Oh no...I think I just wrecked my dish!

[JerryK]

My most easterly (programmed) bird was W3, but I thought I'd try to squeak a little more east to 87 (amc9) for a supposed Lions/Jets game.

Well, I hit the (East..extended) "physical limit" of my new actuator...and no, I didn't manually set the limits when I took it out of the box. (superjack 18").

Well, the Dish got "stuck" east....with the actuator extended...and I didn't know it.

I started to scan west again and noticed I had NOTHING. I should have gone out and checked the dish then, but I'm an idiot. I told my receiver to scan all the way west to C4 (contract the actuator). When I walked out back, the dish is still pointed EAST!

So here's where I'm at:
The dish is jammed East.
The actuator is extended. (despite my instruction to goto C4)
The bracket you clamp on the shaft has actually "slid" down near
the motor,probaly when I told it to contract to C4.
Despite my command to go WEST to C4 (nearly fully retract the actuator),
it's STILL EXTENDED (wiped out gears? TELL ME there's a clutch in there!!!)

HELP!

 

[orthoclipse]

I'd suggest that you disconnect the end of the actuator from the dish, place a bolt through the eyepiece, and then manually rotate the shaft clockwise as if you were screwing the actuator shaft into the housing. It will be stuck initially, but once it's freed after a few turns, you should be able to reattach it to the dish and move it again with the receiver/positioner powered up. If all's well, take the cover off the motor and set the limit switches to prevent it happening again.

 

[JerryK]

Good news. I'm back in action.

It turns out the actuator wasn't "stuck open". It had retracted, pulling the dish down and east.

I unhooked it, pushed the dish around to the west, (reprogrammed my satellites ) and It worked ok.

Oh, and I set my limits ( on the recevier )

 

[tdti1]

If you want to go far a 24" arm should do you fine, but only get it if this arm dies well this all depends on your mount and location and if you have trees or other objects that may be in the way, if you do get a larger arm, be outside when setting your limit, to make sure you do not damage the arm or dish.

 

[Diamond Jim]

What kind of receiver do you have? On the Motorola 922 when it gets to the limit it won't move in either direction. All I have to do is pick another satellite, hit enter and it will free it up and go to the bird you selected.

 

[JerryK]

Jim, I knew i was tempting fate.

I set my AMC9 to a fake setting that was in "range". Then I called up tp12, which was of course, static, since I wasn't far enough east yet.

Then I hit "go back" and selected Dish Limits...so I could slew the dish left until something showed up. I knew I was going beyond the "software" limit in the 922.

Eventually the '922 reported I'd hit the PHYSICAL limit. But at this point, I think my mount was past the "high point" in it's arc. So my attempts to bring it back west actually pulled it farther down to the east.

I now have conservative limits in the '922 and I will respect them.