Dish moving to wrong satellite.

[nilic]

When I am doing a manual search for some channels e.g. on Sirius, I get them on screen but when I save and exit, the dish automatically moves to Hotbird. Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks.

[nibber]

What receiver have you got M8?
Have you set the receiver up as a motorised dish in the menu?The receiver may have a list of satellites , you need to save the Sirius channels to 5 deg East(Sirius)satellite ,they may be being saved say in the Hotbird 13 deg east settings satellite,thats why the dish keeps moving back to just a thought,
regards nibber

[nilic]

The receiver is a humax 5400. The motorised system is enabled. The thing is that only a particular frequency on Sirius is causing this problem. Other frequencies on the same satellite are fine.

[caribe]

This has happened to me in several cases. I use pet123 settings and discussed the matter with Voith Driver in a few posts back in the old forum. If I recall correctly, we reached the conclusion that there was not much we could do about it.

My solution is, when I want to do a manual search, I go to a channel where I'm sure this won't happen by checking that the correct satellite appears in the manual search box. In your sirius case, probably hotbird is what is shown. Yesterday I was trying to find a frequency on 24.5W and it was impossible because in all cases a different satellite was shown in the box.

I'm not sure if my explanation is clear, if not let me know.

[nilic]

Yes caribe I know what you mean. When I did the manual search I was on a channel that showed Sirius. I managed to store it but when I pressed exit it went on a different frequency on Hotbird. This complicates the problem even more. One thing I wanted to ask is whether a preset channel list can conflict with a channel frequency that is manually scanned.

[mintywilliams]

try disabling hotbird before you do your scans.

[whompus]

I've found that if the frequencies matched some setting on other satellites the other satellite gets selected when saving. I just use hnfsmart to change to the correct satellite.

[voith driver]

hi nilac,
as caribe mentions we discussed this before, but to confirm, you say your dish went to hotbird on exiting, are you sure of this, or do you mean that it is showing hotbird in the sat settings.

keep it in mind that all suggestions i make, are based not on intricate knowledge of the humax but solving problems i have come across and my way of sorting it, which more than likely is at odds with the correct way.

however, one of the things i mentioned to caribe (i think)was that i found when i was manual searching(which i only do to help posters) is that if the signal is not strong enough, it will default to hotbird, and that if you found a channel on the sat you are working(this is the same using pet123) that comes in nice and strong, you will more than likely find that it shows the correct sat in sat settings, and using pet123 you can scroll through the listed channels with no problem, but if you start off with a channel that has not got a good signal quality then you will run into the hotbird problem.

but as caribe has found sometimes you can not get a fix, but in this case you can search but you have to do the whole bit from choosing the sat alternative all the way through.
keep it in mind that you must do the search starting with sat alternative
menu, installation,service searching,manual search,then change the antenna alternative.

not sure if this will help
voith

knew there was a point i was making,
the reason for the last sentence, was that if you don't do it this way, you run the risk of moving the stored position of the antenna alt, which then means when you go to that position expecting say hotbird you will find the last sat you were working on.

[linkreginald]

what box have you got ? i would put it on 19.2 and go in to the menu and go to hot bird and save it then down load the channells for hotbirdand save again itwill go back to 19. 2 it should go tohot bird when you want togo there iwish you luck

[linkreginald]

sorry sirus is the one you cant get drive it to sirus and do the same as above it should work

[machia]

I have a 5300 and it has just started doing a similar thing. It will not always change satellites or it will move a couple of notches and stop. Moving the motor as "user" gives a continuos movement rather than a degree at a time, and as "intaller" it moves three or so degrees and then stops. When trying to move from 19E to 13E for instance, it fails to move and the "moving motor" comes up. It then becomes a problem to move it manually because the satellite selection remains as Astra and resetting the position just resets the Astra position as 13E. I've reloaded the firmware and settings but to no avail.

Very close to buying a new receiver now.

machia

[voith driver]

hi machia,
i would suspect your motor to be honest, it sounds like its misbehaving
voith

[caribe]

hi nilac,
as caribe mentions we discussed this before, but to confirm, you say your dish went to hotbird on exiting, are you sure of this, or do you mean that it is showing hotbird in the sat settings.

keep it in mind that all suggestions i make, are based not on intricate knowledge of the humax but solving problems i have come across and my way of sorting it, which more than likely is at odds with the correct way.

however, one of the things i mentioned to caribe (i think)was that i found when i was manual searching(which i only do to help posters) is that if the signal is not strong enough, it will default to hotbird, and that if you found a channel on the sat you are working(this is the same using pet123) that comes in nice and strong, you will more than likely find that it shows the correct sat in sat settings, and using pet123 you can scroll through the listed channels with no problem, but if you start off with a channel that has not got a good signal quality then you will run into the hotbird problem.

but as caribe has found sometimes you can not get a fix, but in this case you can search but you have to do the whole bit from choosing the sat alternative all the way through.
keep it in mind that you must do the search starting with sat alternative
menu, installation,service searching,manual search,then change the antenna alternative.

not sure if this will help
voith

knew there was a point i was making,
the reason for the last sentence, was that if you don't do it this way, you run the risk of moving the stored position of the antenna alt, which then means when you go to that position expecting say hotbird you will find the last sat you were working on.

