how to install a motorised dish

[temmy]

hi m8, please do you know of any motorise dish technician ? i've got everything installed before but cause i moved adress, so i just need the tech guy to fix the dish up at my new adress. cheers in advance

[Manic01]

clairvoyant needed for address.

[mulgrave]

Hi

I spent the last 3 days trying to install motorised system with dreambox 800HD. I am just going to give up.
I can"t get any channels ,tried many combinations as per website suggestions but when it comnes to setting up the DM box not a single channels. Portable astfinder between LNB and received gives signals.
appreciate any help before giving it up.

Thanks

[Nutsandbolts]

hi m8, please do you know of any motorise dish technician ? i've got everything installed before but cause i moved adress, so i just need the tech guy to fix the dish up at my new adress. cheers in advance

Hi. Why dont you have a go at doing it yourself. Its very simple really. It just needs a bit of patience to get it right. Are you in London??

Regards.

[Nutsandbolts]

Hi

I spent the last 3 days trying to install motorised system with dreambox 800HD. I am just going to give up.
I can"t get any channels ,tried many combinations as per website suggestions but when it comnes to setting up the DM box not a single channels. Portable astfinder between LNB and received gives signals.
appreciate any help before giving it up.

Thanks

Hi. DONT GIVE UP. I have sent you a PM with some info which may help you.

Regards.

[Manic01]

Probably tells you to blind scan.
Will have a problem doing that

[Nutsandbolts]

Probably tells you to blind scan.
Will have a problem doing that

Manic you man of little faith. A blind scan works wonders for a motor. Fancy the poor guy spending 3 days and not finding one channel. Maybe he has a dodgy DM made in China. It takes me about 20 minutes to setup a motor.

Have a nice day.

[nsw9154]

when i fit the pivot bracket to the dish mount i presume that i set it Vertical to the dish mount, and i do not set it to the Latitude markings on the pivot bracket - then only set the latitude on the motor am i correct, it is a Gibertini 85L and a Dark Motor Supreme sorry for sounding Thick, but as i see it if i set the latitude to the pivot bracket then set it again on the motor it will be miles out of line as i presume the pivot bracket markings are for a fixed dish Thanks in advance

i am thinking of fitting it together myself as i am having trouble getting a instaler

[ramjet]

when i fit the pivot bracket to the dish mount i presume that i set it Vertical to the dish mount, and i do not set it to the Latitude markings on the pivot bracket - then only set the latitude on the motor am i correct, it is a Gibertini 85L and a Dark Motor Supreme sorry for sounding Thick, but as i see it if i set the latitude to the pivot bracket then set it again on the motor it will be miles out of line as i presume the pivot bracket markings are for a fixed dish Thanks in advance

i am thinking of fitting it together myself as i am having trouble getting a instaler

depending on the dish you will find 2 types of markings , elevation and degrees

the motor elevation is set to your latitude, which is say 53 degrees north, take this away from 90 and that gives you the dish elevation of 37 degrees

however, most dishes including my triax have a dish elevation that is set and the motor booklet tells you what this is, so for me its 27.5 degrees on the dish for my darkmotor superior and you can see pictures of this on one of the forum threads here by spudorange

once the motor elevation has been set to your latitude it doesnt move

the dish elevation is then set to its approximate position, and only fine tuned to peak the signal

where the dish mount bolts onto the motor spigot, that all has to be "in line" and doesnt alter at all once its been set

any horizontal adjustments are made on the pole mounting where the motor bolts onto the pole

so basically the dish mount is set on the motor spigot and locked, and the motor elevation is set and locked

any further changes are made on the dish elevation mounting and the pole mount, which gives you up, down, left, right movement until you peak the signal on 0.8w. then you check 28e and 39e or 42e, and 15w and 30w to check your arc is correct

then try weaker sats like 4w , 7w , 22w, and 4.8e , 10e , 16e and 26e

[nsw9154]

Thank you ramjet for explaining it so precisley

my Latitude is 54.688 so i presume i will set my Dark Motor as 55 degrees and then set the dish at 35 degrees am i corect as their is no real setup info with my gibertini dish only how to fit it together

just checked my Dark Motor booklet and it has a Elivation and Declination angle table at the back that is even more confusing,as it states my latitude as 54 or 56 and elivation angle at 36 or 34 and dish bracket angle at 27.4 or 27.2

[ramjet]

Thank you ramjet for explaining it so precisley

my Latitude is 54.688 so i presume i will set my Dark Motor as 55 degrees and then set the dish at 35 degrees am i corect as their is no real setup info with my gibertini dish only how to fit it together

just checked my Dark Motor booklet and it has a Elivation and Declination angle table at the back that is even more confusing,as it states my latitude as 54 or 56 and elivation angle at 36 or 34 and dish bracket angle at 27.4 or 27.2

mine says that too, and so for my dish which is a triax that is exactly where its set

I cannot answer for your dish as I have no experience of them, sorry

I did state before that dishes tend to come with 2 sets of markings however, or possibly one or the other

I would try 54 degrees on the darkmotor

[dick b]

as has been said set the motor lat to 55 lockup and leave it will not need moving again.the motor elevation on the other side should read 35 (55+35=90)
The dish elevation though will need hunting for as its not going to be exactly what the tables say you cant just set to what it says and get a signal. point the dish as accurately as you can at your target sat and with the dish bracket angle set at say 29 sweep slowly L/R to get signal if no signal drop dish angle by 1 degree and try again and so on and so on.I"ve got an 85 gibertini and the wing nut adjusters make it an easy job.

