Motor set up

[clippert]

Hi, I'm having a few problems with my motor - just need to check that I am not missing something really obvious.

Vu+ duo running vix 2.3 - i have set up the box as per instructions on this site -

Press Menu
Select Setup Press OK
Select Service searching Press OK
Select Tuner configuration Press OK
Select Tuner A Press OK

Configuration Mode: Simple
Mode: Positioner
Latitude: my lat Press OK
NORTH
Longitude: my long Press OK
WEST

Press OK to save.

(I've done this on tuner A and set tuner B to "equal to Tuner A - is this correct?)

Press Menu
Select Setup Press OK
Select service searching Press OK
Select Positioner Setup Press OK
Select goto 0 Press RED Button

Dish should now goto 1w.

I have my dish pointed roughly south - when I press Goto 0 I get nothing - Is something supposed to happen on screen - do i get some sort of confirmation that something is happening? The dish doesn't move.

I've tried to move the motor east using "Positioner movement" and nothing happens.

I have also tried to set limits for the motor on the box - again when i press the buttons on screen, doesn't matter what colour nothing happens. I assume something should happen so that i can input the limits manually?

I've checked all the connections and they are fine. There is power getting to the motor (a superior dark motor) led 1 and 2 are both flashing as per handbook.
Does anyone have any knowledge of the superior dark motor? I've tried to move the dish manually using the east and west buttons on the motor but nothing happens. Any ideas?

I only currently have only one cable connected up on tuner A (only having one cable connected shouldn't be a problem should it?) I've also tried the cable connected up to tuner B and still nothing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

clippert

[digicon]

First off you can leave tuner B as Not Configured seeing as your only using 1 cable for your motorised dish, after you entered your lon and lat settings did you at all upload a preconfigured channel list.

So you can choose a channel on 0.8° west and let the motor turn and then you will need to fine tune your motor and dish setup.

[clippert]

First off you can leave tuner B as Not Configured seeing as your only using 1 cable for your motorised dish, after you entered your lon and lat settings did you at all upload a preconfigured channel list.

So you can choose a channel on 0.8° west and let the motor turn and then you will need to fine tune your motor and dish setup.

Yeah - i uploaded a channel list and selected one of the bbc channels and got nothing from the motor. I've got 2 cables attached now to have everything by the book.

Shouldn't this "Select goto 0 Press RED Button" command move the motor directly to 0.8° west?

I still can't figure out how to set east/west limits - i get nothing on screen when i hit the limits button but the motor led is flashing as per handbook.

I've flashed to box with 3 different images in total just to rule out the motor not liking my image and all is still the same.

there must be something I'm not doing right - or the motor is dodgy...

[digicon]

OK back to basics the '0' setting on a motor is exactly that '0' it wont be pointing at any satellite, when you get the motor brand new they are all on '0' this is to aid you to get your true south setting as near as possible, so when you put the dish on the motor which is still on '0' as you look form behind the dish they should be dead level pointing straight forwards.

when you put the whole assembly on your pole ie: dish and motor you point as close to true south as best you can tighten up the back motor brackets go inside and select a channel on 0.8° west after putting in your LOn and LAT details. when you go back outside the motor will have slightly moved just off the zero ( in other words it is now pointing to 0.8° west ) Now you have to move the whole assembly again either left or right on your pole until you maximise the signal on 0.8° west.

Go back in the house and then try another satellite and see what the signal is like if its poor then you need to alter your motor and dish again slightly to maximise signal.

Do not worry about the east and west limits the motor has hardware limits built in, so long as you have enough clearance either side of your dish.

[clippert]

OK back to basics the '0' setting on a motor is exactly that '0' it wont be pointing at any satellite, when you get the motor brand new they are all on '0' this is to aid you to get your true south setting as near as possible, so when you put the dish on the motor which is still on '0' as you look form behind the dish they should be dead level pointing straight forwards.

when you put the whole assembly on your pole ie: dish and motor you point as close to true south as best you can tighten up the back motor brackets go inside and select a channel on 0.8° west after putting in your LOn and LAT details. when you go back outside the motor will have slightly moved just off the zero ( in other words it is now pointing to 0.8° west ) Now you have to move the whole assembly again either left or right on your pole until you maximise the signal on 0.8° west.

Go back in the house and then try another satellite and see what the signal is like if its poor then you need to alter your motor and dish again slightly to maximise signal.

Do not worry about the east and west limits the motor has hardware limits built in, so long as you have enough clearance either side of your dish.

Thanks for your reply digicon. so if i understand you correctly to goto 0 function is used purely to ensure that the motor is aligned correctly as per when it came out of the factory? So me pressing goto 0 a hundred times over will do nothing as it's already at 0.

