Problem setting up dish and motor

**dog-man** · 04-09-2013, 03:46 PM

I am having terrible problems setting up my dish and new motor.

I have done this a number of times before so I am no virgin to this, but the last time was several years ago.

I have a 1.1m triax dish.
My motor is a supreme intelligent dark motor.

I have set the elevation of the motor to 39 as per the manual and the declination of the dish to 27.4 as per the manual.

Unless I change those figures quite a bit I will not even get a sniff of a signal from any satellite, but the signal strengths will be way lower than they should be.

The only thing I am doing differently this time is I am using usals for the first time as I thought it would make things easier.
It hasn't!

Adjusting the elevation and declination with a dish as heavy as a Triax 1.1m is no fun when you are up a ladder. I have been at it for 3 days now and unless I settle for lower signal strengths, I am no nearer sorting this out.

I need advice please. I refuse to pay for it to be installed as I have done this with great success before.

I am using a signal meter.

Just to confirm that my pole is level (using a post level).
I have input my longitude and latitude.

A very fed up dog-man.....

***echelon*** · 04-09-2013, 04:28 PM

my motor has latitude on it , so dont use elevation (the book diagram shows elevation but you use latitude instead)

had I not read all your post and you were a newbie, I would have told you to use the latitude on the motor (51 in your case) and about 27.5 on your triax dish, then alter the motor on the pole swinging it left or right, and small adjustments on your triax dish, to fine tune it

the latitude is never altered

**dog-man** · 04-09-2013, 04:34 PM

Hmmm, I did consider using my latitude as it does indeed say latitude on the motor but I just thought it was a translation error as they are made abroad.

I have just come down the ladder after finding I am getting a fairly strong signal in one spot only around the 49 mark on the motor, so I will now try 51 and see what happens.

Really getting fed up with this now. My legs are killing me.

dog-man

**donki** · 04-09-2013, 04:37 PM

Plugged it in?

Not sure that this will help but, like a fool, I climbed my ladder to read my angles which are:

Motor 39
Dish Declination 21

But these would only be relevant to you if you lived close to where I am in Northants.

Originally had my dish bracket upside down when I first set mine up. Drove me crazy for half a day before I realised it. Eeeyore.

Setup on 0.8 and then try the ARC and adjust the declination as required until happy.

***echelon*** · 04-09-2013, 04:39 PM

the error is in the book , my superior booklet is the same , says elevation in the booklet but you actually use latitude on your motor, so 51 in your case, 27.4 on your triax and then use your box to send it to 0.8w using usals, and select bbc world news , then look for that channel until you get a booming signal lock, lock up the dish and pole mounting brackets and test to 42e and 30w etc

post #6 here https://www.satpimps.co.uk/showthrea...all-FAQ-thread has the transponders for checking the arc

I checked mine last week and the darkmotor superior is definitely on my actual latitude, not elevation, I believe your supreme will be the same , so not as in the last post (I altered by booklet accordingly)

**dog-man** · 04-09-2013, 04:44 PM

Originally Posted by donki

Plugged it in?

Not sure that this will help but, like a fool, I climbed my ladder to read my angles which are:

Motor 39
Dish Declination 21

But these would only be relevant to you if you lived close to where I am in Northants.

Originally had my dish bracket upside down when I first set mine up. Drove me crazy for half a day before I realised it. Eeeyore.

Setup on 0.8 and then try the ARC and adjust the declination as required until happy.

I am extreme SE UK, not too far from Margate.

so for me it is 51.

**ManikM** · 04-09-2013, 07:17 PM

Originally Posted by dog-man

I am having terrible problems setting up my dish and new motor.

I have done this a number of times before so I am no virgin to this, but the last time was several years ago.

I have a 1.1m triax dish.
My motor is a supreme intelligent dark motor.

I have set the elevation of the motor to 39 as per the manual and the declination of the dish to 27.4 as per the manual.

Unless I change those figures quite a bit I will not even get a sniff of a signal from any satellite, but the signal strengths will be way lower than they should be.

The only thing I am doing differently this time is I am using usals for the first time as I thought it would make things easier.
It hasn't!

Adjusting the elevation and declination with a dish as heavy as a Triax 1.1m is no fun when you are up a ladder. I have been at it for 3 days now and unless I settle for lower signal strengths, I am no nearer sorting this out.

I need advice please. I refuse to pay for it to be installed as I have done this with great success before.

I am using a signal meter.

Just to confirm that my pole is level (using a post level).
I have input my longitude and latitude.

A very fed up dog-man.....

i feel your pain mate, went through all this recently.

im too chicken to climb on my roof, so got a man in.

glad i did, good luck !

**dog-man** · 04-09-2013, 07:38 PM

I might be getting somewhere, but it is bothering me at the moment that I am only getting signal strength of about 60% or lower on 19.2.

Something is very wrong, but I can't figure out what.

Have to stop and go to work now sadly.

I will scan in some more satellites tomorrow and try and figure how my dish arc compares to the arc in the sky.

I will have thighs like a weight lifter after all this, what with all the ladder climbing.

