Motorised dish set up (elevation question)

[spudorange]

Hi all, have someone who wants me to look at his motorised system which he tells me was fine but now gets nothing.

He had a play and says he checked darkmotor was perfectly in line & then twisted dish until he got 95% (strangely on sirius not on thor) he then did a scan and got loads of channels,
it does appear the ones he was viewing were 4.8 so lnb appears ok.

Then he tried it yesterday on "glas" and even tried a scan and nothing, so I think it's his settings.

I googled his postcode and got the following:

Latitude: 52.486? Longitude: -1.890?	Name: 0.8W Thor 2,3 Distance: 38616km	Elevation:30.0? Azimuth (true): 178.6? Azimuth (magn.): 180.5? LNB skew: -0.8?

Yet he says his elevation is set to 50 deg (not the 30 deg showing above) and that was how it was set up last year when he was getting everything.

Can anyone advise correct elevation please, he is in birmingham

thanks

[ramjet]

the motor elevation is set to birmingham which is 52.4831 in google

dish elevation is completely different and wont be 50 , typically it starts around 27.5 , but the motor booklet will say for sure

the DM booklet says

52 N , 38 elevation , 7.5 declination , 27.5 dish bracket angle, so that will be for birmingham

longitude is 1.9 w judging by your figures

[spudorange]

Thanks

do I take it that the 50deg he says it points to (on motor) should be 52 degrees

Or am I missing the point and it should be 27.5

thanks

[ramjet]

good question, which I was wondering too

I assumed he meant the motor latitude was on 50 instead of 52.5

[markwi]

Edit: Are there 2 scales on the motor.One will be for latitude and the other for elevation,90 - latidude ie 52.5 and 37.5 in this case?
The zero point of the motor should be aligned to the centre of the dish and left.He should be twisting the motor and dish on the pole to get a signal.
I must say I don't understand how the elevation values you get in dishpointer.com,for a dish without a motor,relate to one with a motor.

[ebmitie]

I have the dark motor, just set dish at 27.5 and leave it, set motor elevation to 38 if it shows elevation and 52.5 if it shows latitude but I seem to recall those markkings were incorrect on a few dark motors ie elevation was latitude and latitude was elevation. Use usals and set it up on 0.8w ie bbc world news. You may have to do 2 attempts, one with my figures as per motor and if no good reverse them, ie put elevation where it shows latitude.

good luck

[spudorange]

Thanks @ebmitie

will have a play

he says it definitely worked until recently so I guess the setting on the motor itself must be close to being right.

Looking at the above post it would seem I have to tweak it slightly from 50 to 52.5 and set dish at 38, then make sure motor is dead vertical & lock it into .8w
Then move dish slightly to lock on, then store

Does that sound correct?

[spudorange]

He probably does, until I can get there I am not certain but sounds right.

good question, which I was wondering too

I assumed he meant the motor latitude was on 50 instead of 52.5

[spudorange]

Will do thanks

I have the dark motor, just set dish at 27.5 and leave it, set motor elevation to 38 if it shows elevation and 52.5 if it shows latitude but I seem to recall those markkings were incorrect on a few dark motors ie elevation was latitude and latitude was elevation. Use usals and set it up on 0.8w ie bbc world news. You may have to do 2 attempts, one with my figures as per motor and if no good reverse them, ie put elevation where it shows latitude.

good luck

[ramjet]

Thanks @ebmitie

will have a play

he says it definitely worked until recently so I guess the setting on the motor itself must be close to being right.

Looking at the above post it would seem I have to tweak it slightly from 50 to 52.5 and set dish at 38, then make sure motor is dead vertical & lock it into .8w
Then move dish slightly to lock on, then store

Does that sound correct?

no

I would say motor latitude at 52.5

dish at 27.5

put usals into box at 52.5 N and 1.9w

no skew on lnb

send the motor to 0.8w for bbc world news etc

then move motor left/right until you get bbc, fine tune and lock it all up

[ebmitie]

mind you we should be asking what receiver is being used as well, as the op mentions, friend did a scan!!! With a motorised system channels would be already in receiver!!

[dick b]

no

I would say motor latitude at 52.5

dish at 27.5

put usals into box at 52.5 N and 1.9w

no skew on lnb

send the motor to 0.8w for bbc world news etc

then move motor left/right until you get bbc, fine tune and lock it all up

just to add dish scales are not that accurate and the 27.5 will be just a ball park figure and the exact elevation found by trial and error set up as ramjet says but if you dont find 0.8W adjust the dish elevation up/down and re-sweep til found,do not move the motor from your location latitude to tune in just the dish elevation

[spudorange]

When he said he lost everything then found 4.8 instead of thor I asked what signal he was getting and he said nearly 100%
I asked him to got to receiver and save & do a scan and he said he found lots of channels and he could view them.

He could not however view any other sats, then I think 2 days later he put it back to sirius and got nothing, even off the meter I borrowed him.

Gonna start from scratch using the help posted here and will advise

thanks

mind you we should be asking what receiver is being used as well, as the op mentions, friend did a scan!!! With a motorised system channels would be already in receiver!!

[dick b]

if you are starting from scratch heres some old instructions I made for a technomate setup using 28.2E as the target sat they may/may not be of use to you.

[spudorange]

Thank you

can't have enough info I believe.

if you are starting from scratch heres some old instructions I made for a technomate setup using 28.2E as the target sat they may/may not be of use to you.