got a workout yesterday.

[chaskuchar]

shop in town made me a 5' 3" wide pole for mounting my dish. here it is in january and poured a pad with 20 bags of sackcrete. thought it would not be that many bags but it should be solid. high yesterday, 56, low this morning 35 and high today supposed to be in the mid 60's. hope it cures ok now. i am still fighting the clicks on the actuator moving after i set it for most satellites. the only thing i think other than the actuator is bad, is the mounting pole moving 20 or so clicks away from where i set it. altitude is right on but east/west is moving on me so i will try to make the pole solid. will try the 6' dish first. if the clicks stay on track, then i will put the 8' on the pole and put in the pole that came with the 6' dish. this homemade pole will have 4 legs anchored in concrete. i plan on making the legs with half inch conduit like i used for the legs for the lnb.
making the form, mixing the concrete and finishing it was an accomplishment for 68 years of toil. thank the Lord i was still able to do it. i was pretty well pooped out after i finished. charlie

 

[turbosat]

Congratulations! I have a secret: concrete work is hard work at any age, lol. I'd rather go to the dentist than mix and work with concrete. But now that is down, you should be set for awhile, unless you have an earthquake or something. You mentioned the actuator 'clicks moving, I think you must mean the motor isn't coming back to the same exact place each time. That is a common problem with today's linear actuators-they're cheaply made and not very accurate. And if you have a long cable run from receiver to dish/motor , sometimes the wiring isn't up to snuff (too small guage wire) and the feedback pulses that come back to the receiver may get jumbled or lost, so the motor doesn't stop exactly where it ought to. Try pulling and pushing a little on the edge of the dish, once you put it on a satellite, and see if it has much play in the tube. Should have very little movement and if it does , the tube may be worn or about to fail. The Thompson-Saginaw actuators are probably the best, expensive but dependable, when you can find them.

 

[chaskuchar]

i am using 100' of sprinkler wire, with two 18ga wires ganged for the motor. it is a new 2"x36" from sadoun. however, the actuator came without the pin to couple the motor to the moving shaft. fabricated the pin from a 20 penny nail that fits without any play. the dish though is on an old post 2 3/4" with existing concrete on the bottom so dug a post hole and slipped it in and tamped it tight as i could be i think there will be a little movement there yet. i want to get another actuator for the 8' which, according to plans will go on the new pad. i will take your suggestion on the thomson-saginaw actuator. any suggestion where to buy it from? thanks for the help. charlie

 

[turbosat]

I think those thompson motors can still be had, there was a link on here somewhere a few weeks back. I'll see if I can find it for you.
The prices were a little high for my economy but you shouldn't have to buy one of those for several years. Also, I'm using the sprinkler wire too, about 125' for me , and it works great. ONly problem I have with my motor is a little slop in the tube itself-it will eventually break or something but I'll deal with it when it happens, haha. I put that one together out of several old actuators and parts I had lying around and its worked for over 4 years !

 

[chaskuchar]

if this actuator works on the new pad, and i get the microhd motor for my birthday, mar 1, i will install it for my wife. the other actuator i have is and unused old one with the potentiometer output and have the controller also so i can use that in the basement with one of the dishes and my solomend and the wife can use the fancy new receiver upstairs. however, she sleeps in till 8 or 9, i am up around 4 or 5. then i can play with the new system... charlie