Dreambox malfunction

[elmagrin]

Hi

I am writing this letter in the hope that someone might be able to address my problem..
A little over a month ago, i got my new sat setup with the dreambox as a stb. However the dreambox wasnt sending enough electrical power for the rotor to move so my supplier installed a "digibox" to solve the problem.
All was well until a few weeks ago when i started having power cuts... When i went to move the rotor from for example 13 east to 19 east it just wouldnt move.
I decided to remove all the sats and reconfigure them on the dreambox in the same numerical order as they were set by the supplier on the dreambox. So i started with the 13 east but the motor would still not move... Consequentially i suspected the motor. However i noticed that when i tried to skip 13 east and do 16 east, the motor would work perfectly!!
But when i would save it and try another satellite, it would lose the configuration and go to an extreme EAST or WEST...
Any ideas please.. its really confusing

Thanks in advance,

elmagrin

[zad]

i think the dreambox may have been faulty since day 1 as it would not move the rotator and required another "digibox".

best thing i can suggest is contact your supplier and get them to sort it out under warranty

[elmagrin]

i think the dreambox may have been faulty since day 1 as it would not move the rotator and required another "digibox".

best thing i can suggest is contact your supplier and get them to sort it out under warranty

I doubt it as ive already changed the box once.The dreambox is on ground level and the motor is 3 levels up. I heard that the digibox is a common solution here. All it does is send more electricity to the box

[zad]

never known a long cable run to cause this problem but if it has happend with 2 boxes it must be the case, unless there is a cable fault.

what type of rotator is it?

[elmagrin]

er disecq 1.2 digipower motor, sg-2100A

[zad]

should be fine then, i would say check the cable and the connectors.

i cant see any reason why the dreambox should not be able to drive this motor, i have nearly a 60m run from my box to the dish and everything works fine (differt rotator and stb but even so the disecq system is standard so that should not matter)

could it be that you dont have an original dreambox and you have one of the clones that were floating around a little while back

[elmagrin]

well no,im sure of it, anyway, i got my dreambox from a good friend of mine. What beats me is how on earth it moves when i set it to 16 east and not when i set it to something else.

[zad]

im totaly at a loss mate.

can you try another reciever and see if that works correctly?

[elmagrin]

havent got one.. I'm at a loss myself. i cant figure out why - when i go to motor settings and select 16 east and move the dish east or west it moves... if i select anything else.. nothing.

[satfoot]

I would first replace my Channel List and load a new one. Then, whilst in Dreamboxedit, go to Tools and Update satellites.xml (add new entries from services). Reboot the Dreambox. Then go to Setup>Service Searching>Satellite Config. Press Ok and go to LNB 0. Press OK again. Go down to 'increased voltage' enable it, save and exit. And Good Luck.

[elmagrin]

thanks for the feedback.. A friend of mine told me that the motor and stb might have lost synch if the motor had been moving during the time the power cut.. so far i put it back on 1st sat in memory.. ill move from here..

[satfoot]

If that is the case, you may try to disconnect the Dreambox from the power supply, wait for about 1 minute and turn it on again.

[elmagrin]

my setup includes a

Dreambox -> Moteck Digibox -> dish

Anyone knows how to work these moteck digiboxes? i managed to scan 3 sats... 30w and 42 east to set limits and 15 west. Then when i pressed to go back to them, the motor wouldnt move... it looks like they are not being saved in memory... Apart from setting limits, do i even have to set the 0 position? ( which in my case; i was told its 13 east.)
oh and one last question - What about gotoxx? is it a feasible solution??

[Lawsy]

Hi,

if you are in England a good place to start is the sun at midday. You point 0 on your moteck is already set ,so drive sat to 0. Go out and check and your motor should be 0. Make sure that the dish is aligned to 0 as well (the LNB arm is in the same line as the 0 mark).

Tighten everything up but loosen the bolts on the motor side. At midday move the whole unit (motor and dish) so the lnb arm points at the sun.Tighten everything up so now you have true 0.

The elevation of the dish arm should be fairly low.

Go to dreambox and go dish control. try find 13 east. Just select position sat, select 13 e and move the dish east. You should pick up the signal. save position and then move to 16 e, then 19e, then 28 east repeating same sequence.

Once you get one try moving dish elevation to see if signal strenght increases.

Lawsy

[Lawsy]

also, how full is your var, sometimes the box will do strange things if var is full.


Lawsy

[elmagrin]

i live in malta. i had 0 set i guess, but when i ask the box to drive to 0 it just doesnt any more... theres no need to touch the actual setup.. if i move it to either satellite - it picks them up perfectly .. the problem is it doesnt store them!!

whats var?

