Installing a Motorised Satellite Dish System

Installing a motorised satellite dish system can be a tricky business to the uninitiated. If you have never installed even a simple satellite dish before, this is best left to an expert satellite TV installer. For those of you determined to have a go, here is a rough guide to what is involved. Motor mounts will usually come with comprehensive installation instructions and if you follow the manufacturer's instructions carefully you should have no problems.


DiSEqC and USALS

First of all, a little bit of theory. Eutelsat developed the original DiSEqC protocol to allow receivers to control a monoblock LNB, switching it between Eutelsat and Astra satellites. The DiSEqC protocol is basically a standardised set of control codes that are sent from a receiver up the LNB cable to some “intelligent” circuitry in the LNB to tell the LNB to do something.

It was quickly realised that the DiSEqC protocol could be used to control a motor mount on the satellite dish. Italian company Stab developed the DiSEqC 1.2 standard with Eutelsat and then went on to develop USALS. USALS is a program for calculating the positions of satellites in orbit and is capable of an accuracy of 0.1°. Both DiSEqC 1.2 and USALS are widely adopted by manufacturers for motorised satellite dish systems worldwide.

Practically speaking, DiSEqC 1.2 can be implemented in your receiver and does not require you to have any additional hardware. A receiver designed to control a motorised dish should have a more powerful LNB power supply. When installing the dish for the first time, it only needs to be aligned to 1 satellite as a reference point. The receiver can then take care of finding the rest. If your receiver also has the USALS software installed, finding satellites should be a no-brainer since all their positions are stored in the receiver.


Installing DiSEqC and USALS mounts (H-H mounts).

In Nigeria, the site of you dish needs to have a clear line of sight in all directions facing south. No obstacles like tall buildings or trees should be in the way of your dish's rotational field of view southwards. If you are going to use a motor mount, there would be little point in having a dish less than 90cm, since you will need a dish size that is capable of receiving signals from all the additional satellites you want to use. For, motorised pole mounted dishes, the most common type of dishes used are offset dishes which are designed to be mounted almost vertically.

The motor mount fits between the dish and the fixed pole, where a fixed dish is normally fitted to. Your pole should be installed as perfectly vertical as possible. The base unit side of your motor should be clamped securely to your pole. Your dish should then be clamped to the motorised pole on your motor.

The tricky part is getting your motor inclination and dish elevation settings correct. With a motorised dish, the dish does not rotate on a perfect horizontal axis. Rather, it rotates the dish on a slight arc (due to the curvature of the Earth). You will notice that the motorised pole is bent to achieve this arc rotational effect.

Before mounting your motor, make sure it is set at zero (0°) (south) to make for easier checking later. If it is not at zero, simply connect it to your receiver and move it to zero (0°). At the base of the motor where it is attached to the pole, there is an inclination mount where you can adjust the “motor inclination”. This inclination mount consists of a hinge bolt and another bolt to lock the inclination of the motor in place. The motor inclination needs to be adjusted according to your latitude. You motor will include instructions on the correct inclination; you just need to find the latitude of your location from an atlas.

The dish needs to be clamped after the bend on your motor pole. Once you have mounted your motor correctly to the pole, you will notice that after the bend of your motorised pole, it is almost vertical. Attach your dish to this section of the pole and clamp it securely. Normally the dish is secured to the motorised pole using U-bolts. The elevation of your dish needs to be adjusted according to the following formula:

Dish Elevation = motorised pole offset angle – column declination

The motorised pole offset angle is the angle of the motorised pole after the bend to the motor axis. This angle varies between motor models and is usually 30° or 45° to the motor axis.

The column declination is a slight adjustment required to account for the fact that a geostationary satellite is not exactly seen from an angle perpendicular to the polar axis but slightly lower. It shouldn't be to difficult to estimate the figure for where you are based.

Once you have correctly set your motor inclination and dish elevation and your motor is at zero (south) you should now have the correct elevation for the top of the satellite arc or arc apex.


Horizontal Alignment

The motor installation must be adjusted to point south. To find the correct horizontal alignment of the motor mount, position the motor to a known satellite and adjust the horizontal rotation of the motor installation accordingly. In Nigeria , probably the best satellite to use as a reference point is Sirius4.

This is much easier to do if you have USALS on your receiver. Using the USALS software on your receiver, enter your latitude and longitude. Then instruct the receiver to point your dish to Sirius. This will position the motor to where Sirius4 is expected to be found. Then using a meter, adjust you're the horizontal rotation of your motor installation until you get a strong signal. To ensure you have the correct satellite, tune your receiver into a known channel. A good channel to use is VOX Africa @ 12.605GHz/V 29950; it has a strong signal and is broadcast 24 hours a day. Check that you can receive this channel with a good strong signal on the receiver's signal indicator. Also, it would be useful confirmation to do a quick transponder scan.

