Sg2100 Motor Bracket Flex

[stogie5150]

Well, it looks to me that your bracket is twisted, the u-bolts are not even, one is to the right/left of the other(looking at the picture from the rear of the dish). Also, there are more threads showing beyond the nut on the bottom u-bolt.....bracket is closer to the pole on the bottom than the top. Have you put a level on top of the motor, at the back on top of the mounting bolts? Its hard to tell from the pictures, just a few things I noticed off the bat. Light another cigar and pour a tall one, it will jump out at ya eventually

Absolutely correct. They ARE. But there's no other way to turn the whole assembly on the pole. I have to loosen it up enough to move it, and that makes it crooked. My other dish bracket is crooked too. When I zero the dish on TS, I try and tighten the bolts evenly so it stays aimed. I might try and get some different clamps so it turns better on the pole, I think the clamp's biting power on my mast is messing me up.

 

[Blueridge66]

Sorry.... I can't resist.... sounds like you have a POLE-TERGEIST!

Seriously I've run into a similar situation. My SG2100 is the 2 button variety and I've had problems of tracking the arc. But also have a tree problem that's gotten worst as the oaks leaf out. Temporarily I've just remounted the primestar dish and parked on AMC3, which has a clear view, until I can find a better location.

Since the motor is off the dish now I'm going to verify what happens when the motor is reset. In another thread it was suggested the motor zero becomes the current position when it's reset. I know it does some minor movement when it's reset but I've always reset at my TS position, which is my case is nearly TS (less than 1 deg)

One thing I did notice. I had bought the optional 50mm mounting tube and found the fit to the motor shaft very sloppy. Don't recall if the original tube had much slop but the 50mm sure did. I made a couple tin can shims, put on each side of the shaft flats and reassembled. Took most of the slop out.

One other minor comment...... using any kind of lub can cause more torque than what's intended. I know your not susposed to lub wheel lug nuts for that reason. Anti-seize compound might be making it easy to over torque the u-bolts. All in all the the bracket assembly isn't too sturdy

 

[stogie5150]

Sorry.... I can't resist.... sounds like you have a POLE-TERGEIST!

Oh MAN that was terrible!

(but i liked it) :up

I am gonna re-do it and pay more attention to the plumbness of the bracket to the pole. I just cannot do it right now because we got about 4 inches of rain yesterday and my backyard is a mudhole right now.

 

[satcom1]

Blueridge,

Depends on which SG2100 you have. If you reset some when they are at 3 degrees from zero on the motor housing, that becomes the new zero. Digipower descrines Resyncronize in the manual and it allows you to shift the whole satellite arc east or west.

Before I take the motor outside I connect it to the PC and issue goto 0 then goto G18 then goto Echostar 3. If it tracks OK I put it on the pole. If not I use the buttons and set it to zero on the motor scale and then reset. Lastley run the first check.

Of the three motors shipped to me all had loose motor tubes, I invested in a set of metric allen wrenches. Also all three had sloppy backlash adjustments. DMSI site has procedure to correct.

 

[satcom1]

SG2100 Bracket

I found that the crimps put in the back of the bracket to form a nest for the mounting pole were not made right and this caused one arm to be higher then the other. Before I install I set the bracket on a glass top table to check for wobble.

 

[Blueridge66]

satcom1 thanks... I've download the backlash procedure and will check out the motor when we return to the cabin. In the summer we get out of the Phoenix area heat and stay mostly at our cabin (where my fta setup is located).
Our youngest son is moving back to AZ from FL after he found out MOM had written him out of the will for taking the grandkids away!... so we aren't at the cabin for a few days.
I've got metric allens but still couldn't tighten enough to remove the slop thus the shim idea.

 

[Anole]

Stogie, when we were last hip-deep in this thread around January, you were going to chat with DMSI, you'd had a secret meeting with Linuxman, and then nothing happened.
What were the results of those talks?

As for the motor resetting procedure, I thought I read somewhere you had to send the reset command, then pull power, to affect the proper solution...?
Did you ever get the motor to take the reset?
Does it go to physical ZERO when you command it, now?

Looking at some of the early pictures, you've made claims of proper alignment using procedures I can't endorse.
In particular, I recommended a level on the motor bracket showing it was 90º to the pole.
Using a right angle against your torpedo isn't convincing.
The level needs to be placed along either the top or bottom of the motor bracket, and aligned from pole toward dish.
NOT just across the right and left motor bracket arms! (which is of course a good idea , too) -

In one of the motor threads, someone placed a big clamp of some sort under the motor bracket and used it as a bearing plate when turning the motor bracket on the pole.
That prevented the motor from slipping down the pole, and removed the requirement of cinching the bracket bolts so tight!

Larry already mentioned the STAB HH90 manual and graphic in section 8, showing which way to adjust when given a particular set of errors.
Below is a similar graphic from bottom of the Geo-Orbit page.
Your comments didn't sound like you followed the suggestions provided by these pictures.

The last thing I wonder about is this...
Is the pole you are having trouble with a free-standing one?
I thought I saw in your other pictures, that the good and working pole was bolted to some supporting structure just below the motor.
You might check to see if your pole is bending under the load of the heavy dish, as it moves.

