which actuator for a 6 footer?

[Anole]

I would carefully measure that my feedhorn was properly centered on the dish.
Then follow the alignment procedure at the bottom of this page on the Geo-Orbit site.

PS: sorry, we were talking about motors and now about LNBs... what are you using, there?
A dual-band LNBF or a Ku-only? If the latter, does it have an F/D to match your dish?

 

[hd fan]

Thanks Anole, I just re-read the Geo-Orbit page and re-watched Shaun Kenny video because I do not want to loose everything again out of frustration like last weekend. Dual band voltage-controlled Univ-Ku/C Gospell with no F/D marks on it. I have another dual C Gospell that has such marks. I can see the Ku signals at the top of the arc for 79W but it does not lock yet Nasa and the other C band sats at the top are perfect. I will measure the feedhorn now before doing anything.

 

[Anole]

The dual-band C/Ku voltage controlled LNBF's seem to have Ku-envy.
At the very least the Ku portion has an inappropriate F/D, so must be centered to the last millimeter to work at its best.

Dig out a thread by Stogie5150 on fine-tuning his Ck-1 on a Birdview for more discussion on the precision involved.
(I think at the end of this thread)

 

[hd fan]

yeah I heard but in this case the mouth of the feedhorn should be at 682 mm and it is now at 685 mm. on 91W I get the Word network at 97Q on CS 6000 and the birdog has even the C band 7/8 signal at over 8 db C/N. If I push or pull the dish it barely makes a 0.1 C/N diff in one direction but Q stays the same. I will play now with the Ku side of this bird without making adjustments and see what happens

 

[hd fan]

the feedhorn was not aligned properly , kind of pointing a bit higher , fixed it , but still no ku . will start raining probably so i ll pack and leave the ku for some other day.

 

[hd fan]

well I kept trying and adjusting the LNB to 683 mm now and it is not the feed because I get 83W , the NBC F transponder at even 87Q. but there is no way I can lock KTEL at 79W although I was using 2470 as SR instead of 2170. There is something that makes no sense at all and it is the fact that to lock 83W I had to lower the polar axis elevation to around 41 instead of using 44.2. The pole is only less than 0.5 degrees off so I have no idea if both birds for me, 79 and 83, have the same elevation 39.7 and 39.6 respectively the why is it that I have to lower the elevation that much. the declination is at 6 degrees as it should BTW. done for the day but any suggestions for next try?.

 

[tdti1]

Never seen or played with a Gospell? do you have everything set for Universal? I know the CK1 is a good lnbf and it's Standard, I played with the BSC-621 and the CK1 at a friends place a few months ago, both are standard and the CK1 tuned in better numbers.

 

[Lak7]

After measuring Centering and Focal Distance Ten Thousand times......

I'm located at 87.9west, in between Sats, and have a goofy compass too (I think) so.....

I drove the Dish to it's Highest point
Set Elevation and Declination, leaving Mount bolt loose enough for adjustments.
Set Sat Meter for hot Ku TP on 87west, Peaked signal, and made a Reference Mark on Pole and Mount.
Next, set meter for 89west, peaked signal, and made a Reference Mark on pole using the Mark already on the mount to align to.
On my 3-1/2" Pole, the marks are about 1/16" apart
Set the Dish in the middle of the marks, triple check that Mount is Plumb, snug bolts enough to hold, and recheck Main Axis Elevation.

Drove the Dish to 87 to peak Ku signal and tweaked Declination setting (my Dish / Mount does not have a good area to measure declination)

Then checked Sats to the East and West and made notes of what tweaks are necessary.

 

[hd fan]

Tdti , I am using the birdog as a meter. But I am also using a 22 khz switch , therefore I can only see the high Ku band since the Gospel is Universal Ku. that is not the problem.

The pole is less than 0.5 degrees off only but even if it was 5 degrees , at least 79W I should find it by adjusting +/- 5 to the elevation. The problem is the 2 times that it has worked I have had to lower the polar axis to around 41 instead of 44.2. I do not trust the Jhonson protractor anymore and will buy a digital inclinometer. It was rainig also yesterday and like I said I even got AMC3/F TP at 87 Q on the CS 6000. So it is not the feed assembly. My worry is the declination setting since the fortec has 2 bolts to adjust it and all I can do is stop the nut at the same thread count and make that small piece paralell to the Dish/ polar axis bracket.

I have a few questions though, after I drive the Dish to the highest point Do I have to disconect the arm to re-set the declination angle?. when the Dish is at true South or in other words its Zenith (highest point), Does the rotating plate at the piovot has to be paralell to the Dish and the main axis bracket?.

Thanks lak7 for the advices , I will follow them next time the weather permits.

