set up motorised dish on hh100

[razdaz]

Hi all

1st post so I will try to make some sense.

I have a Funke 99cm dish on a Stab hh100 motor mount. I have managed to get a fairly good arc of the sats but am not sure if it is setup right.
My location is

London
Lat 51.27 Lon 0.13.

Reading the manual, I setup the angle of the motor to my latitude which is about 51 degrees. And according to various azi/elev sites, I should set my dish elevation to 31 degrees but this does not work out. My dish at the moment is set to about 36. Would this be right? This makes me think that the motor is set wrong.

I know that I am near enough bang on 0 degrees longitude and can get Thor easily but should I pull my motor slightly east (even though it is only part of a degree) and swing the dish to 1w. Would this make much difference to getting the arc?

I have just read through 19 pages of posts and the stickys and have probably missed the answers but would appreciate any advice.

Cheers

Razdaz

[Mship]

Hi razdaz, :welc1: to satellite help

How much of the arc are you tracking now/which Sats can you pick up?

If you can pick up from say 28E to 30W then you may just need a bit of fine tuning.

The main thing is to get the motor angle right, once this is done then in my view it's just a case of 'whatever works best' with regards to the dish in my humble opinion

I don't think 0.13* will make any difference to your set up, I'm at roughly 3.5* and I set my motor up dead centre
without any problems

Kev

[BlackHawk]

Hi razdaz :welc2:

Are you useing USALS for moving your dish? If so you input your lat and long into the receiver then select Thor and the motor will move approx 1 degree west from zero. Then swivel the whole lot on the pole to peak up on BBC world .
If you are useing diseqc to move the dish you initially need to set the motor to approx 1 west when setting up on Thor.
The look angle to Thor from your location is approx 31.5 degrees, you then have to take into account the offset angle of your dish, 20 odd degrees (if you are useing an offset dish that is). Your dish will be leaning back just off of the vertical (see picture). Hope this helps.
BH

[BGonaSTICK]

Yep, a good summary by the chaps there. The long-winded version is available here, but does try to cover some of the underlying logic too.

I've just written a few tuning tips which may also help on this thread

I find that it can be very confusing if you try to follow more than one guide. Try and stick to one until you fully understand the science/maths before reinforcing your understanding by looking at other approaches. I find that every site seems to use slightly different definitions and terminology, which is extremely confusing.

Many of the sites on the 'Net also relate either exclusively or primarily to the use of prime focus dishes, unlike the offset-style dish pictured above.

STICK

[razdaz]

Thanks for the reply guys. This is one friendly place.

What i find confusing is if i set the motor angle to 51.5 and the dish at 22 degrees(usals.com gave me that figure) i miss everything. Does this sound right

I have now gone and got myself a digisat meter and will have a mess about with that. I know i am just about there but will have a good read through the stickys again.

Thanks again.

Razdaz

[BGonaSTICK]

You should set the latitude scale on your motor to exactly your latitude - 51.27 - but make sure it's the latitude scale you're using and not the elevation scale!

The setting on the dish should be set to whatever it says in your motor handbook.

Forget what USALS.com have to say about it!

As I said before. You can't take little bits of advice randomly from several sources. You should also be aware that it's not possible to read settings off your motor mount with an accuracy much better than half a degree in the first place - and the scales aren't that accurate anyway.

All the guides are only theoretical - something to give you a starting point. The only thing that matters in the real world is how your dish actually tracks the arc.

You're very close to that, so move on from the basic stuff. There's no point altering a basic setting dramatically because you're right - you'll lose the half-decent track you already have.

Very small adjustments are required now.

[BlackHawk]

Hi razdaz

My look angle to Thor is 30.5*(lat 52*N and 1*E), the offset on my dish is 21*, hence my dish leans back from the vertical 9.5 degrees (see attached pic).
The dish is a 1m Gibertini mounted on a Stab HH100 motor.
I have found that the markings on dishes do not always bear any resemblance to where they should be set. IE my Gibertini is set to a marking of just under 90*.
BH