Best Motors and $ for dishes ???

 

Bronze Member
Username: Alfons_ramahotmailcom

Post Number: 18
Registered: Jan-07
I'm looking to buy a motor for my dish.
can anyone help me choose ?
 

Bronze Member
Username: Alfons_ramahotmailcom

Post Number: 19
Registered: Jan-07
Is the SG-2100 DisEqc 1.2 H-H Motor any good ?Upload
 

Silver Member
Username: Crazy_greek

Post Number: 518
Registered: Jul-06

Rama
Try here www.sadoun.com
 

Gold Member
Username: Prfrmnj

Post Number: 1766
Registered: Oct-05
After you buy the motor you will need these (if you don't already have them):

DiSEqC Motors

This is an option not offered by Dish Network or Bell ExpressVu but is familiar to those who remember C-band. Instead of having multiple dishes and LNBs for all the satellites, why not just have a single dish that moves between satellites? That's what a Horizon-to-Horizon (HH) motor is for.

There are two types of HH motors. The DiSEqC 1.2 motor. The other one is the STAB /USALS motor (also called DiSEqC 1.3). Both essentially do the same thing: Move the dish using the remote control of your FTA receiver. This is done by connecting a standard coax from the receiver to the motor and a second coax from the motor to the LNB. The motor is powered by the receiver.

To install a motor, you need to know what direction is due south. This is not the same as due south according to a compass. You need to know the exact direction of the South Pole from your location. There are four ways to do this:

The first method is to use the sun. The earth is divided up into 24 time zones. In each of those zones, the sun is at the highest point in the sky (true south from the Northern Hemisphere) at exactly 12 Noon--1 p.m daylight savings time. There are some things to consider: First is that if you live on the eastern edge of your time zone, the sun will be at true south at 11:30 AM (12:30PM DST) and if you live on the western edge of your time zone, the sun will be at true south at 12:30 PM (1:30PM DST). Some time zones, such as the Alaska time zone, cover areas that would normally cover three or four time zones. This method would not be advised since the sun could be at true south as late as 3:00 PM if you live in far enough west.

The second method is using a compass and calculator. Find out the magnetic deviation of your location. The magnetic deviation is the difference between magnetic north and true north. Let's assume your magnetic deviation is 17 degrees. That means that true south will be 17 degrees off from magnetic south. Point your compass to magnetic south and your true south will be 17 degrees from that point.

The third method works if you live in the western or Midwestern US or Canada, where city streets are aligned according to a north-south/east-west grid. Many cities in western North America (with a few exceptions) have a layout that looks like a checkerboard. The main streets run either north, south, east, or west.. If you live in a city with that sort of a layout, you are at an advantage. True south parallels the nearest north-south main street to the south. If you live in San Antonio, Los Angeles, or San Francisco, this method might not be best.

The fourth method involves using Microsoft Streets and Trips or some other electronic atlas program. This is actually the easiest if the three others fail.

Let's assume you live in Healy, Alaska, which would be an awful city to use the third method.
Make a pushpin at your house. With the Location Sensor active, determine your exact Longitude. In this case, it is 149.021 West.

Using the address finder feature, select the Lat/Long tab and type in "0" for the latitude (the Equator) and your longitude, expressed as a negative number.

A pushpin is placed on the Equator at exactly the same longitude as your house. Zoom in on the pushpin as far as you can and draw a line all the way from that point to your house. You can zoom out and continue the line over the Pacific Ocean and zoom back in when to connect the line to your house.

When you have finished drawing the line, you can now see where true south is from your location.

Now that you have determined true south from your location, here is the reason why it is important to line up with true south:

Once you locate your true south, this is the zero point of your HH motor. Of course, if you aim your dish at that point, you may or may not get a signal because there may or may not be a satellite at that location.

What you need to do after determining your zero point is determine which satellite is closest to this point. This is entirely dependent on your longitude. If you are fortunate enough to live at 91 west or 119 west, then you have it easy. But most people are not that lucky. Most people need to locate a satellite that requires a Ku linear LNB.
 

Gold Member
Username: Prfrmnj

Post Number: 1767
Registered: Oct-05
Find the satellite closest to your zero point and subtract that value from the longitude of your zero point. For instance, your zero point (site longitude) is 149.5 and your nearest satellite is 148. 149.5 -- 148 = 1.5.

