Looks like it's a go here in Vegas

[bruin95]

Well, after much searching, I could only find one person who could do my FTA install here in Vegas. I have no choice but to go with the guy who tried to talk me out of a motorized system. Refer to this thread if you don't know what I'm talking about:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=86713

I'm still in the process of working out a deal with the guy as his prices are very steep, but once that is settled, I will be buying the equipment. Since he has had bad experiences in the past with motors for Ku systems, I want to be armed with as much knowledge as I can to help assist him in any way. He's been in business for over 30 years, so I have confidence in him. I'll probably be asking many questions, in the next several weeks, so please bear with me. I don't want to get too annoying. Since I'm already typing let me ask the first few questions now about the most important part of the whole setup, the motor. It looks as though I will be going with a Moteck SG2100. I seems to be very popular. Are there better motors out there?

1. Can the SG2100 be used with USAULS? That method seems to be the easiest way to install a motor. It doesn't mention it anywhere in the specs, but I have read that as long as the motor is diseqc 1.2 compatible, it can be used with USAULS. Is that correct?

2. If we lock in to my southern most bird and everything else is good (Mast level and plumb), how much tweaking will he need to do on the other birds? Should most of them be good to go if everything else was setup correctly?

3. My southern most bird is SatMex5 at 116.8. I looked it up at the Lyngsat site and it doesn't look like there's much up there on the Ku side. Could someone give me some hot Tp's on that bird so that we could zero it in?

Sorry for the long post guys. I just want this to go as smoothly as possible. The last thing I want is to have this guy say to me "I told you so". Thanks in advance for any help that is given. It is greatly appreciated.

 

[Shawn95GT]

1. SG2100 is USALS compatible. 1.2 and USALS are two different ways to point the dish. Generally if it'll do USALS it'll do 1.2, but not necessarily the other way around.

2. If he's dead on the True south sat then USALS does the rest of the work for you.

3. I'll try to fire mine up and check. If 116.8 is troublesome you/he could always USALS to G10R at 123W and fine tune it.

On 116.8 it looks like that ku2 beam should be strong for you and I both (I'm in Phoenix).

 

[W_Tracy_Parnell]

3. My southern most bird is SatMex5 at 116.8. I looked it up at the Lyngsat site and it doesn't look like there's much up there on the Ku side. Could someone give me some hot Tp's on that bird so that we could zero it in?

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=85225

 

[Wescopc]

I am attaching two PDF's for the SG2100, the motor elevation being set on the Latitude scale on your motor to the Latitude of Las Vegas (note - if your motor bracket has only Elevation markings then use the elevation angle shown in the instructions). This the most crictical setting for tracking the Clarke belt.
Bob

 

[9999]

Bruin95 check your PM

 

[bruin95]

Thanks guys. I'm sure I'll have more questions soon.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Have you purchased your receiver yet? If not, there are a few that you definately want to avoid for motorized systems. Viewsat is one that has predictably bad interactions with motors.


A few things that will help your installer:

1. Have a print out of the Satellites and active channels from Iceburgs "I need a strong transponder to aim my dish" sticky post.

2. Have a SatFinder Printout for your Zip Code

3. Even if the installer is using a identifying meter, make sure that a small TV and an extension cord is provided at the dish location so he can use the receiver to aim the dish in the USALS mode (Hint: Use USALS to aim at G10R as your first satellite, DO NOT USE USALS to find the first satellite or you may have a VERY difficult install).

4. If he is using a Identifying Satellite Meter, make sure that he has at least these sats loaded: G10R, AMC4, IA5, AMC5. These are located at your location's high south, mid point and easterly points.

5. Extremely critical that the post is PERFECTLY plumb BEFORE
mounting the motor! It is important to know where true south is and be somewhat close when the motor is parked in the zero (0) position.


General Steps for a USALS Install:

Set the Latitude setting on the side of the motor first to match your latitude in Las Vegas. Lock down the bolts and don't touch again!

Set the dish elevation to recommended setting on the chart provided in the motor manual (around 24 - 26 degrees, I believe).

Set the LNBF rotation to zero (no rotation)

Connect the receiver TV out to a Television

Connect the SAT IN connection ( LNB IN or IF IN) to the Motor input connection

Connect the Motor LNBF connenection to the LNBF

Power ON the receiver

Enter the Install screen and select G10R, set the LNB type and LNB LO Freq to match your LNBF type. Change the Motor (positioner) to USALS then enter your Longitude and Latitude then save settings. Choose an active TP Frequency ( 11800 V 26660) By this time, the dish should have moved from the zero position just slightly towards the West.

