A few SG2100 set up questions

[nortonbk]

I am setting up the SG2100 with a Fortec Star 90 cm dish. I wanted to have a pro look at my numbers before I move everything around to much.
I live in Lufkin, Texas. My latitude is 31.34211 and longitude is 94.71844. This makes my southern most sat. G3c? Sadoun's magnetic declination table shows a 6 just to the left of the 0 that looks very close to where I am so it looks like I subtract 6 degrees from magnetic north?
I am using a pole mount. The pole is dead on plumb. The mounting bracket for the motor has a elevation scale on one side, not sue what it is for, and it has a latitude scale on the other. I believe that I am suppose to use the latitude scale set a 31 degrees?
Now I get lost assuming the above is correct. And that a big assumption as I am not real sure of that. Now the dish has an elevation scale on it that needs to be set. Using Sadoun's elevation scale for the SG2100 using my latitude of 31 I get a elevation angle of 59. Now do I subtract 30 from that? I get 29 degrees. But I not sure if the elevation table has already factored in this negative 30 degrees or not. I have set up about 6 DBS dishes and it looks like if I set the dish at 29 degrees I'm aiming a little low.
Once I figure this all out I have a SF-95 sat. finder that I have used with finding the circular birds that I can use to help me. Currently I have a universal lnbf with lo set to 9750 connected to a DVB card in my computer. I have heard this is difficult to use to set all this up so if I have to I can move my Coship 3188c and a tv out by the dish to make it easier.
I would be really thankful if some one would verify the above set up and help me with any errors I have made.

Resq 911 see complete installation here:
http://www.dmsiusa.com/documents/SG2...y%20manual.pdf

[Sadoun]

I believe that I am suppose to use the latitude scale set a 31 degrees?

Correct.

The dish elevation should be 30-declination for your area. So it sould be around 25 degress or so.

Try that and let us know how it goes.

[DruzeTito]

Welcome to the world of setting up HH motors.


- Do not worry about elevation scale on the motor. Just set the lat closest you can to 31. And set the motor to 0 position if it is not already.

-Mount the motor on the pole first, then when everything is set put the dish on.

-Do not worry about your true south SAT.. worry about your true south for now. Use a compass, and aim it (the mount) right on SOUTH. (Your magnetic variation is 6, but 6 is not a huge difference. So if you can accurately aim it to 174 on the compass, it will be right on. Remember to use the compass correctly.. so make sure your away from magnetic interference and it is straight and level.

- Your dish elevation should be at about 25, but remember scale markings are not always what they really are so just set to 25 for now. Later you will be moving the dish elevation to get a signal.

-Your lnb should be perfectly neutral position.

-The best way to set up the motor is with USALS. Does your coship receiver have USALS? If it does, you will have to set your lat and long parameters in the receiver. I am not familiar with these receivers so you will have to experiment within the interface.

If it does, when everything is ready, move the dish with usals to Telstar 5. and Use TP 11867 V 22000 3/4 to find signal. First move the dish elevation very slowly up or down to find where you can get the best signal. Do not move the motor scale. If you still have no quality, move the whole mount very slowly left and right, and you should get quality. Remember, play with dish elevation and the mount left and right to get a good signal and quality.

[Sadoun]

DruzeTito

FYI, neither Coship, nor BEC, nor Satcruiser receivers have USALS. only DiSEqC 1.2. The 3188C doesn't even have 1.2, thus you can use it for any HH motor.

By the way, the following order is from worse to best for setting up an HH motor with these receivers:

*: BEC2000 (only DiSEqC 1.2: you will pull your hair out trying to do it with this receiver)
**: Satcruiser (all models only DiSEqC 1.2: East/West movements are reversed )
***: Fortec Star Lifetime & Ultra (DiSEqC 1.2 & USALS: Easy setup)
*** 1/2: Fortec Star 786 (DiSEqC 1.2 & USALS: Easiest to setup)

:wink:

[DruzeTito]

Yes i do agree that the fortec 786v3 is really really good 1.2 and usals receiver. But it didnt work with my 2 in 1 diseqc and Lifetime did.

[nortonbk]

Thanks for the replies but I am left a little confused now. Do I set the latitude scale on the motor to 31 or 25 as Sadoun recommended? Also what do I set the elevation scale to 59-30=29 is 29 the correct setting? Also is G3C my souther most sat?
Thanks again.