In this case, you would need to manually set your motor to 1.5 degrees away from the zero point. Since 148 is east of 149.5, you need to set the motor 1.5 degrees to the east of the zero point on the motor. These values are not shown on the motor so you will have to estimate.

When you have your motor set to the correct deviation from true south, you can now go outside and try to tune that satellite in the same way you would try to point for a fixed dish. Leaving the elevation bolt loosened enough to move the dish up and down; and leaving it loose enough on the pole to move it left and right, steer the dish until you get a signal. Remember that it is very important not to operate the motor while you try to locate this satellite!

Once you have a strong signal and have verified that the signal is indeed your "pointer satellite" and not some other satellite nearby, you can then tighten the bolts to hold the dish firmly in place. Hook up the motor to the FTA receiver and manually move the dish motor to see if any other satellites come in as the dish pans the arc.

If you do not get any other satellites, then you have probably done something wrong and you might even have to repeat the pointing process over and over again. Remember that dish pointing is not an easy thing to do. That's why installers get paid $100 to do it. Pointing a motorized dish is even more difficult and frustrating. It can take hours or days to do. The reward, however, is well worth the effort.
 

Silver Member
Username: Crazy_greek

Post Number: 522
Registered: Jul-06

Hey PR
After your six pages above I don't
think that Rama is still interested
in a motorized dish.

Hey Rama I think what PR is trying to
tell you, is to hire someone.
 

Gold Member
Username: Prfrmnj

Post Number: 1770
Registered: Oct-05
Kevin - LOL....

It's not as hard as it sounds. You just have to chose which way you are going to do it....
 

Silver Member
Username: Albino_midget

Post Number: 404
Registered: Jul-06
sun azimuth table
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/AltAz.html
 

Bronze Member
Username: Alfons_ramahotmailcom

Post Number: 20
Registered: Jan-07
thanks for all your help everyone
I ordered the motor in the pic above.
I have a pansat 2700A and live in Saint Louis MO
I'm doing research now so when I get it i'll be all set (hopefully). So now where would I start off because in albino's site (i don't know what the tabular interval is ?)
again thanks to everyone for helping out
 

Silver Member
Username: Ke5aqn

Shawnee, OK USA

Post Number: 694
Registered: Sep-06
Alfons,

I spent a long time before my motor arrived trying to get ready to install it. I studied all that due south, finding the most southern sat stuff to be ready.

When it arrived as a test I just simply mounted it, then pointed it to dish 110. I the went into the house and used the receiver to move the dish just to see what would happen. On a viewsat like I was using it will ID the sat you are pointed at a feature my pansat 3500 did not do. So I kept finding other sat's by just moving the dish with the receiver and hitting "save location" I got all the sat's that are avalible for this hobby without doing all that "true south" stuff......

Might work out for you might not just thought I would share it with you it was very easy that way..
 

Bronze Member
Username: Alfons_ramahotmailcom

Post Number: 21
Registered: Jan-07
thanks man but do you think pansat 2700A has that feature (ID) ?
 

Silver Member
Username: Ke5aqn

Shawnee, OK USA

Post Number: 696
Registered: Sep-06
I have no way of knowing from here without a pansat 2700 here. I doubt it though the 3500 I had is the better pansat and it didn't have it. I have seen the specs for the 2700 and its not listed but on its not a listed feature for the viewsat eather. I think its a great feature and they (viewsat) should use it as a selling point it sure makes pointing easer.....

Now I do know that the meters will change color's from red to green on some receivers if they get a signal from the transponder it is "looking" for...

That is NOT what I am referring to when I say the viewsat ID's It actually has a message on the top of the screen with the sat's name and location on it...am example on my viewsat now I hit the yellow F3 button while on a channel it shows the motor drive menu and info on channel and program and on top of screen in white letters Nimiq1,3 91.0W I never saw anything like that with my pansat. When you scan for example echostar 110 but its pointed at nimiq1,3 the pansat would always read echostar 110....

