Magicsat not locking on to Astra 28,2E

[PGB]

Hi allI sold my motorhome earlier this year. I got fed up with TELECO. They are only interested in main land Europe which don't use Astra 2. I spoke to the UK agent at the end of last year, who told me that I would have to pay for a new updated system. I tried to get Teleco to pick up some of the costs but they did not want to know..

 

[Boatahome]

Hello all Teleco Magisat 2002 users Boatahome here again, I have found out a little more about the problems we have all been having (and I am still having) with our Teleco Magisat 2002's, it seems that the dish searches and when finally locking onto a particular satellite checks several frequencies (criteria) of that satellite before deciding that is the particular satellite that the user wanted, if any of the criteria are wrong it will go on and on searching, well it seems that there is another way that the dish will lock onto a particular satellite it is called NID (Network IDentification) it seems it is a more reliable way of our dishes finding what we want without having to check all of that complicated criteria that the owners of Astra can and do change any time if they deem it necessary, apparently the NID always stays the same, yes you guessed it there is a downside to all of this, our original Teleco 2002 control boxes cannot be used to find a satellite by NID, it requires a newer smaller control box that with the supplied leads will patch into all the existing leads from the 2002 dish, you will now also need the new wall mounted satellite selector panel (very neat) that does away with the old remote control, this is all well illustated in the Teleco 2011 catalogue on Page 7, of course this all does not come cheap (£800 to £900) but cheaper than a complete system if your original dish is working well, food for thought, I thought I would like to keep you up with the news as I have heard and understood it. My Regards for now Boatahome

 

[Mike Richards]

[h=2]Hi to everyone on the forum. For those of you struggling toget your MagicSat to work you may take some encouragement from our recentproblems. I am writing this in early April 2012 and we are in Holland in ourmotorhome. The previous September I had used Boatahome’s splendid guide to thesatellite criteria to get our Magicsat working first time every time whilst inthe Medoc, France. The motorhome was stored over the winter, the Magicsat wasnot used and no changes were made to the system on the tried and trusted “if itain’t broke don’t fix it” theory. Needless to say, when the ‘van came out to bepacked for this trip the Magicsat refused to get a satellite fix and we wentaway certain that it was only a momentary glitch. On the quayside at Calais,with plenty of battery and time to play I still couldn’t get a signal thoughthe dish would claim to be pointing at the correct satellite. We drove on and,thanks to a couple of rained off days at Easter, I finally found the enthusiasmto try, once more, to get the damn thing working.
It took me three hours and I must confess that I still don’tknow which combination of criteria/saving data/putting the sat up and down etcfinally cracked it. But we did. Trying to recall what might have been thesuccessful combination proved fruitless. However, I can say that Boatahome’slast list of criteria still works for us. That and re-reading all the various posts(for which I am eternally grateful) which gave us some other pointers (like turningthe van engine on to clear the Magicsat’s memory). The only new thing that Ihave to offer is that I would occasionally find that the Sky front page wouldshow the time and date and when that happens you are close to getting a signal – but just don’t ask me how. So, themoral here is don’t give up. Check all your criteria for all the relevantsatellites; clear the Magicsat memory and save the criteria by pressing “memo”and closing the dish after every change.
Thanks Boatahome and everyone else on the forum. Wecould not have done it without you. Mike Richards, Holland 2012[/h]

 

[Mike Richards]

Magicsat users - forget all I said in my last post - this equipment is a load of rubbish! (I would have been a lot stronger but probably would have been moderated of the forum). Having enjoyed access to the tv last, we cannot today. Nothing has changed, we have not moved and inch and the piece of overpriced crap on the roof doesn't work again. I am at my wits end. The dish consistently locks onto a position that is roughly SSW when I ask it to find channel 402 (Astra 28.2E on my setup) instead of the expected South East direction. Please will someone tell me what is happening and how to overcome it? Thank you - Mike Richards - potential suicide victim

 

[Juan69]

You made me smile Mike. Now, I know nothing about motorised systems, I know little about anything else really, but can you not just manually move your dish to the required position?

 

[Mike Richards]

Hello everyone - here's the latest installment of my Magicsat woes - in this case my though it's really good news! In desperation (especially as I had read of other users probelems with supprit from Scan Terrieur) I emailed them. To my utter astonishment and delight they replied very promptly with a set of the latest criteria (one of which was different to my settings). I changed them to agree with those sent me by Scan Terrieur and BINGO! Immediate sat lock and UK tv. Moved the van and tried again just to be sure and yes, it all works fine first time. So, large portions of humble pie and grovelling apologies for anything derogatory I may have inadvertently said whilst in an agitated state of mind. All I need now is for the 40 knot winds outside to drop so that I can put the dish up, put the kettle on and watch the box. Regards to all, Mike Richards
Oh! Nearly forgot - those criteria (for Astra 28.2SE) are -
Criteria Frequency Pol. Signal Mode
1 12207 MHZ V Y Digital
2 10714 MHZ H N Analog
3 11075 MHZ V N Digital
4 11307 MHZ H Y Digital

