Magicsat not locking on to Astra 28,2E

[Rvator]

Helen

Just looked back at the posts and on the subject of erasing memory I wrote the following on 4th July.


Quote
Several things for you to look at, first do check that the 12 volts is getting to your control box, you can do this by raising the antenna allowing it to start scanning and stopping it with the stop button on the hand set. Turn on the ignition and the antenna should park. Assuming this is okay then can I suggest that with the antenna parked that the ignition is turned on (without starting the engine or not as you like) as this as I understand it should perform a deletion of satellite details.
Unquote


From what I said there the inference is that park the antenna as described and then with it down then put the ignition on again to perform a memory erase.

Anyway work through and see how you get on.

Rgds
Rvator

 

[HelenH]

So, basically I trawl through the frequencies listed on that site, pick 4 or 5 that I want, and then select those and put Y in the signal area of my set up?
I only have the choices of:
Frequency - the 5 numbers as listed
Polarity - either horizontal or vertical
Signal - Yes, No or --- (which I think means ignore)
Mode - Digital or Analogue

I can select up to 5 different criteria to search for. I'm confused that some of the ST criteria have No to select on the signal option, what is the point of that?

H

 

[Rvator]

Helen

Without being an expert I interpret the frequencies and criteria numbers etc as given by ST in their November 2014 settings this way. Two criteria are used to align the antenna dish vertically and the other two horizontally with the dish searching for the Azimuth alignment (horizontal direction of the satellite) first and the Zenith alignment (angle to the horizon) next.

I'm just guessing that ST only want to utilise one frequency as a signal input in the 'Signal' column and use the other just to check the alignment for both the H and V pairs in the 'Polarisation' column.

If you have been able to confirm a successful memory reset (?) then do as I did and input all of the criteria as given in the procedure by ST. As I mentioned once I had followed the instructions the antenna did eventually lock on but it did take a long time for it to decide.

I'm relieved to have my system up again by using the ST settings however because it takes quite a time to lock on now I'd prefer to go back to what we changed to a year ago as the dish locked on a lot quicker. However it's going to take a bit of checking the information on the FlySat web site to find the frequency(s) that have changed and then select something appropriate to change to. I might be able to put some time to checking what's changed however we don't return to the boat for a while yet so won't be able to test anything unless you a willing to try sooner if I come up with something?

Hope this helps?
Rvator

 

[Analoguesat]

Rvator - the main frequencies that have changed are

1) all frequencies ceased above 12480 for the time being

2) new transponders in the 111xx & 114xx/115xx ranges.

3) many of the old Euteslat frequencies have changed from symbol rate 27500 to 22000, with fec changed from 2/3 to 5/6

 

[Rvator]

Hello again Helen

I have had a try at determining what frequency(s) have changed from the selection we made a year ago and now stop our satellite dish from locking on.

When I was last on our boat end of July I left the MagicSat control box configured for the Scan-Terieur November 2014 details. However from the list of frequencies shown on FlySat.com it appears that 11200 is no longer listed and I now have a suspicion that when we next move the boat that the disk won't lock on again.

From the frequencies we setup last year 12610 is shown as inactive which is probably why our systems won't lock on now with using the group we configured back then.

From what little I have been able to understand I was probably incorrect in saying the MagicSat control box uses both horizontal and vertical polarised frequencies to align itself in azimuth and elevation. Horizontal and Vertical polarisation appears to be related to the number of TV channels that can be transmitted on the frequencies.

As our MagicSat control boxes are quite ancient now they seem to require at least four active frequencies to be able lock on successfully. What those four frequencies should be is the difficult question.

I feel that being a European company ST provide a list of frequencies that are focused more for folk that are located in that area rather than ourselves in the UK which might have a relation to why I perceive the dish is taking a long time to actually lock on.

Of the frequencies we setup a year ago several appear to carry coverage of TV channels more UK biased i.e BBC, Channel 4, ITV etc and although I could be totally wrong that might be why I perceived the dish was locking on quicker as being because we were using frequencies that are being directed more towards the UK.

So the question is what group of frequencies should we now use to get our dishes to lock on successfully.

In lieu of the fact I have very little knowledge and am still fairly confused I am leaning towards the assistance Analoguesat gave us last year and think that these four could potentially be what we should try in this order although I don't know why the order they are entered has any particular effect.

Criteria. Frequency. Pol. Signal. Mode.
1. 10714 H Y Digital
2. 10758 V Y Digital
3. 10773 H Y Digital
4. 10788 V Y Digital

From what I can understand this grouping appear to be associated with Astra 28,2East satellite 2E and the UK area with Freesat and Sky Digital and BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc.

