Struggling with motor set up

[The Jazzman]

Hoping that the more experienced members will be able to help me out here.

To explain, at the moment tuners A & B are set up on a fixed dish for 28E and the third is set for the motor, a TM 2300, programmed for USALS with the Long & Lat checked from the stab site.

While I have now managed to reach the point that I can move the motor (via advanced sets, with extra voltage, thanks to all previous posters and most of the weekend sitting reading the forum), I am completely confused/ lost/ not understanding (delete as appropriate ) the next step in the setup to select the different sats and tune them in.

Now, I'm guessing that it will be so clear ONCE explained to me, but could some kindly person please give me that first vital push on the path?

Many, many thank.

The Jazzman

PS, should say that I'm using the latest VIX image

[Sicilian]

Providing your dish is aligned correctly you should be able to use USALs then just send a set of Enigma 2 setting/bouqets accross to the recevier.

Dreamboxedit guide http://www.world-of-satellite.com/sh...o-using-DBEdit

Enigma 2 settings packs http://www.world-of-satellite.com/fo...gma-2-Settings Cateyes settings are good ones to start using motorised.

[basilyoung]

also, which ever tuner is connected to the motor, all sats that you can pickup, should be set to "LNB 1"

[The Jazzman]

Hi all,

Thanks for your suggestions.

I thought it should be nice and simple as setting up the tuner and then having USAL drive it after. My old TM 6902 was great in that you just enabled the sats you wanted and then ran a full auto scan, which worked through all the programmed sats, scanning the various transponders in.

I'm starting off with having the motor/ dish alignment checked over and once I know that all is well there, it will be back to the box.

I'll keep you up to date with how I get on, or not as the case may be! Have to admit that most of the problems setting the Ultimo up have been user and not box related

Cheers

The Jazzman

[Rob van der Does]

..... Have to admit that most of the problems setting the Ultimo up have been user and not box related

So in the end you know both your box and yourself much better. Some self reflection never hurts.......

[The Jazzman]

Just a quick one to say the installers have been out and we have discovered that the motor gears have stripped Not too surprised as I'm sitting at the top of a hill in a very windy area with a clear view of the North Sea, then Norway if you keep going!

So a new motor is on the cards.

[Ev0]

If you get really strong winds, then imo you would be alot better off switching to a 36v motor setup.

Won't be cheap, but it will be reliable in strong winds.

[The Jazzman]

Have thought about it, but the real killer is that since my local installer retired, the nearest firm is a 70 miles round trip and I'm charged for 2 hours labour to cover the travel time before they even do anything!

$ky have completed the brain wash here that they are the only shop in town and any local installers are only interested in $ky.

Could you advise how difficult it might be for a self install for a novice with a good understanding?

Cheers

[tsx]

Personally as a 'techie' more knowledgeable about electronics than drill and screw type jobs, as long as you have common sense, you take your time and have a good 'plumb line' (tool to help get the mount perfectly vertical, spirit level is ok, but not perfect) then there no reason why you couldn't try to do it yourself. But as with anything if your not confident enough, you should only let the pros do it.

I'm glad I did it myself, now it anything goes wrong I should be able fix it.

BTW: I used the android phone compass to get the rough area for the sat, then used the dreamtools app to show me signal strength whilst moving the dish into place.

[Ev0]

I fitted mine with the help of the father in law, i've fitted all my own dish's over the years, fixed, diseqc and now my 36v system and never had a sat meter to do it with either.

But as for how easy or hard it is, all depends on where you are fitting the dish, if it's on the ground, then imo you have nothing to loose.

If it's got to go above the guttering to get line of sight (which mine has to) then i'd advise getting someone to help that doesn't mind ladders or sitting on a roof (i'm not a fan of ladders, but the father in law is a builder / roofer so that helped lots ).

As for the rest of it, it will depend on what dish and polar mount you go for I think.

The key is getting the pole 100% vertical, once you have that, 99% of the battle is won

The channel master that I used, was very easy to setup (adjust a few bolts to set the longitude and latitude), bolt the actuator on, and set it so the dish is centred, I then powered it up on the ground, so I can workout roughly where the actuator would be in the centre of it's travel for the dish to hit max east and west limits.

When it came to fitting, I removed the dish face, fitted the polar mount with actuator all built up, then bolted dish face back on, swung the lot round to 0.8°w made a few minor tweaks to peak the signal and then checked the arc.

As said i've never had a sat meter so just used the signal readout of the sat box as a guideline.

However last week I changed the LNB for a hybrid smart titanium using channel master feedhorn, and I borrowed a sat meter to see how well it was setup.

And of the 5 sats I checked with the meter it was 99.9% spot on for max signal

[The Jazzman]

Thanks for the information.

The brackets/ fixing wouldn't be too much of an issue as they are very securely fitted to the house wall, bar about 3 meters up to avoid the trees, but under the roof line.

I have had a look at the "bulk" of a motor set up and I think I may have the problem that there might not be sufficient space/ clearance for it to run as to get 0.8w there is a "wee" tench in the wall to get the dish into position. Nothing major, about 1/8 inch. Then anything east is fine, to 53E, nothing west, location of the house and dish, unless I had two dishes, one on each end of the house

I have been thinking of replacing the $ky dish (rusting and looking really naff) and the cabling there, so I might try that, see how stressed out that drives me then have a go at the motor, if I'm not in a padded room!

[Ev0]

Thanks for the information.

The brackets/ fixing wouldn't be too much of an issue as they are very securely fitted to the house wall, bar about 3 meters up to avoid the trees, but under the roof line.

I have had a look at the "bulk" of a motor set up and I think I may have the problem that there might not be sufficient space/ clearance for it to run as to get 0.8w there is a "wee" tench in the wall to get the dish into position. Nothing major, about 1/8 inch. Then anything east is fine, to 53E, nothing west, location of the house and dish, unless I had two dishes, one on each end of the house

I have been thinking of replacing the $ky dish (rusting and looking really naff) and the cabling there, so I might try that, see how stressed out that drives me then have a go at the motor, if I'm not in a padded room!

Thats why mine has to go above the guttering, as I couldn't go much further west than 7°e as the dish would be in the wall.

But by lifting it up above the guttering, I can now go way past 45°w (if only there were something to pickup round there).

[The Jazzman]

The original plan was to have it above the roof line, but when Andy was fitting it, on a calm-ish day, he struck his head above the edge then shouted back "not likely" (cleaned up version). Thus, the digging of the tench to get 0.8w at least.

Considering the winds we have had over the last few months, I do truly believe that if the dish was above the roof line, I would have had a downed wall to rebuild