 

[Boatahome]

Hi Mike, Hi All, Boatahome here, what a coincidence, only today (Thursday 19th April 2012) I happened to look on Scan Terieur's web site to see if there were any updates of criteria for my Magisat 2002's and Lo and Behold the new criteria that you have stated above was there dated December 2011 so I have now updated the motorhome system but cannot tell if it works yet because it is parked hidden from Astra 28.2, we are off on holiday soon so when we get back will report on the situation. Cannot do the boat yet because we remove the TV over the winter but will update that one later in the year and will also report back how it behaves. So happy Mike yours is working now hope we can say the same in a couple of weeks time. Regards to All have a great summer Boatahome.

Just a thought as we are now nearly all on Digital Terrestial TV, tune your TELECO box (to get the Red Teleco Menu) on the Old Analogue System on Channel 1 (provided your TV has both systems) and your Sky Box on Channel 2 to see that menu, I can tell you the TELECO box tunes in on 471.25 MHZ, your Sky Box you will have to experiment with until you see the start up menu (my Pace Javelin Box is 847.25 MHZ), you will need to Manual Tune and sometimes Fine Tune via your Remote Control and save the settings, some TV's also allow you to change the wording of the channel so you know what is what. Good luck and have a great Summer. Boatahome

 

[Boatahome]

Just for the few who have not followed this whole thread this is SCAN TERIEUR'S recommendation for updating to the new criteria at Dec 2011

How to modify the criteria of Astra 28E Satellite and Astra 19 on the Magicsat 2002A system using the remote control only​

1) Switch on the system
2) When the antenna starts to move press the stop key to stop the antenna
3) Press the menu key to get the main menu screen
4) Move the cursor up to the​

‘Locked Menu’ position and press the ‘1’ key 4 times to unlock the menus
5) Press the ‘8’ key 4 times to obtain the hidden ‘Magicsat menu’.
6) Move the cursor to ‘research criteria’ and press menu to select.
7) Move the cursor to ‘Sat name’ and use the left and right cursor keys to find ‘Astra 28E’​

8) Move the cursor to​

‘Criteria’ and select number ‘1’ check all 5 criteria against the following table and modify as necessary.
Criteria Frequency Pol. Signal Mode
1 12207 MHZ V Y Digital
2 10714 MHZ H N Analog
3 11075 MHZ V N Digital
4 11307 MHZ H Y Digital
5 •••
As long as Criteria 5 has 3 dots shown in the

‘Signal’ position the other data for this criteria does not matter.
9) Move the cursor to​

​

‘Sat name’ and use the left and right cursor keys to find ‘Astra19’​

10)Move the cursor to​

‘Criteria’ and select number ‘1’ check all 5 criteria against the following table and modify as necessary.
Criteria Frequency Pol. Signal Mode
1 11494 MHZ H Y Analog
2 10964 MHZ H Y Analog
3 ***​

4 ***​

5 ***
​

11)Note. Any changes necessary are only performed using the left/right cursor keys.They can not be added using the number pad.
12) As long as Criteria 3, 4 and 5 has 3 dots shown in the​

‘Signal’ position the other data for this criteria does not matter.
13)Once all the data has been checked/modified, press the ‘memo’ key. You will get a message on the screen saying ‘Data Stored’​

14)Exit from all menu's​

15)Once you are back to the main menu move the cursor back to the ‘locked menu’​

position and press the​

‘1’ key 4 times. This will re-lock the menu’s.
16)Close the dish down by pressing the ‘down’ key. Once this is completed you have now stored the new data.​

17)Restart the Magicsat and it will now search using this new data.

 

[Mike Richards]

Hi Boatahome - I read your last posting about tuning the Teleco box with great interest. I would love to say that I understood it well enough to follow your example but I don't. To save boring all those that did follow your suggestion is it possible for us to have an offline exchange of email abou this topic please?
email address removed - admin

 

[Analoguesat]

Err thats not how forums work Mike - any non personal info should be posted on the forum for the benefit of ALL our members.

 

[Boatahome]

Hi All Boatahome back from Phase One of the summer, the motorhome touring France, well the new criteria was installed and I have to say generally it worked well, a few glitches were outweighed by UK TV most of the time, we got lock on to the satellite every time but no Sky reception at Calais and in the South West of France but all in all it is 95% better than it was so for this we must be grateful. Phase Two starts in a couple of weeks, the narrow boat on British Waterways, I will install the new criteria before we leave and check it out on our trip although as many canals are tree lined reception can always be tricky but I will report back later in the year with the results, what amazes me is how long it has taken and how many sets of criteria we have installed to get the results that are something like these units behaved when they were new, please may it continue.
Mike sorry about the TV instructions I will try to expand on the method later in the year if necessary, in the meantime I hope you find a boffin friend who may be able to help with the system. Regards to All Boatahome.