Voith, absolutely clear man! Impossible to explain it better.
By the way, best wishes for the holidays and the new year

[machia]

@voith

Thanks for your suggestion. I havn't suspected the motor because I can move it manually although it's fiddly.

Is there any way of testing it?

machia

[voith driver]

hi machia,
i can't think of any other reason for an erratic performing motor, if it were software, it would be all or nothing, i suppose there would be a slim chance that the psu is very slightly starting to fail, but its all a bit intermittent for me(and i hate intermittent faults, part of my job i am on 24/7 call out, and there is nothing worse than screaming off to fix something and the fault is not there when i arrive)
anywho, you could suffer it bit until it gets worse to a point where you can track it down, or you could see if you have someone that can try their box on your setup, this will eliminate or prove one section.
regards
voith

[machia]

Voith,

That's another good suggestion. I can borrow another 5300 to test out the motor. If you don't mind I might get back to you if it turns out not to be the motor.

machia

[scotty111111]

had trouble with mine lately - motor doing strange things - had two problems starting with loss of RS232 port & LNB failing (moisture build up) - fitted new LNB & motor seems fine now - thought box was going to fail altogether at first and probably took about 3 days before LNB failed totally

[voith driver]

hi machia,
if the 5300 works ok on your upline, then the next test would be to put your stb on their upline to double check.

@hi scotty, that's the trouble with combined problems, it fouls up the diagnosis, though i will admit that i can't see a link with the lnb causing problems with the motor, as the motor is first in line, my immediate answer would be that it does not, but on reflection i will hold judgement until someone with tech knowledge can answer with a proven repair. i am not disparaging your reply m8:D if its proven i can then stick it in my brain for further use, (if my memory lasts long enough that is:D )
regards
voith

[scotty111111]

just chucking some ideas about - but box/motor seemed to go mental !!

[linkreginald]

if the dish moving on manually it is not the motor are you sure each one
is switched on enable as that could be the trouble

[machia]

@Voith

I have now tried both 5300s on both uplines. Basically, both work perfectly on the other upline and both don't work on mine. So it seems that the problem is not the STB.

My motor is a Jaeger 90 H-H I believe and I use a Superjack converter between the receiver and the motor. What puzzles me is that I can move the motor manually but not automatically. I have checked the wiring which looks good and clean at both ends. I presume there is a control mechanism that tells the motor when it has moved correctly?

Do you have any more ideas?

Many thanks,
machia

[voith driver]

hi machia,
i can only throw wild ideas now, as i do not know the mount, or the interface, as my setup is a jeager ram, with a v-box mrk2 interface, (mind you it is marked up as a superjack as well)
with my setup, it being a mrk2 v box, it allows me to use the humax to operate the dish directly, the diseqc 1.2 tells the vbox , and the vbox operates the ram with 36v.

if you have a jack/ram then maybe the reed switch/sensor has failed, which is up in the jack, but to be honest i do not know the symptoms for this.
sorry i can't help further, but at least you know where abouts the fault lies
voith

[machia]

Thanks Voith. It sounds like we have similar setups - a disecq STB operating a 36v motor through a positioner. I shall investigate the reed switch. At the moment I don't even know what it does.

machia

[voith driver]

it does the control as you say, i think it supplies the counter pulse but not sure, it will have it in the jack manual if you still have it
voith

[sammylad]

if the dish moving on manually it is not the motor are you sure each one
is switched on enable as that could be the trouble

had the same prob here and it was like linkreginald says so worth a try m8

[Bbigfoot]

Hi Nilic & All..

Hi Machia, If your STB is OK, It could be a wiring problem or your LNB faulty.
Have you checked the coaxial cable for Shorts (outer thread twisted around the inner wire). (On the HD2000 I had a Short the loaded was in black and white,rectified short...Loader was in Color)
Try cutting 2in of your coaxial cable and refit the F connector.

