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Bitten off more than I chew

Is any one able to advise on how to tighten the tube on my Dark Motor please?

I noticed it moves 1 degree or so slightly to the left (when facing it directly it front) which isn't much, but seems to be affecting the 19.2e channels.

I think this is causing a slight misalignment for me, as slightly pushing the dish on the right hand side when behind it locks in the 11817v tp for me
 
waqy said:
Is any one able to advise on how to tighten the tube on my Dark Motor please?

I noticed it moves 1 degree or so slightly to the left (when facing it directly it front) which isn't much, but seems to be affecting the 19.2e channels.

I think this is causing a slight misalignment for me, as slightly pushing the dish on the right hand side when behind it locks in the 11817v tp for me
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Look on the motor body there should be plugged hole sometimes a do not reove lable.

Pop out the grommet and youll see a adjustment screw.
 
Quick update to close this one out properly:

I did end up taking the dish back off, marking the motor tube/arm with tape and re-centering/re-aligning the 1m dish, so there was definitely some mechanical work involved along the way.

The thing that really changed the direction of the troubleshooting was testing with the Viark. On the same dish/motor setup it could scan and receive Astra 1 Service 1–5 on 11817 V, move away to other satellites and then return to 19.2E with the services still working. That made it look less like a straightforward alignment issue and more like something odd was happening on the VU+.

I then restored an older OpenATV backup from 9 August. Astra 1 Service 1 came back immediately, and I repeatedly tested moves from 19.2E to 0.8W, 7W, 16E and 42E and back again. 11817 reacquired every time.

I updated that restored image, rebuilt the Unicable tuner setup and retested it, and everything is still working normally.

So the final picture seems to be that the dish did benefit from being properly re-centred, but the disappearing 11817 issue itself was tied to something strange in the later VU+/OpenATV configuration/state rather than the motor being unable to return accurately.

Everything is now working again, so I’m calling this one solved.

Thanks to everyone who helped along the way :blush: ❤️
 
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But did you tighten the tube on the dark motor and its a UNO4KSE I am trying for the feeds with openvix 6.8. I dont have a viark, use a starsat. I changed all my rig today and now get only 28east!!
 
bmitie said:
But did you tighten the tube on the dark motor and its a UNO4KSE I am trying for the feeds with openvix 6.8. I dont have a viark, use a starsat. I changed all my rig today and now get only 28east!!
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No I didn't tighten the tube in the end.

You made the same mistake I made ; got too greedy when I should've just left the working setup alone 😂

What feeds are you trying to get?
 
It was feeds for the NFL that I got ok in 2024 but with AFN I never needed them. I had to fix dish it has a wobble as rivets are loose and some play in dark motor so with a bit of wind it was a bugger. I had a spare new technomate 2300m2 so went for a clean sweep!! The technomate has only one button for moving dish press once and hold and it moves west press twice and hold within 0.5 secs and it will move east but as soon as you let go its back to west etc. driven me mad. I now have to do a reset and the pin hole is hidden under a grommet and can I get a small enough nail to fit!! not yet.

I have a few days early next week and may get the main sats back and forget about feeds.

I only discovered how bad the wobble was when practising some feeds on 13 east.
 
bmitie said:
It was feeds for the NFL that I got ok in 2024 but with AFN I never needed them. I had to fix dish it has a wobble as rivets are loose and some play in dark motor so with a bit of wind it was a bugger. I had a spare new technomate 2300m2 so went for a clean sweep!! The technomate has only one button for moving dish press once and hold and it moves west press twice and hold within 0.5 secs and it will move east but as soon as you let go its back to west etc. driven me mad. I now have to do a reset and the pin hole is hidden under a grommet and can I get a small enough nail to fit!! not yet.

I have a few days early next week and may get the main sats back and forget about feeds.

I only discovered how bad the wobble was when practising some feeds on 13 east.
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Isn't the dark motor substantially better than the TM?

You just need a needle mate. Remove the plastic and the hole will be easily reach-able with a sewing pin.
 
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