P9 ..any chance with a 18" actuator?

[JerryK]

Hi Guys... once again I'm being tempted to look to the east...

I've flopped it before when I've tried venturing beyond B6. Should I dare attempt 58w? (I'm in michigan..kinda sorta eastern part of the us)

thx,
j

 

[Shawn95GT]

It depends on your mount. I can go East of 45w all the way past W8 at 139W with my 18" actuator.

I'm at about 112W FWIW.

58W is higher in the sky for you than it is for me. It's only 6 degree of elevation between B6 and P9 for you in MI.

 

[iammike]

There's probably a lot of variables that will factor in to whether you flop your dish. I'd think the weight and size of the dish and the design of the mount would all play a factor. When I got my actuator everyone said I should go 24", which seems to have been a good move. I haven't really experimented, but I'd guess I could get to 40 or 45w. With the 18" arm, I suspect you may have problems going too far east unless you have a smaller dish.

 

[drhydro]

I can "see" from 50 degrees all the way to 137 degrees with my 24" arm. I love my saginaw thomson actuator, instead of "flopping" my dish when i overextend the actuator, it simply quits moving the dish.

 

[Shawn95GT]

I 'flopped' mine over extending West when I first setup the HTS system. The actuator stopped and was able to recover by itself. Maybe it wasn't a true 'flop'. The actuator bound on the mount and stopped. After that happened I was kicking myself for not having setup the limits on the actuator. I still need to do that......

I did reset / erase the sat position memory and set the soft limits right after that though. I don't see how a longer actuator would help my problem.

I'm interested ina longer actuator so that I can slow down the West end of my Arc. The sats on the far West end are <10 counts apart and 2-3 counts is the difference between signal and none.

Shawn

 

[iammike]

I 'flopped' mine over extending West when I first setup the HTS system. The actuator stopped and was able to recover by itself. Maybe it wasn't a true 'flop'. The actuator bound on the mount and stopped. After that happened I was kicking myself for not having setup the limits on the actuator. I still need to do that......Shawn

I did the same thing with mine. It gets so far east and then it can't get back to the west without me going out and giving it a little help.

I did reset / erase the sat position memory and set the soft limits right after that though. I don't see how a longer actuator would help my problem.Shawn

I was thinking the longer arm would be able to extend further, so the dish would be able to move further as a result. Wouldn't a smaller dish have a smaller mount, so small movements in the actuator would cause the dish to move farther east/west as a result? I'm still working that one through in my head, but I think that makes sense.

I'm interested ina longer actuator so that I can slow down the West end of my Arc. The sats on the far West end are <10 counts apart and 2-3 counts is the difference between signal and none.
Shawn

I'm still trying to learn about this stuff, but would the length of the arm make as much difference as the pulse rating? I don't fully understand it, but isn't the pulse rating an indicator of how many clicks you get on your counter per inch of extension on the arm?

 

[Shawn95GT]

On my mount I have a couple different places I can attach the end of the actuator to the mount. The further you get from the axis of rotation, the more actuator travel it'd need to move the same distance. As it turns out, I used the furtest out one on my setup so I don't think a longer actuator will do me any good .

Pic of my mount.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachment.php?attachmentid=5186&d=1127592408

I was thinking more travel = more counts. But in my case it won't help anyways. I think some actuators have different resolution in their counts. Maybe this is another reason they are so well regarded.

Shawn

 

[iammike]

For what its worth, my Von Weise actuator is rated at 48 pulses. It's very accurate on the western sats but could probably be a little better on the more eastern ones. I may still need to fine tune some things though. Since your arm is mounted on the opposite side from mine, (I'm a couple thousand miles east of you) it would be more accurate for eastern sats in your case.

Mike

 

[JohnH]

The problem out here in the east is we have to use the western mount to get to W8 and beyond. With that setup when we go east the actuator will at some point bind against the frame and not go any farther east no matter how long it is. In my case that is about where PAS 3R is. I plan to do some mod on the actuator mount to allow for a bit more travel in the easterly direction. There is an over abundance of capability in the westerly direction now. I can actually move the dish to below the horizon.

 

[JerryK]

Thanks for all the replies. I've been busy the last few days and haven't tried it yet. I think I'll just slew it out there to the east, but then have someone watch when I come back west again.

I'll let you know how it goes!

 

[JerryK]

Well, I made it out there and back...no flops! It's comforting to know I can go that far, and I'm content with that limit since 58w is not an "american" bird anyway.

...unfortunately I didn't detect signals over there. I let my '922 guess the actuator points for P9 and I went there, plus maybe 10 past. no discernable signal. Oh well. It was fun.

 

[tdti1]

Try P9 387, and when you lock it in go to 807 and up.

 

[JerryK]

Thanks for the tip......387 with P9 or CE?

 

[tdti1]

P9

 

[determined]

I used to get P9 on the 8 ft dish I had with a 24 inch actuator but now I have a new 10 foot dish (old actually but new to me, got it for free) and it won't go that far. It is simply a matter of how far the point where the end of your actuator connects is from the center of rotation of your polar mount, I assume you have a polar mount. If you measure this distance and also measure the distance from the center of rotation to the point where the arm mounts to its non moving pivot you can lay it out on paper and see if it will work without risking anything. It sounds complicated but it isn't once you try it.

 

[JerryK]

I got it working, and it didn't flop the dish. But I found that after making a few trips out to P9, a lot of my satellites had to be adjusted to the right about 12.

My theory is that it's "pulling" my actuator or something, so I'm avoiding it unless something interesting is reported on that bird.