Elevation and/or declination on a WS9036

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The scales on each side of the dish correspond to the way the dish is assembled. Assemble with one set of bolt holes and the low elevation scale is used. Assemble with the other set of bolt holes and the high elevation scale is used.
 
The scales on each side of the dish correspond to the way the dish is assembled. Assemble with one set of bolt holes and the low elevation scale is used. Assemble with the other set of bolt holes and the high elevation scale is used.

You're talking about the motor, I'm talking about the adjustments on the dish.
 
You're talking about the motor, I'm talking about the adjustments on the dish.
HUH?
The scales on each side of the dish correspond to the way the dish is assembled. Assemble with one set of bolt holes and the low elevation scale is used. Assemble with the other set of bolt holes and the high elevation scale is used.
 
Think the scale 'to be read; is that which is closest to the bolt that passes thru the adjustment slot.
2 pivot locations, each corresponds to a different slot, when assembled.
Did that make sense?
 
As I recall, the WS9036 could be assembled two different ways. One for low elevation satellite elevations (10-60 degrees) or another way for high satellite elevation (50-90 degrees). Isn't this what you are asking? If not, you might ask a different way... :D

For installing the WS9036 on a motor, one would use the low elevation assembly method for the low elevation scale.
 

This is what I'm talking about. In the attached jpeg you'll see the motor latitude adjustment (right) and the dish elevation adjustment (behind the dish). Right on the bracket attached to the dish itself there is an adjustment. The adjustment doesn't make sense. Maybe I got my terms mixed up but my question still stands - how do you make the dish adjustment? There's a triangular window on the other side, also, and it's calibrated differently than what's shown in the triangular window on this side. I wish I was more proficient with Gimp so that I could highlight what I'm talking about.

ws9036imgp9772-jpg.51418
 
Your dish looks to be adjusted close to where it should be I think... but your elevation on the motor looks to be a bit high but I am not used to seeing dishes at your latitude.. :)
The motor bracket should be set to your latitude or elevation, depending which of the markings you are using. Elevation would be 90 - your latitude. So if your latitude is 34.4N, your elevation should be 55.6. I usually set this elevation/latitude scale on the motor, then set up the dish elevation adjustment to find the actual satellite. You may have to send your motor to a satellite via USALS if you don't have a satellite real close to 180deg from you to do the adjustment.



Of course the pole the motor is mounted to must be perfectly plumb when the dish/motor assembly is mounted to it for the angles to be accurate.
 
Your dish looks to be adjusted close to where it should be I think... but your elevation on the motor looks to be a bit high but I am not used to seeing dishes at your latitude.. :)
The motor bracket should be set to your latitude or elevation, depending which of the markings you are using. Elevation would be 90 - your latitude. So if your latitude is 34.4N, your elevation should be 55.6. I usually set this elevation/latitude scale on the motor, then set up the dish elevation adjustment to find the actual satellite. You may have to send your motor to a satellite via USALS if you don't have a satellite real close to 180deg from you to do the adjustment.



Of course the pole the motor is mounted to must be perfectly plumb when the dish/motor assembly is mounted to it for the angles to be accurate.

That's not my setup. That's just an image I found from another post that shows the type of antenna that I'm using.
 
Rgr.
Get it working yet?
42 north latitude would be 48 degrees elevation of course... SHould easily find programming on 103W to aim for.
 
Get it working yet?

Nope. Got 2 inches of snow yesterday and it was freakin' cold here today. It turns out that the LNBF has a broken casing so I don't know it it's still usable. Tomorrow it is suppose to be back in the 50's so I'll mount the dish and see what happens. I could use one of those STAB Diseqc controllers that I'd have to order from Europe to move the dish without having to drag a receiver and TV (smallest TV I have is 32") out to the pad. By the time I'm done I won't have any money for XMAS and I won't go into debt. :amen

42 north latitude would be 48 degrees elevation of course... SHould easily find programming on 103W to aim for.

Yep, I'm just slightly off 103W longitude. Too bad I got so many trees off to the east, though. Why do people like trees?
 
If the LNBF is powering up and outputting a Signal Level (Intensity) meter reading, it is likely working. A cracked cover will usually allow moisture to fill the feedhorn and short out eventually. Have seen customers who have been using a LNBF for years with a poly bag over the disintegrated cover. :)
 
I've got 100% SQ on SES1 Ku using my Birdog. And Kaffeine shows tuning locks with up to 100% SQ on 4 sats but I can't get any channels scanned in. Odd.
 
OK, Kaffeine is a pain in this area. You have to have the transponders that it scans in the "scanfile.dvb" file and it is a plain text tile and you will get the required format from what is already there.

