DISEqC Switch Blown?

[Offtensive]

I was setting up my octagon sf8008 and had my DISEqC switch in the following order. (My switch is currently before the motor as I haven’t got around to laying nee cables)

Port 1 - Motor
Port 2 - 28.2e
Port 3 - 19.2e
Port 4 - 42e

I thought I had damaged the motor or the lnb at first as I was getting no signal on any of the motorised sats. Connected my old back to try and move the motor but nothing so I did a rescan whilst my box and motor were “at 30W”. To my surprise it scanned 19.2e on Port 1 of my switch. When I switched back to Port 3, I scanned 19.2e again.

I know that my motorised dish is definitely on Port 1 now as my signal quality is too low for that dish on 19.2e.

Is this usual behaviour that Port 1 is mirroring Port 3? Also, is it possibly a wrong setting I had in my octagon that caused this issue?

It’s only a cheap technomate switch. I’ve got an emp centauri one that I can replace it with, but I thought I would try and find the root cause first so I don’t damage that switch too.

 

[Terryl]

A Diseqc switch can be damaged if the receiver is not powered down first. Also the switch may not take the DC current draw needed for the motor when it first starts moving.

Can you by-pass the switch and go directly to the motor then any LNB, this to see if the motor is dragging the switch down power wise due to a bad input.

 

[Lazarus]

Not blown any with initial motor current but have goosed a few by being lazy and not powering down all equipment before altering cable connections to them.

 

[ozumo]

Receiver -> motor -> switch -> LNBs would stop the motor current from passing through the switch.

 

[jeallen01]

Not blown any with initial motor current but have goosed a few by being lazy and not powering down all equipment before altering cable connections to them.

I've got several very cheap "BEST" branded 2.0 switches that were "bad" from Day 1 when I WAS very careful about powering down the receiver before changing connections as they consistently didn't select the correct ports when told by that receiver and connected via a "primary" switch - as proven when I sent one of them to EMP-Centauri for testing bcause they told me that the switch didn't respond correctly to DiSEqC 1.0 commands when second in the switch chain!

OTOH - I never tried to connect the motor through them.

OTOH2, I've never blown a switch since by not disconnecting the receiver power before changing connections (and I've done that a LOT of times!) because I've been very careful to "make sure that the centre "pin" of the cable connector was absolutely straight before fitting it to the LNB or the EMP-Centauri 16-1 switch - maybe that's because that switch is a lot better designed than many others!

 

[a33]

I thought I had damaged the motor or the lnb at first as I was getting no signal on any of the motorised sats. Connected my old back to try and move the motor but nothing so I did a rescan whilst my box and motor were “at 30W”. To my surprise it scanned 19.2e on Port 1 of my switch. When I switched back to Port 3, I scanned 19.2e again.

Are you using diseqc 1.2 (GotoNn), or USALS (GotoX), for your motor ?
That might be of influence.

Furthermore: When just changing cables at the receiver side with power on, I don't see that a possible shortage current would go through the diseqc switch.
For a switch port to be blown, that would normally be because of a 'live' cable change at the input side of the switch, I would think.
But yours might be an old switch, that could indeed not handle motor+LNB current.
(I had an old priority switch, that I have blown that way. But modern switches should be able handle that amount of current... )

Greetz,
A33

 

[Offtensive]

I need to lay wiring underground for my motorised dish, which I haven't had a chance to do yet. My Zone 1 dish is at the back of the house, and my motorised dish is at the back of the garden. Hence, I utilised some legacy cabling that the Zone 1 dish never used, which went to the living room. So now the DISEqC connects that legacy cabling to my motorised dish. I haven't had a chance to connect my motor direct to the receiver today, as I'll need to take the receiver outside etc.

This setup had worked fine for the past 4 or 5 months and I never had issues with it. With my old receiver I had set my Sats up as

Astra 2
DISEqC - LNB 2
Motor - None

Astra 1
DISEqC 1.0 - LNB 3
Motor - None

Turksat 42e
DISEqC 1.0 - LNB 4
Motor - None

All other sats
DISEqC 1.0 - LNB 1
Motor - USALS

Yesterday when setting up my Octagon receiver, I did power everything off first before removing the old receiver and connecting the Octagon.

I think I may have done something wrong in the setup in OpenATV. I used the advanced configuration option. Astra 1 and 2 were set up as above. But I think I had used DISEqC 1.2 commands in the set-up and USALS.

It seemed to be working fine at first. I scanned in 23.5e and 16e fine. I went to scan in 13e. At first it only picked up about 10 channels. I then scanned one transponder, which worked, and a full rescan, which seemed to do the trick.

When I was setting up ABM and I started to go through the bouquets, I noticed that on 13e, 16e, and 23.5e I was getting 0 signal.

