usals & or 1.2

[gabshere]

ok still thinking things out and making adjustments

thought all last night since usals was off and couldn't track further than
amc4 101W so rechecked everything , thought i used mag south instead of true south rechecked (i have to remove the dish to check this every time)

then go back in and reset whole receiver and start again ( now i'm getting good at editing and deleting channels & and adding sats to the motor track.

i've found out that usals doesn't like me..... after resetting everything and starting over 3 or 4 times i noticed that ( and this happened while i was adding sats ) the receiver reset (changed) my latitude from 33.5 to 66.3 this was the first i noticed it . so i reset everything and started using 1.2

so far my arc started at IA6 93 W and i'm at 105 W
so it looks like i will make it this time . I've never been to g10r not even hand tuning it with my stand alone dish.

also can someone tell where this channel is
i'm hand tuning
11.952v 20.001 APID4131 VPID 4130 PPID 4130 its scrambled and is probably at 110

 

[voomvoom]

You may be right, DishNet use's SR of 20000 on there TP's. And DishNet use's 110.

Al

 

[Likvid]

Getting USALS to work perfect needs some understanding of how the perfect zero position works on the motor.

When people say they have to nudge a brand new motor and USALS fail they don't have the apex position right.

The motors doesn't come exactly aligned from the factory so it needs to be set first before aligning the dish to the arc.

 

[gabshere]

yeah i checked and it registered zero when i installed it . I do think i'm still out of arc. but can hit 79-107 ( i think its 107 its a scrambled channel) can't see anything on other sides of those. kinda hate to mess with it much more. But will probably make another adjustment next week.

when i set it up this last time ( and like i said i'm still off a bit) and used usals the first sat was close and hit at 75% none or the rest of the sats hit . Several times it would act like it moved but when scanned it would be on the previous satellite. but when i switched to 1.2 and hit east or west (fine tune) 10 times (about 2 degrees) it would hit the sat every time. This worked until i got to 105 and 82. the others i had to hunt a bit more for as the signal was weaker and faded out after that.

 

[Zero]

Gabshere,
I am sure you might have checked the dish / motor assembly completely for any slackness in joints. I had similar problems while setting up the motor. You may check them.....
1. Slackness between Dish and motor arm- Used to be perfect in and around center of arc. At the end of arc dish use to pull to one side and used to get very low quality signal. I had to add a shim between motor shaft and dish mount.. I used a cardboard cut out of Kellogg's box
2. When I ever I rotate the motor, corners of motor mounting clamp used to eat up metal from pole. I had to adjust the position using 1.2 almost everyday. It made "Z" mark on the pole. I think it was under-tightened as I was scared to over-tighten the nuts. Yesterday I added a shim and tightened it properly and hope it remains in position.

I use combination of USALS and 1.2 in Coolsat. I did not find it as in issue..

 

[gabshere]

yes i do have a slight give (movement and will try to shim it) , didn't think that would cause much trouble but i guess every little bit helps or hurts.

thanks

 

[gabshere]

well i checked it and the give or movement is in the shaft of the motor itself , i will have to take it apart to see what can be done to shim it up to a tigher situation.

well i was checking dish alignment and trying to correct the arc or see if i was tracking out of arc . but the wind picked up started shaking the dish & pole. When i set this pole it was my second pole (lightweight fencepost about 2 3/8 inches) the pole i intended to use is heavywall 2 7/8 inches so i will have to set another stiffer pole.

so i will continue working with it

thanks for everyones tips & comments

 

[Sadoun]

Using USALS to set your motor is way easier than DiSEqC 1.2

A few weeks ago, I have setup a 100cm Fortec dish on a STAB HH100 motor using USALS. It was right on the Clarke belt with perfect signal on all satellites from 30W to 123W. Of course having the SatHawk 3000 meter on hand made the job that much easier and faster.

 

[ultravox]

Does anyone have a step by step procedure installing a motor and adjusting the arc?

 

[Tron]

Ultravox, here is a walkthrough post from over a year ago:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showpost.php?p=319756&postcount=16

 

[ultravox]

Thanks TRON!!

 

[Tron]

Hope it helps

 

[gabshere]

i did get this idea from someone (in the thread primestar & sg2100) who mounted their dish either on the side of their houst or it looks like it . i removed the motor shaft and turned it 180 degres, my reason for doing this is when i set the motor elevation and the dish elevation i was looking at the ground. so i reversed the shaft and tuned the satellites in by trial and error.

now after i tuned and retuned and made minor adjustments and tweaked everything still could only get most of the arc . then took my book out and checked everything again. you know i think you can troubleshoot too much...... because after a week of checking and rechecking everything, i gave it a break ( mostly cause of working) and went back out and looked things over and noticed my motor bracket is mounted upside down. this makes me have to reverse the shaft and where i can't use the right elevation/declination markings.

so now i will redo everything and try USALS again... its a good thing i'm still having fun

ok i have changed everything back to where it is a normal mount onto a homemade bracket . i do remember now another reason i flipped the shaft 180
is that the primestar round (40X44) dish is heavy and i had the bracket resting on the motor shaft and was working pretty good. I'm actually supprised that i could hit 14 satellites so i really shouldn't complain. i just wanted a few more lol

so now everything is right ..I will have to fine tune it tomorrow, I ran out of time & light tonight

so maybe tomorrow i will get it tuned and get to try USALS again

 

[gabshere]

well everything is up and correctly pointed. just can't find the sat .
i can tell you with the amount of time i've placed into to this i probably should have left it as it was working and could pick up a lot of satellites. i could have added the other two ot three satellites via stationary primestars....

hey larry don't get rid of all you equipment yet lol i might need it lol

 

[gabshere]

well i have to put in on hold for a few days , starting night shift tonight. probably make two more brackets for primestars and get ready for friday. might also finish two bucket mounts i have them just need to make them more durable , so i have something to point with if the motor isn't picking up this weekend.

 

[iafirebuff]

Well I will for sure have at least 1 extra Primestar and at least 3 lnbs, and several swithces, if not more