Weird motor issues?

[SatJoe44]

Ok I finally got a motor and up and running with a dm2800 with a 42 mm shaft.

So I set everything up and so far can go up to 105 west from my due south of 85 degrees.



OK so I am assuming I am locked in as I am hitting 97,99,101, and 105 right on with usals. In fact I dont even have to adjust sats at all with diseqc except for a very slight few bumps on 105.

Ok here are some questions that I have.


1. Can you not be locked in and still be hitting sats 20 degrees away dead on with usals?


2. It says my dish elevation should be roughly 30, but I am around 33-34 on my dish elev and still peaking usals.


3. Where exactly do you level your motor bracket? The top of the bracket? Also where do you level the bracket that clamps to the pole?


4. So I am not having any luck running usals to the eastern sats. Any suggestions how you can be dead on towards the west, but not the eastern sats?


I guess what is getting me the most is the dish elevation being 3-4 degrees higher than it suggests. My pole is perfectly level.


Thanks guys!

 

[cyberham]

Study this diagram. There's lots of info in this one diagram. Aligning the motor to accurately follow all across the arc requires good precision.

To know what your dish elevation should be, we need your precise latitude.

 

[SatJoe44]

Thank you. What about the leveling of the motor bracket and the bracket on the pole with the u bolts?

 

[cyberham]

Thank you. What about the leveling of the motor bracket and the bracket on the pole with the u bolts?

I don't understand your bracket leveling questions. What matters is dish elevation, declination, azimuth and LNB skew.

By the way, what "eastern" sats are you looking for? There aren't a lot east of 97W on Ku until you get over to about 67W. How far east can your dish view?

Added: I guess you're pretty far east. So you should be able to see sats 45W and east even further if no trees are in the way.

 

[SatJoe44]

The brackets to the motor.


I can hit 77 but when i do usals even though it is only 8 degrees east of my due I have to adjust a bit to tune it in instead of usals going right to it. It seems the dish goes just short of it for some reason.


Any idea how my elevation can be so high on the dish but locked in? Are all motors the same as far as what dish elevation needs to be at?

 

[a33]

So you have only reception from about 85W to 105W?
It looks like you've used not a very systematical procedure to set up your motor.

Here's a short, but systematical manual, focussing on the fineadjustment procedure.
When the first steps of setting up are done with accuracy, less time is needed for the final fineadjustment steps.
So I would always invest in doing those first steps as accurately as possible.

Greetz,
A33

 

[SatJoe44]

107 is as far west aa i can go because of trees. Im just not hitting eastern sats even though I have a universal lnb. I figured i should he able to get alot from 30 to 77 as well

 

[arlo]

I'm usals unqualified. But.
"Any idea how my elevation can be so high on the dish but locked in?"
A bit fuzzy. Using an offset dish, I assume. The dish 'look angle' is engineered in. Consider the dish mounted on a pole that is perfectly plumb. If you knew where the sun was in the sky for your location.
Aim the dish exactly where it is in the sky at a certain time of the day. With the dish mount elevation stamping in degrees matching the sun, azimuth correct. If you put a piece of paper where the lnbf throat is. You will get a strong spot of the reflection.
Factor in the lnbf mounting arm being bent a touch higher or lower than where it was designed to be.
You'll have to compensate with the dish elevation markings to get the sunspot (baby, she sure had me way outguessed) focused right at the lnb throat cover. Oops, a little Bob slipped in there.
A degree or two higher or lower, probably no biggie. Mfg. tolerances. But you could give that mounting arm a tweak.
My thoughts of the look angle being different than actual might suck a bit of signal strength. Microwaves aren't like tossing a chunk of zip cord out the window and hooking it to the ant. port of the Collins or Hammerlund.

If everyone using a Stab style motor says that using usals is always dead accurate. A real plug and play deal.
Well, cool. I can't buy that it is 100% accurate. But, who am I?
Keeping on/off the topic. It would be interesting to find out those who have used diseqc instead of usals on these motors. Especially how positions are stored. My assumption is that firmware burned into these motors can't be written to. Are positions stored in the receiver? Or actually saved in the motor controller board IC?

 

[cyberham]

Can you upload a photo or two of your dish installation? This would probably help a lot.

 

[a33]

Im just not hitting eastern sats

So, asymmetrical reception east and west of south, would mean no proper due south aligning of motor axis, dish and/or LNB-arm.