I have a problem with Hellas 39e and ******* 42e.
From 30w (98% Signal Quality) to 28e (92% Sig Quality) and All In between
are fine.
But move to 39e and the dish drops to low.
The motor has the LNB pointing down.
Im using USALS, my latitude is 55N, if i changed that to 66 77N
would it lift my Dish.

BF...

[wolsty]

I don't think it's a motor or wiring fault, as I have a similar problem with my 5400z. I can lock on to Sirius with no problem using the modified PET settings for mounts to open 1784 Sirius 1/2 5 deg E. However, when I open Blue Hustler and look in Antenna settings, it shows Hotbird as the satellite assigned to the channel. I've tried changing the settings back to Sirius, but they won't stick. The blue bar shows the dish moving to Sirius, not Hotbird. It isn't just signal strength, either, as I used to be able to clear Blue Hustler. The problem has occurred only since reconfiguring my STB with the latest HoT, Xamuh PMCT and PET settings. Is the fault in the settings or PMCT?

[voith driver]

hi wolsty,
i do not think so m8, we have had this discussion further down, it seems that this problem is a common denominator with a low or bad signal.not always but most times.

blue hustler does not come on til later in the evening, but hustler tv is on 24/7

the best bet is to move from another sat onto a channel in the sirius group, make sure it clears then you can scroll through the rest of the channels, if the signal is good enough to clear one it should clear what else will clear.

i do not think its a pcmt thing, as this has been going on for a looong time, i have been working on chasing the reason for best part of a year, (not very hard mind you,as it does not make a big problem, once you are on sat)

i know you said its not a signal problem, but here at least it does have a say in the matters, when i can get a good signal, everything locks on and shows the correct sat.

as a test, i followed one members channel, and he was correct in that it showed the wrong sat, even though i was pulling in the channel, i worked through the channels on that sat, until i had a channel banging in with the signal, checked and the sat was showing correctly, i then did a fine tune, and checked the earlier channel and this time it showed the correct sat, this is by no means a comprehensive test, but it did back up my thoughts

don't know if this is of any help
voith

[wolsty]

Hello again Voith.

I don't normally watch the XXX channels, and don't use Sirius at all, so I'm not able to comment much on the reliability of reception. I encountered Hustler etc only when I was looking at what was available on Sirius on my return to the hobby a couple of weeks ago and was surprised to find that they cleared. My 1.1m dish is 5degs 15 mins W, so the Sirius beam is a long way east of me and it's possible that reception fluctuates on the margin, although I've been unaware of it. However, I can normally clear other channels, including FTA's, on the satellite and the reception of them is quite good, so I'll try the method in your final paragraph and see what happens. If I make any progress, I'll let you know.

Happy New Year

wolsty

[voith driver]

hi wolstey,
i hope you have some success, sirius has always afaik, been a bit of a problem especially after dark, i also have a 1.1 but i am at 0.45E and still do not have a great signal from it, but the problem with the misnaming of sats occur with other sats as well,
happy new year
voith

[wolsty]

Hello Voith.

Which other sats? Is 42deg E affected? I seem to remember finding an odd result when I was looking for FTA footy on TV8. Is it purely a Humax problem? I'll have a few days free over the next few weeks, so I may have a chance to experiment with my setup. I like a challenge.

wolsty

[voith driver]

hi wolsty,
can't remember, i know there was one around hispasat, and 23e was a bit of a problem to tune in let alone sort this problem out, its not something i actively search out, usually when i do a check on the settings i just run through the first channel on each sat to see if its found the sat and is working, and basically if a channel appears, or a signal if its a test card then i move on.i have funny feeling 42e takes a bit of time to lock on but otherwise is ok

sorry i can't help further
voith

[wolsty]

Thanks anyway, Voith. If I find anything that might help to solve the problem I'll post it here.

wolsty

[wolsty]

It helps if your dish is pointing at the correct satellite!

Having put that right, the FTA channels now show Sirius in the satellite name field, but Hustler, although it clears, still shows Hotbird. We're no further forward, are we?

[voith driver]

well to a point you are, because if the fta are showing correct, it does not matter what the others are showing, if you can fine tune a fta channel which is showing the correct sat, you will get all what you are able to get, as you are fine tuning the dish, and not the frequency, i realise you know this, just stuck it in for more info
all the best
voith

[wolsty]

I didn't know that! It's both helpful and reassuring, as it explains the problem I mentioned with ******* above.

[machia]

@voith

I changed the Reed Switch (£5 inc postage) and the motor is back as good as new!

machia

[voith driver]

hi machia,
well done m8, perseverance is the key, thanks for updating us it is appreciated.
happy viewing
voith