OTHER Using a rotator motor for my 3' HughesNet dish

[jessica6]

Does anyone use a rotating motor with their dish? I read a little about it, but have some questions:

• How would you deal with skew changes?
• How would you deal with elevation differences?
• How does it get power?
• My GTMedia V7 S2X seems to have some ability to use multiple satellites. Does it know how to remember positions?

Lots of questions from me lately.

 

[FTA4PA]

Does anyone use a rotating motor with their dish? I read a little about it, but have some questions:

• How would you deal with skew changes?
• How would you deal with elevation differences?
• How does it get power?
• My GTMedia V7 S2X seems to have some ability to use multiple satellites. Does it know how to remember positions?

Lots of questions from me lately.

No need to worry about skew, etc as the motor takes carry of all that for you as it moves the dish. C band dishes will have a line to power the actuator and a line for a pulse reading to track that the dish is moving and where to. KU dishes usually do that over the coax cable although I have seen some that use a setup like the c band dishes. Can't speak as to the GTMedia V7 capabilities but if it is like most it should be able to control either setup.

 

[jessica6]

Thanks for the info! How does it handle the skew? I mean, all it does is rotate the pole east and west, right? I'm just thinking of how the old TV antennas used to be.

 

[cyberham]

Does anyone use a rotating motor with their dish? I read a little about it, but have some questions......
Lots of questions from me lately.

These are good questions since they show you're thinking.

An H-H motor (horizon-to-horizon) automatically skews your LNB and moves the dish to the correct azimuth and elevation of a particular satellite. With a motor, you forget about worrying about changing the LNB skew since the motor skews the entire dish including the LNB. Power to LNB is supplied usually by your receiver via the same cable that brings the received signal back to your receiver. Your receiver may remember the satellite positions, but my experience is the positions are saved in my motor. So, for example, the receiver tells the motor to "Go to Position #10" and the motor goes to its saved Position 10.

In my opinion, a motor is what makes FTA useful. Unless you are like iBoston or Keith Brannen who procure dishes by the dozen and have some place to put them, then us mortals should use a motor to get maximum value from a dish. Even in my tree-blocked yard, I can receive 16 Ku satellites and 5 C satellites by having my dish mounted on a motor.

A motor can be a headache to install and keep functioning correctly, but it's worth it. Especially if you are only connecting your dish to one TV. Now that I know how to do it, I find it fun to deal with its issues.

 

[KE4EST]

Thanks for the info! How does it handle the skew? I mean, all it does is rotate the pole east and west, right? I'm just thinking of how the old TV antennas used to be.

It does not rotate on a pure horizontal axis like a TV rotator. If you look up a picture of a USALS motor you will see. Also, if this is what you want to do, I highly recommend you invest in a new dish; one that is designed to be used with a USALS motor. Your fixed dish will need to be modified to work with USALS and it will take a little experience under your belt and it will still not track right. The GEOSATpro 90 is a great dish at a descent price. Anything cheaper you might find will be too small or rust out in a year.

 

[cyberham]

I like 1.2-metre (4-foot) dishes. They can receive almost everything on Ku and some satellites on C.

 

[k1cza]

Next question: where can you get a Diseqc H-H motor in the US that isn't sold out? eBay is only showing two options, both of which are very expensive...

Thanks jessica6 for asking all the questions! It's great timing - my new house came with a HughesNet dish, and I want to use the mast and coax for FTA. I am looking at a GEOSATpro 90 and the H-H motor. Will continue reading the forum for a receiver and LNB recommendation.

 

[FTA4PA]

Thanks for the info! How does it handle the skew? I mean, all it does is rotate the pole east and west, right? I'm just thinking of how the old TV antennas used to be.

I was ready to answer but I see cyberham already did with some great info.

 

[FTA4PA]

Next question: where can you get a Diseqc H-H motor in the US that isn't sold out? eBay is only showing two options, both of which are very expensive...

Thanks jessica6 for asking all the questions! It's great timing - my new house came with a HughesNet dish, and I want to use the mast and coax for FTA. I am looking at a GEOSATpro 90 and the H-H motor. Will continue reading the forum for a receiver and LNB recommendation.

