?

I plugged the stb back up. Went out to the dish. The same thing as before. The orange light does blink when trying to move it east or west. But it still only moves about an inch and hangs.

 

[Larobpra]

Have you tried giving it a little nudge when it starts to move? Might help get it back to zero.

 

[SatelliteAV]

The motor may have been driven onto the mechanical limiter and this safety switch is preventing the motor from running.

The mechanical limiter might be able to be loosened and moved or the motor may need to be disassembled to manually rotate the sensor away from the mechanical limiter.

 

[highskies]

Have you tried giving it a little nudge when it starts to move? Might help get it back to zero.

Actually I did try that, but to no avail.

 

[highskies]

The motor may have been driven onto the mechanical limiter and this safety switch is preventing the motor from running.

The mechanical limiter might be able to be loosened and moved or the motor may need to be disassembled to manually rotate the sensor away from the mechanical limiter.

This sounds like the most logical reason. Could you clue me in a little about the mechanical limiter and how it may be resolved externally first, before having to disassemble the motor? I have the pdf version of the manual somewhere on my pc, but I don't seem to recall any details about the mechanical limiter. How do I try and loosen it first? Thanks.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Mechanical limiter information is in the manuals. Disconnect the coax from the motor to eliminate the power. Remove the bolt that secures the Post to the motor shaft. Lift the plastic label that surrounds the motor shaft to expose the mechanical limit stops. Loosen the stop that is on the side that the motor is stuck on and see if the stop can be moved further out (away from the center). Reconnect the coax and use the move button on the motor to attempt the move again.

BTW.... I have disassembled HH motors and removed the mechanical stops to allow additional travel and prevent the motor from getting "hung-up" on the stop. Not a recommendation for the inexperienced, but has worked well for me.

 

[highskies]

Mechanical limiter information is in the manuals. Disconnect the coax from the motor to eliminate the power. Remove the bolt that secures the Post to the motor shaft. Lift the plastic label that surrounds the motor shaft to expose the mechanical limit stops. Loosen the stop that is on the side that the motor is stuck on and see if the stop can be moved further out (away from the center). Reconnect the coax and use the move button on the motor to attempt the move again.

BTW.... I have disassembled HH motors and removed the mechanical stops to allow additional travel and prevent the motor from getting "hung-up" on the stop. Not a recommendation for the inexperienced, but has worked well for me.

One more quick question. I went out to the dish and noticed I need a 6 sided tool of some sort to remove the bolt. It has to fit inside, so a typical wrench will not work. It was at least 10 yrs ago when I assembled this dish and motor. I have no clue what tool I used at the time, unless a tool came with it, and I've misplaced it since then. What I'm getting at, there's a Radio Shack and Lowes real close. I need to know what type of tool this is, the size and all, so that I can see whether they have one or not.

 

[Larobpra]

Mine is a 6mm metric Allen screw. You can get a metric Allen wrench set at Lowe's.
Shop Kobalt 10-Piece Metric Long Arm Hex Set at Lowes.com

 

[highskies]

Mechanical limiter information is in the manuals. Disconnect the coax from the motor to eliminate the power. Remove the bolt that secures the Post to the motor shaft. Lift the plastic label that surrounds the motor shaft to expose the mechanical limit stops. Loosen the stop that is on the side that the motor is stuck on and see if the stop can be moved further out (away from the center). Reconnect the coax and use the move button on the motor to attempt the move again.

BTW.... I have disassembled HH motors and removed the mechanical stops to allow additional travel and prevent the motor from getting "hung-up" on the stop. Not a recommendation for the inexperienced, but has worked well for me.

I went to Lowes and got the allen wrenches. When I got the shaft off and peeled back the plastic, the sliders are areadly as far from the center as they can get. IOW all the way to the right for the east, all the way to the left for the west. But anyway, nothing worked..still the same as before. Could the problem be in my stb? I noticed when I manually try to drive it at the dish, the orange light stays lit, not blinking, but steadily, even after I let go of the button. Then if I unplug the power from the stb, it's once again green until I try and drive it, which then it remains orange. Do I now need to disassemble the motor, or is it something else, such as the stb?

I have a 1030 card I was going to test with it, but unfortunately I've run into a problem with that again. I removed it from my pc about a month ago..was working perfect. When I put it back into a pci slot, and I tried them all, I'm getting the dreaded "Cannot support the card or driver, please check the hardware installation".
This is some kind of irq conflict or something, because XP doesn't even see this card now. This has happened to me in the past. For the life of me, I can't remember how I resolved it. I tried reinstalling, but same msg..."Cannot support the card or driver, please check the hardware installation". When it comes to raining, it usually pours in my case. Can't win for losing sometimes.

 

[SatelliteAV]

If the LEG is green until you attempt to drive the dish using the manual move button on the motor, causing the LED turns orange, the fault is with the motor.

The next step will be to disassemble the motor.

 

[merkin]

Take it apart and disconnect the smaller ribbon cable of the two in the pic
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If it works again your limit switch(s) need to be replaced, or just keep the cable unplugged like I do.
If someone has a digikey or mouser etc part number please share.

 

[highskies]

Hey guys I appreciate the help so far. So I guess the next thing on the agenda is to disassemble the motor and disconnect the smaller ribbon of wires, then see what happens. Looking at the pic provided, is this meaning the wires on the right side..the red and black set?

I have another question first, before I attempt anything. Is there any way to do this on the pole? I don't want to mess up the angles the motor is set at. It has worked flawlessly for the last 10 yrs. It was a PIA getting the angle on the motor set correctly. And besides, the numbers on both sides of the motor are now kind of rusted over, hard to make them out now. That's the only part of the motor where there seems to be any rust at...and it would have to be on those numbers. So is there any way of doing this without upsetting the angles the motor is currently set at?

 

[thebaggins]

How about using a marker to draw lines through bolts and mark on bracket to help with realigning and use a angle finder to measure someplace on the motor so you can set it back as it was.

 

[highskies]

I took the motor off, brought it inside. Disconnected the wires like instructed. That did the trick. Motor now goes both directions again. I hooked those wires back up..still worked. But I decided to disconnect them permanently. But it's not too late to change, if that's not a good idea, since I haven't taken the motor back out to the pole. I drove the motor back to the zero position. What do I need to do now? Press the reset button on the motor? Keep in mind, I haven't taken it back outside yet.

After that will be the fun part, reinstalling it. But I did take the advice of using a marker. It will at least get me close I hope.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Yes, with the motor in the Zero position, perform a reset on the motor. If your receiver has a east / west limit, it isn't a bad idea to set. If not, no worries.

Remember, if the hardware limiters are disconnected, nothing will shut down the motor as it drives past the limits....... The motor will keep turning until something gives!

 

[highskies]

I would like to once again thank everyone for their help. Without your help I wouldn't have had a clue how to have resolved this. I mounted the dish and motor back on the pole last night. I was perfectly aligned to the arc within minutes...actually better than the first time, since I noticed the signal quality increased a bit on all chs. One more thing I'm wondering about since this is H-H. About how far east can one see, let's say they're in East Texas such as I? Would 37.5 Telstar 11N for example be doable? I've never attempted trying to find anything that far east. Would I be wasting my time trying? Thanks