Satellite Re-alignment Issue

[irishguy2002]

Guys,

I was wondering if anyone can help out.

Background

I've had a motorised satellite installation installed over 2 years ago, it was time to a re-alignment and a new lnb. My location is Antrim, near belfast Northern Ireland. All USALS information is correct and per previous install which worked fine but was a little off. Photo's taken last night in the fog

_www.flickr.com/photos/58625229@N08

Alignment & LNB

The LNB on the dish was replaced and the dish put back up again and aligned again on the bracket and pole. On my dm800 we used the go to 0 (x) function and then aligned the dish again. It would seem that the dish (using go to 0) is currently on Thor 0.8.

Issue

When I changed channels to BBC News (0.8 West), I could hear and see the motor moving about 3 / 4 degrees to a new location. This new location does not allow me to view any channels.

I got to thinking that the reference point of go to 0 was correctly aligned to Thor so I went back and used go to 0 and then stored this position. Next I went into advanced setup on my dm800 and selected diseqc 1.2 and used the stored position for the sat. I went back to the channel and now 0.8 west is clearing fine.

Can anyone think of what has gone wrong here?

Using go to 0 and my current co-ordinates I'm bang on 0.8w - but using usals will not move to any satellite.

Can anyone offer any advice or reason why it won't track the arc correctly?

It seems that when it's moving it over shoots the sat location by a few degrees as I can see the signal strength / quality hit the correct levels for 1 sec then off again.

I've been able to use the positioner setup to search west and find 4.8e and then 13e and store these positions, I can't seem to find any other sats though.

I have noticed the the pole is somewhat lower than before by some 4/5 inches, I'm thinking this is causing a line of sight issue as the dish is on the back of the house and the roof maybe causing issues now. Sorry for the poor quality photos, I will upload better quality pics tomorrow Check out Sat Install mark 1..

Any help or advice would be great, the installer is coming back in a few days to help out again. It got too dark and cold to continue

Thanks,

Irish.

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[Huevos]

The alignment is out. If you send the dish to reference it should, in theory, end up facing due south, which from your location is almost bang on 5ºW, not 0.8ºW.

 

[satelliteman]

Yes, send to Atlantic Bird 3, 5W and make your alignment.

 

[irishguy2002]

Guys,

Many thanks for the help, its very much appreciated!

Irish

 

[Chris76]

Hi guy's
Ref:irishguy

I was asked by the fellow member for help and advice which i did no problems. post one omitted a couple of key facts the first being that the motor was initially setup for 0.8w as the ref and was working okay using the 1.2's. so i replaced the lnb by taking down the pole to the height of the eve's for access to the dish and motor.Then pushed the mast back up but as irish stated maybe abit lower due to the height of the pole and the T bracket look fairly unsafe and was starting to warp with the weight of the assembly but the line of sight in my opinion was okay as i did overshoot 28.2 but wouldn't lock in. Now back to the start i realigned the mount and made sure it was plumb and slowly found thor 0.8w getting 98% quality and 14.3db in the v which is as good as it gets with a 1m dish in NI as the motor already has been set to 0.8w i didn't use the reset button on the motor as i didn't feel the need for this. I then using the correct usals picked bbc world news on 0.8w and the motor drove to 4.8e????? But the zero point on the motor was set to thor so after playing around i got up and reset the motor via the reset button but same result was given the motor moved to astra 4.6e? Also the motor wasn't taking commands correctly having to reboot the 800 several times to get it to move correctly. So im thinking the motor is out using the usals by 3.8degrees any ideas as to why this would happen guys as i would like to get irish sorted asap..

Chris

 

[Robbo]

Only reset the motor using the button on it when it is at 0, do it anywhere else and you will f it up as it will go to the wrong position.

 

[Lazarus]

<snip> I then using the correct usals picked bbc world news on 0.8w and the motor drove to 4.8e?????

Chris

Are you absolutely and unambiguously positive the syntax for the Longitude is correct? ie Definitely entered and showing as West (or minus)??

 

[Chris76]

@Robbo the motor was at zero m8 as 0.8w was the zero before i arrived and checked before i put the mount back up.
@Tivu yes 100% as irish set them himself @6.1w and 54.4n

 

[tomthebomb1968]

Try setting your usals at around 2.5 to 3.5w in the setup menu. M ymotor was setup on 1w rather than 5w and I need to tell usals I am 4 degrees east of my real location at 5.9 west to get the arc. Leave it at 54N

 

[Chris76]

Try setting your usals at around 2.5 to 3.5w in the setup menu. M ymotor was setup on 1w rather than 5w and I need to tell usals I am 4 degrees east of my real location at 5.9 west to get the arc.

Excellent point tomthebomb tx.

 

[irishguy2002]

Guys,

Firstly, many thanks for all the assistance / helpful comments - unfortunately I only got the chance to try these changes early this morning before work!

To clarify - I'm honestly not sure if 5W or 1W was used before by the previous installer to setup the kit. I can confirm that my long / lat of 6.1 W, 54 North worked before and I was able to hit sats using USALS 1.3. I had only recently changed 1.2 and stored sat postions as I was tweaking each sat to improve signal as store these to tide me over until a realignment was completed.

Long / Lat Change

I have updated my long / lat to something like 1.00 West, 54.00 North and I'm able to hit most satellites again.

I need to do some more testing but here are some results below that relate to signal quality on my dm800's using 1m dish and 0.2 Twin Ultra Black LNB:

30w signal strenght is around 35 - 46 % on various transponders.

1W - I get an excellent signal on BBC News around 93%, around 55% on the Nordic Beam i.e. TV PL.

7e / 10e - I can get some channels, various channels 35 - 50%.

13e / 19e - I get a good signal around 75% on various channels.

16e is around 50% on Tring, if I change location from 54.0 to 64.0 it seems to improve the signal by 2 - 4 %?

28e is not very strong, around 55% on BBC ONE NI, 15 - 30% on weaker channels like Setanta / Movies for Men and around 50% on the HD Movie Channels.

39e no lock, no signal on any transponder.

I will have a chat with Chris about trying to improve reception, it seems that perhaps it's just off the arc based on those figures above?

Thanks,

Irish

 

[tomthebomb1968]

Id leave the Lat at the correct 54.6 North as that will have been set correctly. Just try different long settings to see which gets the strongest signals on most satellites.

 

[Lazarus]

Or better still set the Longitude back to the correct value and shift the dish/motor around the mount to the correct alignment.

Sounds like it's been affected by the wind and/or motor backlash.