The viewsat no matter what sat I think it is, will TELL me the Correct sat it is looking at...very helpful when pointing. A meter to use at the antenna that ID's like that is over $100 last time I looked at them... Didnt mean to get so long winded here LoL
 

Bronze Member
Username: Alfons_ramahotmailcom

Call me when... Albanian

Post Number: 28
Registered: Jan-07
thanks
 

Silver Member
Username: Ke5aqn

IF I DONT KNOW THE ANSWER, I WILL FIND...

Post Number: 755
Registered: Sep-06
Keep us up to date on your motor install ! I will help ya if I can.....like I said it was easy as PIE
 

Bronze Member
Username: Alfons_ramahotmailcom

Call me when... Albanian

Post Number: 30
Registered: Jan-07
It should be coming through the mail tomorrow on the 1st.
as soon as I get it I will let you know
thanks man (and I can see that u finally figured out the blinking thing)
 

Bronze Member
Username: Alfons_ramahotmailcom

Call me when... Albanian

Post Number: 32
Registered: Jan-07
i just got my motor and i don't have a clue where to start
 

Silver Member
Username: Ke5aqn

IF I DONT KNOW THE ANSWER, I WILL FIND...

Post Number: 825
Registered: Sep-06
Alfons,

This is what we did :

After getting throughly confused for Day's trying to understand all this "true south", Most south Sat, stuff I decided to just point it to one sat I KNEW I could find easy...and see what happens

We went up on the roof to the dish. I marked the pole with a black marker so I could find 110 easly. I mounted the motor...then the dish on the motor....tried my best to get the tilt the same...and pointed it useing my black marker mark I made earler.....( a helper was inside yelling "ok I got green lines now" "quality is 90%" and so on" ((oh and "I'm bored I want to watch cartoon's" from 4 kids all this time)) So we got 110 to 90% quality so I tighnted it up their "for now"went back down and started moving the dish east....wow it found a sat! I hit "save location"....went east again....wow it found a sat...hit "save location"...Make sure your are mindfull of east and west limits they must be set by YOU or it will move to far and damage the dish-motor-YOU HOUSE...and so on then back to 110 and went west...wow it found a sat.....I was done basically sure I had to scan the sat's and so on but it was easy as PIE but I might have got lucky...
 

Bronze Member
Username: Alfons_ramahotmailcom

Call me when... Albanian

Post Number: 33
Registered: Jan-07
do I use 1.2 diseq
or usuals for my pansat 2700A ?

i put it on bev yesterday and tightened it.
i moved the dish east and west with 1.2 diseq to experiment from my house and then lost the sgnal, I tried to move it back but then I couldn't.

Upload
this is my option under 1.2
does the current position # mean saving a satellite or vertical angle

Upload
this is under usuals
 

Silver Member
Username: Ke5aqn

IF I DONT KNOW THE ANSWER, I WILL FIND...

Post Number: 845
Registered: Sep-06
reference position should be one you saved....You should only have one LNB so no diseq switch needed? I would say now you need to find the first sat you had again....once found be sure and SAVE that position...then move it east or west and see if you find sat's.......you might need more adjustments...on the tilt and so forth....let us know I will be back a few hours....
 

Bronze Member
Username: Alfons_ramahotmailcom

Call me when... Albanian

Post Number: 34
Registered: Jan-07
i have to get to work but tomorrow ( hopefully it doesn't snow again, that probably won't stop me )I will try it the 1st thing in the morning.

Now 3 questiones

Does the motor move vertically if so where is the option ? (probably doesn't)only east-west.

When you were manually moving the dish from East-West your receiver automatically told you, you got a satellite or did u just look at the quality ? (I think my pansat 2700A only reads the quality only after I let go of the button in the remote (hope that's not true)

Do I use 1.2 option or usals (or both) ?

Again thanks for all your help
 

Bronze Member
Username: Alfons_ramahotmailcom

Call me when... Albanian

Post Number: 38
Registered: Jan-07
well followed your advice and it worked.
for pansats2700A thogh when you do a manual scan to check other sats you have to press and let go of the button to go East/West so you can get a signal reading. If you hold it, it will move the dish faster but will give you the signal reading uhad before until you let go of the button on your remote.
Another question why does my dish (pansat2700a) point to Nimiq 1.2 and yet I can get a quality level reading of other sats such as echo 7, 8, amc etc. but when i scan them i still get the same nimiq channels but not all of them.
is that a pansat2700a glitch or something ?
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