I then removed the Octagon and reconnected my old box. I cannot say for sure that I turned the Octagon off before disconnecting the LNB cable, but I am pretty sure that I did.

Today, I was able to move the motor East/West using the manual button. I also switched the motorised dish to Port 4 on my switch. But I am getting the same issue, Port 4 now gives me Port 3 (19.2e). That did surprise me, that whatever Port my motorised dish is connected to I keep on getting Port 3.

Another thing I remember is that the Octagon had the motor speed at around 2.7/s I think whereas it is 1s on my old receiver. I wonder if the increase in speed caused more current to passthrough the switch.

I will try and have another mess with it later. I think I have a coaxial f joiner somewhere, so I might just use that instead of the switch.

 

[Terryl]

The receiver uses +13 volts DC and +18 volts DC sent out to the LNB to switch between transponders (in most cases) so the motor would move faster on the +18 volt setting. The DC current draw would be about the same, the higher DC voltage would cause the motor to move faster, now if the motor is getting old or has a binding problem, it's initial starting current would go up,(for a very short time) this could cause a blown switch if in-line before the motor.

Try this (when you get the chance), move the motorized dish to a satellite, check for a good signal, then shut things down and by-pass the motor, see if your switching problems go away or still remain the same, if still the same you need a new switch.

 

[Offtensive]

The receiver uses +13 volts DC and +18 volts DC sent out to the LNB to switch between transponders (in most cases) so the motor would move faster on the +18 volt setting. The DC current draw would be about the same, the higher DC voltage would cause the motor to move faster, now if the motor is getting old or has a binding problem, it's initial starting current would go up,(for a very short time) this could cause a blown switch if in-line before the motor.

Try this (when you get the chance), move the motorized dish to a satellite, check for a good signal, then shut things down and by-pass the motor, see if your switching problems go away or still remain the same, if still the same you need a new switch.

I did that today. Moved the motor to 30W using the east/west and I was able to get a signal. I found another one of those cheap switches in the house so I've swapped the two switches over.

The box moves the motor now. However my USALS is totally off. My settings are 52.7N 2.0W for my configuration. But the motor is about 60 degrees off. When I'm choosing a channel at 30W, the motor dial pointing towards 25e/30e.

I'm using my old receiver for this. Whereas when the motor last worked with the old switch it was using the Octagon.

Do I need to reset the motor somehow? It's a technomate tm 2600 m2.

 

[ozumo]

Have you got north & south mixed up?

 

[Offtensive]

Have you got north & south mixed up?

Just double checked again now, it's definitely West and North.

 

[ozumo]

If you select 'goto zero' where does the motor end up pointing?

 

[Offtensive]

60 East

 

[Terryl]

The motor does not have a memory in it that stores all the satellites you use, all it has is a East/West limit control,(soft and hard) all the satellite positions are stored in the receiver, something may have pooched those stored positions. (something like a software update) Or the receiver has had a hard reset to factory positions, your goto zero should have sent the motor to your stored zero satellite, everything starts from that satellite.

Opps just lost AC power back soon I hope.

 

[jeallen01]

Sounds like the Rx needs a factory reset - OTOH, personally, I would also do the same directly to the motor as I had a problem with the Dark Motors which required that after using another Rx (Freesat V7S) which occasionally sent rogue USALS commands!

That means that you would be "starting from scratch" again - but at least from known basic settings on both the motor and the Rx.

 

[Lazarus]

I believe the Technomate motors are Motek clones, so there should be a pinhole on the underside of the casing, adjacent to the manual button, into which you can insert something like a straightened out paper-clip in order to reset the Motor.

Beware, there will be more than one hole - the others are for drainage and condensation mitigation. The one you want may well be occluded by the plastic cap on the E/W button, so just gently push it aside.

If in doubt, this should be mentioned in the Instruction leaflet.

 

[ozumo]

From the manual:

 

[Lazarus]

From the manual:

Tnx: Right idea, wrong button!

 

[Offtensive]

I’ve just done the motor reset which has nearly sorted things out. It’s moving around correct now, but I don't think I have it at exactly zero. It's probably about one or two degrees off as I'm not picking up any channels. I'll redo it in the morning when I can see better.

I didn't reset the motor before installing it, I have only just discovered this feature now. If I can't get any channels tomorrow (after resetting to zrero again). Should I move the motor to Thor and realign the dish?

Edit: typo on nearly

 

[Lazarus]

I’ve just done the motor reset which has nearly sorted things out. It’s moving around correct now, but I don't think I have it at exactly zero. It's probably about one or two degrees off as I'm not picking up any channels. I'll redo it in the morning when I can see better.

I didn't reset the motor before installing it, I have only just discovered this feature now. If I can't get any channels tomorrow (after resetting to zrero again). Should I move the motor to Thor and realign the dish?

Won't do any harm.

Looks as if we're on the right track, though.