Motorized Dish Headache

[cabuukar]

where do I start?

I spent most of the day trying to get my motorized dish track the arc correctly but it is still NOT working fully.

18T&K.jpg

this is what I have done so far..

spent almost the first 2 hours making sure the mast is plumb (a bit too slow? i know) made sure all my connections were spot on.

2, aimed the motor Thor 0.8w and got good signal, maximized the signal (first the motor then the dish) so far so good so from here onwards all the other satellites should have been found right? well, not really I this where I am stuck.

I have got these satellites so far =

1= 28.2e SNR 87% AGC: 30% OK
2= 19e, SNR 87% AGC: 30% OK
3= 16e, SNR 89% AGC: 16% can't watch any channel at all
4= 13e, SNR 88% AGC: 29% OK
5= 9e, SNR 89% AGC: 16% can't watch any channel at all
5= 0.8w, SNR 75% AGC: 30% OK
6= 5w SNR 80% AGC: 30% OK

I probably wont need other satellites but it just bothers me.............(I have done everything possible, read and re-read all the tutorials and followed it to the latter but still getting only 6 or 7 sats)

After making sure the mast/pole is 100% plumb/vertical I was hoping my sat problems were behind me but not at all.

How can I improve my AGC?

[Rodbouy]

If you get Point 1 ok and point 6 ok then the arc is fine.

If the arc was off, then by time it got to 5w then it wouldnt be near it.

SOund like just a fine tune

[cabuukar]

If you get Point 1 ok and point 6 ok then the arc is fine.

I hope you right mate coz I don't feel like starting it all over again .

SOund like just a fine tune

I have already fine tuned it but all I got was an increase of 1% on the SNR, the next thing I will try tomorrow is the Lnb, any advise is really appreciated.

Thanx

[digicon]

That is only a small ARC range it can fall off anywhere at anytime there are numerous possible outcomes you can have all the east side perfect right up to around 57? east then go to the west side and it can start falling off at around 15? west.

Forget the AGC the low figure is probably due to a driver bug in the receiver you have your SNR is the Most important factor and nothing else and to be honest without a pro meter with spectrum your only getting a rough idea from the receiver itself.

Looking at your figures dependant on size of dish and location of course they dont look too bad, But as i said you really need to push to the extremes of the ARC to see if your dish is tracking correctly and that it wont drop off at the far reaches of each end.

At least look at getting 45? east to 30? west correct

[ramjet]

when you aimed at thor I hope you were using a box with a preset channel list, with your gps location in the usals and then chose thor so it knew where to send the motor ?

if it was correct then your zero on the motor should point exactly due south of you, so would be aimed at 5 west if your longitude was 5w

lastly, I hope you set the motor to your latitude and locked it there, and had the lnb with no skew at the zero marker on the motor

[cabuukar]

That is only a small ARC range it can fall off anywhere at anytime

I was hoping that was not the case

Looking at your figures dependant on size of dish and location of course they dont look too

these are my details
1.1m dish
tm - 2600 hh
18 inch T&K
DM800HD SE
New Enigma Image

[cabuukar]

when you aimed at thor I hope you were using a box with a preset channel list, with your gps location in the usals and then chose thor so it knew where to send the motor ?

Done that.

if it was correct then your zero on the motor should point exactly due south of you,

done that as well

lastly, I hope you set the motor to your latitude and locked it there,

yes motor latitude was spot on and locked well before I attached to dish

and had the lnb with no skew at the zero marker on the motor

I didnt touch the lnb at all, I mainly concentrated on motor/dish/mast..........I am gana try and move the lnb tomorrow (while the motor is at Thor 0.8W)

[cabuukar]

here are some more pics of mine...........
The mast is a vertical on every direction.
20131201_082403.jpg20131201_082419.jpg20131201_082429.jpg20131201_082443.jpg
got the max signal for thor 82% (lnb all the way back gave me most signal %) but it is not tracking the arc correctly20131201_085436.jpg

I will leave it as it is till summer (if i can resist the temptation of bringing the ladder out)

[ramjet]

not quite true, as seen below

SNR = Signal to Noise Ratio - which means signal quality
AGC = Automatic Gain Control - which means signal strength
BER = Bit Error Rate - which shows the error rate of the signal.


So, SNR and AGC should be as high as possible.
BER should be as low as possible, like 0.

so your quality is good (SNR) , your BER is good , but your SIGNAL (AGC) is poor

[digicon]

Ramjet its a Flaw/Bug in the DM800se drivers on all images i have one myself and the AGC is always reported as around 30% or there abouts thats why i said forget about this in a previous post


Regards

[ramjet]

thanks, but he seems to think that SNR is his signal according to his post , , whereas its his SNR that is reported at 82% which is his quality

in any case, I prefer to setup a motor using a spiderbox as you can rely on its display of signals and quality, whereas I have had problems myself trying to do this lineup stuff using linux boxes so avoid using them for it

if these problems he is having are about alignment, it would seem from your post that he should not rely on his dm for the aligning process , a catch 22 if ever I saw one

thanks for the info though

[M T Glass]

Am I wrong or does the pics show that the pole is not level?

[ramjet]

Am I wrong or does the pics show that the pole is not level?

when I looked it showed his pictures needed rotating by say 90 degrees, in other words so that the pole is showing as vertical, then check the correct bubble

[M T Glass]

Thanks ramjet. That's a pebble dashed wall and not, as I thought, a gravel driveway or path.

[cabuukar]

Am I wrong or does the pics show that the pole is not level?

Rotate it mate so that the pole is vertical.