 

[Mike Richards]

I thought that the forum might like to hear about my recent disaster with my Magicsat system and, I hope, learn from my mistakes (!)
Due to the odd way in which our dish is wired we recently managed to set off down an autobahn with the dish still vertical and facing into the direction of our travel. Several passing cars tried to alert me to the fact that out 85 cm dish was clearly not in the parked position but I drove on oblivious for several miles. When I finally realised what they had been trying to tell me it was too late - the poor old dish had given up the unequal struggle against a sixty mile an hour headwind and fallen back to an unusual angle. Unable to drive on with it in that state I managed to squeeze out onto the roof through our Heki and, lacking any knowledge as to what else to do, I used the remote to park the dish. It did so but the dish was left sticking up of course. So Iundid the two nuts that hold the dish onto it's axle then, whilst it was still loose on it's axle, I set the dish flat and then retightend the two axle nuts. Upon asking the system to find Astra 28.2E I was alarmed, but not surprised, to find it could not and was displaying a message like "cannot connect to control". I assumed it was completely dead and I had killed it off so left it until I could find and drive to a Magicsat dealer in Holland. The agents were prepared to look at it immediately so we drove to their workshop straight away. On arrival the first thing they did was ask me to put the dish up to see what it would do and what message, if any, it gave out. To my utter astonishment the dish rose, searched and immediately locked onto Astra 28.2E to gave us an instant UK tv programme!

So all was well. The only problem I had now was that when the engineer from the agent had suggested we try the system to see if would work I had foolishly said that it would not as a) the south east was shielded by their two storey building and b) there was a probably a mechanical fault after it had been abused my me, c) that it was a waste of time to try and d) if it worked I would give him a kiss.
Me and my big mouth................

So the moral of this story is a) make sure the dish is down, b) keep your mouth shut when faced with expert opinion and c) if you need help with your sat system in Holland go see the boys at Camper Tech in Hoogeheide. They are at Autobedrijf Peter Broos, Buitendreef 4, 4631 SV Hoogerheide, Tel 0164 - 673 358 or web site at

_http://www.peterbroos.nl/

Tell them I sent you.
Mike Richards
PS Since getting our system to work again the other thing I have learnt to my cost is that patience is a virtue. After our "incident" onthe autobahn and the visit to Camper Tech we returned to the campsite and I put the dish up. It took ages to find Astra satellite then the Skybox told me that "no signal was being received". Frustrated to hell I then checked all the criteria (which were correct). I returned to the front menu and, to my astonishment, the UK picture came in immediately. So now I have learnt to wait when the system says "no signal is being received". Just let it cook for a while and the signal comes in more often than not. There have been countless times when I have just accepted the message and given up in disgust. These occasions have often been when I have had a clear view of the sky. The system has defeated me and I have been ready to tear it off the roof. If only I had known the value of patience................


[warning] Live Link disabled and fixed[/warning]

 

[Lazarus]

Your Sky Box may be faulty of course - failing to lock could be symptomatic of incipient Power Supply Smoothing Capacitor failure: What Make/Model is it?


For partly degraded Capacitors of the ilk, it is not uncommon for the Box to recover from an apparent malfunction once it's been powered up for a while. The effect is more pronounced, of course, if the Box is only occasionally used.

 

[syrett]

I too have had this problem now cured.

I tried the above but it still kept coming up Astra 19 whatever I did.

So I entered the criteria for astra 28 ...IN THE ASTRA 19 box ie in no.7 above find the astra 19 not astra 28 then continue. It worked for me.I also entered the same criteria for astra 28.

 

[Mike Richards]

In an earlier posting Tivu said "Your Sky Box may be faulty of course - failing to lock could be symptomatic of incipient Power Supply Smoothing Capacitor failure: What Make/Model is it? For partly degraded Capacitors of the ilk, it is not uncommon for the Box to recover from an apparent malfunction once it's been powered up for a while. The effect is more pronounced, of course, if the Box is only occasionally used."
Phew! "Incipient power supply smoothing capacitator failure" sounds dire (wish I knew what it meant though).
Tivu - thank you for your reply. You clearly know a great deal more about this than I (ever) will. Now that I have the motorhome back at home I have found the information that you asked for. The box is made by Pace; the model number is DS430N and the other serial number is CABAAWE13710809. Could I ask you to tell me whether or not "Incipient power supply smoothing capacitator failure" is likely with this age and model? And if so, what I can do about it? Thank you. Your expertise is very welcome. Regards, Mike

 

[Lazarus]

Hi Mike.