I've just been outside now and set the dish up as you suggest - the lights are flashing so the motor has power - i come back inside and select a channel on 0.8° west - i get a flashing dish on screen but no motor movement. I then select a channel further east and then further again and still no motor movement...

I'm beginning to wonder if the motor is faulty as the buttons on the motor for manually moving east and west are also not working.

[Peckish]

Hello everybody.

@clippert

digicon has already told you everything you need to set up your motor but I'll explain the 'limit' part as it is clear you are unsure about that so I will use the following scenario as a guide.

Imagine you use the Goto 0 command and the motor moves to that position so out of curiosity you press the west limit button. Nothing appears to happen so you decide to press the east limit button this time. Again, nothing appears to happen but what you have done is lock the motor on the '0' position, i.e. you cannot move it at all. To get it back into operation you have to remove the limits and this can be done from the motor menu.

Let's say you want to set the limits around 30w and 42e. First you choose a channel on 30w and the motor moves to that location. You then enter the motor menu and step the motor a few degrees further west i.e. 35w and it is at this point you press the 'west' software limit. You then follow the same procedure for 42e but this time press the 'east' limit. digicon has pointed out that you don't really need the software limits unless the antenna is going to collide with something so if you don't need them, then don't activate them.

If you are not too sure that the software limits have been removed by using the menu function you can always hold in both east/west buttons on the motor to do a factory reset and then start over again.

Regards to all,

Peckish

[clippert]

Hi Peckish

That's a good explanation of how to set limits and i think you may have hit the nail on the head when stating i have probably locked the motor on the '0' position.

I've tried to lift any limits set in error on the box but this must not be working. Factory reset is the way to go - will give it a bash tomorrow.

Thanks

clippert

[digicon]

Hi Peckish

That's a good explanation of how to set limits and i think you may have hit the nail on the head when stating i have probably locked the motor on the '0' position.

I've tried to lift any limits set in error on the box but this must not be working. Factory reset is the way to go - will give it a bash tomorrow.

Thanks

clippert

If you need to reset the dark motor then all you have to do is hold the east and west button in for 10 seconds this will reset the motor for you.

[clippert]

Hi

the motor is now working after a reset - thanks for your help guys. The only problem is that the motor moves when using the manual buttons but when i select a channel from my channel list on 1° west nothing happens (apart from an image on screen of a rotating dish). I thought let's move it a bit further so i select a 19° east channel and nothing. I tried 28° and nothing. The goto 0 function on the box works well by sending the motor back to 0 after i have manually moved the motor via the east/west buttons on the motor. This would suggest that there is a problem with the set up of the receiver.

My setup is as described above any i can't think of anything that may be incorrect with the setup - does anyone have any ideas?

thanks

clippert

[digicon]

Yes i have an idea its still not setup correctly in other words your dish is out of alignment, if your dish is moving across the ARC when you select a channel from your list then everything is working fine but you need to fine tune it.

The motor spinning Icon will stay on screen for the time it takes to move the dish to the required satellite if after reaching that point the motor stops if you still see the Motor icon it means the dish is still not aligned correctly

[clippert]

Yes i have an idea its still not setup correctly in other words your dish is out of alignment, if your dish is moving across the ARC when you select a channel from your list then everything is working fine but you need to fine tune it.

The motor spinning Icon will stay on screen for the time it takes to move the dish to the required satellite if after reaching that point the motor stops if you still see the Motor icon it means the dish is still not aligned correctly

I have the dish/motor pointing roughly due south - I've picked a satellite at 0° east on dishpointer and the line cuts directly through a neighbour's roof and aligned it with that - do i have to be more accurate with south? Will the motor move to 1° west if there is not a good signal? The edge of the dish is about 15cm from the wall when pointing south and there is an overhang on the roof - when looking from behind the dish everything looks ok - just trying to rule things out.

So basically if the dish is not near the arc to start with then when the receiver sends a signal to the box to move the motor will not move?

[digicon]

Usals is software controlled by the receiver and sent to the motor, so even if you dont have a picture on the TV screen if you put your LON and LAT settings into the receiver then the software calculates your position in relation the the satellite arc then as soon as you pick a channel on any satellite the receiver tells the motor to move to that position based on your LON/LAT settings.

Basically the Receiver and motor are not at fault they the motor has turned to the correct satellite you asked it to. the fact that you still have no signal means the motor and dish are not tracking the ARC correctly.

This adjustment has to be done manually by yourself by moving the whole motor/dish assembly left/right and adjusting dish elevation up/down if needed.

