hh100 questions

[visegrip]

I have an hh100 motor with a 90cm fortec star. installed the motor few days ago, dish almost 2 years old. It is trackin 9 sat's so far, from sbs6 to amc1. it goes to them correctly every time, never off at all. I am using a nexus sat card, (older style, not v2.3)

- when the motor turns, the motor runs constantly, but the dish moves a bunch then a little, all in a second, so sorta like moves faster for .5 second then very slow for .5, then fast, then slow, etc. it is not fluid/smooth at all. hard to explain.

- I have to be on a horiz. transponder for the motor to go. sometimes if I am on a vert. and try to move it, it will not move, then when I realize it & switch to other transponder it goes to zero.

- With using move east/west commands, or anything for that matter, the motor will not turn past 30 on either side of zero. I have told the motor to disable limits. I tried setting a limit at around 12 and it does stop it there, and then removing that limit allows it to turn to 30.

- the shaft of the motor seems quite tight, no play in it

- anyone else have heavy rust with the fortec star dish? all the brackets are rusted pretty good and its been less than 1.5 years. It started to rust within 6 months.

I am planning on bringing the machine outside to reduce any drop from cable run (75') or connectors are the issue. I will also see if I can get a receiver from a friend to try.

Any ideas on these?
Thanks.

[starman]

I had used a SG-2100 for couple of years and decided to replace it with a Stab 100 HH. I put it on my 1 meter Winegard and had the exact same problems you are describing. It would act weird sometimes and not others. If the dish was over on a satellite close to the horizon, I would have to put the receiver on a horizontal(18v) channel or the motor coulnn't lift the dish, even then, sometimes I would have to go out and give the dish a nudge to get it started. I had the same problem with both a twinhan card and Pansat 2500. I finally sent it back, put my SG-2100 back on and it worked fine.
I'm not sure if the dish was just too much load for the Stab or if it was a bad motor. Let us know how you make out if you get a receiver to try it with.

[visegrip]

one thing I noticed now, with the one plugin I used, diseqcU, it says it is usals compat. On it, it has a box stating the angle for the motor to go to. When I hit the go to that angle button, it goes to exactly half of that number. So if it says the sat is at 22, it moves to 11. I wonder if that means anything, or just a bad plugin.

[starman]

I don't know that would have any bearing on your problem. I've used DiseqcU with Progdvb and its ok, but freezes occasionally and sometimes I can't get to do anything. Have you tried the motor without DiseqcU, just using the Progdvb native diseqc positioner?

[visegrip]

Minor update:

I can move the dish on either H or V now without too many errors, I swapped out the section of cable outside and it works now fine. Probably just enough drop in power to not be enough to move dish. or overall cable legnth combined with it, whichever the case, no more needing to be on H to move it.

The motor keeps all possitions perfectly, I have 17 sats stored in it now and it will go to them every time, perfectly when using the stored locations, not usals. I do not use USALS as it does not work. Diseqc commands seem to be working perfectly, just the 30 limit is there.

The motor will not turn past either 30 mark, no matter how I try. If I try to use usals in any app (tried many, hispadvb, mytheatre, progdvb) it will only turn to 1/2 the displayed value. So if the app says it has to be at 44, it goes to about 22 and stops. I have even used the raw commands to rotate the dish in some of the apps, same issue, only goes to 30 and stops.

Every so often the app I am using locks up, quits unexpectedly, or my pc reboots or whatever may happen while I am doing other things and dvb running in background. When I return, the motor sometimes thinks it is currently at the zero mark and I can move it 30 marks either side of where it left off. So I know the motor can physically move past the 30's, just not when I tell it too.

I have hit the set limits and disable limits and have seen them working, so I do not think it is any software limits that are set and enabled.

I am still trying to get someone that has a receiver they'll lend me to test.

This issue is not terrible, as I do get many sats and it does work quite well. It is just annoying knowing there are a few extras I could get if it worked the way it should. I do not need to use usals, diseqc is just fine, I can set them up myself and be happy with it. It is nice not having to go outside and re-aim the dish to the marks when I want to view a different sat, why did I wait so long?

Thanks a ton for all the help and investigations.

Oh, and I have moved the pc so there was only 30' of cable between the pc and the motor, with new wire & ends. Everything worked perfect except passing the 30's. Thanks.