Motorised Dish Advice Needed

[ramjet]

I just used a magnetic spirit level for checking pole plumbness but any spirit level is fine as long as you check all around the pole (so several times in different spots)

also ensure that the dish is pointing in alignment with the motor spigot so that when its all pointing due south its all aligned, I find there are welded seams on the rear of the motor spigot and underneath the spigot in order to help with this

the motor will point at the zero mark when pointing due south so if you were at say 5 west then it would be on zero when pointing at the 5 west satellites

also set usals to your location (lat and long) and set the motor elevation to your latitude

the dish will probably be around 22 to 28 degrees of elevation, mine being on 27.5 as can be seen here

http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums/f11/spiderbox-9900-motorising-problems-289670/

it also helps if you can use a simple box like a tm1500 or spiderbox 9000 or similar too when aligning motors and dishes

signal quality is what counts when locking onto satellites and I believe this is SNR on your box

the AGC is the signal strength and although it varies its no indicator of locking onto a satellite

[dalton565]

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated. I followed the guides more or less exactly last night removed the dish/motor from the wall and aligned it as per the guide, im happy its now absolutley 100%. I put it back up and again tried to find thor to no avail, i then tried 5W, couldnt locate it either, then went for 9E same thing, tried Hotbird 13E nothing again. I was able to get a signal on 17E right through to 28.2E. The others i was getting a high pitched noise from the sat finder like i had locked onto something, the AGC reading went up on the receiver but nothing on the SNR (signal). I spent an age at this used dishpointer everything but just cudnt find a peep on the southerly sats. Do i need to scew the lnb or anything daft like that, i have it currently set straight at 0 degrees on the motor.

Im now beginning to thing im obstructed, there is another house about 20m away from me and some trees and i know they would block my signal West of south, but maybe they are affecting some of the sats closer to south Perhaps signal is bouncing off it and missing me.

Anyway im going to move the whole setup onto my roof either tomorrow afternoon or over the weekend. I have a very tall brick chimney that would definatley have 100% clear line of sight in just about all directions. Is there any implications about putting the motorised dish on my chimney, before i proceed to do this ?

My dish is 1m.

[mdt]

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated. I followed the guides more or less exactly last night removed the dish/motor from the wall and aligned it as per the guide, im happy its now absolutley 100%. I put it back up and again tried to find thor to no avail, i then tried 5W, couldnt locate it either, then went for 9E same thing, tried Hotbird 13E nothing again. I was able to get a signal on 17E right through to 28.2E. The others i was getting a high pitched noise from the sat finder like i had locked onto something, the AGC reading went up on the receiver but nothing on the SNR (signal). I spent an age at this used dishpointer everything but just cudnt find a peep on the southerly sats. Do i need to scew the lnb or anything daft like that, i have it currently set straight at 0 degrees on the motor.

Im now beginning to thing im obstructed, there is another house about 20m away from me and some trees and i know they would block my signal West of south, but maybe they are affecting some of the sats closer to south Perhaps signal is bouncing off it and missing me.

Anyway im going to move the whole setup onto my roof either tomorrow afternoon or over the weekend. I have a very tall brick chimney that would definatley have 100% clear line of sight in just about all directions. Is there any implications about putting the motorised dish on my chimney, before i proceed to do this ?

My dish is 1m.

a 1m dish is too big for the chimney stack and no to mention against planning laws although ive seen a 1m iss fixed on 42e on a chimney stack near to were i live. can you not get yourself a set of 18 inch t+k,s and a 2m legth of scaffold pole to raise the dish above the eaves? you could put the dish on a north facing wall and look over the roof if need be. post some photo,s to give us more of a idea so we can advise you better on your line of site issues,regards mdt

[dick b]

if the house over the road is less than 10mt high at 20mts away it should not be a problem. you said you found 28.2E in your post#9 try that again if you start a with a dish elevation of say 29/30 and slowly sweep L/R past where the sat should be and drop the elevation by say 1 degree after each sweep and watch for the slightest blip on the SNR(quality) reading you should find it in the end. if you put a car exhaust clamp under the motor(a 52mm one) it makes it a lot easier to turn without the lot sliding down the pole.

PS do not apply skew leave it at 0

[dalton565]

Hey Guys !

Thanks for all the help btw
Time for a bit of an update !

Ok so yesterday i completly moved the dish onto the gable wall of the house. As i though an obscured signal was my problem. After spending 3 hours getting up straight and wired. I went inside and to my horror exactly the same problem i was only recieving 17E - 28.2E.