[dtsexpert]

1. SG2100 elevation = your lat = 31
2. Your true south is G3C.
Michael

Originally Posted by nortonbk

Thanks for the replies but I am left a little confused now. Do I set the latitude scale on the motor to 31 or 25 as Sadoun recommended? Also what do I set the elevation scale to 59-30=29 is 29 the correct setting? Also is G3C my souther most sat?
Thanks again.

[nortonbk]

Thanks Michael! So the elevation scale on the dish needs to be set to 59-30=29 is this correct?

[DruzeTito]

No. 30-5.10 is about 25 so dish elevation is 25 and motor is set to 31 on lat scale.

[nortonbk]

Thanks DruzeTito I had just figured that out. I was taking the elevation angel before I read a little better. Well I think I have it all set up right and seem to be getting some signal with my meter so next step is to move the whole set up side to side a little bit to see if I get a lock.

[dtsexpert]

One thing I want to add is that you should consider the dish elevation angle as a starting point, meaning you might need to do some adjustment to it in order to get lock on truesouth. I have found the dish elevation scale for some brands is not accurate, so do not expect to get lock on truesouth sat right away. If adjustment is needed, only adjust the dish elevation, do not touch the SG 2100 elevation setting.
Michael

Originally Posted by nortonbk

Thanks DruzeTito I had just figured that out. I was taking the elevation angel before I read a little better. Well I think I have it all set up right and seem to be getting some signal with my meter so next step is to move the whole set up side to side a little bit to see if I get a lock.

[nortonbk]

Well I gotta tell everyone that so far this has been a very easy set up. Sunday I put the dish on the pole and set up everything like I thought it should be. I posted my questions and took a 4 hour nap. Today after work I came home and changed my dish elevation for 29 to 25 degrees. Being lazy I decided to scan G3C before I got out my meter. And what do you know the signal comes in loud and clear! I still have a ways to go to figure out the Diseqc software plugin and programming in all the sats and making sure I'm on the belt good but I wanted to thank everyone for your impute. With all the info Sadoun has posted and the help I have gotten from the forum I have saved a lot of time.

[hangxanhan]

nortonbk,

I live in TX and seems to have the same problem w/ my 2100. Do u move the whole set (motor/dish) to 95 deg south and select G3c, and u find the signal and pic quality right away? I thought 95 deg is in the South East dir, because I aim my whole unit (dish and motor ) to 97 deg for Telstar 5 and couldn't get anything.

I aimed the dish w/o motor to 206 deg (south west) to get the T5 signal and pic quality. I used the free software from www.smw.se, which calculated and compensated everything to get 206 deg.

Did u aim the motor + dish to true south (180-6=174) fist and get any signal peak there?

Thanks for responses,

[nortonbk]

hangxanhan, G3C is my southern most satt. I am able to get a signal locked on that satt with a sig level of 70. However I am still only able to get only 5 satts programed in. As I said in our PM I have tried the dish on 3 poles. My pole is dead plumb and I am not having any more luck. Assides from breaking down and buying a receiver that has USALS I don't know were to go from here. Locking on to my southern most satt was easy as well as finding everything west of G3C to AMC 1 but after that nothing on 3 seperate tries. And yes you move the whole set up to get a lock on your souther most satt. The motor should be at 0 when you are locking on to your southern most satt.

[Anonymous]

nortonbk

Sounds like your motor is not tracking the arc of the satellite belt. If
your getting some of the sats to the west of your south sat, that tells me
your whole assembly needs to be rotated to the east (counter clockwise).
Verify this by going to the most western sat you get a lock on, then gently
pull down on the dish while watching the quaility bar. If the signal improves,
thats your problem. Now the hard part. Here is my trick.
Go back to G3C,
while watching the quality bar rotate the whole assembly east until the quality bar drops to 10%
tighten the motor u-bolts
then loosen the dish mounting bolts and correct the azimuth adjustment so
you get a good signal on G3C again.
tighten the dish mounting bolts
using your receiver
drive your dish back to the west sat and do the above test pull down
on the dish, was there a change , if so repeat steps above until you dont
see any major change in the quality bar.
I know its slow going . You are pretty close 4-5 degrees.

[jackp]

HINortonbk,I got the same problem that you have.I live in Chicago,IL my lat is 42 my south sat is K-3@87 deg.i am using a satwork 3688 receiver to move the dish.I am not getting anything. help

[nortonbk]

Hey JackP. Hang in there once you get your center sat all else should come in. If you have a receiver with USALS it makes everything much easier. I was using a sat card in my computer and once I found a plug-in that did USALS I found out that I had everything right all along.