Slowly rotate the motor on the mounting post left or right very slowly while observing the quality meter. Sweep 10 degrees east and 10 degrees West of the compass reading for G10R If no quality reading is found, increase the elevation of the dish setting by 1 degree and sweep the same area. Increase the elevation or decrease the elevation in 1 degree increments and repeat the sweep process until the quality signal is indicated and peaked.

Once you have peaked the quality, Power (Blind) Scan the satellite before moving to the next.

Next choose IA5 from the list and set up the LNB settings and activate USALS in the motor setting. The dish should automatically move. (Depending on the model, you might have to save first in order for the dish to move.) Choose active TP (12177 V 23000) The dish should be very close and require only slight adjustment to the dish elevation setting or a slight rotation of the motor on the post. Once the Quality is peaked, perform a Power Scan.

Next verify the Quality on G10R channels are still peaked. If not, make slight adjustment to the motor on the post and/or the dish elevation angle to peak. Verify IA5 channels Quality to verify peaked, if not make minute adjustments. (hint: find a weaker transponder on each satellite after scanning to make your fine tuning adjustments. The weaker signals will be easier to see the changes in the tuning process.

Now repeat the process for AMC5 .....

Fill in the other Satellites and scan. You might want to only scan one or two TPs per satellite while the installer is on your clock .... CHEAPER (and probably more comfortable not staring at each other) waiting for the scans to complete!

 

[bruin95]

SatelliteAV,

Lots of good info there. Thanks. And yes, I have already purchased a receiver. It's a Pansat 3500SD. Please don't tell me that those aren't good with motorized systems. I still have to purchase the dish, lnb, and motor. I'm definately going with an Invacom QPH-031 for the lnb and probably the Moteck SG2100 for the motor. The install isn't until Feb 12th, so I still have time to decide.

 

[mastermesh]

Your setup sounds exactly like mine... yes, the 3500 sd shoud work perfect with a motor. Just make sure that the setup goes lnb->switch->motor->receiver... main point in that is that the receiver and motor need to be connected directly via rg6 (well, one of those surge protectors that work on coax cables can go between them, but you don't want the switch between motor and reciever)... Switch will be necessary to get best out of your qph since that way you can see both Circular (i.e. Dishnetwork/BEV) and Linear satellites... There's not a lot on circular that fta can pick up, but there are some things worth going for, like NASA, etc.

Make sure to have an sd card if your reciever doesn't come with one.... the 3500 can use that to save bin files... which will be enormously helpful to you if you ever have to reset the receiver back to factory settings because of tp overload or other weird issues if you ever come across any.

Also be aware that satellite scan, advanced scan, and blind scan are all different things in the pansat. It doesn't call the Blind Scan a "Blind scan" but it's still there... I can't remember off the top of my head what it's called, but its under the first installation menu, near bottom of screen... and you need to go to that other screen to set up your usals first, before going in to the blind scan.

 

[Tron]

Blind scan on a Pansat is smart scan.

 

[bruin95]

Even though my install isn't for a few more weeks, I decided to hook up the Pansat 3500 to my TV to familiarize myself with the menu system and settings. I noticed when going through the list of sats that not all TP's for each bird is listed in the menu. For instance, if I go to Lyngsat and look at G10R, there are around 17 different Tp's and frequencies listed. In the Pansat, under G10R, there are only 5 Tp's listed. Does that mean that I have to manually enter the missing Tp's? It's like that for pretty much all of the birds listed in the Pansat. Will a blind scan of the bird fix this? I just hope I don't have to enter all the info myself. Seems like it would be way too time consuming.

Also, I went to Pansat website and it seems that there is a new firmware update for the 3500. My firmware is dated Jan. 2006, so it's a year old. Should I just go ahead and upgrade or leave it alone? Thanks again, guys.

 

[sunelec]

Blind scan will find all the active tp's. You can enter additional tp's in manually using the lyngsat charts also if you want to. Sometimes this works good because then you only get the programs you're interested in and it does't take that long . I've found that alot of the factory tp's are not active or the programming has changed to different tp's anyway .

 

[gabshere]

personally i'm usually the last to upgrade filmware on anything lol but thats me

read what the filmware improves. i'm still running the 1st version on my computers bios a01 cause i didn't see any reason to upgrade. its a three year old pc