 

[Lak7]

Do I have to disconect the arm to re-set the declination angle?

You shouldn't. You should be able to make Elevation and Declination adjustments with the arm attached.

Does the rotating plate at the piovot has to be paralell to the Dish and the main axis bracket?.

I Don't know, can you post a Pic?

 

[hd fan]

It was the declination adjustment , way to high!. This Fortec Star 6 footers do not have a good place to measure declination because even the ring in the back it all depends how and where you put de jhonson protractor (if it wants to give you an exact reading). S oi decided to measure the elevation of the top of the LNB itself.

I got KTEL at 88% Q but still the NY Network is only 70% and does not go up no matter if I move 1 pulse. I remember with the 90 cm motorized I got that tp around 90 too. But heck is better than nothing , it was driving me crazy!.

 

[Lak7]

The NY Net seems weak to me too.
Are you getting RTN on 83 west, or the SCETV TP(11960 V 4340)on 63 west?

 

[hd fan]

It is raining tonight here lak7 and even the strong Cuban muxes at 30W are at minimum 69/70 so I will start scaning everything on Ku tomorrow. I finished tonight arraging all cables but I beleive I probably did not left enough slack for the arm when it moves to the extrems. Will see. I got KTLA at 65, 66 I guess but this time It did not pixelate at all but the funny thing Nasa on the same bird stays at 70 no matter what and barely jumps up down to 86/87 at some point and that bugs me (maybe because I adjusted for KTEL on Ku , C band is not properly aligned now, will see). Today KTLA even had a lock at 63/64 but no audio/picture and then with the rain nothing now but ONN on 74 has good quality at 87 probably due to lower FEC. KTEL on 79W under the rain stays ok but at 70%. I acctually have not driven the Dish more, too late last night , potential lack of slack and rain tonight. I do not remember I ever got RTN on my motorized 90 cm.

Thanks for all the help and comments BTW not only to you but also to everyone else.

I love this CS 6000 man , I had never used the detail blind scan before so I had to scan those low SR Tp's like KTEL manually and now it just takes 3 times longer but it finds everything possible.

On AMC 9 now , no RTV yet but NBC F TP is booming at 91 Q . it is still raining, although light rain now.

When I get home from work is dark already so will post pictures during the weekend , sorry a cell phone camera will be.

The motor although somehow upwards it is not yet in what I consider the best position to drain water through the holes , do you guys think I should somehow rotate the head so I can attach it with the holes more vertical?.

 

[hd fan]

Well I think I might be having a problem with the pulses. I am not using shielded cable as is supposed to but rather 4 cond 16 AWG speaker wire , 2 for motor power and 2 for the sensor. I think for some reason the VBOX is missing some pulses or something since sometimes it stops perfectly and sometimes I have to move it a few clicks(Nasa sometimes stops at 87/88 , sometimes at 70 Q). I still have to look into that and more importantly I still have to correct the azimuth error since I peaked the 79W sat when the dish was at its Zenith rather than just a few clicks eastwards. I get from 55W to 129W now with the 0.6 degrees error (obviously not all TPS across the arc) and I expect after fully aligning that I can get up to 135W at least. A rooftop might be an issue further west.

I also noticed than when pulling from 30W the fixed bracket that holds the arm clamp slides or moves a bit. I tightened the bolts but I think it might still keep moving although I am suspecting a pulse or rather pulse noise affecting the sensor function.

Lak7 today without rain , I managed to lock to the RTV TP but it still jumps in an out and stays more out than in I guess.

Are you guys using shielded cable for the sensor wire?, If not which one then would be the next best.

 

[tdti1]

What V-box do you have? I think many had positioning issues, my buddy has I think the old V-box 2 and said he has to adjust it more than he would like. For the cable you can use c-band ribbon that has everything you would need, I've had the same ribbon for over 20 years, my friend does have ribbon with his V-box 2 and still has this problem, most with ku-band, as c-band could be a few clicks off and still works fine.

 

[Lak7]

I used unshielded Sprinkler Wire.
C Band in fine, but almost always have to bump either way for Max. Ku.

 

[hd fan]

thanks. I have the old VBox II but I do not think it is the VBox but rather noise affecting the pulses since when I had it connected outside it seemed to stop always with same quality readings. will have to test more i guess.

 

[hd fan]

Well I finally yesterday adjusted the true south setting (by clicking 4 times east and then rotating the whole mount to peak again) but I have not yet adjusted the extreme sats. Nor I will with this cold days, windchill -5 and low at almost cero at noon. I am very happy how the dish is working so far.

Lak7 , RTV now locks permanently and stays at 63-64 on CS 6000 but it does not log the channel. For the lonely SCETV feed at 63W I just set the position (there are 7 clicks per 1 degree or 14 between Sats in that area) and will wait until it comes live to try to scan it.

