Im going Motorized - Help!

[satelliteman]

You set the motor inclination to your latitude and set the dish El at roughly facing up for due South.

 

[Lazarus]

Degrees type thing on Motor: There may be scales on either side of the bracket. Pick the one marked Latitude and set it to ............. your Latitude.

Degrees type thing on the Dish? Set it to around about 22 degrees (It'll need to be changed when you carry out the final alignment).



Edit: Doh! SM types faster.

 

[satelliteman]

Edit: Doh! SM types faster.

Usually with many typos

 

[ash213]

hi all once again,

thanks for the replies, they will help over the next few days.

anyway i went out in the rain like a solider and hooked up the dish/motor to my pole.

anyway i get inside, and i have no power to the damn motor.

my set up is a bit fiddly, im running the damn wire to the box through one of those flat cable things under the back door, due to rented property.

im thinking there is no power due to something to do with the cables? maybe i should re-cut the end of them or replace the cable as they look abit wethered, etc?

what do you guys think?

any other reason why there would be no power to the motor?

 

[satelliteman]

Check coax connections along the line and also if terminated to the correct port on the motor.

Those flat coax door / window jumper's can be lossy and attenuate the signal.

 

[Sandybob]

Silly question but have you changed the settings in the TM-5400 from fixed dish to usals, and put in your lat / long in and as satellite man has said check your cables are connected to the right ports on the motor. If you have a straight through f connector you could perhaps connect up through an open door / window just to test motor movement.

 

[Analoguesat]

I use a cheap plastic fence post level for my mast setting, normally produces very good results.

I use second hand wooden fence posts for my dish mounts - work fine apart from the heavy 1m dish which does move a bit in gales - I just belt the top of the post with a sledgehammer when it loosens up!

 

[ash213]

Silly question but have you changed the settings in the TM-5400 from fixed dish to usals, and put in your lat / long in and as satellite man has said check your cables are connected to the right ports on the motor. If you have a straight through f connector you could perhaps connect up through an open door / window just to test motor movement.

how do i find out my lat long ?

sorry for noob question. im thick as fook with all this, i just take 1 step at a time and go for the best.

will look into it more tomorrow.

cheers peeples!

 

[Lazarus]

City of Bristol

Lat: 51.45 N

Long: 2.55 W

 

[ash213]

City of Bristol

Lat: 51.45 N

Long: 2.55 W

cool , cheers,

ill tape that in!

 

[ash213]

right chaps.

went out there this morning to have a bash.

found all cables were correctly placed etc...but still no power or light on the motor (doing my head in )

anyway just looked at manual and i realise i skipped a step..the first step regarding 'adjusting the hardware limits' ... at the back of the manual it says if you have no power it could be becuase of this...tbf i skipped it becuase i did not understand this step.

should i do this step? if so, what do i do?

thanks everyone and sorry for sounding dumb as fook

 

[Lazarus]

I suppose if the hardware limits are set to almost nothing, then that would cripple the motor.

But as you don't know what they are set to, it's vital you check. Mine are set to 60 deg either way.

Usually means demounting the motor, removing the stub and lifting a cover on the motor base. Adjustment is by set screw. Very easy.

The point of setting hard limits is to provide a "catch-all" physical restriction in order to stop the dish potentially hitting anything ....... like a wall!

You can set Software limits in your Receiver as the first line of safety. Generally marginally less E/W than the hard limits.

 

[ash213]

I suppose if the hardware limits are set to almost nothing, then that would cripple the motor.

But as you don't know what they are set to, it's vital you check. Mine are set to 60 deg either way.

Usually means demounting the motor, removing the stub and lifting a cover on the motor base. Adjustment is by set screw. Very easy.

The point of setting hard limits is to provide a "catch-all" physical restriction in order to stop the dish potentially hitting anything ....... like a wall!

You can set Software limits in your Receiver as the first line of safety. Generally marginally less E/W than the hard limits.

thanks.

i am going to have to take the damn thing down now.

arn't the motors delivered with factory setting so this hardware limits dont have to be touched?

i will take it down and messabout with it.

im getting annoyed with it all now. :mad:

although i must say thanks all for your help

 

[Lazarus]

I can't remember what the factory settings were on either of my motors, but pretty sure they were nowhere near zero!

 

[ash213]

I can't remember what the factory settings were on either of my motors, but pretty sure they were nowhere near zero!

Right, a small semi positive update.

I took the dish down off the pole. directly hooked it up to my technomate box without a under door cable . at first no power, i then un hooked the LNB cable and the motor powered on and worked fine.

Anyway, i then took it back to the end of the garden and hooked up the power lead via the under door cable and had no bloody power.

so im thinkin A there might be something dodgy in between my box and dish via the under door/window cable? shed some light if you kno peeps.

in addition, why did my motor get power when i unattatched the lnb cable?

cheers all, hope it makes sense

 

[Lazarus]

It could be that the Motor to LNB cable has a short circuit on it. Remove and refit F connectors?

 

[ash213]

It could be that the Motor to LNB cable has a short circuit on it. Remove and refit F connectors?

i will do this, i will re-cut them as they may not be cut correctly etc.

any advise on the under door cable etC?

cheers

 

[Sandybob]

It would be much better if you can get the cable out in one run with no joins, do you have a wall air vent / grille or something similar, what about your tv ariel cable coming in, remove that and drill the hole a little bigger then refit both cables perhaps? Failing that a little groove under / around the door with some silicon to seal.

 

[ash213]

afternoon.

im getting some where.

dish back on pole.

have motor working with the underwindow cable etc.. and lnb connected ( i hope its connected properly)

anyway back on box, and its not picking any sats up.

i then did factory reset and now i have to find 1 sat, i cannot do motorised option. so i presume im going to have to find 1w.

i went back to dish and set the lat of the motor to 51 and the lat on the plastic thing on the dish to 22 as told in this thread.

pointed dish/motor in direction of 1w ( where i thought it was before) bolted back up and cant find shizzle.

any advise?

also...when u bolt the motor back up to the pole should you have the motor centralised in line with my property for example, or the motor bolted in line with 1w? does this make sense?

 

[Lazarus]

As you've done a Factory Reset, you'll need to send the motor to zero (There should be an option for that), re-enter the USALS coordinates given earlier, then select 1W.

You will need to alter the dish up/down a tad from the initial 22, as well as slowly rotating the entire dish/motor around the pole in order to locate the reference Satellite.

Same as aligning a fixed dish, except you treat the motor as part of the dish.

It's all in the Motor Instruction leaflet and the Forum Sticky Guides.

If I were you, I'd have a break, read all the bumph again, then go in for one last push!

I think you are probably nearly there: But please Post some pics so we can check for obvious mistakes.

Are you using a Satellite Finder or are you relying on your Receiver?

Use BBC World on 11325 H 24500 7/8 as that is a strong signal.