It is found here: ~/.kde/share/apps/kaffeine

If you are setting up and making sure of the arc track, I would do my south sat and the farthest east and west ones, then sort the rest out later. Lyngsat and sathint will help you get the needed info together.
 
What frequency/polarity/symbol rate are the transponders that are locking? Maybe getting a false positive reading from another satellite?

Set to scan all channels and not only FTA?

Turned out that a kernel update was done requiring removal of the old kernel drivers, rebuild the drivers with the new kernel, and install the compatible drivers. Too bad that there isn't a PPA that would auto correct for this stuff. But, it's not a real big deal re-building the drivers but it takes awhile. Did that and now the drivers are loading. What's strange is that the drivers weren't loaded but Kaffeine was seeing sats?
 
OK, Kaffeine is a pain in this area. You have to have the transponders that it scans in the "scanfile.dvb" file and it is a plain text tile and you will get the required format from what is already there.

It is found here: ~/.kde/share/apps/kaffeine

That's some of the info that I was looking for along with the satellite lists so that I can edit them. I'd like to add a custom LNBF also but I haven't found that file yet. I've looked at 10 links so far and none of them provide this info. Tried to look for the files with grep -r but I kept getting some kind of cryptic error message.

If you are setting up and making sure of the arc track, I would do my south sat and the farthest east and west ones, then sort the rest out later. Lyngsat and sathint will help you get the needed info together.

Well, I ran into another issue. I got something intermittent with the RG-6 running from the DVB card to the REC connection on the motor. When I jumpered one end I could not measure a short from the other end. So much for weatherproof compression connectors. Apparently this is why my old SG motor was intermittent also. This is why I suggested Diseqc 2.x so that you'll know if the motor is actually moving the antenna. Anyway, right now the motor is stuck at 97W and Kaffeine scans those channels with 70 dB SNR. I'm confident that I'm lined up on the arc but I'll have to see if I can get the motor moving again with new connectors and/or cable to confirm this. I'm using USALS. It must be an intermittent problem since the Birdog is telling me that the cable and LNBF are good and I can scan 97W but I was getting weird results from the scans also.

I hope I get this resolved tomorrow since we got some much colder weather coming on Wednesday and it looks like it'll be here for awhile. Gotta figure out how to install compresion F connectors again, also. I think I'll just throw on some twist ons for now. Fun, fun, fun. Why can't this stuff just work forever?
 
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Get the outside stuff done, then worry about the files, etc. We are supposed to be nice tomorrow, but Wednesday we are supposed to get more four letter word stuff, then get really chilly.

I have taken a quick look at trying to get the ability to manually add channels. They are storing the channels in a SQL database and there is one entry that is a byte array. Haven't found where that is coming from, but appears to be from the backend. I was wanting to enter some stuff that doesn't scan in, but may be more work than it is worth.

If you do use a screw on F connecter, be sure to seal it with something.
 
Do you have an old DVB receiver (STB) you can try with to make sure your motor/dish is lined up properly first? That way you have one issue at a time to work... best to eliminate the basic stuff first. If you know your dish geometry is good then work on the software/drivers etc inside when it's sxxwing out. :)
I would not use screw-on F-connectors for FTA. Use good feedline and compression/crimp connectors, the cable has to transfer electrical load as well as signal, and good connections are critical to getting the system working.
Good luck!
 
I just measured the loop resistance (shield shorted to center conductor at one end) of the receiver to motor cable and got 3.4 ohms resistance on the cable and it does't change when I flex the cable at various points. The worse case scenario is the motor start current of .35A DC there is a 1.19 V drop in voltage @3.4 ohms. I don't know if that start up voltage drop would prevent the motor from starting. After the initial start up the worst case voltage drop would be .6 V which probably is OK - just got to get the motor to start moving. My other RG-6Q cables of the same length (50 feet) have about the same resistance. Belden says this length of cable should only have .5 ohms DC loop resistance. I don't know what impact the connectors would play in the resistance. With all my cables showing about the same resistance I have to assume that I either have a lot of bad cables and/or connectors and/or bad jumper or bad ohmeter. Some of the cables I checked have weatherproof compression connectors and some with twist on connectors. I suppose that it's possible that the TBS card can't supply the current so I'm going to try a regular STB before "ripping and tearing" cables and connectors. Oh well, it's just a Ku-band dish.
 
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Have you run a temp coax to troubleshoot?

I agree with Cham, you have way too many variables. Don't know if the coax is damaged, poor quality screw on connectors, LNBF may not be working, the tuner not correctly configured, maybe not enough current to power motor/LNBF, the motor may not be tracking, unknown dish elevation angle, maybe a defective VOM and working 15 feet up a tower.... Seriously, I don't know of many more unknown problems that could be added to this scenario. WOW! :D
 
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