Motor arrived today - now a few questions...

[Lak7]

...i need to replace or reinforce the U-bolts...

I live in a "windy" place too, near Chicago.
A little give in the setup may drive ya a little crazy, but shouldn't hurt.
My 80cm was warped by the wind. I now have added side support arms and have the motor just tight enough. I would rather have to adjust the Azimuth in the middle of winter vs. removing the whole thing to un-warp it.

 

[knowmiddlename]

Hey Jeff,

Good Saturday morning to you!

Yes, I combine my circular and linear signals using a switch. I use a Chieta DiSEqC 4x1 switch. There isn't much to watch on the circular side of Ku, except NASA on 119.0 W as it is unencrypted.

The dish network test card channels are really handy to assist in aligning if you need them. These are the "Congratulations, You are Aimed At ...." channels. These usually have assigned SID's of 9902, 9903, 9904 etc.

However, if you are uncertain of your switch condition or type, I would recommend NOT using any switch at this time. It can lead to confusion during the alignment process since you can forget to set up the switch parameters for each satellite in the menus or may set them incorrectly by oversight.

I would connect your cable directly from the receiver to the motor and then from the motor to the linear LNBF and concentrate solely on the linear signals.

As for the mast or motor support pole, definitely make sure that it is plumb in all directions and very sturdy. This is extremely important! And when I say sturdy, I mean an elephant should be able to scratch his butt on it without moving it!

I know of many people who have set their first motorized system up and had the mast be "not perfectly plumb". They state that "it is off a little, but not too much, it should be alright". NO, it is not alright! The mast is the whole foundation of your motorized system. All the other angles depend upon the mast being plumb so that they will be correct. The greatest reason for not being able to track the satellite arc is the plumb of the mast.

Always use a bubble level. It will be more accurate than anything else. Also, the longer it is, the more accurately you can judge the plumb of the mast, so don't use a 3" level. Use something like a 10", 12" or longer level.

The tip from Tron to use a gate hinge or something similar on the mast, set below the motor, is an excellent tip. This provides the motor with a "shelf" to rest on to prevent it from sliding down. This has more of an advantage than you may realize.

When you loosen the motor clamps to be able to rotate the motor on the mast, you can utilize this shelf to help support the motor during the process. Without this "shelf", you may tend to loosen the upper clamp/s more than the lower and use the lower clamp/s as a stop to hold the motor from sliding down the mast. Doing this will change the motor and dish elevation angles since the motor bracket is obviously drooping downward when the upper clamps/s are more loose.

You want to loosen both upper and lower clamps the same amount and only just enough so that you can "spin" the motor bracket on the mast while setting the true azimuth angle. The tip of having something for the motor to rest upon during the process will provide an extremely beneficial support.

I hope that this information proves beneficial to you.

RADAR

Excellent post. Thank you!

 

[jwf593]

Coolsat question?

thanks Lak7 and all,

I looked all the chain-link fence fittings at the local Lowes and decided they all looked to flimsy for my needs. But a muffler clamp from the auto supply - that looks like it will do the trick nicely.

At the moment I seem to have a pretty secure system, so I think I'm going to leave it alone until I have to make some adjustments.

If anyone is familiar with the Coolsat 5000 platinum I've got a question - are the Long and Lat settings in USALS independent for each satellite I set up? It seems the best way (only way?) to adjust Elevation to fine tune a signal is to move the Latitude in the USALS. And this worked a couple of times for me... but once, it seemed like I lost a whole bunch of other programming I had saved -- then a change in the USALS brought them back. But, I am not sure of the cause and effect --- could have been bird sitting on the LNB for all I know.

Also, I need to add a Satellite at 125W (I think) and have been searching and reading the Forum on this -- but at the end of my 'list of Satellites' are some 'extras' to custom set-up; problem is they are all set for East, and I can't figure out how to change the Long. to West.

I'll keep looking, but a point in the right direction would help, thanks.

and Thanks again for all the other advice! - I got NASA off EchoStar 7 locked in in a few minutes after I changed out my 'splitter' for a true switch. That after the guidance I got here - - don't know how long I would have struggled with tuning that Sat if I hadn't know about the splitter being the problem.


later,

Jeff

 

[AcWxRadar]

thanks Lak7 and all,

I looked all the chain-link fence fittings at the local Lowes and decided they all looked to flimsy for my needs. But a muffler clamp from the auto supply - that looks like it will do the trick nicely.

At the moment I seem to have a pretty secure system, so I think I'm going to leave it alone until I have to make some adjustments.

If anyone is familiar with the Coolsat 5000 platinum I've got a question - are the Long and Lat settings in USALS independent for each satellite I set up? It seems the best way (only way?) to adjust Elevation to fine tune a signal is to move the Latitude in the USALS. And this worked a couple of times for me... but once, it seemed like I lost a whole bunch of other programming I had saved -- then a change in the USALS brought them back. But, I am not sure of the cause and effect --- could have been bird sitting on the LNB for all I know.