Any idea how my elevation can be so high on the dish but locked in?

That sounds like not very good combination of axis-elevation angle and dish declination offset angle.

See my 'short manual', how that could be solved.

 

[SatJoe44]

I guess what gets me is if it is off how is usals going directly to the max out signals of sats 97-105.

 

[a33]

Luck, or coincidence? When you had gotten hits at the east side, would you have been just as surprised? Or not at all?

It usually means focusing on what you already can receive, instead of focusing on the steps to (first) set the angles right. Reception then comes later.
My humble opinion, though.
I'm not one for the trial and error approach, when I can also use a systematical approach. ;-)

Greetz,
A33

 

[cyberham]

As shown in your manual (reference pages attached), there are two angles to set: Angle A and Angle B. A sets the dish elevation. B sets the dish declination. Each is important. If not set correctly, the dish won't accurately track the satellite arc.

 

[cyberham]

I'm usals unqualified...

I am a Usalsian. I've put many hours into playing with USALS. It is magical when all settings are correct.

...how positions are stored...

When set accurately, USALS will motor the dish accurately across the arc. However over time, it can/will go out of adjustment. Then it is easiest to use USALS to find a satellite but touch up by adjusting slightly using diseqc 1.2 commands and store the final position in a motor memory. This is best so you can change the receiver and still have the dish move accurately. Every motor specifies how many position memories it has. My Edision receiver allows to save settings in the receiver, if you choose instead.

 

[SatJoe44]

Luck, or coincidence? When you had gotten hits at the east side, would you have been just as surprised? Or not at all?

It usually means focusing on what you already can receive, instead of focusing on the steps to (first) set the angles right. Reception then comes later.
My humble opinion, though.
I'm not one for the trial and error approach, when I can also use a systematical approach. ;-)

Greetz,
A33

No I am did alot of adjusting swinging the whole assembly until i could hit go to x and it went atraigjy to all the sats. I am getting the strongesy signals I have got even when tuning the dish before i had the motor. Like i said i am just confused why my dish had to be 3 degrees higher to track so well. Maybe the dish is not exactly right on the elevation scale.
It is an older dish.

 

[SatJoe44]

As shown in your manual (reference pages attached), there are two angles to set: Angle A and Angle B. A sets the dish elevation. B sets the dish declination. Each is important. If not set correctly, the dish won't accurately track the satellite arc.
View attachment 194163
View attachment 194164

Maybe I am looking at the elevation wrong. I have motor at 36 to match latitude, and dish is at 33 degrrees. The motor bracket is level and flush, dish is tightened, and brackets are all tightened down.

 

[cyberham]

...I'm not one for the trial and error approach, when I can also use a systematical approach. ;-)

Words of wisdom and experience. It is easy to quickly get the motor to find satellites plus or minus 10 or 20 degrees of due south. The difficulty is to get the motor to track accurately plus and minus 50 degrees or more from due south. That takes methodical precision since even a little error in installation will get magnified as you move the dish further from due south.

 

[SatJoe44]

Words of wisdom and experience. It is easy to quickly get the motor to find satellites plus or minus 10 or 20 degrees of due south. The difficulty is to get the motor to track accurately plus and minus 50 degrees or more from due south. That takes methodical precision since even a little error in installation will get magnified as you move the dish further from due south.

Thanks

 

[cyberham]

My experience:

• With a perfectly vertical mast, in all directions, begin.
• Set and forget latitude on Angle A.
• Set Angle B per declination chart. Be ready to tweak it as necessary to peak satellites received.
• Motor using USALS to 97W.
• Swing entire dish assembly back and forth in azimuth to peak 97W.
• Motor using USALS to the next satellite toward the west: 99W. Repeat above. Keep going until you can't receive more satellites toward the west (101W, 105W, 117W, 123W). Do the same to the east.
• With a motor, skew of LNB is not adjusted. The motor skews the LNB as it turns. Just make sure LNB is set at 0 degrees.

 

[cyberham]

...I have motor at 36 to match latitude, and dish is at 33 degrrees. The motor bracket is level and flush, dish is tightened, and brackets are all tightened down.

At latitude 36 degrees, dish elevation setting should be 54 degrees. Dish declination setting should be about 5.8 degrees. Your 33 degree number (just 3 degrees off your elevation) suggests your declination is not correct which means the dish will track satellites nearby in azimuth but will go off the track the further west or east you move the dish.