TechRadar Verdict
Pros
- +
Remarkably free of 'play'
- +
Well built for long service
- +
Attention to detail
Cons
- -
No means of disengaging drive train from dish for quick alignment checks
- -
Hardware limits involve temporary removal of dish mounting pole
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DISEQC motorised mounts, which sit between the existing mounting pole and the dish, have usually been quite expensive. The TM-2600 Super from Technomate, on the other hand, sells for about £50.
As a result it will be attractive to owners of budget systems like the Ross 22300HD-R. During our testing, we successfully partnered the 65cm Ross dish with the mount by fitting a larger U-bolt. The solidly built TM-2600 Super can, however, be used with dishes up to 1.2m in diameter.
We were impressed by the thought that Technomate’s designers have put into this product. For a start, a peek inside the mount (don’t do this yourself or you’ll invalidate the warranty) reveals that the gearing is heavy-duty metal rather than nylon. Although this will make the mount slightly heavier, a longer operational life is assured.
There’s also no ‘play’ to speak of, and so your dish will remain resolutely locked in position once the desired satellite has been reached.
The instruction manual explains in some detail how to install the TM-2600 Super and even provides a web link to a Moteck applet that does all of the calculations relevant to your specific site latitude. A membrane-covered switch on the base will move the dish east or west (provided that a receiver is connected), while a hidden pair of sliders enables hardware dish-limits to be set.
Software limits can also be set via your receiver’s DiSEqC menu. Elevation adjustment combines a knife-pointer with a calibrated scale for readability.
The TM-2600 Super was found to work very well, although as with all such mounts the speed of travel depends on whether the currently selected channel has a vertical or horizontal polarity (horizontal channels rely on the receiver sending a higher DC voltage up the LNB cable).
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