Need Help in Setting up to Thor

[Dicpenderyn]

Dear Gents,

I'm new to this malarkee and was wondering if anyone could possibly help me??

I recently bought a Vu+ Solo2 and it works beautifully set to astra 28.2 etc.

I've now bought a motor and I'm trying to set it up to Thor. The main issue I'm having is finding Thor. I'm using an iphone app and meter and pointing to 0.8 intelsat 10-02. The meter says I'm getting a signal but I don't seem to get anything on the Vu box, I mean I can't see a signal. If I've aligned it correctly, should I see the strength of signal in satfinder or do I have to tell the box that it's meant to be using Thor/ perform some kind of scan?

I have 60cm Dish (small I know)
Vu+ Solo2 running Vix Alliance 2.3/3.13.5
Quad LNB

Any Kind of help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Rich

PS..Apologies if I've posted this in the incorrect location...

[The Lambton Worm]

Looks like you need to set one of your tuners to Usals and enter your longitude & latitude.

[Dicpenderyn]

Hi Lambton,

Thank you for your reply!!

So say I think I'm pointing the dish in the right direction, do I need to tell the box that it's meant to be using Thor or should it pick it up itself providing the signal is strong enough?

Thanks,

[goosegog]

hi dicpenderyn,if you have the correct longitude and latitude settings im sure you should see a signal in sat finder of the menu on .8 west thor.you could be starting at the wrong sat,when i did mine i was sure i was at thor with signal but i was at a nearby sat,search fruitballs instalation guide on the forum its a very good guide

[Joe_90]

@Dicpenderyn - how did you do the initial line-up of your motor and dish? This is key to a successful motor experience. Your pole on which the motor is mounted must be exactly plumb and level. The motor latitude should be set for your location. Let's say it's London, so you set the scale on your motor for almost 52 degrees. The motor should be at its zero position (the middle of its travel). The dish should be absolutely central on the motor. The whole motor and dish assembly should be pointed South. Put your correct latitude and longitude into the receiver. Again, assuming London, it's 51.5 N and 0.0 E. This setting is key to how much the motor will turn when you select a particular satellite. If you now select Thor on your receiver the motor will (should) only turn a fraction as Thor is practically due South of London. Obviously, if you are in Cornwall and have set your longitude to 5.0W, the motor will turn almost 5 degrees to point at Thor. Either way you will not receive anything from Thor without tweaking the dish and motor assembly (unless you were fantastically accurate and lucky with your initial setup). In order to receive a signal from Thor you will need to tweak the dish elevation up or down and you will need to loosen the motor mounting bolts a bit to swing the whole assembly East or West until you get an optimum quality signal. Once you have Thor coming in properly you should be able to get other satellites on the arc. You will need to google motor setup guides if you want to receive satellites which are very far to the East or West of your location as the accuracy of the motor tracking is very dependent on the initial pole and motor setup.

[satturn]

With a 60cm dish you are limited to the number of transponders you can receive on Thor. With a motorised dish its best to use a minimum size of 80cm, in fact the bigger the better that suits your motor and of course not forgetting the neighbours and the Planning Authority. Usals is a good and safe set up and assuming this is all correct look at web page SATBEAMS see link http://satbeams.com/footprints and here it gives all sats and dish sizes for your location.

[Dicpenderyn]

Good Evening Gents,

Thank you to all of you who replied with your valuable knowledge / information... It's very much appreciated.

I basically tried to set it up by bypassing the motor to start with, it was attached to the pole and dish etc, just to see if I could get it aligned correctly to Thor! The motor was set to zero and the pole as plum as I could get it! I was using 2 iphone apps to locate Thor. The signal that I was getting wasn't that that strong, so I decided to aim for another satellite that was stronger. I did that successfully and I was able to view channels, so I guess that the dish is too small. I'm gonna buy a 1mtr dish this week and give it another go!!!

I guess with a bigger dish I'll get a better signal and from there I'll be able to get the Long/Lat set into my box and I should be off... If I use USALS, does that mean I only have to get it bang onto Thor and providing my hardware setup is correct I should be able to just move to other satellites???

I know what you mean Goosegog by locating the incorrect satellite, I did that today - all good experience though!!! Quite sensitive stuff!!!!

Thanks again,

[Joe_90]

Well, you should have set your lat and long into your box already. That's a fixed position.

With a bigger dish you will get more signal, but it comes with a penalty - smaller beamwidth. This means you will need to be super accurate in aligning the dish as it is much more focused.

I get good signal levels from Thor with a 1m dish, but maybe it's marginal on 60cm I don't know. Where are you located, approximately?

