Help Required Motor setup

[cwsat]

Before doing any adjustmentsmake a mark, using chalk, tape, or something else, so that you can easily get back to the dish/motor positition, prior to any adjustments.
You will have to adjust both settings, on the motor, and dish, to peak the signal, to maximise the signal quality, on your chosen, aligned, satellite, e.g. 0.8W. Then send the motor/dish East, and West, checking the signal quality, on various satellites.
Use william-1's strongest transponders list, as a comparison.

Just Sharing This - Strongest transponders

same here,rainy weather and midday time mean weak reception for 7w and it strengthens a lot after 7pm

satellites.co.uk

When initially setting up did you follow the guides?
To get a really accurate starting point you zero motor/dish, and LNB. Enter your Latitude, and Longitude, into the receiver, then use your receiver to send the motor/dish, to a suitable satellite, to manually align your dish, remembering that negative Longitude readings = West, positive = East, when entering them into your receiver.

View attachment 150630

I have marked the pole with a marker where 0.8W is.

I have used dishpointer, the motorised section, to set the motor and dish up.

The latitude is 52.6 here so that’s what the motor is set to. The dark motor instruction guide is wrong. If I set it using their calculations the dish is ‘miles’ off.

With the dish at reference, I installed it dead center, all nuts tightened equally. LNB at zero.

Set up USALS, sent the dish round to 0.8W, then moved the complete motor mount to Thor. Used my meter to peak the dish on 4K Heritage.

Then sent it round to 28.2e - good levels.

42e, slightly down on what the 85cm was achieving on the meter.

I have tried moving the black ultra about in the LNB holder to find the best focal point for the orbital.

The Orbital isn’t as well built as the Gibertini that’s for sure but it’s a fair bit bigger.

 

[Mickha]

After finding the correct focal length you need to ensure that you haven't changed the skew, rotation, of the LNB. If you send the dish back to 0 is the LNB still pointing at 0?

 

[cwsat]

After finding the correct focal length you need to ensure that you haven't changed the skew, rotation, of the LNB. If you send the dish back to 0 is the LNB still pointing at 0?

Yep still zero.

 

[Manikm909]

the pole might be vertical, however as you tighten the motor to the pole, this can make the motor NOT vertical. check that out.

 

[cwsat]

the pole might be vertical, however as you tighten the motor to the pole, this can make the motor NOT vertical. check that out.

I did actually think about this. I have a magnetic spirit level.

Where is best to check on the motor? The back plate the U bolts go through?

 

[sonnetpete]

I've always used a magnetic angle finder with a digital read out. If you mount it on the side plate of the motor bracket and check if vertically correct (to within .2 of a degree) Bear in mind that any very slight misalignment will be effectively amplified by the time it reaches the extremes of the dish.

 

[jeallen01]

the pole might be vertical, however as you tighten the motor to the pole, this can make the motor NOT vertical. check that out.

W.r.t. tightening the bolts that hold the motor to the pole, be aware that the this tightening can cause the pressed/folded metal clamp to the pole to distort and that that may not occur immediately but over time, and result in a reduction in the actual elevation angle setting.

I had that happen with the clamp for the Dark Motor on which the 1.25m Gibby is mounted - probably due to the total mass of the combination of motor & dish. I identified the problem before it made a significant difference to the motor elevation and stopped it getting any worse by clamping substantial metal bars to the top and bottom of the motor clamp - will try to add a link to the photos of how I did that and what parts I used later today.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Feel free to annotate this photo of the dish at 1W if it helps the explanation.View attachment 150625

It's indoors which might explain low signal.

 

[cwsat]

Looks like it’s out on the East West Axis on the motor.

 

[cwsat]

East West is now bang on.

How do I check North South on this? The u bracket clamps are curved.

 

[cwsat]

It's indoors which might explain low signal.

The joys of having to hide things due to nosey neighbours.

 

[jeallen01]

Ref post #107, I couldn't find the original thread (from Aug 2019 if anyone can find it) but here are some pics:
- the supplementary clamp installed over the original top lamp that came with the Dark Motor

- the complete clamp before installation - note that I had to grind out metal to try to follow the curved surface of the main pole, and add M10 washers & nuts to put pressure on the original clamp (that was quite hard work with a rotary grindstone, but I'm sure there are easier ways to do that)

- the source of the clamp parts on ebay! ROOF BOX SQUARE U BOLTS STEEL LARGE 90 x 120 X 10mm M10 4X4 VANS STEPS UBS-90C | eBay
NB: had to get 4 of those U bolts so as to get the 2x flat steel plates required for each of the 2x clamp strengtheners,

- Didn't fit a complete clamp over the original bottom clamp for the Dark Motor because of space constraints, so I "repurposed" an old "G" clamp to pull the upper & lower steel plates down onto the Dark Motor Clamp - no specific photo of that, but, if you look very carefully, you can just see it in the upper Lefthand corner of the 3rd photo in my "We see no dishes" thread as linked elsewhere!