I prefer the STAB rotors from Italy as they are the gold standard. They are becoming very hard to find now though. You could try this one from hypermegasat. Don't know anything about it personally but have dealt with Casey and he is a good seller.

https://hypermegasat.com/all-products/ols/products/sp-120-dish-rotor-usals-diseqc-h-h-motor-for-90cm-to-12m-ku-band-dish

 

[FTA4PA]

Will continue reading the forum for a receiver and LNB recommendation.

I would recommend any of these. They are sold by members here who work very hard to promote the hobby and will give you great support after the sale.

Great solid basic receiver: Amiko Mini HD265 FTA Receiver DVB-S2 H.265 HEVC With NTP 5999883023525 | eBay

Great solid basic receiver with 4K support: Amiko Mini 4K UHD S2X FTA Receiver DVB-S2X H.265 HEVC With NTP 4K Ultra HD | eBay

Edision OS Mio+ 4K. All the bells and whistles, dual-tuner, 4K support (I own this one): Titanium Satellite - Store

 

[cyberham]

...and LNB recommendation.

Be sure your LNB is a "PLL" type. This acronym is usually in the LNB model number if it has this design.

 

[Jim S.]

I prefer the STAB rotors from Italy as they are the gold standard.

I always thought they were supposed to be the gold standard, but my HH90 has a ridiculous amount of slop, and I've seen quite a bit of complaining about it on other forums too. It's probably at least half a degree if I had to guess. It's so much that if I have my dish aligned perfectly on one side of the arc, it'll be far enough off on the other side to lose weaker transponders altogether. I'm not talking about the extreme ends of the arc either (I know it's the slop causing it, and not declination error, because I can watch it drive right by the satellite on a meter.) I haven't tried using DiSEqC 1.2 to adjust on one side of the arc yet, I haven't had time.

 

[FTA4PA]

I always thought they were supposed to be the gold standard, but my HH90 has a ridiculous amount of slop, and I've seen quite a bit of complaining about it on other forums too. It's probably at least half a degree if I had to guess. It's so much that if I have my dish aligned perfectly on one side of the arc, it'll be far enough off on the other side to lose weaker transponders altogether. I'm not talking about the extreme ends of the arc either (I know it's the slop causing it, and not declination error, because I can watch it drive right by the satellite on a meter.) I haven't tried using DiSEqC 1.2 to adjust on one side of the arc yet, I haven't had time.

I can't speak to the Stab HH90 but my Stab HH100 has been going strong for about 8 years now with no issues.

 

[pacificrim]

I've been using my STAB120 for 10 years with my Fortec 120cm without issue. It has been 100% reliable. Before that I had a Motec knockoff that lasted only 2 years.

 

[k1cza]

I found what is seemingly the last place in the US to keep a stock of genuine STAB rotors, SatelliteAV/Glorystar. They said they have a limited stock of only HH90, but they do indeed still have a stock. I appreciated their customer service.

I decided to go all out. Bought an Edision Mio+ from Titanium (thanks!) and the HH90 rotor and 90cm Geosatpro dish from SatelliteAV.

Maybe it will degrade with age, but right now there is absolutely zero slop in the HH90 rotor. It is freakishly accurate from 87w all the way over to 129w. I am very, very impressed and glad I splurged on it.

Having a properly aligned dish (instead of HughesNet dish with misaligned LNB) has also improved rain fade, but not as much as I was hoping. There is still a bit of rain fade on 125w, and some transponders on 103w. I'm guessing this won't be resolved unless I get a bigger dish? (Edit: I'm in Washington state, 47 N 122 W - so elevation is not my friend, but 125w is almost exactly due south)

 

[primestar31]

I decided to go all out. Bought an Edision Mio+ from Titanium (thanks!) and the HH90 rotor and 90cm Geosatpro dish from SatelliteAV.

Good deal. You will NEVER be sorry you bought the Mio. BEST receiver I've ever used.

Some advice, the two MOST important ones:

1: You have FOUR slots, load them ALL with firmware, even IF you don't use other ones. In fact, it can even be 4 loads of Tnap 4.1 or whatever. As long as all 4 are bootable, they don't even have to be all setup, just enough to boot to, and get the menu on the screen. TRUST me on this! IF you ever corrupt the firmware load in the slot you use most, (it's happened to many of us when playing around) you'll thank me on how easy it'll be to recover IF you have at least another slot available with a bootable version.

2: BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!