Moving a BUD other than by an actuator

[tonydix]

Yesterday I was lowering my dish to its lowest position in order to work on the LNB.
To do this I have to rig up a chain to the dish mount and connect this via a "comealong" to a stake in the ground. I take up the tension and disconnect the actuator before lowering the dish to the ground with the comealong.

As I began to raise the dish with the comealong I noticed far better reception of satellites when the dish was held stationary by the comealong than when it was held stationary by the actuator. This I discovered is because the offcenter mounting of the actuator is seriously twisting the mounting beam of the dish particularly at low elevations where the huge weight of the dish requires high forces from the actuator.

I also have the problem of this actuator (24") only moving the dish through about half of its arc.

Could there be a better solution ?

I was thinking that it might be possible to rig two pulleys to slabs in the ground to the east and west of the dish and connect the dish mount to a wire hawser which went through the pulleys and connected to an electric winch under the tower.

I had in mind a winch similar to the ones used on the front of ATV's to haul themselves out of mud etc. There would be no easy way to stop the dish reliably at the same spot. One would have to carefully adjust on each movement

Is this all crazy ? Has anyone tried it ? Are there better solutions ?

Thoughts please



Best wishes

Tony

 

[FaT Air]

Some pictures would sure help explain the problem your having. I have a 24 inch on my BUD and cover 58w to 137w, and have not used all of the 24 inch stroke. Plan to move the jack onto the east side of dish to go further east. Possible explanation for better reception with the come-along is that it's taking out some warpage. I'd check with the "String test"
OMG- after posting, I noticed your BUD is 24ft. Yeah, a 24inch jack would probably only get half the arc. something that large would probably need a commercial (expensive) mover.

 

[sanjap]

What is the size of your BUD? I have an H180 motor drive my 6 foot and i get everything, from 30W to 148W with excellent quality

 

[Anole]

well, now . . .

I'm not envisioning the mechanics of your wench, but I can suggest a way to close the loop and move the dish to the desired satellite each time.
This assumes you're handy with electronics, of course.
... and mechanics...

- add a magnet wheel and reed sensor somewhere in your mechanical chain so it can count pulses.
- gut and rewire a Gbox V3000 or similar motor controller so it can operate big relays to run your wench motor

The above two items are not trivial, and will take some discussion and familiarity with the hardware, but it can work.
I'd first start out with a Gbox on a small dish and get some experience using it.
That knowledge will be mandatory after the modifications.

There are plenty of discussions here on the forum where members made and installed magnet wheels for their dishes.
I'm sure your dish will pose unique problems, but you have the combined experience of the forum to suggest ideas.


AND, all that said, if you can get your existing motor and mechanical problems worked out, that would be the best solution.
Maybe there's some simple way to relieve the stresses of the big dish on the motor/mount, if that's causing warpage.

There is one thing really large dishes often have - that's a counter weight out the back side.
With the dish properly balanced with a counter weight, you could move it with one finger and hold position.

 

[cracklincrotch]

What is the size of your BUD? I have an H180 motor drive my 6 foot and i get everything, from 30W to 148W with excellent quality

He's got a 24' monster. A real man dish.

 

[ynnedibanez]

this simple circuit that i designed could be used for driving a winch with a v or g box
i currently use it to drive my actuator at a higher voltage so my dish will move between satellites faster.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/c-band-satellite-discussion/204106-gbox-vbox-power-booster.html

 

[crackt]

tony i think i see what your thinking. one pulley on either side with a winch in the middle ? cable around the spool ? winch would turn spool and move dish either way. i think you could easily mod a magnet wheel onto the winch. then build a driver circuit and use a gbox to control it all.

another idea could be to mod the mount a bit. i have been thinking of running a few actuators ganged together. i was going to replace the motors with sprockets and sync the jacks with a chain. id rig up a sprocket on a pulled motor and be able to drive more than one jack with one drive motor.

since your monster is really huge. im not exactly sure what is going on behind the dish on the mount. i followed the setup thread but some better detailed pics may help the brain storm.

crackt out,.

 

[Cham]

If the dish mount is twisting or bending I think you need to do some re-enforcing to make it more stable... if not to better pull in satellites, would make the assembly stronger to survive storms etc.

I like the g-box idea, maybe a few relays and an AC motor with a reduction gearbox, large sprocket/chain combo? Sounds like a fun project!!
-C.

 

[FaT Air]

Just a thought, but anything that large (24ft) must be HEAVY. maybe a counter-weight may be called for. Then the actuator just moves it and doesn't have to carry the weight???

 

[annypolak]

Have another problem. Got a antalog C band receiver (Uniden 4000) that is giving me fits. Every time I try to move the dish I get a red screen with antenna error on it. Have a second one ... same kind of receiver same model .... same problem. I know it sounds as if I am doing something wrong and I probably am.(Kind of a club foot) I have tried more than one arm and get the same result. I know that I am getting a pulse when the arm is moving (Hook a pretty good quality VOM across the two wires from the reed switch and the needle bounces back and forth) I read where the problem could be from the receiver memory so I dumped it... Used the 3573 pass word and removed all the sat positions stored. When I try and move the dish it does move a couple degrees and then stops and get the red screen with antenna error. Any ideas? Trevlac.

 

[Pixl]

Tony,

How about a garage door operator, possibly the type that has a long screw down the middle rather than chain or cable. You would have to weather proof it and build up a custom control. But you would have plenty of throw.

Jim