Also, I need to add a Satellite at 125W (I think) and have been searching and reading the Forum on this -- but at the end of my 'list of Satellites' are some 'extras' to custom set-up; problem is they are all set for East, and I can't figure out how to change the Long. to West.

I'll keep looking, but a point in the right direction would help, thanks.

and Thanks again for all the other advice! - I got NASA off EchoStar 7 locked in in a few minutes after I changed out my 'splitter' for a true switch. That after the guidance I got here - - don't know how long I would have struggled with tuning that Sat if I hadn't know about the splitter being the problem.


later,

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Sounds like you are making very good progress! Excellent!

For the Coolsat 5000, the latitude and longitude entries are set for all satellites when you set them for one. So they cannot be independent.

If you have some slight error and need to compensate for one satellite alone, when all the rest seem fine, you can adjust the satellite orbital degree. If 74.0'W works better a little bit further to the west, try changing it's orbital degree to 74.2 degrees. This is the easiest approach I have found. The other approach is to switch that one satellite from USALS to DiSEqC 1.2 and fine stepping the motor to peak the signal. Then SAVE/RECALCULATE the new position.

The following are instructions to add a new LINEAR satellite to a Coolsat 4, 5 or 6K receiver. The instructions reference a SINGLE or STANDARD LINEAR LNBF.

For the example, I am going to add a LINEAR satellite at 122.0W (which is just something I pulled out of a hat for an example).

Select MENU > DISH SETTING, then while the SATELLITE line is highlighted, press OK to view the entire list of satellites. Scroll down through this list until you find a satellite that is listed as 0.0E. This is a blank satellite position that you may use to enter a new satellite. Press OK and it will take you back to the setup screen with 0.0E displayed as the selected satellite.

Drop down to LNB POWER and ensure it is set to ON.

Drop down to LNB TYPE and select SINGLE.

Drop down to LNB FREQ and select 10.750

Drop down to 22KHz and select ON or OFF, whichever is appropriate for your switch configuration.

Drop down to DiSEqC Switch and select the appropriate setting for your system. Usually 1.0 or OFF. Not many use 1.0/1.1.

If you are using a 4X1 DiSEqC switch, drop down to COMMITTED and select the appropriate port number.

Drop down to the LEGACY SW and select OFF, SW21 DISH 1, SW21 DISH2, SW42 DISH 1 or SW42 DISH 2 as appropriate for your system.
NOTE: The factory firmware version 1.00 will not have this Legacy switch option.

Press EXIT, and when prompted to SAVE the changes, select YES and press OK.

Now you will be redirected to the MAIN MENU screen.

Select MANUAL SCAN and press OK

The screen should be displaying 0.0E as the satellite.

Drop down to FREQUENCY and enter a valid transponder frequency for the satellite that you want to add. If you are not sure of any valid transponder frequencies for this new sat, you may simply enter 11.700. Type that in.

Drop down to SYMBOL RATE and enter a valid SR. If you do not know the correct symbol rate, enter 20.000 as an arbitrary value.

Drop down to POLARIZATION and select V or H if you know the correct polarity. If you do not know it, you may leave it at default.

Press EXIT and the changes will be saved automatically and you will be redirected to the MAIN MENU screen.

Select MOTORIZED SETTING and press OK.

The screen should be displaying 0.0E as the selected satellite.

Drop down to DiSEqC MOTOR and select USALS.

Drop down to SAT DEGREE and enter in the satellite position, 122.0. After you type in all the digits, the E should be highlighted in black. Press OK and it should change to W.

Press EXIT and the settings will be automatically saved and you will observe a notification that the motor is moving to this new satellite postion at 122.0 W. Allow this display to time out.

NOTE: Even if you are trying to set this satellite up on a fixed point dish, you still need to use the motorized setup menu to be able to install the satellite into memory properly.

You will be back at the MOTORIZED SETTING MENU.

If you know the name of the satellite, press the RED (recall channel) button on your remote. Notice that this button is displayed at the bottom of the screen as RENAME.

You now have a keyboard displayed to enter the satellite name. For this example, let us say that the sat name is Orion 5. Type that in and press EXIT. Now your satellite will display 122.0W ORION 5.

Press EXIT again and you will be back to the MAIN MENU screen.

Highlight BLIND SCAN and press OK. When 122.0W ORION 5 is highlighted in yellow, press OK to select this satellite. Then, press the VOLUME UP button on the remote to select the scanning parameter field to the right.

Highlight the TP frequency line at the top and press OK.
Leave the FROM frequency set as 11.700 and change the TO frequency to 12.200 and press EXIT once. Highlight the SR and change this from FULL to DETAIL.

Now drop down to the PRESS OK line and press OK to begin scanning. When it finishes the scan, you should EXIT out of all the menus and power the receiver OFF, then back ON. If you do not cycle power to the receiver, all the scanned channels will have 0000 as the channel number (or SID).

