Setting elevation on motorized Ku dish

[bobvick]

I am in the process of setting up my 1.2M GeoSat Pro dish on a Premium HD 2000 motor. I am trying to figure out if I am on the right track to setting my elevation correctly. According to the book that came with the motor, I should set my latitude at my latitude which is roughly 34N, so I did that. Then the way I read it, I should set my dish elevation at 29.5, I had to set it at 34 to get to 29.5 because according to the GeoSat Pro instructions, because I had to reverse my bracket for it to work on a motorized dish, I should subtract 4.5 from the displayed elevation. Anyway, after I did this, I went and got a long level and went across the face of the dish, from side to side, and put my inclinometer on it, it measured about 20 degrees. I thought that it needed to be at about the same as my latitude, which would be 34? I tried to set it as close to 34 as I could. I have some work to do, because it is only at about 30 according to the inclinometer. Your help and suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks

 

[turbosat]

Motor looks a lot like my DG380. Hard to tell from pictures of course, but it looks like the elevation of the dish is too high, if you have it at due south in that bottom picture. I think with mine, I set the motor-bracket elevation, then sent the dish over to 85W, then adjusted the Dish's elevation until the color bars channel came in clearly. Beyond a little bit of tweaking the north/south axis, it was tracking just fine. Haven't touched it in a little over two years since installing it. You can use any satellite to set it , if you use USALS, or so I have read numerous times, I just picked that one because it was close to my longitude, and I knew that test pattern was up that day.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Aimed way too high. If the dish elevation needs to be set at 29, the dish will only appear to be tilted back 2 degrees. Why is this?

The dish is an offset design, so the dish look angle is higher than the apparent face angle of the dish by 27.3 degrees. So if the vertical plane of the dish is straight up and down, the dish is actually aimed at 27.3 degrees.

 

[Tron]

Unrelated, but your LNB holder is upside down... The neck that holds the LNB should be facing up, not down, and the holder should be bolted to the end of the center feed support pole, not the left and right poles. The left and right feed support poles should be bolted to the center feed support pole just below the LNB holder.

 

[bobvick]

I will fix the LNB holder. I didn't think it looked right. I will also try putting the elevation back to the setting that it was at, that made the dish look lower. Thanks for the help. If I can't get any signal I will post back with more pictures.

 

[phlatwound]

Here is how I do it, YMMV, of course this assumes a plumb pole and level motor bracket:

1.) Set your motor latitude and tighten it there, you are done with that, don't change it. Aim the whole motor/dish assembly towards your true south. Dishpointer will get you VERY close for that.

2.) Roughly set your dish elevation for your true south sat, I am going to use 87W for your location. 87W is approximately 50 degrees above the horizon for your area, if you subtract the 27.3 degree dish offset that Brian provided above, you get 22.7 degrees.

Run your level vertically on the face of the dish (as close to center as the feed supports will allow) and set your dish elevation to about 23 degrees with the inclinometer.

3.) Setup your receiver's USALS settings for your lat and long, select 87W and have the motor drive the dish to 87 W. If your motor was zeroed out it won't move very far when you do this.

4.) Enter or select a hot tp on 87W.

5.) Slowly turn the whole motor/dish assembly on the pole, east and west say 10-15 degrees either side of where you think true south is. If you don't get signal adjust your dish elevation by a half degree above (or below) your initial 23 degree setting and repeat the east/west azimuth sweeps until you get signal.

Doing this procedure with your receiver and a tv out at the dish is HIGHLY recommended.

 

[bobvick]

Well,

I got the elevation closer, I believe. But now I have ran into a different problem. I think that this dish is too big for the motor. According to the folks over where I got the motor, it was supposed to be able to support up to a 1.4m dish. I do not think that is the case. First of all, I noticed that the motor is not locking, I.E. it is turning when I physically move the dish, there must be something wrong because, if I leave it like that it will move with the wind. Also, I tried moving the motor with the receiver, which it works fine until it goes over too far to the right or left, then the weight of the dish makes it go all the way over. I do not know if I am going to be able to motorize this dish or not. I may have to just point it at a fixed location like 125W or 97W and leave it and get a 30 cm or 36 cm to motorize. Any suggestions? Thanks a lot for all of the help I have already received.

 

[Chickwalla]

Maybe drill a hole in the rear motor bracket if you can and put a small bolt in it when you find true south ???

 

[bobvick]

I set the dish up as a fixed dish at 97W. I do not think it is going to work too good to motorize a 1.2M dish with these small H-H motors. Perhaps if you could still get a STAB 120, it might work, but those are so hard to find now, I am probably better off seeing if they will take this Premium 2000 motor back and swap it for a SG-2100 and get a Hot Dish 90 or something like that to motorize.

 

[turbosat]

Did you check the weight recommendation on that motor's specs? And weigh the dish/mount? I have DG380 motor which says "maximum dish size 120cm" but I don't have one to try on it. Mine is driving a 90cm dish, an old primestar elliptical, which weighs nothing once I took the old fixed mount off it. It'd be nice to know if it would handle a 1.2m.

 

[Hindu55]

I've been running a DG380 on my 1.2M GeoSat Pro since last April and have had no problems.

 

[bobvick]

The seller I bought the motor from said that the specs from the manufacturer said 1.4M was the maximum. The book that came with the motor says 1.2M however. It does not give a maximum weight. I don't think putting a bolt in it would help, because it is not that the dish mount is slipping on the motor, the motor is slipping with the dish. I.E. The weight of the dish is pulling the motor down when it gets so far to the left or the right. I am not convinced now it is a good idea to put a dish this big on one of these little motors.