[Lawsy]

Ok.

Var is the directory that is accessable for storage of info within the dreambox. DB 500s has a small amount of memory and if it gets full with keys, settings, plugins, emus it starts to act strange.

I would reinstall with a maxvar gemini image and just start again. This with give you a new satellites xml as well. The dreambox is a frustrating box of tricks. When in doubt reinstall and try again.

Lawsy

[Lawsy]

hi,

just reread your posts. There is a digibox that sits between your dreambox and motor . Do you loop through from the digibox to the dreambox.

What actually drives the motor, does the digibox interpret the dreambox disqeq commands and move or do you use the digibox to move the motor.

Let me know.

Lawsy

[zad]

i still dont understand why you would need this extra digibox.
ive looked around at it looks like it is a sat poisoner system but the dreambox should be able to do this as well!

are you sure that the dream was ok to start off with (i know its hard when its a mate that give you it) and are you sure its an original dreambox and not a copy?

[J700]

I got a dm500s and a moteck sg2100a rotor. To get it working I had to replace the original power supply with a bigger one, 2A. Sometimes it does not move - if it doesn't move I go back to the channel on the previous satellite and try again. It seems to work better if I change to a channel on a vertically polarized transponder (higher lnb voltage). I use gotoXX, and it works ok. Remember that if you store satellite positions, the positions are stored in the rotor's memory.
I remember there was a bug in the dm500s software - if changing from diseqc switch with multiple lnb's you have to change the settings to a 1 satellite 1lnb system before setting up the rotor.

[Lawsy]

the later dreambox come shipped with a 2a supply. Still a crap supply but it should run a motor.

Elmagrin, please check the rating on the PSU, should say 1a or 2 amp.

If you can get hold of a voltage meter stick it in the back of the dreambox LNB input. It should read 14v.

It may not be your dreambox that is faulty. It sound like your digibox is like a Vbox and is just a positioner. Try resetting that. If you give us the make we can have a look.

Lawsy

[elmagrin]

right then, sorry for the delay...
First of all i am perfectly sure that my dreambox is an original box and that there are no defects with it... The motor has been giving me the same effect when i try to move it with either the digibox and the dreambox...
I tried resetting the boxes many times but i realised that i never actually resetted the motor itslef.. The digibox can also be used as a loophole to support electricity to the dish but thats not what my supplier did.. (that is what i want actually)
My supplier programmed a total of 15 satellites in numerical order and asked me to re-set them in that same order.. what i wish is to use this digibox only as an electrical support and nothing more (i am sure that this is possible for i know ppl who have done that)
i still cant be 100% sure of the problem as i only discovered yesterday that my motor can be re-set. I am sure of the functionality of the motor and the arch it self for it can move and pic k up all signals be it from 30west to 42 east...
The current problems are that sometimes it refuses to move at all or it keeps on going at extreme ends...
The following are the hardware i have..:

Dreambox 500-s

MOTECK DIGIBOX

MOTECK SG2100A

I'd like to know whether it's possible and advisable (and perhaps help on how); to use to gotoxx function..

Thanks for all the feedback and correspondence

[zad]

you should remove them links mate, its breaking the rules.

can you move the motor just by using the positioner without pluging in your dream?
if not it would indicate a problem with ether.

1 the digibox
2 your cables
3 your motor

your dream may not be at fault at all

[elmagrin]

links removed.. ill d further testing and get back

[elmagrin]

ok problem kind of solved.
I reset the motor, digibox and dbox as it was pointing on my 0 position (13east)
after powering it on it went all west and i had some difficulty with driving it to 0 ( keeping on moving or something) but managed at the last moment.
Afterwards i decided to use gotoxx which is working like a dream.

[mick2]

i have a dm500s and and the same motor as yourself and have loads of probs getting it to move with the dm. i also found using vertical band chans for moving the best way, i also changed image and got it working ok, but it throws a wobbler every now and again and i have to remove the cable from the rotor and plug into my quad lnb on sly dish for a bit then put back in motor. because of this hassle i am now doing away with the motor and have got a multi-block, which i could do with some help setting up :D

[elmagrin]

what image?

[mick2]

using gemini 3.4. might give gotox a shot but couldnt get that working with a previous image.

[tomdeg]

Short The Cable At One End Then Test For Continuity And Resistanc This Should Give You An Idea Of The Condition Of The Cable If You Have A Mega Try With Both Ends Open Set The Mega To 500 Volts Should Read In The Mega Scale If The Cable Is Good