I took pictures and will post them , but still have to bury a small section of the cable at the pole base. I still loose Ku on 125W completly but it works for some TP in the vicinity, the rest of the Arc on both bands works beautifully.

I am tracking from 55.5W to 135W where I can get everything on The List. The DVB-S2 Tp on 55W is still a no go but the DW and AJE TP which use the same parameters but 1 is vertical and the other horizontal are working perfectly although the levels ar at minimum 70. In the pictures you will see for 135W I just barely clear the roof of the neighborg. I tried 137W but is a no go and I think I remember from the last solar outage the sun was blocked by the roof. 135W was my last target for the location I choosed or was given.

At 135W if I push the dish up from underneath the C/N only goes up 0.5 dB the most and that is for HSN at the LNB as per the birdog. Quality (q) after Viterbi (The main Q value is only 3 and 7% for 3820H) goes up only 10 % the most from around 50 to 60 on those 4 TP's. Ideally we would want 100% or 0% errors but unatainable in this case. CS 6000 reads 66Q but despite that the channels work ok. Not windy but not calm either today and just a few clouds. I can even stand in front of the dish and it still works (unless I almost lean on the left side) which tells me the neighborg roof is already blocking the bottom half of it. I am only 5.5 and the dish is at 4 feet above ground.

With this values I am even considering not to adjust anything else although I have to do something about Ku on 125W. The problem is the mount cap is not plumb because there is a huge gap and after me working on the dish I probably forgot to double check that. The solution will be a 1 foot piece of 3" Drain pipe which as per my calculations fits perfectly, they sell it by 10 feet whcih do not fit inside my personal car but anyways I will find a solution to make the mount perfectly plumb. It is 1 degree of in the direction of 125W but perfect at tru south. far east direction is also not plumb but I have a tree blociking beyond 55W.

Now , If I only new how to post pictures here eh?, lol. It can not be more difficult that tracking Ku on even a small 6 footer eh, lol.

 

[hd fan]

I just created an album on the site and uploaded the pictures. Hope it works, lol. As you can see there is also a 90 cm fixed @ 30W that also just barely clear the roofline of another neighborg. I had to install it as low and as far away from view as possible. The same with the BUD , I tryied to put it close to the tree fence and behind the toolshed where it is protected from wind as well and also as low as possible so no RF interference from nearby Microwave towers either. Forget the interference , I am only 5.5 ft so I even need a ladder to adjust the LNB when pointing at the lowest sat , lol.

I will change the cables for white ones and bury them and use a pvc pipe at the pole to proctect it and an electrical PVC box for the 22khz switch. I just wanted to finish and see it work today, lol. But probably will wait until I find a solution for the gap on the mount.

The arm is not perfectly upwards therefore it might not drain water as efficiently and will also set the hardware limits since the CS 8100 decided to overdrive it and it almost flops beyond 30W. Good thing I remember the pulse value for the lower limit and managed to power down on time the controller (and the STB since if it is ON the VBOX will not power off). The funny thing the limits were set but I think there is a bug with this CS 8100 because it acctually did it not once but twice. I have decided to slave the 8100 off the 6000 and this one then dirves the VBOX. I might connect the LNB straight to the 8100 and then the CS 6000 being used like an analog box just to send the drive commands to the VBOX. Now I see the usefulness of the names on the GBOX!!!.

Picture 2 Shows that the arm is paralell to the bracket as suggested by Anole on Wrdavis's install thread and also the fixed plate that comes with the dish allows me to grab the clamp further back from the pivot point. that way you get better accuracy or more linear travel per angular movement and also it mostly pushes the dish perpendicular for minimum effort to push. I wish I could have grabbed the Dish right at the 3rd hole at the end of the horizontal plate but then the arm end touches the Ring when on the east side. They should have extended the plate and made the 3 rd hole 2 inches to the right of the Ring.

The Dish is pointing at my west most Sat 135W and you can see on pic 1 that it barely clears the roof. Pic 3 shows it locks those Univision TP at barely 66Q and if I push it from down it only increases C/N by 0.5 dB.

Pic 5 shows that the arm motor although upwards some how it is not in the most efficient position for the holes to drain water I could not find a way to install it different. Will keep trying , as with these pictures he who insist wins!! or dies while triying , lol. It is almost easier to lock the first signal than to post the pictures on a forum!, lol.

 

[hd fan]

Lak7, I just read here that Lyngsat had the SCETV info wrong (same one that you posted) , then changed it and now it scans in 10 tv channels named 301 to 310 but still with only 63% the CS 6000 says No Audio/Video. I am going to have to fix the gap in the mount as soon as posible. BTW it is 11966V , 11280 SR.