If I were onboard our boat at the moment I would have a go at configuring the MagicSat control box with that group and have a reasonably good feeling the dish will lock successfully. It's going to be a while yet until we make our next visit and I test the theory that frequency 11200 is no longer available from the ST group meaning the dish will potentially not lock on after we move to a different mooring in which case I will be trying the group above.

It is unfortunate we now have an obsolete control box which requires frequencies as opposed to more modern systems that I believe just need what I think is called a node number meaning as long as that number exists the dish will lock on and doesn't need frequency amendments each time the satellite companies take it into their heads to change things.

An up to date control box for our Telco MagicSat 2002A costs I believe a lot of money which I can't justify for the small amount we actually use the thing so I am regrettably consigned to chasing frequencies.

Helen I hope all this makes some sense?

Rgds
The Rvator

 

[HelenH]

Hi again

Genius. Changed all the frequencies to the ones you put above, and it locked on on its first attempt! Thank you!
Well done for deciphering it.

 

[Rvator]

Hello Helen

Very glad you have successfully tried those frequencies although whether it's confirmation of the theories I put forward is another question at least you are working once more.

Out of interest we've just got back from a week on the narrow boat which I left setup back in July with the ST November 2014 settings fully expecting our antenna not to lock on once we moved away from the marina. Strangely the opposite happened and it still did so I am confused as to why because the 11200 frequency did not appear to be in the Flysat listing so logically the thing should not have worked.

With no other posts on this forum I quess we are the only two still operating the old MagicSat 2002A control box let's hope between us we can keep it going for a while longer.

Best wishes
The Rvator

 

[mohiken]

Hello Helen

Very glad you have successfully tried those frequencies although whether it's confirmation of the theories I put forward is another question at least you are working once more.

Out of interest we've just got back from a week on the narrow boat which I left setup back in July with the ST November 2014 settings fully expecting our antenna not to lock on once we moved away from the marina. Strangely the opposite happened and it still did so I am confused as to why because the 11200 frequency did not appear to be in the Flysat listing so logically the thing should not have worked.

With no other posts on this forum I quess we are the only two still operating the old MagicSat 2002A control box let's hope between us we can keep it going for a while longer.

Best wishes
The Rvator

Hi Rvator
another user of magic-sat here ,its fitted to a motor-home I just purchased and up to now have been frustrated
with the sat system - but reading yours and Helen's last post there may be light at the end of the tunnel ?
Will give all suggestions at try when I get home weds next week assuming the posts are current
thanks to both for keeping this thread open
Colin (mohiken)

 

[HelenH]

Hi Colin
Yes, all current posts. I only updated mine a couple of weeks ago.
Good luck....
H

 

[Rvator]

Mng Colin

As Helen says the details are up to date as far as we know!

Suggest you try these as Helen has done in the first instance as opposed to those from Scan-Terieur's details from November 2014 as they might be more appropriate for our area and appear to work okay

Criteria. Frequency. Pol. Signal. Mode.
1. 10714 H Y Digital
2. 10758 V Y Digital
3. 10773 H Y Digital
4. 10788 V Y Digital

Hopefully you have the info on how to do the changes if not they are on the ST web site or we can let you have them, it's a long winded process especially if the frequencies are widely spaced however stick with it.

As I mentioned earlier I have our box configured with the ST 2014 frequencies and the antenna was locking on last we were up on our boat a couple of weeks back but fortunately Helen has validated the others which I will probably move over to when I have the time to spend on doing it.

Brgds
Rvator

 

[mohiken]

Mng Colin

As Helen says the details are up to date as far as we know!

Suggest you try these as Helen has done in the first instance as opposed to those from Scan-Terieur's details from November 2014 as they might be more appropriate for our area and appear to work okay

Criteria. Frequency. Pol. Signal. Mode.
1. 10714 H Y Digital
2. 10758 V Y Digital
3. 10773 H Y Digital
4. 10788 V Y Digital

Hopefully you have the info on how to do the changes if not they are on the ST web site or we can let you have them, it's a long winded process especially if the frequencies are widely spaced however stick with it.

As I mentioned earlier I have our box configured with the ST 2014 frequencies and the antenna was locking on last we were up on our boat a couple of weeks back but fortunately Helen has validated the others which I will probably move over to when I have the time to spend on doing it.