If you do not have USALS installed but only have the DiSEqC system, you will have to position the motor to a known satellite manually. The correct position of a motor is calculated using the following formula:

Motor Position = Satellite Position – longitude

Note that Eastern longitudes are negative and Western Longitudes are positive. Let us take Lagos as an example. Lagos’ latitude is 3 ° west. Hence the motor position should be: - 5 – 3 = - 8, or 8° East. Set your motor position to 8° East, then rotate your motor installation until you get a strong signal using a meter. Again, in the same way using USALS, conform that you have the correct satellite using a reference TV channel.

If the motor mount has been installed correctly, you should be able to find all the other available satellites easily. You may need to make slight adjustments to the motor inclination, declination and azimuth for the dish to correctly track the satellite arc.

Once you have performed the final adjustments, you are ready for multi-satellite reception.

Latitute & longititude selected cities
Lagos
Lat 6.4412^o
Lon 3.4180^o

Elevation 30^o
Azimuth (true) 57.3^o
Azimuth (Magn) 57.3^o


Port Harcourt
Lat 4.7848^o
Lon 7.0055^o

Elevation 30^o
Azimuth (true) 57.3^o
Azimuth (Magn) 57.3^o


Warri
Lat 5.5544^o
Lon 5.7932^o

Elevation 30^o
Azimuth (true) 57.3^o
Azimuth (Magn) 57.3^o


Calabar
Lat 4.9573^o
Lon 8.3144^o

Elevation 30^o
Azimuth (true) 57.3^o
Azimuth (Magn) 57.3^o


Uyo
Lat 5.0323^o
Lon 7.9375^o

Elevation 30^o
Azimuth (true) 57.3^o
Azimuth (Magn) 57.3^o


Yenagoa
Lat 4.9260^o
Lon 6.2593^o

Elevation 30^o
Azimuth (true) 57.3^o
Azimuth (Magn) 57.3^o

Note: Azimuth information correct as at 4th February 2010.

Great tutorial.

This is not for the boys, it is for the men of FTA.

This is a great reference material.

Good to be here.
I would like you to make a simple list of common dxs around that are USAL compartible.
Some indicate USALs on the Dx, some do not.
Do Strong Dxs work well with USALS?. I knnpw it is written that it is compartible, but not sure how good it is on USALs
Hope u respond timely.
Its a good thread bro

One thing I want us to deal with here again, is the combination of such motorised system with a diseqc switch.
Take for example, I have a 90cm dish, a 60 cm dish, and a 180 cm dish. Now I want to motorise the 90 cm to track pass10, W4,A2B, W3A, Sirius 4, Nss7KU if the motor could span this, yet leave the 180cm for nilesat. Here I have only one decoder to only one TV
The ? now is: How would one connect these two dishes via a diseqc switch, with regards to motor response to command from the decoder?
Know fully well that Signal from nilesat is independent of the motor. Would there not be proble?

Thank you

I took time out during the weekend to study the hh motor I wanted to buy for my 90cm dish. I however decided to configure/operate my 63X Dx for motorised settings, though a motor was not connected to it.
Using the USAL mode, its quite sweet to motorize a dish, u could see the movement on the screen as the Dx controls the dish to the selected satellite.
I configured for Astra 2B and Sirius 4. Whenever I change channel to any of these two, i have to wait a bit for the Dx to perform motor control to the satellite, because the decoder believes a motor was connected.
The good thing i found on this motorized is that, having only one dish, you can move your dish to any location you want while sitting comfortably in your room. Again, you can limit the movement of the motor to the satellite you want.
However, I found some limitations which made me to suspend the buying of the motor.
1-The time it takes to move from W3a to Sirius 4 was too much for me to wait-especially when goodies are happening @ the other side, compared to changing channels on fixed dishes, you have to wait for the motor to move to that location. It therefore means the more you keep changing channels across satellite, the more the motor keeps moving.
I have a 90 cm and a 60cm dish. I could connect a 90cm dish just to pan between Eutelsat W4, Astra 2B, W3a and S4. Dedicate the 60cm to pass10, and my 1.8m dish dedicated to nss7ku, c,/nilesat.
Now, if I am to connect like above, I will have to dedicate all the ones for the motor to a single port on my diseqc switch, where the limit of the motor has been set to move between these satellites only. Then, the other satellites/dish could go on different port on the diseqc switch.
By this arrangement, i think my initial fear of how to connect the motor to a switch has been laid to rest.
I have not tried this, but I think it will work.
I hope to post a diagram later to illustrate what I have just said

spaceman:

I took time out during the weekend to study the hh motor I wanted to buy for my 90cm dish. I however decided to configure/operate my 63X Dx for motorised settings, though a motor was not connected to it.
Using the USAL mode, its quite sweet to motorize a dish, u could see the movement on the screen as the Dx controls the dish to the selected satellite.
I configured for Astra 2B and Sirius 4. Whenever I change channel to any of these two, i have to wait a bit for the Dx to perform motor control to the satellite, because the decoder believes a motor was connected.
The good thing i found on this motorized is that, having only one dish, you can move your dish to any location you want while sitting comfortably in your room. Again, you can limit the movement of the motor to the satellite you want.
However, I found some limitations which made me to suspend the buying of the motor.
1-The time it takes to move from W3a to Sirius 4 was too much for me to wait-especially when goodies are happening @ the other side, compared to changing channels on fixed dishes, you have to wait for the motor to move to that location. It therefore means the more you keep changing channels across satellite, the more the motor keeps moving.
I have a 90 cm and a 60cm dish. I could connect a 90cm dish just to pan between Eutelsat W4, Astra 2B, W3a and S4. Dedicate the 60cm to pass10, and my 1.8m dish dedicated to nss7ku, c,/nilesat.
Now, if I am to connect like above, I will have to dedicate all the ones for the motor to a single port on my diseqc switch, where the limit of the motor has been set to move between these satellites only. Then, the other satellites/dish could go on different port on the diseqc switch.
By this arrangement, i think my initial fear of how to connect the motor to a switch has been laid to rest.
I have not tried this, but I think it will work.
I hope to post a diagram later to illustrate what I have just said

That's one disadvantage of the motor, waiting time to change position.

to complete what you just posted, for the motor change your receiver diseqc switch setting to 1. for the fixed dishes and 1.2 for the motor. This is how you archieve it.

1. under satellite settings > choose satellite pas7/10 (60cm) > Diseqc: 1.1 Port dedicated1
2. same as above > choose satellite NSS7 (180cm) > Diseqc: 1.1 dedicated2
3. same as above > choose satellite NSS7 (180cm) > Diseqc: 1.1 dedicated3
4. same as above > choose satellite NSS7 (180cm) > Diseqc: 1.1 dedicated4
5. same as above > choose satellite Eutelsat W4 (90cm) > Diseqc: 1.2
6. same as above > choose satellite Astra 2B (90cm) > Diseqc: 1.2
7. same as above > choose satellite Eutelsat W3a (90cm) > Diseqc: 1.2
8. same as above > choose satellite Sirius4 (90cm) > Diseqc: 1.2

Remember since you are making use of more than four ports, you will use an eight port diseqc swicth which requires you to use 1.1 setting

@microgiant
thank you, that is a good write-up. i remember that enitan wrote another good one in session 3 as well. kudos to all of you.my question now is- have you ever installed a working HH motor in this part of the globe that tracks the belt well?
if yes, then we should be able to learn from you. ask olofofo, he will tell you he couldnt track well. he has one and i got my superjack HH motor from him late last year. the issue is that the difficulty faced didnt arise from our technicality, the problem, to me, is that HH motor are not designed for Nigeria whose latitude lies btw 5 and 12 degree because the latitude settings printed on the motor always lies btw 15 to 65 and this must be set precisely 2 your local coordinate. i used mine experimentally at ibadan on 7 deg latitude where i tracked the southernmost sats of sirius 4 and W3. tried as i did, i couldnt track the eastern and western sats. the manual is very easy to follow but the spec doesnt match Nigeria factors, so it is better said in theory.
some of the limitations highlighted by spaceman didnt arise at all in practice. The time it takes to move from W3a to Sirius 4 was very very fast that you hardly notice it. because you didnt install HH motor, the decoder look for signal to synchronize to and so took its time. please let us know who has been successful in this installation as i can see that HH motor is an ingenious masterpiece that can transform our fta entertainment in our landlord's house where space poses a legal limitation.
Thank you

@ Fasone
Good to hear you have tried the set-up yourself and pointed out the realities.
That the movement time between satellite is very fast, is inspiring me to go back to it.
On the issue of latitude setting, well i dont know the make of motor you are using. The motor im talking of could span 85 degrees west and 85 degrees east. The anchor part is not calibrated, you just have to adjust it freely up/down, and fix your motor to it. I think maybe if you use the USAL mode you might not need to border on the lat stuff.
Anyway, I shall soon try it out, and from the look of the Navigator motor, i hope to achieve all!

spaceman:

@ Fasone
Good to hear you have tried the set-up yourself and pointed out the realities.
That the movement time between satellite is very fast, is inspiring me to go back to it.
On the issue of latitude setting, well i dont know the make of motor you are using. The motor im talking of could span 85 degrees west and 85 degrees east. The anchor part is not calibrated,  you just have to adjust it freely  up/down, and fix your motor to it. I think maybe if you use the USAL mode you might not need to border on the lat stuff.
Anyway, I shall soon try it out, and from the look of the Navigator motor, i hope to achieve all!