***echelon*** · 04-09-2013, 08:36 PM

the main things to remember are

lock the motor mount latitude to 51 with the little pointer next to the locking bolt

start with the dish around 27 to 28 degrees elevation on the side with the pointer (the v shaped groove - back left on mine)

make sure you have the correct usals details in the receiver and send the motor to thor at 0.8 west, bbc world or sly news fta channels are good to start with

make sure the lnb cable f connector socket points straight down when on 0.8w and maybe start with the quad lnb about midpoint on its neck

have the system setup outside if you can where you can see a portable tv from up the working dish area and leave it on bbc world news or sly news

I find my spiderbox is excellent due to the fact it has signal and quality bars onscreen when you press info twice, I didnt like the satfinder on the dm or vu

but one good point with the vu is you can stream to a phone using vuplayer , which is handy when up a ladder

**dog-man** · 04-09-2013, 10:32 PM

My marker groove for the dish declination is also on the left if I am stood in front of the dish looking at it.
Probably the only thing I have not tried is moving the lnb backward or forward. I will try that tomorrow afternooon.
I am using the correct lat / long settings in usals.
Good idea about streaming to a phone. I shall try that.

***echelon*** · 04-09-2013, 10:37 PM

Originally Posted by dog-man

My marker groove for the dish declination is also on the left if I am stood in front of the dish looking at it.
Probably the only thing I have not tried is moving the lnb backward or forward. I will try that tomorrow afternooon.
I am using the correct lat / long settings in usals.
Good idea about streaming to a phone. I shall try that.

mine is on the RIGHT if looking from the front of the dish face (the lnb side), on the LEFT if looking from the back where the mount is

there are markings on both sides of the dish mount, so maybe you need to use the left side looking from the rear ?

make sure the dish mounting holder is the correct way round

as in check picture 3 on the triax pdf - 896496b.pdf (or your leaflet) and look at the picture for 10 to 34 degrees (and not 23 to 48 like you have it), showing the pointer on the left at the rear of your dish which is how mine is (and is spot on)

**dog-man** · 04-09-2013, 11:08 PM

Can't check now as I am at work, but I am fairly sure there is only a mark on one side of my dish bracket that grips the dish.

***echelon*** · 04-09-2013, 11:12 PM

Originally Posted by dog-man

Can't check now as I am at work, but I am fairly sure there is only a mark on one side of my dish bracket that grips the dish.

same here, and mine is on the left and yours is on the right, so you have that bracket upside down

check the new pdf I uploaded tonight for clarity as its not obvious on your leaflet

**dog-man** · 04-09-2013, 11:13 PM

As for the dish bracket possibly being the wrong way round, it has been this way since first installing it probably over ten years ago. I have always had good strong signals.

How do I know which is the correct way round?
It would be amusing if it has been the wrong way round for that long.

***echelon*** · 04-09-2013, 11:15 PM

have a look at this pdf here https://www.satpimps.co.uk/showthrea...213#post885213 as its not obvious on the td110 leaflet

I suppose 27.4 can be used either way, but as you are having problems I am comparing your install to mine and I know mine works and I am a lot further north than you so you should get better signals than me seeing as we have almost the same equipment

**dog-man** · 05-09-2013, 12:02 AM

If I turned the bracket round the declination scale numbers would be upside down.
Surely that cannot be right.

***echelon*** · 05-09-2013, 12:22 AM

I can only explain how mine is set up and its the same equipment as you (almost), mine is working as it should , yours isnt, ergo you have something wrong, so I believe its the dish mounting bracket clamp upside down as my pointer is on the left as per all the diagrams on the left side of page 3 of the pdf

the dish mounting point has numbers for elevation on both sides, the pdf mainly shows the pointer on the left looking from the rear and that is where mine is, on roughly 27.5 degrees on the left side rear markings (ignore those on the right side)

the bracket clamp can be mounted either way up, as the pdf shows on page 3 lower left under each of the two elevation pictures

**dog-man** · 05-09-2013, 12:30 AM

Yes, you are correct.
The scale is written on the dish not the bracket, so I was wrong. It will not be upside down.
So for at least ten years my bracket has been the wrong way round.
How the hell did I get such good signals with my old Jaeger motor.

**TheBadger** · 05-09-2013, 08:10 AM

I have a Jaeger and a 1m Lenson dish. I check the angle the face of the dish makes with the vertical using a long straight edge and a digital spirit level. I have posted diagrams and figures on the site somewhere but I can't find them so here they are again.

**dog-man** · 05-09-2013, 03:35 PM

I have just had a look at the dish declination scales on both sides of the dish and they are completely different.
27.4 degrees on the right is not 27.4 on the left side scale looking at it from the rear of the dish.

So that is obviously my problem so I will correct that.

Strange though that for around 10 years I have been getting very strong signals.

Perhaps with the dish mount stub going up as it was on the jaeger I could manually compensate, but with the stub going down as it is with the dark motor, I cannot compensate.

I would have thought though that if I found the right declination manually with this motor, everything should have been ok.

Doesn't look like I will finish the job for a few days at least as I have work tonight and heavy rain is forecast over the weekend.