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Thread: Motorized Ku setup recommendations?

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    The dish must be aligned with 'true' north.... not magnetic.

    You also have to ensure the mounting pole is 100% plumb.



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    Pole is 100% plumb put it in myself double bolted into the roof

    I think I was true north but I might have been off, I'll try again tomorrow any good apps for that I was using the dishpointer website because I'm not paying $20 for an app :P

    So I guess pointing it at Optus d2 starting and having it move from there wont work?
    Last edited by nullb; 25-04-18 at 10:26 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by nullb View Post
    So I guess pointing it at Optus d2 starting and having it move from there wont work?
    You can do it that way but you'll need to ensure you first start by mounting the dish on the motor straight forward when the motor is at the 0 deg mark.

    Set the dish settings for D2 azimuth and elevation for your location, taking into account the declination angle for your motor, then use the motor buttons to drive the motor to the D2 location.

    If all your figures are correct, once you align D2, when you return the motor to the 0 deg position, it should be very close to being aligned to true north.

    Then drive the motor around to other sat positions, especially IS19 to check if the dish is tracking the arc correctly.

    Motorised dishes require a lot of time and patience to fine tune all settings... azimuth, elevation, motor declination angle and LNB skew.

    All of these must be done whilst watching a signal strength and signal quality scale on a meter which displays those readings, or on a screen with a tuning display from a satellite receiver.... at the dish.

    Keep in mind that the LNB skew for Optus sats is significantly different from other sats.

    dishpointer.com provides good approximate starting settings, but as I said, you'll still need to fine tune all settings.

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    I'm going to try hit true north again and see what I can see.

    Defiantly more of a pain than what I first expected having a heap of static dishes and a switch was always how I had my ku setup.

    Does it matter where on the motor pole the dish is mounted? Mine is more towards the bottom because the clamp is capped at the bottom so I can't bring it up to the middle or right up the top.

    I'm fine with the fine-tuning aspect done it many times before with static dishes there's just more variables this time I guess.
    I just need to get my first signal, because right now I'm questioning if the LNB is even functioning
    Last edited by nullb; 26-04-18 at 11:39 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by nullb View Post
    Does it matter where on the motor pole the dish is mounted? Mine is more towards the bottom because the clamp is capped at the bottom so I can't bring it up to the middle or right up the top.
    It makes no difference where it's clamped on the motor shaft, it just needs to be pointing straight ahead when the motor is centred on the 0 deg mark.

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    Sometimes its better to go away and forget about it until the next day when you can review what you have done and if there are any adjustments needed to your settings'.
    I stand unequivicably behind everything I say , I just dont ever remember saying it !!

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    I thought so mtv thanks for clarifying

    Yeah defiantly gordon, on the roof at 10pm with a spot light and a spanner after spending the afternoon on it probably wasn't the best choice :P

    I think I was off on the north alignment so I'm going to try that again

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    Just a thought but what I did when mounting the motor was to use a large clamp on the mast so the motor sat on it.
    This enabled me to turn it without trying to stop the damn thing sliding down the pole.
    Your motor may already have an 'Indent' to prevent it sliding down, if so ignore this.
    I stand unequivicably behind everything I say , I just dont ever remember saying it !!

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    I think at this point I need a proper compass because the one on my phone even after calibrating it is complete trash and this seems to need to be 100% accurate. Static dishes it's enough to get in the general spot then move it around till you get a signal but I don't have that option here

    Really don't have the right equipment for this lol

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    Quote Originally Posted by nullb View Post
    I think at this point I need a proper compass ....
    You don't need a compass at all, as you need to point at true north... not magnetic north, although you can set most electronic compasses and phone apps to true north.

    As covered already, use dishpointer.com and that will show you the direction of true north, relative to where you have your dish mounted.

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    I figured it would need to be exact which I can do with a real compass by aiming at magnetic north then taking away the amount dishpointer says to get true north.

    I mean I can eyeball it but I wasn't sure that would be accurate enough

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    Quote Originally Posted by nullb View Post
    I mean I can eyeball it but I wasn't sure that would be accurate enough
    It's close enough.

    Regardless of how accurate a compass might be, you are still going to have to make numerous adjustments to all dish settings to get the arc-tracking aligned correctly.

    What signal meter are you using?

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    Just using my Enigma, moved my PC over to use when I get the chance to go up there again so I'll probably just blind scan with EBSPro

    The trouble was on my first attempt which I thought was right on the money I wasn't getting a single signal, even on a full sweep east, the Vu+ is meant to stop once it finds anything and it didn't

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    You can't scan a satellite until you have the dish/LNB accurately aligned to begin with.

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    I meant loop an RF scan with EBS

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    Well in position 0 if I move it around I can lock Optus C1/D3 no worries with 18dB but when I move the motor to position 56E (Doing the proper setup facing true north in position 0 with the correct elevation for my area ofc)

    Nothing, messed around with the skew, position, elevation and nothing anybody got any ideas?

    Honestly just looking at it in position 56 it looks totally wrong and pointing way too far down to catch a beam, so disheartening if I only had the room for my old 5 dish setup.

    Who knew motorizing these things was so hard Guess there's good reason I never did it in the last 15+ years
    Last edited by nullb; 28-04-18 at 07:13 PM.

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    Make sure your setup is absolutely vertical. Small error will give you problems.
    Having the basics right is 99% of success. If you think it is vertical, go and check again

    When all is setup correctly you should not have problems picking up all satellites visible from your location including Optus birds.
    Last edited by fromaron; 28-04-18 at 07:26 PM.

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    The pole is defiantly plumb, checked it with a level multiple times before I double bolted it into the roof and after. That thing isn't going anywhere :P

    Am I right about setting 56" on the motor manually and trying to get Optus C1/D1? Perhaps I'm wrong there, perhaps it's not 56"

    It's gone dark for the day so I gave up, set it back to 0 and pointed it at Optus C1/D1 and left it for the day
    Last edited by nullb; 28-04-18 at 07:34 PM.

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    The way I found all satellites was a bit different after setting up zero and elevation angle to your location.
    I simply moved the motor (from my receiver) watching signal strength. Once got the best result checked the most likely satellite and saved the location and moved to the next.

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    What position is Optus C1 for you on your motor? I think I should be 16E. I thought it was meant to be 56E (like 156E where it's actually located)

    That's probably why I haven't had any luck.

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