WWW.SATELLITES.CO.UK - HOW TO INSTALL A DiSEqC MOTOR GUIDE

1. Tools and parts required

2. Mounting the Bracket and Mast

3. Setting Motor elevation/latitude and Motor test

4. Fixing dish to Motor

5. Fixing motor and dish assembly to mast

6. Dish elevation/declination

7. Connecting up

8. Finding your due South position

9. Tuning the arc

Important Note regarding Dispointer.com: Dishpointer.com is a good aid to establishing roughly where to point your dish, it is not an exact dish pointing tool and to align your dish accurately, you will require either a satellite meter, or use the signal strength and quality displays on your satellite receiver.

1. Tools and parts required

For this installation, we are using the following:

Moteck SG-2100 DiseqC Motor

80cm dish

Universal LNB (the best you can afford)

T&K brackets, whichever size is appropriate (I often use two sets for good support)

2 x Large U Bolts

2” steel mast or bigger (scaffold pole is good for rigidity)

10mm Sleeve Anchors or bigger

WF100, CT100, or equivalent double screened cable

4 “F” Connectors

Hammer Drill

8mm/10mm Drill Bit

15mm, 13mm, 10mm Socket/spanner (depending on nut sizes on dish)

Selection of spanners for dish and motor

Spirit Level or fence post level (very cheap on ebay)

Felt Tip Pen

Compass (not essential)

Cheap tone or swinging needle Meter (not necessary, but speeds things up)

Junior Hacksaw

Box of cable clips

2. Mounting the Bracket and Mast

First priority is to find a mounting location from where the dish can see the required arc of satellites, a South facing wall is ideal plus it’s nice if it doesn’t need to be too high, as it makes the installation very much easier. We will discuss alternative mounting solutions later in the How To.

Ideal if you can find a nice spot low on the wall, with no need for ladders, but it must have an unobstructed view of the Southern sky, so a higher position may be necessary.

First thing to do is to put the brackets on the wall, so using the spirit level and felt tip pen, mark where the top bracket will go (the T piece) through the mounting slots, make sure that it is bolting into brickwork, not mortar and drill the holes. Also make sure that there are sufficient courses of brick above the bracket, do not mount in the top course.

Bolt up the top bracket and insert the U bolt, clamp the mast onto it and then clamp the K bracket below on to the mast, adjusting height so that it has a suitable distance between for stability. Mark the holes after making sure that the mast is vertical with the spirit level, then remove the bottom bracket, drill holes (drill in the centre of the slots, affording adjustment to either side), insert fixings and bolt up the bracket to the wall and mast. This can also be achieved using a plumbline, a method I tend to use more now. you drop the plumbline from the end of the top bracket at the place where the "U Bolt" clamps the mast and align the bottom bracket marking the holes on the wall with your felt tip pen.

The above is a 12" "K" bracket, if used at top and bottom,
you will need to drill the bottom hole after positioning for plumbness.

There is a lot of adjustment with the T&K type brackets, so you should easily be able to obtain a perfectly vertical mast.

In this instance, the top and bottom brackets were mounted first, then the middle one was added once the mast was tested as vertical

3. Setting Motor elevation/latitude and Motor test

This stage is very easy on the Moteck, it has a scale for both latitude and elevation, so all you have to do is find your latitude from somewhere like www.heavens-above.com and set it on the side of the motor (make sure you use the latitude scale, not the elevation scale), then tighten up the bolts (don’t over tighten them)

Now you need to make a test cable, connect one end to the motor input and the other to your receiver. Select the motor setup in the receiver menu, choose DiseqC 1.2 and try manually moving the motor East and West, finally set it to zero in preparation for mounting. (There is normally a command to do this, but can be done using the buttons on the motor as well)

4. Fixing dish to Motor

Having assembled the dish and added the LNB (set it so that it is perfectly vertical), you need to attach it to the armature of the motor, it may help to use the felt tip pen and draw a centre line on the motor armature and the dish bracket. It is very important that at this stage the motor armature is set to zero and the dish is perfectly centred on it. Some dishes have big mounting brackets which can foul the LNB connectors if the bolts are not trimmed once mounted, so be prepared to saw off the ends to make a better installation.

Now you are ready to mount the whole assembly onto the mast.

5. Fixing motor and dish assembly to mast

Before going into detail on this phase of the installation, there is a known problem with the mast mount U bolts on the Moteck, the steel is not the best and care needs to be taken to avoid cross threading or over tightening, they have been known to shear. These can be replaced by threaded rod or long coach bolts with half of the head filed off.

Marry up the whole assembly to the mast and slip the brackets over, works best with two sets of hands, gently nip up until the assembly is secure. A small tip is to use a 2” jubilee clip under the motor mount, this allows you to swing the assembly without it sliding down the mast.

6. Dish Elevation/Declination

This setting will vary depending on the make of motor and even between different versions of the same motor, but if you use the calculation in the motor handbook, it will give you a good starting point for your highest point in the arc. You can do this before the assembly is mounted on the mast, it is great to use as a starting point, but will need tweaking as explained later in the guide..

You can forget this step altogether if you are using a meter, or have a good sight of a TV screen with the receiver tuning menu, as it is covered in step 8..

7. Connecting up

Right, now you are ready to connect up the cables.

Make up a short lead, long enough to go from LNB to Motor and connect up, then run a cable from the receiver to the motor and do the same (this step can also be done when at ground level). The Moteck comes with rubber gaiters to waterproof the connections, but you will need to use the self amalgamating tape to waterproof the LNB connection if it doesn't have a rubber gaiter.

8. Finding your due South position

If this stage is carried out properly, you should not have to do much more to achieve a good sweep of the arc.

If your longitude is close to the Greenwich Meridian (0 degrees), then you can use Thor 1W as your reference satellite, my location is actually 1W (359 degrees) so 1W is my due South which makes life easy.

Finding due South, in this case using Emitor satlook NIT meter and looking for Thor 1W, as this is almost spot on due South for my area.

Let’s assume that you are situated on 1W, so you connect your little meter, or position a portable TV so that you can easily see it and using the motor setup menu, watch the signal strength and quality readings whilst moving the whole assembly on the mast and the dish elevation setting to where you think due South is. When the signal strength and quality reach a peak, check on your receiver by scanning a single transponder frequency to see if you are on the required satellite, if not, make further adjustments until your satellite is located.

If you don't have a convenient due South satellite, then using USALS or GoToX (if your receiver and motor are compatible), send your dish to your nearest due South satellite and use the process as described above to locate it.

Once you have found your due South satellite, nip up the bolts slightly and test that the alignment is perfect, by gripping the dish edges and very gently tilting from side to side and up and down. If there is no possible improvement to be gained in strength and quality, fully tighten the bolts.

Now you can start to check the full arc by moving the dish with your receiver, firstly scan the channels on your due South satellite and save, then using USALS if your receiver has it, send the dish to one of the far East and then far West satellites, if these have strong reception, then your settings are correct and you will be able to sweep the complete arc with good signal and quality, .

For more information have a look in the Dish Setup and Motorised section at www.satellites.co.uk, please feel free to print out this guide for use, but do not alter in any way, publish under another title, or sell on ebay.