DISEqC Switch Blown?

[jeallen01]

From the manual:

Confusing instructions!!!!
- No 1 says power the Rx on to begin with
- But the last part of No 3 appears to say the exact opposite!

From experience with the Dark Motors, & IIRC, you follow No 1, then disconnect the cable to the motor and follow the rest of No 2 onwards (apart from the last sentence of No 3) and finally reconnect the cable to the motor - and that worked for me (several times).

 

[ozumo]

Think it means cycle the power after the reset before using it again? If there's no power to the motor the LED won't light up to show the reset has happened

 

[jeallen01]

Think it means cycle the power after the reset before using it again? If there's no power to the motor the LED won't light up to show the reset has happened

Maybe thus, but I don't remember having to cycle the power as the DM's appeared to then work correctly without doing that - OTOH, not having used the TM motor, I can't confirm that to be necessary for those.

 

[a33]

I think it is because the receiver at this moment does not have info of where the motor actually is.
So it is more a precaution, I think, than actually necessary.

Though the only real problem I can think of is in diseqc 1.2 GotoNn mode: that the receiver still thinks it is in position Nn, though in fact the motor is now at Zero.

Greetz,
A33

 

[Terryl]

I'm back.....The motor should be set to True South (180 degrees due South from your location) if your starting over by resting everything in the receiver, then set your longitude and latitude in the receiver, then find your due South satellite (any satellite at or around 2.0 degrees, your longitude) and set it to the "Return to Zero" satellite, then find all available satellites, you may have to tweak the satellite positions as the longitude and latitude settings are only two decimal places.

 

[Offtensive]

I couldn't resist last night and I had one last attempt at resetting it. It's still not perfect but by adjusting my USALS from 2.0W to 2.8W, my sigma; quality was nearing where it was before.

Hopefully later this afternoon provided the weather holds out I'll get a chance to put my USALS back to two and peak the dish again.

I have heard of people mentioning before that when they switch boxes they move the dish to Thor first. Is there any reasoning behind that? Also, i was planning to use a priority switch between the two boxes, would I need to consider any constraints when doing this?

Thanks

 

[Ferret]

I couldn't resist last night and I had one last attempt at resetting it. It's still not perfect but by adjusting my USALS from 2.0W to 2.8W, my sigma; quality was nearing where it was before.

Hopefully later this afternoon provided the weather holds out I'll get a chance to put my USALS back to two and peak the dish again.

I have heard of people mentioning before that when they switch boxes they move the dish to Thor first. Is there any reasoning behind that? Also, i was planning to use a priority switch between the two boxes, would I need to consider any constraints when doing this?

Thanks

Since your using usuals and that will take care of any offset you can use any sat you want.

I initially use a strong sat then final tweaks on a weak sat as your usuals positioning picks one up.

 

[jeallen01]

....I have heard of people mentioning before that when they switch boxes they move the dish to Thor first. Is there any reasoning behind that? ...

Simply because many people on the forum are in the UK and Thor is thus the satellite most directly South (and thus at the peak elevation setting of the arc) at 0.8W deg latitude for most of us - therefore setting the motor to 0 deg before "doing anything" should mean that it should not require much physical movement of the motor in order to "find" and search Thor as the first "datum" satellite to acquire.

 

[Ferret]

I couldn't resist last night and I had one last attempt at resetting it. It's still not perfect but by adjusting my USALS from 2.0W to 2.8W, my sigma; quality was nearing where it was before.

Hopefully later this afternoon provided the weather holds out I'll get a chance to put my USALS back to two and peak the dish again.

I have heard of people mentioning before that when they switch boxes they move the dish to Thor first. Is there any reasoning behind that? Also, i was planning to use a priority switch between the two boxes, would I need to consider any constraints when doing this?

Thanks

If you do use 0.8w with usuals send the motor to 0.8w not 0.0 then tweak.

If you send to 0 on a usuals system youll be messing around with your Longitude setting on your receiver to peak it.

