Primestar & Sg2100 (Dish angle question)

[9999]

First of all thanks to PSB for the prompt service and shipping of the Sg 2100 and the lnb.

Using the coordinates of approx 35 N and 78 W I get AMC 5 as my true south sat. On the chart that came with the sg2100, I get Lat= 35 Elevation=55 Declination= 5.6 and Dish angle 24.4.

I have 2 questions:

(1) When you reverse the Primestar mounting bracket do you subtract 24.4 from 90 and set the primestar to 65.6?

(2) I am using a 1.5 and a 2 inch PVC pieces with slits as a shim. Will the motor ultimately support this along with the bracket and P* dish? In other words, how does all this compare to the weight of a 1.2m aluminum dish?

THANKS

 

[PSB]

1/
Never tried that.



2/
I would seriously consider reducing the weight as much as possible first.......

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=42450&highlight=Primestar+mount

 

[iammike]

Pete's right about reducing the weight, however I mounted mine the same way you're talking about and so far (about 2 or 3 months) so good. I'm probably good for business as far as Pete's concerned.

 

[9999]

iammike, when you reversed the p* bracket did you subtract the suggested dish angle from 90 and set it to that? If not what did you do?

Also, if you use ziploc's mod, how do you determine the angle using the hardware he suggested.

 

[dishMIKE]

I had read on another forum that someone had also used a Dish 500 bracket on the back of a Primestar dish to use with a SG2100. Shawn said though when he tried it it was to flimsy. I'm anxious to here how everybody comes out with this. Thanks, Mike

 

[Shawn95GT]

This was my poor attempt at Dish500 mount on the P*:



I had zero faith in this setup and it was admittedly a pretty lame attempt. It was fun though .

I later did the two PVC sleeve setup:



This held up fine but just barely bumping the dish seemed to be enough to rotate the mount in relation to the motor. I concidered sending a bolt all the way through the mount / sleeves / SG2100 tube but I never did it.

Just recently I swapped out the original tube with a 50mm one from DMS. I have a bunch of pics and a write-up here.



The dish is nice and solid now and my SG2100 doesn't seem to complain one bit. My Primestar is of the 26x36 variety and it smaller and lighter than some of the ones others here are using. I've had no problems at all with mine. I have another nearly identical dish but the mount has a skew adjustment built in. THAT mount is super-heavy.

I really liked that custom mount that Ziploc built but this was quick and easy.

 

[9999]

Shawn, how did you calculate the angle setting on the primestar?

 

[Shawn95GT]

Shawn, how did you calculate the angle setting on the primestar?

I didn't!

Like Pete always recommends, I had setup my Primestar as a fixed dish and got some channels scanned in. I started with IA5 but then got G10R. G10R wasn't too terrible far off my TS sat so I decided to use it.

I used USALS to swing the motor over to G10R and I swept the dish elevation until I got the best signal. I found that my azimuth was off ever so slightly so I rotated the whole motor / dish assembly to the east and on the next sweep I had locked onto G10R. I peaked the dish in azimuth / dish elevation and it was spot on with USALS 58w - 148w.

 

[iammike]

iammike, when you reversed the p* bracket did you subtract the suggested dish angle from 90 and set it to that? If not what did you do?

Also, if you use ziploc's mod, how do you determine the angle using the hardware he suggested.

I used the original P* bracket. My motor had been previously set up with another dish. Before taking the old dish down I positioned the motor to my true south position. When I put up the P*, I just adjusted the elevation and direction of the dish until I had it peaked on the true south bird again. I didn't do any calculations to determine the elevation angle.

 

[dishMIKE]

iammike what size of primestar dish do you use? Thanks, Mike

 

[9999]

Ok, thanks. I'll give it a try Sat or Mon evening.

 

[dishMIKE]

And Shawn where did you get the 50mm SG2100 adapter tube ,from Pete? How much was it? Thanks, Mike

 

[Shawn95GT]

And Shawn where did you get the 50mm SG2100 adapter tube ,from Pete? How much was it? Thanks, Mike

I didn't get mine from him but seeing as he is a DMS dealer I'm sure he could get you one on short order. The part itself was cheap (under $20). I got some other stuff at the same time so it's hard to say what I paid 'shipped'.

 

[iammike]

iammike what size of primestar dish do you use? Thanks, Mike

I have the 40"X30" model.