So at this point i thought it was something i was doing.

All this time i had been using the satfinder feature on the box (box is vu+ duo running blackhole image 1.7.5). The sat finder showed no signal or lock on any of the sats below 17E. So for the heck of it i decided to give a channel on Thor 1W a go and see what would happen. And to my absolute suprise the channel worked, (bbc something) even though in the sat finder it wasnt showing a signal on thor when i moved the dish to it. I tried me dm800se and it was the same.

Anyway i get just about every channel on thor, so though happy days, tried 9E pretty good also, now onto hotbird. On which i get a lot of thje channels but a few are not working eg s** italia hd chans.
All other sats are fine

Im assuming the dish just needs a fine tune ? Would it be the elevation do you think, i cant see the dish needing to move left->right. Whats the best way to fine tune when you recieve some but not all channels as i dont want to screw up the others if i can help it.

Cheers

[ramjet]

I would back up your settings using dreamset or dreamboxedit, then load the latest E2 catseye settings, click the reload box option after the transfer, and reboot the box (vu and/or the dm)

then check again before altering anything

I believe I already said you should use a simple box for satellite setup, like a tm1500 for instance (listed in post #16 which you havent commented on), I would never setup a motor using a linux box myself. in fact I use a spiderbox HD for setting them up as its quick and easy to do

[mdt]

your .xml file probably needs updating and thats why your not getting some of the s*y it hotbird channels. dont worry about losing the channels again as they will come back with slight ajustment. take the dish back to 1 west and then do very small movements up/down on the dish elevation and left right on the motor untill the signal on bbc world peaks and then drops if you make any movement. patience is the key here, check the weaker txp,s on int 10-02 aswell 12.606v+h/12.687v+h/12.735h 8800,make a small ajustments then check again. its a ballache i know keep going up/down the ladder but you will get there... well done,regards mdt

[dalton565]

@ramjet Sorry for not answering your previous post. i dont have a technomate box in my possession or i would have tried this. Unfortunatly the only boxes i possess are linux based (500, 800, vu).

Anyway mdt i think you where right. i updated this xml file and did a single satellite scan on 13E and low and behold alot of the channels that didnt work for me before are now working great.

I think i have it finally sorted, maybe need a little tuning for some of the other sats but im not too worried as hotbird was the main sat i was after.

Guys what can i say thanks for your help, couldnt of done it without it. I owe you a crate of beer !! haha

[collegebhoy]

Newbie in Derry trying to set up motorised dish. Have set up standard dishes before but can't seem to get motorised dish to work been at it all weekend now. Lat set to 55 and inclination set to 22.5 on the dish (i've tried playing with this on looking but still no joy. The dish looks like it is square on the motor, i'm wondering could it be the cable - got it from cable and electric ?14 for 100m. Just wondering is that good enough quality?

[Nutsandbolts]

Newbie in Derry trying to set up motorised dish. Have set up standard dishes before but can't seem to get motorised dish to work been at it all weekend now. Lat set to 55 and inclination set to 22.5 on the dish (i've tried playing with this on looking but still no joy. The dish looks like it is square on the motor, i'm wondering could it be the cable - got it from cable and electric ?14 for 100m. Just wondering is that good enough quality?

Hi. Is the motor green light on?? Does it move the dish???. If yes then cable is working if not check connections are correct and secure. Make sure that LNB cable is properly connected. To get satellites use USALS to send it to a satellite you are familiar with like FREESAT or HOTBIRD etc. Then tune in the satellite as though it was a standard dish. Check channels on satellite are ok and then send dish to another satellite and tune it in. You may need to adjust the motor tail elevation and dish angles a few times until you get it right. Make sure you have up to date TP's(frequencies) for the channels you are trying to tune in. Also make sure your dish is big enough for the satellites you are trying to get. It usually takes me 20 minutes to set up a motor so it is not that difficult.

[alec]

Im assuming the dish just needs a fine tune ? Would it be the elevation do you think, i cant see the dish needing to move left->right. Whats the best way to fine tune when you recieve some but not all channels as i dont want to screw up the others if i can help it.

The way you are moving the dish about. I would have thought the best way would be set it up on the ground first, and tune all the stations.
Tighten up everything , and carry the motor and dish to the point of fixture- if too heavy remove dish only from its fixings, usually 4 bolts in the middle of dish, and then all you have to do is get the slew right . Tune to BBC on 0.8W, and just turn motor fixings on the pole left.or right for strongest signal and slowly tighten.