Ya really need to be a nit picker and doggedly work through each step.
I wonder if your experience and previous success is distracting you?
It's happened to me - I just overlook some tiny thing, trying to find the big problem.

Hope to hear of some success on this matter soon.
'Cause gas is too high to come over and help. -

 

[Tron]

I use a 2 3/8" gate hinge under the motor bracket to support it. The hinge works very well to prevent downward slippage, but does not completely hold the bracket against the pole if the U-bolts are very slack. It could, however, be altered to do a good job of that. I could also move the motor down the pole a bit and possibly install a second gate hinge above the bracket facing downward against the top of the bracket to provide extra clamping power

 

[Anole]

pumpernickel or rye?

Yea, I knew I'd seen that good idea somewhere, lately.
Thanks , Tron , for posting the picture. That's the one I was thinking of.

And you know . . . by putting a big disc of metal (somewhat like a giant fender washer) between the motor bracket and whatever you clamp to the pole, you could provide a better bearing surface.
Yea, a little silicon lube wouldn't hurt, either. -
Okay, l maybe two discs.

Sadoun, you listening? . . . . A pole clamp and two giant fender washers.
Could be the next best thing since sliced bread! -

 

[Tron]

Those are some great ideas, Anole! I put this thing on there one night when I was frustrated by the motor creeping down the pole while I was trying to tweak azimuth. The pole on the hinge works to keep the motor bracket somewhat tight against the pole, and with a bit of adjustment, could probably hold it perfectly plumb against the pole.

 

[stogie5150]

Well, the problem is NOT the assembly sliding down the pole, its the whole thing moving clockwise/counterclockwise when you adjust the azmiuth. To loosen the assembly enough to move it, allows the top end of the bracket to tip away from the pole. Both of the setups are that way. With my other one I didn't have a problem compensating for it, with this one I am.
The masts I am using are 3 3/4" OD schedule 40 galvanized pipe for the good one, and 3.5" OD schedule 80 for the one I am having the problems with. I am pretty confident they are NOT flexing.
This 3.5" pipe has a rough finish, as you can tell from the photos, and the teeth on the u-bolt brackets are constantly hanging on the pole as it is rotated on the pole,causing the CW/CCW rotation of the assembly as it is rotated for azmiuth.

As soon as all the yard work, 4th of July hootenanny's, and other various and sundry family obligations are done, I am going to go at it again.

I have about 1k worth of machinists squares,scales, and such to measure/check for square with, and about 5 different bubble levels for plumb.

I'l figure it out (with help from y'all), or I'll shoot the damned thing full of holes. :

 

[stogie5150]

We have success! I changed the u-bolt clamps to some muffler clamps that I had in my possibles box, loosened everything up, sure enough the bracket was skewed half a bubble out of plumb, so I had to put a crescent wrench on the bracket for leverage, watch the level, twist the whole thing on the pole until it was level AND watch the SQ until I had it exactly on my TS satellite. I couldn't get it EXACTLY level, but its within 3/32 of an inch or so, close enough to return 90+ SQ on most TP's across the arc, most are 93-97%( 97 is maxed out on the Coolsat 5000, BTW). Only the sat with the odd skew is lower ( one of the AMC's, I can never remember which one) , and its 87% SQ.

Only thing I had to adjust for is a bit of slack in the assembly due to the weight of the dish, but that can be compensated for with DISECQ 1.2 on the sats that need it.

Its about the best I could do alone, it's just too heavy to do it all alone and be Dead nuts on. But I have it within a hair. :up

 

[Anole]

Well, NOW we're talkin!
Glad to hear you beat it into submission!

Guess you're the poster boy for 2100's now.
Next guy who has a problem gettin' it on the arc, we'll send him to the Stogie School of High Performance Satellite Tuning! -

 

[Tron]

Stogie, if I can ever get over there and we plan it on a day with good weather (hard to come by these days, especially in the afternoon ), I can help you with getting it fine tuned

 

[stogie5150]

Well, NOW we're talkin!
Glad to hear you beat it into submission!

Guess you're the poster boy for 2100's now.
Next guy who has a problem gettin' it on the arc, we'll send him to the Stogie School of High Performance Satellite Tuning! -

Actually, mighty green one, this motor is a GS-120 from SatAv...but the principle still applies...

And THANKS!:up

Stogie, if I can ever get over there and we plan it on a day with good weather (hard to come by these days, especially in the afternoon ), I can help you with getting it fine tuned

Thanks, J. I got it though. But as always, you are welcome anytime.:up

 

[linuxman]

Glad you got it Stogie!

Sometimes you just have to keep working on them until they puke their guts up and quit in submission.

 

[Larry1]

If the bracket is twisted out of alignment, you can adjust it slightly by just loosening the bolt on one side ever so slightly and then tightening the bolt on the other side. Only do it say a quarter of a turn (or even less) at a time. If you do the top bolts in one direction and the lower bolts in the other direction, the bracket will twist. If you do it in the same direction you can ever so slightly twist the motor on the pole in one direction or the other.