Help install my motor + dish

[gyyang]

Hi All,
I am definitely new to FTA. Now am puzzled by the Installation Guide.

I have a DiSEqC H-H SG-2100 motor from DMS international and a Winegard DS2076 76cm dish. The Installation Guide of the motor has the following step:

6. Setting Declination Angle on teh Dish. (B)

• According to the latitude of you locaiton, find the Declination Angle by
  the attached ANGLE TABLE in page 7.
  Set the Declination Angle by the scale on the antenna dish.
  The reading on the Dish scale should be: 30 - DECLINATRION ANGLE

Here are my questions:
1. Since I need to set Declination Angle by my latitude, why should it be always 30 degree?

2. The numbers corresponding to my location are:
Latitude = 39, Elevation Angle = 51, Declination Angle = 6.1, Dish Bracket Angle = 23.9

And the scale range on the dish bracket is 20 - 80. At what scale should I set? After monting the motor to the bracket, scale 30 is not reachable because it's at the far end to the dish bracket (the motor pole would hit on the hex nut which fixes Feed Support)
Please refer to the images below:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gyyang...e2.jpg&.src=ph http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gyyang...e2.jpg&.src=ph
Would you please advise me on the two questions? I appreciate your help.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by gyyang

Hi All,
I am definitely new to FTA. Now am puzzled by the Installation Guide.

I have a DiSEqC H-H SG-2100 motor from DMS international and a Winegard DS2076 76cm dish. The Installation Guide of the motor has the following step:

6. Setting Declination Angle on teh Dish. (B)

• According to the latitude of you locaiton, find the Declination Angle by
  the attached ANGLE TABLE in page 7.
  Set the Declination Angle by the scale on the antenna dish.
  The reading on the Dish scale should be: 30 - DECLINATRION ANGLE

Here are my questions:
1. Since I need to set Declination Angle by my latitude, why should it be always 30 degree?

2. The numbers corresponding to my location are:
Latitude = 39, Elevation Angle = 51, Declination Angle = 6.1, Dish Bracket Angle = 23.9

And the scale range on the dish bracket is 20 - 80. At what scale should I set? After monting the motor to the bracket, scale 30 is not reachable because it's at the far end to the dish bracket (the motor pole would hit on the hex nut which fixes Feed Support)
Please refer to the images below:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gyyang...e2.jpg&.src=ph http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gyyang...e2.jpg&.src=ph
Would you please advise me on the two questions? I appreciate your help.

(1) It's NOT always 30 degrees. You subtract your declination angle FROM 30 degrees. IE, you missed the minus sign. :-)
But I'm confused, because you did that in your second question.........

I think the confusing thing is, that the declination angle is negative, ie negative 6.1 deg for you, but the settings on the dish don't go negative. To to account for that, the motor shafts have a bend in them. The 30 comes from the bend in the motor shaft, which is specific to each motor.

[gyyang]

wejones,
Thanks for pointing out the negative sign!!! That's now consistent with the numbers in the table: 30 - 6.1 = 23.9. BTW, the numbers are from a reference table in the guide - not what I did (otherwise I should have noticed the "-" )

So that meants I need to set the scale at 23.9. But as I mentioned in the second question (also please refer to the image links), even 30 degree is not reachable, I have no way to set it to 23.9. What am I missing again?

Thanks for advice again.

[Reinhold]

Could not open the images.My computer says unatainable.Perhaps you have the bracket upside down?

Reinhold Lifetime Ultra HH120 Motor 120cm dish.

[gyyang]

Sorry for the photo. Now please try:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyyang/

[radiobob]

Judging from your photos, your dish bracket is upside down. The dish elevation scale should form a downward arc (a "U") rather than an upward arc ("Π"). That way the the dish pivots on the bolt that goes through the hole on the motor shaft right below the "crook". I've since changed my dish location, but this should give you an idea:



Good luck,
Bob

[rainman]

the bracket defintely looks upside down to me.

[elgemcdlf]

Originally Posted by radiobob

Judging from your photos, your dish bracket is upside down. The dish elevation scale should form a downward arc (a "U") rather than an upward arc ("Π"). That way the the dish pivots on the bolt that goes through the hole on the motor shaft right below the "crook". I've since changed my dish location, but this should give you an idea:



Good luck,
Bob

Bob is that your dish? If so I see a minor problem. You are mounted to high on the shaft (would not matter) but the bolt heads for the adjustment area of the dish align inside the lower holes in the motor shaft. No wonder your settings never worked

In fact there is a U bolt mount kit that goes through both the upper (pivot) and lower (slide) portions of the dish and through both sets of holes on the motor shaft. Following me?

