Old timer needs system help please.

[Tony Daly]

Does the Technomate take it's primary feed from the cable that's looped through the GBOX or from the other input? Also try both feeds from the LNB on the Octagon.

It's entirely possible the Technomate has a more sensitive tuner, despite its age. You could try tuning both receivers to the same channel, then nudge the dish away from the peak and see which box loses signal first.

The cable from the lnb goes into the GBOX. The output from the GBOX is then fed into the A-B switch. The two outputs from the A-B switch go to the SX88+ & the TM7102HD.
The TM had no problem locking the Radio channels on 45West but the SX88+ needed several attempts because the quality kept going up & down.

 

[ozumo]

Your profile photo shows a twin LNB, do you only use one output?

 

[jeallen01]

TBH, I think it's a bit of a "toss up" - SX88+ with "generally better" sensitivity V TM with "better" resolving performance at very low SR.

Thus "take your choice" according to which aspect of Rx "performance" is of the more importance ??

 

[moonbase]

Personal experience is that the SX88+ tuner is somewhat more sensitive than the one in my old TM5402 M3.

I did a simultaneous test a few days ago to compare the Silabs tuner/drivers in an Octagon SF8008 with the Availink tuner/drivers in an Edision mio+. The test was done on a satellite with quite a few very closely spaced frequencies, some with narrow bandwidth, both receivers were running an OpenATV image.

The Octagon SF8008 thrashed the mio+ into oblivion, pictures of the scan results are attached below. The mio+ with Availink tuner found 11 transponders in the test, the SF8008 found 19 transponders in the test, both tests run simultaneously. The mio+ performed abysmally on the closely stacked narrow bandwidth frequencies.

Apart from the better performance of the Silabs tuner in the SF80008, I think the drivers used by Octagon are probably one of the better sets.

.

 

[Tony Daly]

Your profile photo shows a twin LNB, do you only use one output?

Yes I have two cables running from the lnb. One goes to the GBOX & the other is spare. In the past I used the TM7102HD to drive the dish & the I would connect a TM F3/5 to the spare for feed hunting.

 

[Tony Daly]

I got a chance today to do a little experiment.
With the dish at 45West I connected the spare Lnb cable to the SX88+ bypassing the GBOX & A-B switch.
Made no difference as the SX88+ still couldn't lock on to those radio channels.
I then connected the TMF3/5 receiver that I have to the same cable.
It brought the Radio channels in no problem showing 17.1dB. It even found a signal at 11454V but didn't get anything. It may be a data frequency.

What this has showed is that the SX88+ may have a problem with symbol rates less that 1000. Either that or the old TM tuners are more sensitive ?

I have about 2/3 of my satellite positions with their correct numbers logged into the SX88+ now so making progress.

Tony.

 

[ozumo]

With a FEC 2/3 transponder booming in at 17.1db sensitivity is not the deciding factor. At least with this LNB the Technomate seems to be handling the low symbol rate better. However I've seen reports of the Octagon locking symbol rates as low as 333. Perhaps the Octagon tuner is being overloaded, if you nudge the dish away from peak does that make a difference at all?

 

[Tony Daly]

With a FEC 2/3 transponder booming in at 17.1db sensitivity is not the deciding factor. At least with this LNB the Technomate seems to be handling the low symbol rate better. However I've seen reports of the Octagon locking symbol rates as low as 333. Perhaps the Octagon tuner is being overloaded, if you nudge the dish away from peak does that make a difference at all?

I'll try that tomorrow if I get the chance.
You mentioned a low symbol rate of 333. Any idea where that is or what satellite is the lowest symbol rate on ?

Tony.

 

[ozumo]

The 333 was an amateur broadcast on QO100 26e. There are sub 1000 radio transponders on 23.5e. There are more on 16e but the frequencies are very close together.

 

[jeallen01]

With a FEC 2/3 transponder booming in at 17.1db sensitivity is not the deciding factor. At least with this LNB the Technomate seems to be handling the low symbol rate better. However I've seen reports of the Octagon locking symbol rates as low as 333. Perhaps the Octagon tuner is being overloaded, if you nudge the dish away from peak does that make a difference at all?

OR a 3/6dB coax attenuator in the cable??

 

[ozumo]

OR a 3/6dB coax attenuator in the cable??