Brgds
Rvator

Hi Helen and Rvator
a big THANKYOU it worked first time ,and yes it was a chore changing all the digits using left and right keys but I got there in the end
set-up was a total mess the original owner had 2 lnb's via a splitter box so ditched the odd one on bracket and remade all plugs before starting to reprogram it
the digi receiver was a telco with a lot of 'dead' channels so I replaced it with a spare sky box now the boss is happy ,she can watch her serials when we travel around the UK just hope that it is ok next year when we do a coastal run around UK
(about 6-9 month trip ) Up to Cromer next week for a couple of weeks before putting her to bed for the winter (the motor-home not the boss !)
Thank-you both
Colin

 

[Rvator]

Great news Colin and useful to have another confirmation that those settings are valid and can be used instead of the ones supplied by Scan-Terieur in November 2014.

As one can never tell when the satellite companies will next amend or cancel existing frequencies it would be a good move a few days before you shove each time in your motor-home to checkout that the dish will lock on successfully then at least domestic harmony will be ensured.

Brgds
Rvator

 

[Analoguesat]

Brilliant work lads n lasses.

This is such a specialised subject - most of us will never even see one of these dishes that we cant give anything except the most general advice, but its absolutely fantastic the help you have given each other.

 

[Rvator]

.......... Up to Cromer next week for a couple of weeks before putting her to bed for the winter (the motor-home not the boss !)
Colin

Colin having said it would be a good idea to test your system before heading off it occurred to me to mention something although you might already know it anyway.

The control box stores the location of the last dish lock on so if you did try it out on the drive before you "put her to bed for the winter" and it was successful then you would down the dish thinking everything was fine.

On our our narrow boat if we don't move in between each use of the satellite system it goes straight to the previous location. Also we don't have the green wire connected to an ignition switch like you would on a vehicle. Assuming a vehicle setup operates the same way and your control box is permanently wired to the battery and you don't move then presumably it does the same and goes to the previous location. The green wire to the ignition switch being there as a precaution should the vehicle move with the antenna still up.

So come the spring I'd suggest you turn her round on the drive which will make the control box do a new search as the the dish is no longer pointing at the same place as the previous successful lock on. If turning her round wasn't an option then resetting the memory with the ignition switch routine should do the same thing.

If you do that then were there to have been quite a time gap between sessions then any changes to the criteria would be obvious and you'd have time to resolve the issue and domestic harmony would be ensured once you have started your trip.

Happy viewing.

Brgds
Rvator

 

[mohiken]

Colin having said it would be a good idea to test your system before heading off it occurred to me to mention something although you might already know it anyway.

The control box stores the location of the last dish lock on so if you did try it out on the drive before you "put her to bed for the winter" and it was successful then you would down the dish thinking everything was fine.

On our our narrow boat if we don't move in between each use of the satellite system it goes straight to the previous location. Also we don't have the green wire connected to an ignition switch like you would on a vehicle. Assuming a vehicle setup operates the same way and your control box is permanently wired to the battery and you don't move then presumably it does the same and goes to the previous location. The green wire to the ignition switch being there as a precaution should the vehicle move with the antenna still up.

So come the spring I'd suggest you turn her round on the drive which will make the control box do a new search as the the dish is no longer pointing at the same place as the previous successful lock on. If turning her round wasn't an option then resetting the memory with the ignition switch routine should do the same thing.

If you do that then were there to have been quite a time gap between sessions then any changes to the criteria would be obvious and you'd have time to resolve the issue and domestic harmony would be ensured once you have started your trip.

Happy viewing.

Brgds
Rvator

Hi Rvator
Good news and more good news
tried the m/home in a different position and it sort of worked but tree line obscured line of site for best pick up
wifey wanted to travel so of we went to the isle of sheppey ,while there made some adjustments and it worked ok
travelled to Cornwall and it worked ,but got frustrated by the 'sky box' time it took to start up and binned it and went back to to original televes (not telco as previously stated)
box and all was well , travelled to cromer and it worked , then via Warrington for a couple of days onto seascale in Cumbria working again , then down to lowestoft for a week with no problem
now I'm back home quite happy ,had to make very slight adjustments to angle of lnb on dish probably caused by variations in position across the uk
Next experiment -- on the televes rx I said dead channels , on reading the screen I realised the it was other channels on other sats , so im thinking astra on 28 in channel 450 on magicsat box why not the other 2 sats listed set up on chan 455 and 460 (if that makes sense) and changing channels on magicsat should swing dish in the right direction provided I get suitable freq's and info to program it , www.flysat.com is a good place to start listing all sat and freqs ,a site I found by accident !
Reminds me of a good few years ago when it was all analogue signal and an amstrad rx -I had a drake rx manually tuned and a 2 metre steerable dish it was fun to chase the sats in the sky -anyway getting back to events of today all is well with magicsat thanks you and the forum pointing me in the right direction and regenerating my interest in sat receiving
I will keep you and the forum posted as to results (good and bad) it may help others