You have just successfully added a new satellite to your receiver! Congratulations!

RADAR

 

[mikelib]

Excellent write up RADAR, I found out all you wrote the hard way through trial and error. Some times my Coolsat box does not change the E to W. When Iceberg gave me a channel editor for the Coolsat, I added a bunch of unnamed satellites as 1.0W, 1.1W, 1.2W etc. you get the idea. Now when I want to add a satellite on the fly with the remote it becomes very easy to do. No more problems with the East and West configuration.

I do find myself leaning to the Fortec Star Dynamic box more then the Coolsat 5K.
Mike Lib

 

[AcWxRadar]

Excellent write up RADAR, I found out all you wrote the hard way through trial and error. Some times my Coolsat box does not change the E to W. When Iceberg gave me a channel editor for the Coolsat, I added a bunch of unnamed satellites as 1.0W, 1.1W, 1.2W etc. you get the idea. Now when I want to add a satellite on the fly with the remote it becomes very easy to do. No more problems with the East and West configuration.

I do find myself leaning to the Fortec Star Dynamic box more then the Coolsat 5K.
Mike Lib

The Fortec Star Dynamic is an excellent receiver. It ranks right up there with the Coolsat 5K or 6K! I now have all of these and I would not trade them off for any other receiver, period! The AZBox is great for what it can do, but nothing compares to the early model Coolsats or the Fortec Stars!

I will recommend these receivers highly to anyone. I would not do so unless I had exceptional experience with them, and I have!

Currently, you can pick up the used Coolsats dirt cheap. Get one, get a few if you can!

You won't be dissappointed in them, I gaurantee it!

RADAR

 

[Sadoun]

And when I say sturdy, I mean an elephant should be able to scratch his butt on it without moving it!

RADAR

It would take a tank to prevent an elephant from moving it. Unless you mean a real tiny elephant like we see in the cartoons.

 

[Sadoun]

To save yourself the aggravation of the motor slipping down the pole, and to aid in azimuth adjustments, attach a gate hinge to the pole just under the motor bracket. The bracket will rest on this hinge. A muffler clamp will also work...

+1. Good suggestions.

 

[Tron]

Thanks Radar and Sadoun! It was an idea born of necessity ... Many sorts of clamps will work, but I like the gate hinge because of the post that keeps the motor bracket from falling forward...

 

[AcWxRadar]

And when I say sturdy, I mean an elephant should be able to scratch his butt on it without moving it!

RADAR

It would take a tank to prevent an elephant from moving it. Unless you mean a real tiny elephant like we see in the cartoons.

The elephant reference was more of a "tongue-in-cheek" comment. I just threw the comment out there to get people's attention so that they would really think about the quality and rigidity of the mast. You simply don't want a good gust of wind or some ice and snow accumulation to affect your mast and therefore your dish and motor alignment.

A few years back, we had a strong windstorm blow through this area. It ripped a downspout from my house and dang near tore off the entire gutter from the north side of the house. But, all my dishes remained right on target! Didn't even affect them! I thought I would find my newest 76cm dish all bent into a taco shape after that day, but it wasn't affected in the least!

They reported continual wind speeds of 50-60 mph and gusts to nealy 70 mph.

There was one storm worse than that. During that storm the wind blew full sized pontoon boats out of a lake and down a beach several lots. Took out power poles and twisted and rolled center pivot irrigation systems for miles. Blew railroad cars off the tracks and tore roofs off of many houses. I think the wind speeds recorded that day were in excess of 80 mph. Possibly some up to 120 mph! Seriously, some areas nearby looked like a bomb (a big bomb) had been detonated. There was very little left, no trees, no buildings, not even grass or weeds or crops! It was all just bare dirt. Amazing!

This was not a tornado, it was just straight-line winds that continued for hours. I don't recall ever seeing anything like it before or since.

My dishes were still in one piece and still aligned to their target. I have to admit, I was very lucky as the brunt of this windstorm was several miles south of me. They would not have survived otherwise. But, one dish that I set up for a friend made it through just fine. His place was right in the direct path of this storm. I don't know how it missed that dish, but it spared it just fine.


RADAR

 

[jwf593]

Thanks to ALL!

hi guys!

thanks again to all - i seem to have all my major problems solved and now have a (pretty much) operational motorized system. (!)

i've still got a few issues and some channels i can't get - but i think i'll organize my thoughts and start a new thread for these problems.

thanks again! looking forward to new help with new problems

 

[Lak7]

Congrats!

 

[Sadoun]

Congratulations :up

 

[AcWxRadar]

Awesome Jeff!

Congratulations!

Don't ever hesitate to ask or PM me if you think I can assist you with any future notions. I enjoy helping as much as I enjoy knowing that you have made good progress. From here on, you will be hooked on this hobby! Welcome to the club my friend!

RADAR (Gordy)