The signals from 5W are very strong and you should easily get reception on a 60cm dish. Ensure your lat/long are in the box accurately and drive the motor to 5W. Then you can tweak the elevation and azimuth to peak the signal. You don't have to use Thor but it's convenient as it's due South for much of middle England. Once you have any satellite tweaked and matched in the receiver, then theoretically you should just be able to go to any other satellite and get reception assuming the dish is big enough. You might find if you tweak on 5W, then drive to 0.8W for Thor that you will receive some of the transponders. Don't forget that a lot of the transponders are beamed at Scandinavia and may not be receivable at your location. As a previous poster said Fruitballs installation guide is excellent - good photos also. Just do a search.

[Dicpenderyn]

I've taken the motor of the dish for now, down but not out!!!

I will try what you have suggested and point the dish to 5W and then drive it over to 0.8 and make some tweaks. I live in North Wales and I have a good uninterrupted view south.

With what youy say about not needing to use Thor, would it be true then that I could just drive the motor from where it's set now - using Astra 28.2e or would it be better using 5W?

I'e had a look at Fruitballs' install guide, very useful - fair play to him for taking the time to create a great guide!!! Ideal for people like me...

I may just order a new dish for the weekend, but I'd like to try your suggestion first - shame it gets dark early now! Will have to wait for the weekend...

Do I have to download/install additional bouquets for the other satellites that I wish to use?

Thanks again,

Dicpenderyn...

[abu baniaz]

If your are using Usals, you can align on any satellite.

IMO, it is far easier to load a channel list. Select a channel, tweak. Select channel on different satellite and tweak again. Make sure that you get good signal at top and both ends of arc. E.g 30w, 0.8w, 39e

With regards to 0.8/5 west. The simple answer is it should be your due south satellite. Use the one nearest to your coordinates.

[Joe_90]

I sort of guessed you might be Welsh based on your monniker, but didn't want to assume 5W is probably nearest your due South satellite so I would align on that if you get around to installing your motor again. Theoretically, it doesn't matter which satellite you set up on initially, but it makes it simpler to fault find if you do. The back of my house faces due South exactly so the initial set up was straightforward - T & K brackets, motor and dish all perpendicular to the wall. I have uninterrupted coverage from about 55 East to 58 West. I'm on the 6W longitude so I did my initial alignment on 5W satellite. Handy enough with France 2, France 3 coming in very strong.

edit - as per abu's post, you could download various channel lists which would make organisation of bouquets easier. You could also play with the Satfinder plugin which is included with the standard ViX images. This will allow you to select a particular satellite, drive the motor to it and then select a transponder. There are graphical indicators of signal strength and quality (quality is the more important attribute) which will allow you to tweak the dish with the help of an assistant - it's a two person job (unless of course you have a stream from the receiver to your phone, but be careful if you're up that ladder!).

[Dicpenderyn]

Hi Abu,

Thanks for the reply and info! Will be giving it a good go on Saturday provviding the weather's good! I'll update with my success / failure!!!

Thanks

Dicpenderyn.

[Dicpenderyn]

Hello Again Gents,

Looking forward to the weekend and hopefully sorting my kit out! Got myself a 95cm dish on the way, I've bought new t & k bracket set and pole. Hopefully that should herald some different results, namely being able to get a decent signal from Thor.

Being positive, when I get a signal from Thor and I've entered my Long and Lat into the box, does it matter that there are only 3 places after the decimal point? If my Lat is 53.2497°, do I just enter 53.249?

I've read that you can destroy the motor by it hitting into things or by going out of range - there's nothing for the dish to hit, so how do I avoid it going out of range? Will using Usals sort this?

Thanks in advance,

Dicpenderyn...

PS... I feel like a child at christmas!!! hahaha

[goosegog]

hi dicpenderyn,
hope you get some decent weather,good choice getting the t&k brackets i would say,not sure but i would say 53.2497 would be 53.250
there should be a setting on your motor,a couple of screws where you can set a limit east and west.
like ive said before i aint no expertive only done my own but i would say be a complete fanny getting your pole perfectly plumb and make sure you have the best signals at each sat you will be using before nipping all bolts up and get a pal to help
have fun and take your time and care up the ladder

[Joe_90]

The latitude is not that critical as the USALS software in the receiver uses that to calculate the angle the motor needs to turn in conjunction with the longitude (which should be within 0.1 of a degree). The motor will only have pointing accuracy of about 0.1 of a degree in any case. As I said before, you can put your latitude and longitude into your receiver now - it ain't going to change As goosegog says be completely precise about getting the the pole perfectly plumb all around before mounting the motor and dish on it and you will improve your chances of tracking across the arc of satellites properly. If your dish is not in danger of striking anything then don't worry about motor limits. It can only turn 50 - 60 degrees East or West in any case before it comes to its own limits.