Thanks again

Colin

 

[Rvator]

Good feedback Colin

When we took over our system it also came with a really old sky box digital receiver and like yours took forever to find stations so we ditched it for a Maxview MXL020 which gives us all the free to air stations we want.

Just an observation to lock onto the Astra 28E satellite on our MagicSat 2002a control box the channel we select if my memory is correct is 402 (although might be 452, but definitely 4 something 2). Other satellites such as Hotbird, Eutelsat etc are potentially associated with 455 and 460 as you mention and if you wanted to lock onto those you need as you say to refer to a web site such as fly sat.com and amend the criteria appropriately as they probably haven't ever been updated.

Anyway it's really good you are up and running and if there are others out there with similar issues they will be encouraged to carry on with the MagicSat system as after all it's not cheap to buy a new setup.

Good luck
Brgds
Rvator

 

[Analoguesat]

For future searches we also have another motorhome related question - this time its a Teleco Magic Sat 2002A system

The discussion for this one can be found here:

Motorhome Dish Search Criteria

 

[StevenJay]

Hi All,
I started the thread that @Analoguesat referred to above; HERE but reading through many of these posts, this thread is just as important to me.
Basically I am trying to convert my Teleco Magic Sat 2002A to receive both TV and two way satellite internet.
So first job was to convert the dish to be able to support two twin LNB's, so four coax cables, which I succeeded in doing quite easily, rather than the £200 plus for just a twin that the Teleco agents wanted. I will be doing a write-up later for my Motorhome forum if anybody is interested.
That done I now need to get the dish to search and lock on to Astra3 at 23.5 deg for the internet then to Astra2 at 28.2 for UK TV. Analoguesat kindly suggested some numbers to try as the Criteria for 23.5 which I put into the 28 deg NE position in the box and the dish turned to what appeared to be 23.5 when I called up 28NE but when I tried using 28SE it still seems to point to 23.5 so things get a bit mysterious as I don't fully understand what all the numbers mean. The dish was finding 28.2 OK with the Criteria on the Teleco web site before. But I went through the laborious button pushing again to change the 28SE to the figures posted above but it still moves to roughly 23.5. But I couldn't get any stations with my Comag box.
So you can imagine I am somewhat perplexed. I don't think there is a way to add a new satellite position unless there is another secret menu, any body know of a way.
When i contacted TELECO agents they said there was no way to tune to 23.5 I would have to buy a new control box, but it appears to be pointing to 23.5, I will know more when my iLNB and internet modem arrives so I can check whether it is actually aligning with the 23.5 satellite.
My eventual hope when I have it all set up is to use one normal twin LNB on a second bracket to the right of the Satellite iLNB, one feed to connect to the TELECO box for searching then the second feeding the Comag or Sky box so as to have max signal then when that is aligned for TV the Satellite iLNB should be automatically aligned on 23.5 to get the up and down signals via the other twin coax. Hope I am explaining myself correctly.
So any thoughts ? the picture below is what I want to achieve. That dish as you can see is exactly like the 2002A. It would be nice to actually get hold of that twin LNB bracket.
Steve

 

[Analoguesat]

So any thoughts ? the picture below is what I want to achieve. That dish as you can see is exactly like the 2002A. It would be nice to actually get hold of that twin LNB bracket.
Steve

This near enough Steve?

Multi LNB Holder for All Satellite Dishes HotBird Hold 2 lnbs Polsat NC+ Sky


There are various one available but this one is more compact and wont stick out as far as some of the others - less risk of scratching the paintwork on top of the van!

Like this one Multi LNB Holder for All Satellite Dishes HotBird Hold 3 lnbs Polsat NC+ Sky

 

[StevenJay]

Thanks @Analoguesat a nice clamp but £20 delivery to France. But I have now made one, I was a bit misled on dimensions by the SatHunter program which produced totally incorrect figures for 28.2 & 23.5 I have now done my own calculations and the spacing looks much more like the above picture of the Teleco System. My iLNB's and Modem etc should arrive today so it should be an interesting weekend.
Steve