[ramjet]

a google search shows the offset as 21.1 degrees

but as mentioned in the last post the 2 motorised elevations add up to 90 degrees

so follow the advice in the last post

[dick b]

"nsw9154"just to explain the dish elevation a bit more,the elevation setting on the dish is determined by the declination angle on the motor shaft which for darkmotors is 35 degrees( for technomate motors its 30 degrees) so for a latitude setting of 54 North the dish declination needs to be 7.6 therefore a dish on a darkmotor needs the elevation set to the shaft declination of 35 minus 7.6 which equals 27.4 but on a technomate motor the declination angle of the shaft is 30 degrees but the declination for 54 north remains 7.6 so 30 minus 7.6 equals 22.4 to be set on the dish. but these are settings for everthing being perfect which they rarely are hence you have to find the exact dish angle by trial and error.

[janeg1965]

Just a quick recap.

You should now have:

A perfectly vertical mount on the wall with the motor and dish attached to it.
The LNB on the dish connected to the motor.
A cable running from the dish to the back of your television (but not yet connected).
A satellite reciever connected to your television by a scart lead.

Next we will connect the dish and motor to the reciever and set up the reciever and motor ready for you to start looking for satellites to alaign the dish.

For menu screen shots i am going to use a Technomate reciever as these are now a very popular choice. The majority of recievers all have very similar setup options.

First of all connect the lead from the reciever to the motor, now back inside connect it to the satellite input socket on the reciever and turn on the reciever.

Now before you enter anything into the reciever go back outside and take a quick look at the dish, it should look similar to the picture below, with the dish face itself sitting pretty straight, if not a quick trip up the ladder now will save you pulling your hair out in 20 mins time. Now would also be an ideal time to use your compass to point the dish as due south as you can, it doesnt need to be spot on, but its no good pointing it towards santas house.



Back into the house now, and into the motorised setup menu. First of all select a satellite, for this we'll use Thor @ 1'W. Now select your motor type. I always use USALS as its so easy when it comes to adding more satellites. Now you need to enter your latitude and longitude that you wrote down earlier (you did keep them safe i hope). Once all this is done you should have an option to 'Go To' highlight this and press OK. The dish will move slightly. Now if you havent got a signal strength meter you are going to have to rely on the onscreen levels, fortunatley on the technomates these are extremely sensitive and acurate.

the bars on the screen will more than likley indicate very little or no signal, you need to slowly move the dish to get these as high as possible. On a technomate when a signal is 'locked' the bars will change colour from both red to one yellow and one blue, once they have done this you can tighten the dish slightly ready to fine tune the alaignment.

First off to start fine tuning the dish hold the face of the dish (the big circle) and only very lightly bend it (it wont damage it) left and right and up and down. This should cause the signal on the screen to improve. Once you have worked out which way to move the dish to improve the signal move it very slightly and again bend the face. Keep doing this untill any way you bend the face causes the signal to drop. You have now alaigned the dish, you just need to tighten it. First of all tighten the elevation bracket on the back of the dish, taking care not to move it.

Now you need to tighten the motor onto the pole. Be carefull here because if you just go tightening the bolts you will move the dish. As you tighten a clamp onto a round fixing the clamp moves in the opposite direction its being tightened. So, if you tighten the bolt on the left 3 turns, also tighten the bolt on the right 3 turns. Do this untill you are satisfied that it is tight enough.

You should now have a screen similar to this:



Now for the test.

highlight the satellite at the top of the list and press OK. Now use the up and down buttons to find Astra 2 28.2E and press OK. Now highlight Go TO at the bottom of the screen and again press OK. If asked to save choose yes.

You will now see this.



If you have followed everything then you should have blue and yellow bars to show that the reciever has a signal lock. Now to try the other end of the sky. Highlight the satellite at the top of the list again and press OK, now use up and down to find Hispasat 30.0W and press OK. Back to Go To at the bottom and press OK again, again if asked to save choose yes.

As long as this locks onto a signal as well then you are all alaigned.

Now if the 'moving to' box vanishes and you still have no signal dont panic. YET. sometimes the onscreen bar moves faster than the dish, if you still have no yellow and blue bars after 90 seconds then you need to check that you have lined everything up properly (mount vertical, dish pointing from center of motors pole) also check the lat and lon settings on the reciever, i have before now spent an hour at the dish when i had pressed ok on the remote inside and accidently changed N to S which made the dish do the opposite of what it was meant to. If you only get a lock on one side (east or west) DONT PANIC. The usual suspect in most motorised problems is that the dish is slightly off center when tightened onto the motors pole. Check this and go back to the top of this bit and try again, you are so close dont give up.

Now all the easy bits done its time to find the channels.

Nahh, congratulations, you have just done what 85% of Sky trained satellite installers could not do, and you have saved yourself the cost of a professional coming in and doing it for you (at least ?130), you should be extremely proud of yourself.

All thats left to do now is either load a ready made channel list onto the reciever (and as you have used USALS any new satellites will be automatically set up) or follow the user manual that came with your reciever for scanning satellites for channels.

excuse me for sounding a bit thick but are the channels scrambled so you have to pay for them or do you pick them up for free.thanks