Re: Tooway KA-SAT installation manual.

* Do not use compass or elevation tools on your smartphone, they are not accurate because of the metal presence.
--> Never had a problem using a compass when aligning a dish. Use it for a global settings and fine tune with a satellite finder or in Tooway KA-SAT case use the build-in beeper. Pointing is just a matter of 1 or max 2 minutes.

* Using the compass may be wrong because the tria acts as a magnet. So it is better to use Google maps and look for trees and alignments.
--> See above.

* Use Eric self elevation meter printed on paper.
--> You don't need this for a Tooway KA-SAT installation, check settings via the Tooway tool and you have all correct info to align a dish !

* The socle should be perfectly vertical, any error superior to 1 makes it difficult to reach peak signal.
--> Not really important, just use a satellite finder or the Tooway KA-SAT build-in beeper and adjust the basic (elevation) settings a bit before you move the dish.

* During first alignment, the error due to weight may be 1 degree.
--> ??

Our latest Tooway installation in France last Monday took us 1 minute to align the dish, using a 2,00 euro compass for global settings and info from the Tooway KA-SAT pointing tool. and all done on a ....... 100% metal building/roof (using the location of the sun does the pointing job already for 75%).

Look at the pole and the metal roof (above link)

FYI, we installing Tooway systems since 2006

Dear Mr. Kellogs, I don't understand your remarks and I think they are also not correct.

Please consider I am just a newbee in satellite pointing!

* About the compass and elevation tools: I used my smartphone at first and it prooved incorrect because of the presence of metal. A lot of people might want to use a smartphone, therefore I prefer to warn them not to do so.

* About the elevation meter on the dish: it was not as efficient as an elevation meter, which shows "real" elevation. Also, the scale is larger. I even bought a real one online since then ...

* During first alignment, the error due to weight may be 1 degree.
--> ?? The dish is so heavy that if the two attachments are not firm, there is a small deviation. I measured the deviation, which was around 1 degree. After tighting the two attachements, this deviation was gone.

Now one question, as you are professionals: how to monitor the tria status? I would like to know the TX power to be able to tune the installation at any time.

I have never had to dial back into a modem after the install but you can with the normal modem's IP without going into the install mode. Below is a link to another forum post ref testing your link back to Skylogic's servers.

https://www.satsig.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1327532357

with reference to pointing, I only need the compass azimuth and an elevation setting from the App, I don't need this once I'm pointing the dish, These are only used to give me a guide to the right area and angle to point to. Most off my work is on old buildings in the middle of nowhere and try finding a perfectly flat wall on these properties half the time is impossible so the elevation will change anyway to allow for this.

Try the pointing tools in the above link and see how you get on.

Like another poster here, my problem has been to get a firm mounting in the first place. The dish, with Tria attached, exerts a very hefty leverage on the mount. And the only suitable wall is more holes (or hollow bricks) than solid masonry. And nothing like vertical or flat. And the only L-shaped mounts easily obtained (here in france) are underspecified for the application.

In my case, I left here last November with a well aligned dish, and returned in March with it ready to fall off the wall. After extended trials with wall plugs and bolts, I came to two conclusions. First, the only solid anchor on the wall is given by the Fischer system: a two-part mortar injected with a standard gun into either a 10mm hole for solid walls (as in my case) or into a 16mm hole for hollow bricks (plus in french a plastic "tampon" to line the hole). Into that, you put an 8mm bolt (in my case) or other fittings of your choice. It's early days yet, but if it ever comes down, I suspect it will bring half the wall with it. Second, that precise orientation of
the mount isn't possible and doesn't much matter: even if it looks straight when you bolt it on, it will sag like hell once you fit the kit (the dish is neither here nor there, but the Tria assembly is heavy stuff on the end a long boom).

Once you have fixed the dish. I find that my iPad (with the necessary apps) gives a good reading for elevation (applied to the sloping element at the back of the dish) but a dubious compass bearing unless you stand well back from the dish.

Getting the coarse bearing is a bit like pinning the tail on the donkey: you'll get there if you persevere. After that, it really doesn't matter, in my experience, if the mast is grossly out of true (as mine is) despite what is said (rightly for most purposes) in how-tos on the subject.

The problem is that changes to a crooked dish aren't independent: if you improve the horizontal alignment it throws out the vertical alignment you previously thought was OK, and vice versa. Which is true: but the Viasat system allows you to retrim and retrim (over steadily reducing swings of the dish) until you get to an adequate signal.

Maybe I'm lucky: I'm pretty near in the meat of my spot beam. But I have found it much easier in the end (once attached firmly to a wall) than any tv dish I have done, despite the much greater precision required.