Quote:
Originally Posted by BUNNYB
On Dec. 25, 2006, my dish stopped moving and I was prompted to change my dish limits. I could't change them. I have an 8.5 dish, 4DTV receiver, fta, c/ku setup,and move to any satellites. Every day I would try to get it moving to no avail. However, in about a week it started moving again. This only lasted for about another 10 days and now it will not move again. I bought a new actuator and called a serviceman to install it( I could not budge those big bolts). Well he came out last week and said that the problem was my Motorolla receiver--not the actuator or the wiring--which I purchased 9/2006. Well I hooked up my old C-band receiver which work perfectly until I changed receivers and now co-incidently it also will not move the dish. I really don't believe in co-incidents of this magnatude. I have checked all my connections etc. Any suggestions?  |
Did the serviceman actually install the new actuator? Did he check the connections on the actuator and receiver?
I agree re the co-incident thing. The problem could be with the receiver, but it could be other things as well, like a bad connection, broken wire in either the big motor wires or the little pulse wires. Generally, when you try to move a dish, the receiver will send out DC voltage (+/- 24 or 36V), and at the same time it watches for pulses to come back through the pulse wires. If it doesn't detect pulses, it will quickly cut off the DC voltage to the motor. So it is sometime difficult to tell if the problem is that it isn't sending DC or if it isn't receivng the pulses back . If you have a voltmeter, you might put the meter across the big motor wires, and try to move the dish. Normally, you should see the voltage rise (or go negative, depending on which direction you're moving the dish), then if it doesn't see pulses, it will quickly drop back to zero. If you don't see any change in voltage, then I'd guess that perhaps the problem is in your receiver (some receivers have a circuit breaker that may have activated, and it could be stuck open, too). If you do see the voltage, then the problem could be with the pulse wires.
You can generally move the dish manually by temporarily connecting the big motor wires to a 12V car battery (reverse polarity for different direction). You might put the voltmeter across the pulse wires, then connect the big motor wires to the car battery for a couple seconds. Watch to see if the dish in fact moved (perhaps by monitoring some channel, or by having someone out at the dish), and at the same time, watch your meter, which SHOULD jump between zero and 5V. If the dish moves, but you get no pulse, then the problem is the pulse unit or pulse wires. If the dish doesn't move, then you might have a broken or shorted motor wire.
If the service guy didn't hook up your new actuator, you might temporarily connect it directly to your receiver via short wires to experiment, although I'd recommend either disconnecting the head from the shaft or restraining the shaft so it doesn't spin.
Anyway, just a couple ideas.