 

[a33]

I have heard of people mentioning before that when they switch boxes they move the dish to Thor first. Is there any reasoning behind that?

When switching boxes, the motor could be confused of where it actually is; thus causing incorrect satellite aiming angles.
A Goto-0 or Goto-Ref command brings the motor back to Zero-position (saved in the motor, with the last motor-reset) again, so that the confusion is solved.
It does not matter, if you do this GotoRef or Goto0 before, or after, the switching boxes. And often, the Goto0 is not needed at all, as the 'confusion' does not always happen.

Also, i was planning to use a priority switch between the two boxes, would I need to consider any constraints when doing this?

The 'master receiver' should give no LNB-power, when you want control for the 'slave'.
Not all receivers power off the LNB, when in standby. So then you'd need a 'deep sleep standby', or a 'hard' power down, or a changing of receivers on master and slave port (if the other receiver does power off the LNB correctly).

Greetz,
A33

 

[ozumo]

The 'master receiver' should give no LNB-power, when you want control for the 'slave'.
Not all receivers power off the LNB, when in standby. So then you'd need a 'deep sleep standby', or a 'hard' power down, or a changing of receivers on master and slave port (if the other receiver does power off the LNB correctly).

If the receiver allows custom LNB settings for each position you could (on a satellite you don't use) set LNB power to off, scan in any channel and then assign it a memorable channel number. Then select that channel (or the 'power off' satellite) when you want to use the other receiver. Saves the faff of waiting for the receiver to boot up.

 

[Offtensive]

I reset-ed the motor again and slightly adjusted the USALS to peak the dsh.

Then I connected up the two boxes using the Goobay priority switch, with the Octagon being in the slave socket. I changed the settings on the Octagon to the below so that the motor would only be controlled using the other receiver via USALS.

Port A - The motorsised sats - 30W, 0.8, 13E, 16E







Port B - 28.2E



Port C - 19.2E






Everything was working fine with this. Octagon would get a signal as soon as the main box went into standby. However, I was messing around with webif earlier today, so I can't remember what channel I selected (I think primarily on 19.2e). And then the same issue occurred again with my motor, i.e. 'zero' had become 60e on it. Then I had to reset the motor again.

I think this issue is due to the Octagon as both times its happened when using that receiver.

I wonder if I need to do something with the settings below, as all the ones above look ok to me given my limited knowledge.

Some other settings (I think this may be where the error came from)

 

[Terryl]

My old brain is a bit confused.(usually is till the coffee kicks in)..How many satellite dishes and receivers are we working with???

 

[Offtensive]

My old brain is a bit confused.(usually is till the coffee kicks in)..How many satellite dishes and receivers are we working with???

I have 3 dishes (one motorised and 2 fixed) feeding into a disecq switch. However, for some reason my Octagon receiver seems to be changing the 'zero' point on the motor to 60E.

It's happened twice now, first time I had the motor configured as USALS in the Octagon menu. The second time, I configured each of the satellites on my motorised dish as 'fixed' satellites on diseqc port A Here I used another receiver via a priority switch to move the motor.

I think there may be some setting with the Octagon that I changed and have forgotten or need to change that is cause the motor to think that zero is at 60E.

 

[a33]

I think there may be some setting with the Octagon that I changed and have forgotten or need to change that is cause the motor to think that zero is at 60E.

Or it might be a software bug of the octagon.
Do you have recent software, and updates?

Did you do a blind scan, before the problem occurred (read something about an update in 2018 for that, See e.g. this thread: OCTAGON SF8008 E2 4K UHD ).

Did you also try, if not using USALS but just diseqc 1.2 (GotoNn) is better?

Greetz,
A33

 

[Terryl]

Hummm well something funny is going on..... I would do this...Use one receiver (and only that receiver) to move the motor and that one directly to the motor, by passing any switch, then use a dual output LNB on the motorized dish, run the second output to the switch and then feed any other receiver(s) with the switch output.