[wejones]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

Bob is that your dish? If so I see a minor problem. You are mounted to high on the shaft (would not matter) but the bolt heads for the adjustment area of the dish align inside the lower holes in the motor shaft. No wonder your settings never worked

In fact there is a U bolt mount kit that goes through both the upper (pivot) and lower (slide) portions of the dish and through both sets of holes on the motor shaft. Following me?

Interesting observation. I'm a bit confused by Bob's picture, in that it almost looks like Bob may have drilled another hole through the motor shaft? Otherwise I can't quite figure out what that pivot bolt is going through, because it doesn't look like it's where either of the 2 holes on the shaft are.
If he did drill another hole, I guess that would still work, as long as it's not up in the bend section, and provided that he got it perfectly aligned perpendicular to the zero mark. I'm almost thinking that he drilled another hole thinking that he needed more adjustment range than was really necessary.

Anyway, I'm confused. I've looked at dozens of pictures of these mounts, and no two seem quite the same. I'm also curious with respect to those people who say their dish setting was 5 degrees off, and curious which of the two mounts they were using, ie the "P" version, like the FC90P, or the "U" version like the FC90U???

[elgemcdlf]

My SG2100 has 3 holes in the shaft but the top 2 holes do not align with my pivot and slide so I used the lower 2. I assumed the upper 2 or upper 1 and lowest 1 are used for other style mounts. This type of configuration (Bob's) could be a potential explanation as to how the dish got bent.

[rainman]

I am using the fc 90u on my 90 cm fortec dish Bill.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

My SG2100 has 3 holes in the shaft but the top 2 holes do not align with my pivot and slide so I used the lower 2. I assumed the upper 2 or upper 1 and lowest 1 are used for other style mounts. This type of configuration (Bob's) could be a potential explanation as to how the dish got bent.

I realized that part of my confusion was from looking at pictures of a
different motor. However now that I'm looking at the right motor, I'm still
confused. I just pulled up two of Sadoun's pictures of this motor shaft.
One shows no holes at all, ie:


I found a couple more pictures showing no holes. However, the other
picture found at the Sadoun site shows 2 holes, however they don't look
like they are centered on the shaft, ie:



Plus the finish on the 2 shafts looks to be different, as if there are different
shafts sold for this motor????

A month or 2 ago, I read a web page somewhere where someone was
describing having to drill holes in the shaft to get it to work.

Is it possible that either the shafts come without holes, and maybe Sadoun
drills the holes, or perhaps there are different model shafts, and Sadoun
ships the one he thinks will be appropriate?

In any event, there seems to be a variety of hole patterns for this motor.

I've been considering getting one of these things for a few months now,
but it's been very confusing that different pictures of these things seem to
picture different hardware.

Originally Posted by rainman

I am using the fc 90u on my 90 cm fortec dish Bill.

I forget... are you one of those who had the 5 deg off symptom?

With this U-bolt mount, I've seen a few different versions of this too. Some
that I've seen at other dealers have 3 bolts where it connects to the dish
bracket, one in the center, which would seem to keep the thing centered
and keep free play out of the adjustment. I think I've also seen a version
that seemed to have a centering nub that fits in a depression, again to
keep it centered. However the mounts pictured on the Sadoun site don't
seem to have anything to keep it centered, ie they just have the 2 bolts,
which look like they would allow quite a bit of shifting as you try to change
the angle. Or am I missing something from only being able to see a few
views of the mount? From what I see in the Sadoun pictures, the pole
mount FC90P, sure looks less likely to have problems.

[rainman]

yeah i was off by about 5 degrees should have been 24 degrees but ended up at 19 degrees. my mount has the 2 u bolts and seems to fit tight.

[rainman]

here is the mount I am using Bill.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by rainman

here is the mount I am using Bill.

Thanks.
Right... that's one of the pictures I've been looking at. The problem I have with it, is that unless there is something, ie either a third center bolt at the left, or a centering nub in that silver bar at the left that fits into a depression (both of which I've seen in other versions of this mount), it seems to me that, say you keep the bottom bolt relatively tight, but loosen the top bolt at the left. It seems like there would be some free play where it would pivot on the bottom bolt, moving back and forth at the top, and or do the opposite, pivoting on the top bolt, with movement at the bottom. Ie either of these two things would change your settings, and give an incorrect reading on the scale.
However, if you fix the center of that silver bar, say by drilling a hole completely through at the center, so that it rotates around a bolt in that hole, then there would be no free play, and the scale would be accurate.
Anyway, not sure if my description was clear. Did any of the above make any sense??? I'm hoping that there is some provision to keep that bar centered, that I'm just not seeing in the pictures, but I can't see anything in the Sadoun pictures. If there isn't anything, I think I would be really tempted to drill the thing out myself before using it.