PS: Even if not needed in the current installation, I'm sure this sort of clamp strengthener will be needed "somewhere, sometime",

 

[cwsat]

Ref post #107, I couldn't find the original thread (from Aug 2019 if anyone can find it) but here are some pics
- the supplementary clamp installed over the original clamp that came with the Dark Motor
- the complete clamp before installation - note that I had to grind out metal to try to follow the curved surface of the main pole, and add M10 washers & nuts to put pressure on the original clamp
- the source of the clamp parts on ebay! ROOF BOX SQUARE U BOLTS STEEL LARGE 90 x 120 X 10mm M10 4X4 VANS STEPS UBS-90C | eBay

View attachment 150639View attachment 150640

It’s a shame I can’t adapt the brackets for the failed Stab HH100 I have in the garage.

Far more robust than the dark.

 

[jeallen01]

It’s a shame I can’t adapt the brackets for the failed Stab HH100 I have in the garage.

Far more robust than the dark.

Quite, as the DM brackets/clamps could certainly be a lot stronger - @Channel Hopper had some suggestions at the time as to other clamps which might be more suitable, but, having done the mod as above, they turned out not to be required.

Also, had other clamps been needed, that would probably have meant completely dismounting the DM & Gibby to fit them!

 

[jeallen01]

East West is now bang on.

How do I check North South on this? The u bracket clamps are curved.

Methods used by various people:
- a compass aligned along the flat vertical sides of the motor bracket
- if the dish has a single feedarm, a compass aligned along that.
- use the compass to position a pole/cane at 0/0.8W in the ground/on a fence (etc) some yards in front of the dish, and then point the dish at that - that would be my preferred method in many cases as it then gives you a semi-permanent point at which to point the dish without having to continually refer back to the compass
- if no compass, then wait until the Sun is shining at exactly 12.00 GMT (i.e. 13.00 BST!) and erect the cane/pole between the dish and the Sun.

Other people to add other methods, please!

 

[cwsat]

Quite, as the DM brackets/clamps could certainly be a lot stronger - @Channel Hopper had some suggestions at the time as to other clamps which might be more suitable, but, having done the mod as above, they turned out not to be required.

Also, had other clamps been needed, that would probably have meant completely dismounting the DM & Gibby to fit them!

I did end up taking the lot down when I got the 100cm.

I thought a fresh start would be for the best but even tightening the bolts on the back of the DM, if I over tighten the left hand side, it does lead to a signal improvement on the meter.

I’ll double check later now the east west is ok to see if it has improved.

 

[jeallen01]

I did end up taking the lot down when I got the 100cm.

I thought a fresh start would be for the best but even tightening the bolts on the back of the DM, if I over tighten the left hand side, it does lead to a signal improvement on the meter.

I’ll double check later now the east west is ok to see if it has improved.

Edited: If tightening the LHS nut improves signals then that implies that the motor was not initially correctly aligned in the first place - it was set very slightly too far to the West, and tightening that nut then pulled it slightly more to the East

 

[cwsat]

Edited: If tightening the LHS nut improves signals then that implies that the motor was not initially correctly aligned in the first place - it was set very slightly too far to the West, and tightening that nut then pulled it slightly more to the East

It is on 1w, I mean when the dish goes round the arc to the eastern sats beyond 28.2

For clarification though, is 12687v 28800 a good TP to go with on 1west?

That is what I have been aligning the dish to.

 

[jeallen01]

It is on 1w, I mean when the dish goes round the arc to the eastern sats beyond 28.2

For clarification though, is 12687v 28800 a good TP to go with on 1west?

That is what I have been aligning the dish to.

Don't know about anyone else, but I usually used to use the Chinese CGTN channels for initial alignments because they are on a lot of sats, are (all?) FTA and usually very strong - and having done that I would then go to other & quite a bit weaker transponders for the "tweaking" stages oof longitude, elevation/ declination/ skew as you need to have less than 100% SS & SQ to get those aspects to be as good as possible

 

[cwsat]

Don't know about anyone else, but I usually used to use the Chinese CGTN channels for initial alignments because they are on a lot of sats, are (all?) FTA and usually very strong - and having done that I would then go to other & weaker transponders for the "tweaking" stages on elevation/declination/skew.

The problem I find with going with Sky News Intl for example is the meter seems to max out at 85% quality and on a 1m on that transponder, it can be off alignment and still be getting a decent signal.