Well I have a DS430N too (now no longer in use) ........ but fortunately it doesn't have a reputation for being prone to the failure we were talking about.

That said, even though some Models (Older Pace boxes - much older; Thomsons of any vintage and the old Grundig boxes) are notorious for it and others aren't, the issue can be Batch related ie It rather depends upon where the components in question were sourced for a given production run.

But of course you could check your DS430N is working ok by enlisting the use of someone else's fixed dish and attaching it to that.

 

[Boatahome]

Hello all Boatahome here once again, we have just completed a tour of Europe in the motorhome and am happy to report the Teleco Magisat locked onto Astra 28.2 every single time in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany thanks to our good friends at SCAN TERIEUR with their December 2012 updated criteria for our Teleco Magisat 2002A's. The only difference between the 2011 criteria and the new is criteria number 2 on Astra 28E (it was 10714 MHZ H N Analogue), it is now 11097 MHZ V N Digital, I have installed it on the motorhome unit and the system works like a dream, in fact I would say it works as well as when the system was brand new over 10 years ago. Check out SCAN TERIEUR's web site or refer to my posting 19th April 2012 for the way to update your system and remember to just change criteria 2 on Astra 28E as above. As for the boat, it was a waste of space in 2012 only finding Astra 28E once in nearly a hundred attempts, I hope the update when I do it will bring it in line with the success of the motorhome for 2013, I will report back in the Autumn. Have a good summer and keep in touch. Regards Boatahome.

 

[Rvator]

Hello to everyone

I realise this is an old forum thread however hopefully it is still watched by someone.

I have an issue with the Magic Sat 2002a installation on our narrowboat. The issue is very similar to the discussions of members on this thread however despite trying the suggestions and having the very good helpful advice from Scan Terieur support I have been unable to resolve the issue.

At the risk of repeating symptoms that already match others in this post I would like to outline my issue and hope someone can offer something that will resolve it.

Back last April (2014) I was on the boat and had no trouble with the dish locking into Astra 28 and in fact it had been mostly no problem in the area we cruise since I had entered the July 2010 criteria into the system over a year back.

However on returning for our next visit in May although the dish automatically finds a satellite in what seems the correct direction for Astra 28 all we get on our FTA digital receiver is non UK channels.

Our Maxview MXL020 digital receiver has now been tested on a static satellite antenna known to be on Astra 28 and will successfully auto scan the UK only channels so is not the issue.

I have communicated with Scan Terieur and on their advice taken the 'DECEMBER 2012' criteria and definitely stored them in the control box however with these settings the dish appears to seek and find the Astra 28 satellite displays the message 'checking satellite' but does not lock on and does this over an over and never locks on to it.

If I return to the remote menu system and carefully using the guidance for changing the research criteria amend the settings back to the 'JULY 2010' criteria that we have been using without issue right up to April the dish locks on straight away on to what it says is Astra 28 but we can only tune in non UK channels on the digital receiver.

I am completely confused on what is happening, in the first instance as to why what was good right up to April changed in May without doing anything to the Magic Sat 2002a settings or the FTA digital receiver and despite the antenna apparently locking on to Astra 28 now only non UK channels are tuned in. Then secondly as to why when apparently current research criteria for December 2012 are entered the control box\antenna appears to find the Astra 28 satellite but will consistently refuse to lock on when clearly it is quite happy to do so with earlier July 2010 settings.

Please can anyone offer any insight as to what is happening?

 

[Analoguesat]

If you are getting mainly German channels then the dish is actually pointing at 19E.

If its lots of Arabic & Italian services then its pointing at Hotbird 13E.

It certainly isnt impossible that a software corruption for the pre April software (accidentally or by overwriting the settings inadvertently) has screwed the settings up.

 

[Rvator]

If you are getting mainly German channels then the dish is actually pointing at 19E.

If its lots of Arabic & Italian services then its pointing at Hotbird 13E.

It certainly isnt impossible that a software corruption for the pre April software (accidentally or by overwriting the settings inadvertently) has screwed the settings up.

Hi Analoguesat

I can confirm that the channels pulled in by the Maxview MXL020 digital receiver look to be German which from your logic suggests the Magic Sat 2002a system is aligning the dish to Astra 19e although the digital receiver is setup for and supposedly thinks it is using Astra 28e

What I can't get my head around is how to overcome the issue. I have re read all the previous posts to this forum and although old now can identify my problem as being similar to that faced by people before and I have tried the various fixes suggested from using the 'green wire' technique to clear the satellite location held in the control box through to setting up the 'research criteria' to exactly match the settings given by Scan Terieur for December 2012 and yet when using these the antenna refuses to lock on to what I suppose is the Astra 28e satellite.

I would be very grateful for someone out there with the Magic Sat 2002a to confirm for me their research criteria settings and any advice on how to get the antenna back to locking on to Astra 28e.

Rvator.