Technomate motor setup with pli jade

[AlanDogg]

Hi,
I have a dm500s running pli jade and had it on 28.2 and all worked well. I purchased a Technomate Diseqc H-H motor TM-2300 Super and setup as per manufacturers manual.

My postcode is IV125EH and the co-ordinates are as follows

Latitude: 57? 34' 60" N
Longitude: 3? 52' 0" W
Magnetic declination: 4? 21' WEST
Declination is NEGATIVE

Are these settings correct for my area?


In the motor config section which is driving me nuts as they dont seem work properly, I have the following modes.

Drive to 0" (i take it this moves the motor back to 0 degrees but doesnt seem to do a thing.

Position (This allows me to manually move the dish location and works fine)

Drive To Stored Position (Drives to manually stored position (28.2) but when it moves to 28.2 it wont move back to position 0 if i choose the Drive To 0" option?)

Drive To Satellite (Should this move to the pre-stored sat list of the satellite.xml file?

Recalculate (No idea what this does)

Set East Limit (Limits motor from going behond set point)
Set West Limit (Limits motor from going behond set point)

Disable Limits (Disables limit features)

I have also heard "USALS" Universal Satellites Automatic Location System mentioned for dish setup but i cant seem to find this anywhere within the pli jade image?


Which is the best method for setting the above?

Im thinking if i set my dish from default motor setting 0 degrees to 0.8 (thor) and use the manual button on the motor then look for the best signal for thor from that point then store and scan transponder i should have thor stored with channels then move onto my next sat say (28.2)using the same procedure would this work? or am i all over the place?

Any help would be much appreciated!

[jumpinjo]

bud have you went motor setup to use gotoxx function and entered your lat/longitude first and change west to east

[AlanDogg]

bud have you went motor setup to use gotoxx function and entered your lat/longitude first and change west to east

Hi bud, Yes i have done that and the dish moved from 0 degrees to 28.2 (roughly) using stored position but does not move if i use goto satellite. and it does not return to 0 degrees either

Also what does the reset button on the motor do as i tried resetting but made no difference?

Thanks in advance Alan

[AlanDogg]

ok got the sat positions sorted using the motor config in pli jade. now the motor is moving to the proper locations but no sat found. trying 28.2 at the moment but just scans in a continuious loop.

Not sure if alignment is correct on the dish mount as there is no marker just markings (ie elevation/degrees).

so seems im a bit out of the clark belt!

any help or suggestions are greatfully appreciated

[mikmoz]

ive got the same motor as you and had problems setting up using gotox function,i found a manual transponder scan on 0.8 west worked best once i had a signal there motor would move and find other signals no problem.ive also just set up same motor with dm500s using pli jade for a mate of mine in kyle of lochalsh we managed to get 28.2 on his dish(same as yours)but couldnt get decent signal on any other sats,so we fitted a 90cm dish and that worked great.i am a novice at this but think the problem may be size of dish for your location.good luck with it mate,its worth the effort in the end.

[AlanDogg]

Thanks Mikmoz. I have the folowing working. Hotbird 13.0E / Eurobird 28.5E / Astra 23.5E / Eutelsat w3 37.0E / Sirius 4.8E with 60cm dish. Thinking my alignment is still out as i cant get anything on west.

So going to leave it as it is at the moment then hijack a sly guy when ones in the street () or do you think the 90cm dish will help?

[yamar1]

Thanks Mikmoz. I have the folowing working. Hotbird 13.0E / Eurobird 28.5E / Astra 23.5E / Eutelsat w3 37.0E / Sirius 4.8E with 60cm dish. Thinking my alignment is still out as i cant get anything on west.

So going to leave it as it is at the moment then hijack a sly guy when ones in the street () or do you think the 90cm dish will help?

is the pole 100% plumb?

imo, all the stuff worth watching is east anyway, so i wouldnt worry to much.

[mikmoz]

yamar1 knows what he is talking about,its really important to make sure the pole is 100% plumb.also i found that it was well worth getting a signal meter.once you send the dish to one of the sats your picking up,back up the ladder and connect the meter(i bought a cheap one for 6.99 from ebay)i then just flexed the dish and if the signal got stronger i adjusted to suit until no matter which way i flexed the dish the signal dropped.if you cant get a meter you can use sat find in your set up menu that seems pretty acurate but its a bit hard to use on your own,but fine if you have someone who can shout out of a window.as for dish size there are people on here who have much more knowledge than me and could advise you better.when setting up my friends dish in kyle we coulnt get very much at all on sly dish but loads of sats with 90cm dish.dont think your a million miles from his location so maybe the same for you.good luck with it.

[AlanDogg]

Cheers guys, Yep the pole looks slightly off. Im thinking of getting a bigger dish then realign it. I have a cheap aligning tool from ebay but seems my dreambox struggles to power it up? I have a slybox that i moded to use for tuning the sat signal and also used it for powering my signal finder. I have the dreambox on but only use it for moving the motor to sat location Strange how the dreambox can power a motor but not a signal tester.