BUD problems

[shinnery]

I have a 9 1/2' Birdview perforated dish with h to h mount that I installed in 1986. I upgraded to a Pico (?) C/Ku feed and Uniden 4400 receiver in 90 or 91. I had to convert the dish from pot to pulse position feedback when I upgraded. All was fine until I bought a used DSR920 4dtv last fall. This spring I have started to have to re-aim the dish nearly daily. I have checked all connections and also have changed to a used DSR922 with the same problems. I ordered a new reed switch from Skyvision and installed it with no help and I have tried rotating the reed switch and it is as close to the coupler ring with the magnets as I can get it. I get no errors from either 4dtv receiver other than when I have to adjust the west limit. The count numbers keep getting larger for each satellite position so I believe the receiver is missing some of the pulses being sent back from the dish. Also it is only about a 70' run from the dish to receiver. My only thought left is some of the magnets on the coupler ring have gotten weak. Any ideas or suggeations?

The perforations in the dish are 1/4' dia with about 1/8' between holes, Is it possible If I covered part of the dish with screen wire or foil I could improve the Ku reception? I know it would be a bear to keep the right curve.

For the last year or two that I used th Uniden I thought I was having TI problems as I had lost the bottom two channels on every bird. This went away with the 4dtv receivers so it must have been Unidens infamous capacitors messing me up.

 

[tdti1]

Sounds like the arm maybe slipping, or the 4dtv is not setup correct in the menu, but I do not have H-H so im not sure if linear east or west is even selected?

 

[shinnery]

The Birdview h/h is a worm and huge sector gear setup that does not use an arm.
And I believe there is a choice for horiz/ horiz in addition to to the linear choices.
The drive motor is connected to the worm gear with a coupling that I had to replace with one about 3" diameter with 12 button magnets mounted in a aluminum disk. the reed switch is mounted on a bracket next to the disk.

 

[Scout]

If it`s not too hard to do, keeping in mind you may want to put them back, take every other one of the magnets out of the magnet wheel and see if that cures your problem. I`ve had that problem in the past with the Von Weiss actuator arms. Theoretically the more pulses per inch the more accurate the position, but I never had any trouble
with that by removing half of the magnets.

Dick

 

[shinnery]

I had not thought of taking magnets out of the disk, I 'm not sure if they are glued in or what. I can possibly see a couple of problems. First there is a dot of white paint on the magnets that I think indicates polarity. And they are arranged in an alternating fashion around the ring. Maybe I should remove two, skip two, etc. to keep the field loops intact. and X4 has to be aimed so exactly to receive the digital transponders I believe the missing pulses could cause a problem. Right now I am about 8-9 counts per degree.
I have thought since this thing is only setup to use the pulse and ground terminals on the DSR922 that I might take a resistor about 10K or so and tie it from pulse to +5V and use it as an additional pull up source and get a larger signal at the receiver. Bryce

 

[Scout]

This is only if it`s easy to remove and replace them, take them all out and replace half of them back with alternating polarity in every other hole. May be too much of a project not knowing for sure it will fix the problem.
That Bird View is a real good dish. I`ve got one with a 4DTV receiver that`s been running for several years on a fabricated 4 magnet disk. Never heard from the customer about it not positioning good. No KU, though.
Dick