Anyone got the new type SG-2100

[starman345]

I ordered a new SG-2100 motor and its different than the others I"ve had. It has separate east west buttons on it. The older ones had one button, press and hold once to move west, press twice and hold to move east.
The problem I'm having is that the motor came out of the box ,about 4 degrees off zero, although you can reset the motor, the reset doesn't zero the motor, just re-loads the satellite list to factory. I e-mailed the vendor and he said he's sold a few hundred of them without problems. He said the reference point is just that, a reference and it won't matter, usals will work fine. It seems to work ok, although I'm have trouble getting the ends of the arc aligned, but that may be alignment related. Its kind of weird in that I mount the motor on the mast, point it south but the dish is off south by 4 degrees or so. I can't use the lnbf arm to line up the dish with a compass any more, just have to look at the motor from the back of the dish and try to get it close. Four degrees doesn't sound like much but it is visually noticeable. Has anyone got one of these beasts and is it off zero or did I get the only one like that?

 

[starman345]

64 views and no replies, guess I'm the first to get one of these new fangled motors. I set it to zero with the east/west buttons, mounted it on the mast and lined it up south that way. You only get to do this once, selecting 'go to reference" will bring it back to 4 degrees off zero. Then you'll have to stand on your head and try to get the pointer back to zero again. Seems to work ok, although I haven't really had a chance to fine tune the ends of the arc, been raining and blowing a gale here for the past few days. The other sg-2100's I've had are a dull gray in color, the motor housing is the same color on this new one but everything else, bracket, rotor shaft, bolts, etc is a bright shiny silver. I think the bolts are of better quality, thank goodness for that, I think you could strip those older ones with finger pressure.
I liked being able to "paper clip" the older motors to zero, that was a really nice feature. Have to give the new one a bit of time to see how it pans out.

 

[iafirebuff]

I have the older style, with the paper clip hole. Too bad the new one does not have a reset.

 

[Mr Tony]

interesting....havent heard of a new SG2100 recently

 

[iafirebuff]

I wonder - is it a true SG2100 by DMSI? Just curious as I have not heard of those either.

 

[lumpkin666]

You may recall this being discussed in a thread that you posted in before -
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showpost.php?p=861936&postcount=9

 

[iafirebuff]

Ah yes! Thanks! I would stil think there would be a reset of sorts.

 

[brentb636]

I have one of the new models and it works just fine. The reset button (according to the docs) sets the current position as "0" , as well as loading the default sat table.
I've used it several times during setup, when I fancied I'd screwed something up. You should be happy with it.

Brent

 

[starman345]

When all else fails, read the manual!, Says on the first page, its a DXM-7000 /42.
I did a little searching, they are built in mainland China. There is no mention of Moteck in the manual, but it comes in the same moteck box the other motors I've bought came in. The motor has the DMSI sticker on it.
I really don't have any problem with it, just seems strange to be set off zero like that, but the motor seems to know and compensates for it.
When I took it out of the box, I immediately noticed it was way off zero so powered it up and stuck a paper clip in the reset hole(used to be anyway), all that did was bend over the led that is now directly below that hole. Of course I had to rip off the "warranty void if removed" sticker, open it up and straighten it back out again......should have read that manual first!!

 

[iafirebuff]

So is there a reset on this motor?

 

[starman345]

I have one of the new models and it works just fine. The reset button (according to the docs) sets the current position as "0" , as well as loading the default sat table.
I've used it several times during setup, when I fancied I'd screwed something up. You should be happy with it.

Brent

Sounds like we have different motors. No mention of setting current position to "0" in my manual. Says:
A. cut off the power of the rotor
B. Press both of EAST/WEST buttons at the same time, then turn power of the motor, LED- Orange blinking&stop, memory erased
C. Reprogram for the desired satellite

That is a direct lift from the manual, the poor english, typos are not mine
I can manually set the shaft to zero with the east/west buttons then go through the above proceedure but it goes right back to about 4 degrees when the proceedure is complete.
I take it you can set yours to zero? I can't with mine and the vendor says that is normal for these new motors, this is part of an e-mail they sent me:

"Zero position is only a reference point. The new motor is different in this way from the old one. It has USALS built into the motor and for that reason the reference point does not (and should not) move. USALS will work on your motor without problem."