[clippert]

Usals is software controlled by the receiver and sent to the motor, so even if you dont have a picture on the TV screen if you put your LON and LAT settings into the receiver then the software calculates your position in relation the the satellite arc then as soon as you pick a channel on any satellite the receiver tells the motor to move to that position based on your LON/LAT settings.

Basically the Receiver and motor are not at fault they the motor has turned to the correct satellite you asked it to. the fact that you still have no signal means the motor and dish are not tracking the ARC correctly.

This adjustment has to be done manually by yourself by moving the whole motor/dish assembly left/right and adjusting dish elevation up/down if needed.

Thanks for your reply digicon but after having aligned south and selecting a channel on 1° west the motor did not move - i climbed the ladder and checked for any movement and the motor (as i may have easily missed the movement as it is so little) was still on zero. This is why i tried to move the motor further east by selecting other channels on satellites further east and it still didn't move. The only reason the motor didn't move was maybe because it was already aligned to ° west?

Surely the motor should still move if not properly aligned to south - it would just not track the arc correctly.

I've copied this from another forum from a guy setting up a vu+ duo in an attempt to understand what may be the problem
Only problem I've had so far is the dish motor not moving properly, but seems sorted out now - for some reason preferred B over A. could this be the problem?

[digicon]

as peckish said it looks like you still have the east west limits in place, if so go back into the menu move to '0' then you should have an option that says 'delete limits' or something similar use this as well then try the motor again after you have rebooted the receiver

[clippert]

as peckish said it looks like you still have the east west limits in place, if so go back into the menu move to '0' then you should have an option that says 'delete limits' or something similar use this as well then try the motor again after you have rebooted the receiver

I've re flashed to box and not touched the limits when setting it up - there must be no limits on it now as the east west buttons on the motor now work when they didn't when i had set the limits in error.

We'll get there in the end - I'll have another go tomorrow and Friday - been struggling with the weather recently to get a good shift in. :)

[acco]

I fitted a dark motor last week for a friend and had similar problems as you first described in your first post, could move the motor manually but I have to be honest it sorta struggled. After further investigation I found the motor was faulty, it had no real torque & even without a dish attached it struggled to move and deffo would not move via usuals.

[Peckish]

Hello everyone.

@clippert

If you can move the motor by using the local buttons and make it travel to the '0' position via the receiver Positioner menu then it is not limit locked, but just to make sure I will explain once again on how to remove any locks.

Inside the Positioner setup menu you can normally find a section named 'Set limits'. The choices are usually 'Limits on, Limits off, Limit west and Limit east' so if you want to remove any limits you would select 'Limits off'. If you want to guarantee that the limits have been removed then on a Superior Dark Motor you can hold in both the east and west motor buttons and watch the digital display count down from '10' until the display shows '---' at which point you can let go of the buttons as this restores everything back to the factory settings.
If you now return to the Positioner setup menu you should see a section named 'Positioner storage' and beside it is a number (usually 1). There should also be 2 commands associated with this section named 'Store position' and 'Goto position'. If you use the 'Goto position' command the motor will travel to the pre-defined location in the motor's satellite table which is Hotbird on the Superior motor. If the motor moves off of the '0' position by using the 'Goto position' command then the motor is working as it should. By using the 'Goto position' command you bypass your channel listing commands and ignore any settings in your USALS setup. If the motor does NOT move then there is a fault with the motor.

If you have to change the motor for a new one then test the motor before you take it up onto the roof. All you have to do is connect the motor with a short piece of coax to the back of your receiver and test it from the comfort of your living room. When you are sure that the motor works properly then take it up onto the roof and install it.

Good luck.

Regards to all,

Peckish.

[Decoder]

@clippert Have you managed to sort your problems out as there isn't an update as to what the problem is/was? One thing that wasn't mentioned - if the dish isn't "tracking the arc" have you checked your mounting pole/wall is absolutely plumb upright as the slightest "out of plumb" will cause you lots of problems!!! Unlike with the old analogue signals you have to be "spot-on" with digital signals - you can't have it "near enough" I'm afraid. Please do let us know if sorted and what the problem was.

@Peckish That's mate for your clear, precise and easy to follow instructions on setting up the Dark Motor posts - they will help tremendously :respect-053:

Many thanks to all replies and help

Best wishes and Happy New Year playing with our satellites :cheers2:

[jerboa]

I've got a Dark motor running my motorised dish, it's been running fine for over a year, but today the motor won't go west, I've tried selecting Go to zero, checked no limits set, also tried to reset motor by holding East and west buttons down for 10 seconds, but nothing happened.

[digicon]

When you reset the motor did you disconnect the receiver cable from the motor then hold both east/west buttons while reconnecting the receiver cable back into the motor and then wait 10 seconds