Motorized setup is driving me nuts...

[c_perrone]

Lak7,

The weather looks great for today, they are calling for more scattered showers in my area tonight. I'm going to try and wrap the motor/switch and somehow the lnb (at least the best I can without losing signal) today. I'll see how that works or not.. Good idea, thanks!

Satcom1,

I never thought of that....I could take my generator up to the dish and try the hair dryer trick.....thanks for another great idea! Also, I'm going to get some pictures of my setup today, post them and let everyone take a look and see if maybe I have some thing strange. I don't think I do, but you never know...

As of now, it been working for the last 2 hours or so and I have been moving the dish around a lot.

Clint

 

[Lak7]

If you can, put a lagre plastic bag over the whole thing, it will not degrade the sig too much.

 

[c_perrone]

So much for the moisture problem..

The dish has once again stopped moving. It seemed to work for about 3 hours then after a bit of a break (about 1hour) I went back and no movement. I have attached a few pics, just in case anyone sees anything strange.

Clint

 

[satcom1]

Really nice pictures. Did you disconnect the line from the motor to the switch and see if it still stopped moving?

 

[satcom1]

On one of the sites I read that if you site from the bottom edge of the dish over the top of the LNBF from behind the dish you are looking at the satellite position. This for an offset dish like yours. It seems from your photos that you could move the dish much closer to your house and shorten that cable.

 

[c_perrone]

Satcom1,

I thought of moving a bit closer to the house, but what the pictures don't really show is the large line of trees that might cause me a line of site issue. The dish in the pictures is pointing at G10 and directly in front of the dish about 150-200' away are a line of trees on my property that are about 50-75 feet tall. If I moved closer to the house I would lose about 15-20' of elevation and might not be able to hit the sats on the west end of the arc. Anyway I'm waiting for my new motor (DG280) which should arrive tomorrow and I will see what that does.

Thanks for the tip on sighting the sats and the comments on the pics.

Clint

 

[satcom1]

Good, I hope that solves the issue. I have a two story garage true south of my dish and 20' away. my dish is five feet off the ground. I have 65' trees in my G18 position just 125' away, no problem. That dish sighting really works. SatelliteAV has a really good dish installation manual that shows a roof install in California. might be an option for you.

 

[c_perrone]

Satcom1,

I going to try that "sight" trick when I get home from work. It might allow me to move the dish closer to the house. The strangest thing is when you are just standing next to the dish and pointed to G10/18 the darn thing looks like it's almost pointing into the ground... and the signal has to be blocked by the trees, but getting a 70-80 quality reading. Very decptive looking indeed!
--Clint--

 

[satcom1]

Well. Check the reading on the dish motor to make sure it is at the correct westerly angle. I'm at -89 degrees and 42 degrees and my motor reads about 35 degrees for G18. If you are looking at the dish remember that you have an offset dish and the center of the dish does not point at the satellite. My dish has a 24 degree offset and so the signal comes in from way above where the dish is pointig. I want to upload some pictures of tools I use with my dish and will do that in the FTA DVB-S PCI card area of forum.

 

[rv1pop]

Just for humor -- do not take this for anything but a laugh -- When I used to say to one of my kids, "You are driving me nuts", They would respond, "Pop, we can't DRIVE you nuts, it's too short a walk!"

 

[satcom1]

My dish obstructions

This is what my dish looks over.

 

[satcom1]

Satellite Motor Install guide

Motorized System Install Guide - SatelliteAV, LLC.

This is the best guide I've come across.

 

[c_perrone]

Update on the motor

I hope this is not a jinx, but I have replaced my origianl DG240 with a new DG280 yesterday and so far I have had no problems whatsoever. The new motor has moved every single time and to the correct position with all the original cables as they were including the 250' or so of RG11. I need to do some more tweaking as I had to remove the dish, but so far....so good. I will be sending the DG240 back to Sadoun on an RMA.

Thanks to all who replied!

--Clint--

 

[Lak7]

Glad to hear!
What are you watching?

 

[c_perrone]

Lak7,

I can't seem to stop watching all the RTN's on G10/18.... It's nice to be able to move to where ever I want to. Like I said before, I really need to do some tweaking as PBS HD is rather low, but I just need to get back up the hill with the signal meter.

Anyway, thanks again to all!

--Clint--