Or extending the cable or looping it through the Technomate. Nudging the dish has to be the least hassle IMO
Are you able to get the transponder in question? 45w is behind trees here.

 

[Tony Daly]

My dish is over 40ft away from the receiver's so I"m not sure another few inches isn't likely to make a big difference. In any case I'm so far west that the signal from some of these other satellites may be a little weak anyway.
I'll try the other low symbol rates & see what I get.

Tony.

 

[Tony Daly]

The 333 was an amateur broadcast on QO100 26e. There are sub 1000 radio transponders on 23.5e. There are more on 16e but the frequencies are very close together.

I tried those transponders on 23.5 East today but couldn't get anything down. I tried the TM F3/5 as well but no go. It seems ther symbol rate is just to low for the SX88+.

I did get this while finishing off the Eastern side of the arc.
Yamel 402 @ 55' . That's as far as I can go.
I thought Yamel 402 was East but the caption says West ?????
I'm confused here ?

 

[ozumo]

I've had 23.5e 11675v 999 on a 90cm on the Primo, and lock on the sub 300SR transponders, but they take so long to lock that they don't scan in. A PLL LNB helps pull them in, but for the sake of a few radio channels is it really worth the bother to change LNB.

Just edit the longitude (or name maybe) to solve the 55W tag thing.

 

[Tony Daly]

I've had 23.5e 11675v 999 on a 90cm on the Primo, and lock on the sub 300SR transponders, but they take so long to lock that they don't scan in. A PLL LNB helps pull them in, but for the sake of a few radio channels is it really worth the bother to change LNB.

Just edit the longitude (or name maybe) to solve the 55W tag thing.

As you say, not worth changing an lnb just for a few radio channels.

 

[Tony Daly]

Quick question for anyone who has the SX88+ receiver.

How good is the blind search on this machine ?
I did a blind search on a satellite today & when the search was finished I went in to view the transponders.
I was able to put in a transponder which brought in more channels, one that the blind search had missed ? If you put in a transponder that is already in the list the receiver will tell you that the transponder already exists.
So just wondering how accurate the blind search is ?

Tony.

 

[jeallen01]

The basic SX88+ blindsearch is actually pretty "basic" but , IIRC, @william-1 gave instructions some time ago on how to make it more comprehensive by deleting all (possibly but one) transponders on the sat in question - I can't remember those precisely and so I hope that he can now repeat them here (??).

 

[Tony Daly]

The basic SX88+ blindsearch is actually pretty "basic" but , IIRC, @william-1 gave instructions some time ago on how to make it more comprehensive by deleting all (possibly but one) transponders on the sat in question - I can't remember those precisely and so I hope that he can now repeat them here (??).

Hopefully William will drop in soon & set us right

 

[william-1]

How to Blind Scan with the SX88+

Blind Scan guide for H.265 HEVC HD satellite receivers such as the Octagon SX88+ & the Edision primo IP S2, Blind Scan Delete dead transponders on the satellite you are about to Blind Scan Now Blind Scan the Satellite for example Eutelsat 10A @ 10 east The Blind Scan will pick up all...

www.satellites.co.uk

The thread had vanished so I have re-posted

 

[Tony Daly]

My intention at the start was to use the SX88+ as well as my Technomate 7102HD to move the dish through a switch using a GBOX positioner using the same GBOX positions in both receivers.
I have stored the GBOX positions in the SX88+ as they are in the TM working through an A-B switch & I'm glad to say it works without any problem.

The SWX88+ is an interesting machine with modern graphics compared to the TM & of course it has features that were never in the TM.
I'm not sure about the blind search of the SX88+. It's very basic & it tends to miss transponders at time ?
I thought the first time it was my mistake but when it happened again I was sure it wasn't my error.
You can't select the frequencies you want to search between & you have to search an entire satellite. This leads to downloading transponders from satellites which may be very close.
Also it could do with being able to download channels with low symbol rates.
I understand the Octogan 8008 can go as low as 200 so surprised the SX88+ can't.

Its has lots of extra features which aren't helped by the lack of a user manual. This can lead to customer frustration.
Fortunately there is help available here on this forum which makes up for the lack of help & assistance from other forums.

However for the price its a decent receiver.

Tony.