how to install a motorised dish

[krazylegz]

here is a excellent guide on installing a motorised dish, this is the guide i used a few years ago and mines still going strong.
all credit and a big thanks to Digidude for allowing me to post this


Please read this a few times before starting, and good luck.

First of all you are going to need some tools (stating the obvious i know):

Ladder, remember, working at heights can be dangerous, and you are going to be drilling and carrying equipment up and down a few times, if you dont feel confident then use the services of a professional installer.

Drill, if using a mains powered drill please use an RCD to avoid any possible accidents.

Spanners, the most common sizes when working with dishes are 10mm and 13mm.

Spirit level, to make sure that your mounting bracket is straight, a digital level is best but a bubble level and/or plumb line will manage.

Drill bits, normally 10mm for plastic plugs and coach bolts but look at your fixings first and a long 10mm bit to drill the wall or window frame to get the dish cable into the house.

Compass, to help you alaign the dish, a small satellite signal assmeter will also be a great help.

Sharp knife or wire cutters, to make off the ends of the cables for the connections

Hammer, to clip the cable to the wall


once you are sure that your ladders are secure (see pic for a safe angle) and have decided on a suitable location for the dish you can attach the bracket to the wall (ideally this would be south facing). The bracket is normally a square plate with an 'L' shaped pole welded to it but there are many different types available such as tripods. Hold the bracket to the wall and drill your first hole, now you can either attach the bracket by this one fixing and then check the level and drill the other 3 holes or you can hold the bracket in place and once you know its level mark the wall using a pen. either way once you have drilled the 4 holes and attached the bracket you can now mount the dish onto the bracket. (it helps when fixing to the wall that if using an 'L' shaped pole type bracket that it points up, especially if using a large dish, make sure the pole is sealed so it wont collect water)

It is of utmost importance that this mounting is truly vertical so please be sure to take time mounting it, a few degrees out will mean that the dish will not follow the satellite arc properly and spoil your enjoyment of the system

You are now ready to start with the dish



Assemble the dish and motor as per the instructions.

Once the motor is assembled you need to set your latitude, on the side of the motor bracket is a scale, and on the motors body is a small mark, alaign the mark with your latitude and tighten them up.



If you visit Worldwide map search, route finder and travel directions - powered by Multimap and type in your postal code you will be given your latitude and longitude under the map that it shows you, you will need the figures in brackets (as highlighted in red below) write these down and round them to the nearest tenth. A negative number on the longitude means West, you have to make a note of these for later (so 51.65N becomes 51.7N and -3.64 becomes 3.6W).




Now you need to mount the dish onto the motor, this is an important part of the installation as if the dish is not mounted on the motors pole correctly then it will fail to follow the satellite arc correctly and you will not pick up the available signals correctly , The dish has to be pointing away from the center of the motors pole, check this as you are tightening the dish onto the pole because as you tighten the left nut the dish will turn on the pole to the right and vice versa so tighten both sides of the clamp evenly.




Fit the LNB to the dish and connect using co-axial cable to the connector on the motor marked LNB. For how to fit the connectors to the cable see http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums...50/#post225670. 'F' connectors outside MUST be sealed to keep water out, otherwise it will run through the cable, damaging the inside of the LNB and the satellite receiver. Water runs VERY quickly through coaxial cable by "capillary action".

Using insulation tape or cable ties attach the cable to the LNB arm. And leaving a small loop to allow water to drip off the LNB and cable, connect to the LNB. Now you have to seal the connection.

Be sure to use Self Amalgamating Tape to seal the LNB. this is a special tape made of rubber that once stretched will stick to itself and shrink to make a weather proof seal. Cut off about four inches (100mm) and peel off the plastic backing. Wrap the tape around the cable, just below the 'F' connector, stretching it strongly as you wrap in a spiral. Overlap by at least half the width of the tape so it bonds to itself. Continue to stretch and wrap it around the cable then the 'F' connector all the way up to the body of the LNB. Now stretch the excess length and spiral it back down the cable to finish off the joint neatly. once you get back to the bottom of the joint stretch the tape and once it breaks squeeze it into the seal to finish.

As you stretch the tape to twice its normal length, you create energy that makes the tape melt into itself to form a solid rubber tube. You won't believe this stuff till you try it. There's NO glue. Also great for repairing leaking hose on car or washing machine! The only way to remove it is by cutting with a very sharp blade.


Now armed with spanners take the dish up the ladder (be very carefull, especially if its a bit windy as they tend to be really good at catching wind when you're not expecting it) and you should be able to hook the clamp on the back of the motor over the wall bracket pole (if its pointing up) tighten the bolts so that the dish is holding in position but can still be turned left and right by turning the whole motor and dish together and the dish can be tilted up and down on the dish itself without using too much force. But dont put the ladders away just yet, you still have to alaign it to all those satellites tens of thousands of miles away.