I encourage you 2 go back to it and notify us. Like I said b4, the make of my motor is superjack HH motor and it can carry a maximum of 100cm dish. the azimuth swing is 85 deg east to 85 deg west but the latitude scale calibrated on the motor housing is just 15-65 deg.
well, i dont know if USALS can be of any help.

@ fasone

That is a very very useful post! I recently bought a second Moteck 2100 with the intention of using it in Nigeria but had not paid attention to the point you made. I have now double checked both my Motecks (the one I'm using currently and the spare) and truly the elevation scale is callibrated at 15-65; that means it really will not be suitable for Nigeria - not for optimal use at least! I will search around and see if there are any such motors for lower latitudes e.g. South Africa, Australia etc!

On the issue of the time it takes, it really is not that much ---- granted it is a little slower than a single or multi-LNB set up; the advantages of the motor overall outweigh the slight delay issue.

@all
just went searching and hit on this site.
it explains how to install H-H motors with videos.

http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/HH-mount-installation.htm

it even has instruction files in PDF format which you can download.

Still on the case of Diseqc/USALS motors for low latitudes, I have found one that can do as low as 0 latitude:

http://www.sg6000-motor.com/

I think this is instructive for the satellite kit sellers in particular --- that if they will be importing motors into Nigeria, they need to import those that can do low latitudes.

ETA Instead of making new posts, I will just add any more that I find to this post; so

http://www.wsidigital.com/sg9120-tube.gif

Enigma:

Still on the case of Diseqc/USALS motors for low latitudes, I have found one that can do as low as 0 latitude:
http://www.sg6000-motor.com/
I think this is instructive for the satellite kit sellers in particular --- that if they will be importing motors into Nigeria, they need to import those that can do low latitudes.
ETA Instead of making new posts, I will just add any more that I find to this post; so
http://www.wsidigital.com/sg9120-tube.gif

thanks for that piece. please how can we lay our hands on the low latitude type you found out?
let's hope that sellers will bring the right ones around for our comfort.

@microgiant
fasone
Enigma,
I finally got the H-H motor for my 90cm dish.
I experienced the problem as you pointed out -I was only able to nail S4 and W3A, though not dedicated enough time to it yet.
The motor was calibrated to 15degrees minimum, hence setting the motor elevation to 9/10 degrees(my latitude) was not easy.
I quite agree with you that these motors were not made for this part of the world.
If this design should give us as low as <10 degrees, it means the motor will face upside down. How do you then hang your dish? Big question in deed.

Notwithstanding this limitation,I still believe it can still be adjusted to give me birds to the west and more to the east.
The motor is calibrated to 80deg east and west, but i discovered that I can only GOTO intelsat 902(62 deg east) maximum east. It cant go further to Pass 10, contrary to 80 deg. inscribed on it.

The connection of the diseqc after the motor proves effective than connecting it before the motor. ie
receiver=motor=diseqc switch=lnbs
On the Rx menu, i configure USAL for S4, W3A, W4. The motor only respond when channels on these satellites are selected
I will definitely set it up well and inform the house

There will be an installation of 2.6m motorised dish on saturday at No 30 ondo street oworo by 8am. We need only 4 members for observation,anyone that is interested can give me a call in advance. The satellites to track are: eurobird 25.5ku,Hotbird 13 east and nilesat 7w.They will be other satellites along the line,but above are our major interest.08066061677

@spaceman
have you been able to succeed with the settings of motor other than the one in your last post?

@all
has anyone been able to find a motor that can do low latitude (5deg N) in Nigeria? pls. let me know

@ sathob,
bro it is still lack of tyme for it yet.
I'v always been away at weekends which would have been best of tymes for it.
i still de gather momentum for the deal day.
No qualms, I will surely fix it.

@spaceman
ok registered. wishing u good luck.
i want know if there is any motor in town other than the SG9120, that has elevation range (25-85) and will work for latitude as low as 5 deg?

And talking about those disecq 1.2 motors, for low latitudes (<9º),  what if,   the pole of the motor is straighten a bit more,  could that fix the accuracy problem?   

Pls i want to know price of the motors. I want to motorize my 90cm dish pls help

good thread, we are moving ahead 9ja,  ;d

can jack and positioner be use to motorise 90cm and 1m dish

yes

yes

Gurus, i am a novice in this motor of a thing. Pls someone should just explain to me, i have a 90cm used for w3a, hw i can use the dish motorised to get w4, 2b, w3a,sirius4. Infact the settings along with the decoder cos am using str4663x. Plssss

pls where can i buy a HH motor in lagos,

Detail Pictures of H-H Motorsed Satellite Dish System Installation coming soon.

Watch this space!!!