So, so far the vendor is correct, the motor works without problem, I'm just curious if anyone else has one with the shaft off zero, I would think it would be pretty easy to set these to zero at the factory.

 

[brentb636]

My manual reads"
3. Probe the RESET button behind the bottom of the motor via a thin rod for 2 seconds. The LED blinks in Orange Color. The reset process is OK while the LED is green. The preset Satellite Table will be re-install and the current position will be set as 0 degrees. Please cut off the power for the motor first before any operation. "
My motor is from Sadoun , about 6 weeks ago. I notice it is Digicipher, but no mention of IMSI ( the importers ), either on the motor or on the box. Multiple models, must be ?

 

[starman345]

My manual reads"
3. Probe the RESET button behind the bottom of the motor via a thin rod for 2 seconds. The LED blinks in Orange Color. The reset process is OK while the LED is green. The preset Satellite Table will be re-install and the current position will be set as 0 degrees. Please cut off the power for the motor first before any operation. "
My motor is from Sadoun , about 6 weeks ago. I notice it is Digicipher, but no mention of IMSI ( the importers ), either on the motor or on the box. Multiple models, must be ?

Yes, I have that manual from other SG-2100 motors I have here.
Hopefully no one takes this thread the wrong way...I would order another of these motors without hesitation, it works fine, just curious how it works, ithe motor seems to know that the reference point is off zero and compensates for it. Like I said earlier, the hardware that came with it seems to be of better qualtiy than the older ones, so that is a plus for sure. For what you pay/get these are pretty good motors.

 

[ftamart]

It is a DMSI motor

Hi starman345,
I have the same kind of motor you have. It has the DMSI sticker and the manual says it's a DXM-7000 /42. It's also off by 4 degrees. I just pointed it to my true south satellite and it works. Can change the 4 degree thing by resetting. I just left it that way.
I contacted DMSI about it and was told that this was their new type of motor.
The reset instructions you posted (according to you manual) are right.

Again, it is the new DMSI motor. It moved my dish a -30 degrees Celsius.

ftamart

 

[starman345]

Well, I don't know what to think, I've setup quite a few of these motors in the past without too much problem, other than some of them have too much slack to be accurate enough for end of arc to end of arc alignment.
I spent about 2 hrs a couple of days ago and could not get this new motor lined up. No problem to get the birds close to the top of the arc, but the ends are quite a ways off. I am at 67.2 longitude, making AMC 6 my closest usable satellite at 72 degrees. After some head scratching on the arc ends, I motored back to AMC 6 and looked at the rotor pointer, it was showing just about zero. It should be 4-5 degrees west of zero. The problem is you can set the motor to zero manually, set the whole assembly to south on the mast, put the receiver to usals, select AMC-6, and instead of moving the 4-5 degrees west to the bird it will add on the 4 degrees(that it is off zero) putting me past AMC 6 by 4 degrees, so I move the whole assembly east on the mast to compensate, that works ok until you get a ways from true south and the error starts to compound. I put an older SG-2100 on the mast and had it tracked in 10 minutes from Telstar 12 at 15 degrees to Galaxy 27 at 129 degrees.
ftamart, can you tell me how wide an arc you are able to track with yours? I tried changing the longitude in the receiver to compensate for the 4 degrees but it ends up with the arc ends off. I'm beginning to think the geometry can never be right unless the motor starts out at zero and according to the dealer I bought it from, it cannot. There has got to be a way to set this motor to zero....anyone?

 

[starman345]

Motor is Reset!

Ok, thanks to ftamart, I have my new motor re-set to zero. With your receiver, select "go to reference", or whatever you need to select in your receiver to get the motor back to its center postition, of course it won't' be at zero, that is why your going through this procedure unhook power. Leave the shaft connected to the motor, take out the four screws holding the two pieces of the motor housing together, take off the top piece (yes, there goes the warranty). Take out the two hex head screws holding the motor to the housing. Lift the motor up and underneath you will see a gear, not the big plastic drive gear but a round steel gear, rotate that gear with your finger while watching the shaft pointer, rotate the gear until the shaft pointer is at zero. Put the motor back in place, screw it down.
I'm not sure why the people who make these motors have decided to do away with the ability to reset them with a paper clip, that was one neat feature.