Mercury II screens

[mreaves53]

Is there any place that describes what all of the icons on the different screens of the Mercury II mean? I like the receiver, but the manual is definitely lacking in some areas.

Thanks,

Michael

[csmith704]

Which icons? The main menu spells out each section (Installation, System Setup, Channel Manager and Utility). Did you check out Fortec website, has learning videos too:
Fortec Star Mercury II Video Learning Series

[wejones]

Maybe he's referring to the little colored buttons. Drives me crazy, since I'm partially color blind, and some of those screens show a little colored spot that is supposed to correspond to one of the colored buttons on the remote. I can see the color on the remote, but often not on my screen.

[csmith704]

Originally Posted by wejones

Maybe he's referring to the little colored buttons. Drives me crazy, since I'm partially color blind, and some of those screens show a little colored spot that is supposed to correspond to one of the colored buttons on the remote. I can see the color on the remote, but often not on my screen.

Originally Posted by mreaves53

Is there any place that describes what all of the icons on the different screens of the Mercury II mean? I like the receiver, but the manual is definitely lacking in some areas.

Oh, ok... Not sure if the fortec videos explain the color coded buttons or not. I'm the type that likes to play around first then if all fails, read the manual .

Starting from the left column on the Antenna Setup menu:

Green - Scan All Channels: scan all channels, encrypted or not on the current sat and TP list
Yellow - Scan FTA Channels: scan only FTA channels...on the current sat and TP list

Middle column:

PScan blue button: Scans the current Satellite for all active transponders and list channels afterwards for possible inclusion to you channel listings.

Red - Edit TP: Change the transponder frequency, ploarity, symbolrate...this would be done if changes were made to the sat TP by the "owners" of the sat.

Right column:

Blue - Edit Satellite: Change the satellite location, etc.... i.e. Galaxy 10R drifts a little, I changed mine to 123.25 degrees to match location.

White - Edit LNB: Change the LNB frequency range.

[mreaves53]

On the main banner at the bottom of the screen in the center is a series of green dots on the bottom half of a circle, what do these indicate if anything? I have figured out the top half is the sound. I have throughly enjoyed this receiver so far.

FYI, the Motorola DSR 922 does not change transponders when you turn it off (standby) and it does change satellites sometime early in the morning to download the epg, but only if the unit is off.

Thanks bunches for the help.

Michael

10' dish, Motorola DSR 922, Motorola HDD 200, Fortec Mercury II on a 42" Hitachi Plasma in beautiful East Central Al.

[rainman]

Originally Posted by mreaves53

On the main banner at the bottom of the screen in the center is a series of green dots on the bottom half of a circle, what do these indicate if anything? I have figured out the top half is the sound. I have throughly enjoyed this receiver so far.

FYI, the Motorola DSR 922 does not change transponders when you turn it off (standby) and it does change satellites sometime early in the morning to download the epg, but only if the unit is off.

Thanks bunches for the help.

Michael

10' dish, Motorola DSR 922, Motorola HDD 200, Fortec Mercury II on a 42" Hitachi Plasma in beautiful East Central Al.

the green dots on the bottom half of the circle is you signal quality reading.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by mreaves53

FYI, the Motorola DSR 922 does not change transponders when you turn it off (standby) ..

How did you determine this??? I think you will find out that this depends on what channel you left it on. Virtually all IRDs with a VCII unit will change channels if you leave it on a channel that is not a VCII channel so that it has a way to get updates of it's subscription info. If you are on a satellite which has VCII channels, you may never know that it has changed channels if it has found one on the same polarity that you are slaving a DVB to.

As an example of what I'm describing. On my Drake 1824, which is also a VCII IRD. I just had my Ultra tuned to the 12180 PBS mux on AMC3 while I had my Drake on the Dr Scott channel 20 transponder on C-band. Channel 20 is horizontal, and not a VCII channel (VCII light not lit on Drake).
I then turned off the Drake. At first nothing happened, ie the PBS mux was still coming in on the Ultra.

However after about 5 minutes, the PBS mux went dead, however I could then tune the 12163 and other horizontal channels on the Ultra. What has happened, is that after a wait period, the Drake goes into search mode trying to find a VCII channel. If it had found a VCII channel on vertical polarity, I would have never noticed what it had done, because there is no way to tell what channel it is actually on when it is turned off, unless you tune a separate receiver to the baseband output.

However if you hook up an FM SW receiver to the baseband, and listen for an audio subcarrier, I think you will find that shortly after you turn it off it will switch off that channel. I just did this, and found that no matter what channel I was tuned to, it would start searching on channel 2, and go up through the even channels, then it would switch to odd channels (which is when I'd lose the 12180 mux).

I was pretty sure that when I tried this several years ago, that it kept on looping through all the channels, but this time it seemed to go through all the even channels, then all the odd channels, then it stopped. Never went back to even. (It probably did vertical then horizontal, not even then odd, ie on a sat where odds were vertical, it probably would have started on odd.)

Anyway, the receiver spent about 30 seconds on each channel, so it took about 10 or 12 minutes to go through all the channels. So whatever test you used to determine that the 922 wasn't switching channels, I'd recommend trying again on a sat which doesn't have VCII channels, like AMC3, and see what happens.

[rainman]

my undien 4600 does the same thing Bill.

[elgemcdlf]

Not sure if they are VCII designated but channels are empty that she uses on G3 for Univision and the receiver can be off and does not change channels. I believe she uses channel 7. It will however if off in the wee hours of the morning change to G1 for EPG download but if someone actually wanted they could turn that off. We are slaved through the 922 for C Band on the DVB receiver.

If I remember I will look but if memory serves me well the 922 stays wherever I last turned it off unless the night passes the EPG download. At that time it will change to G1 to whatever channel I was last on & if it be a digital channel performs the download. If not a digital channel it will change to one. That is where I will find it the next day.

She normally tunes G3 then turns the 922 off to watch DVB from that sat. It slows down the little one from changing channels on her since the 922 is VHF remote If he gets his hands on it you can be in for an interesting ride

[wejones]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

Not sure if they are VCII designated but channels are empty that she uses on G3 for Univision and the receiver can be off and does not change channels. I believe she uses channel 7. It will however if off in the wee hours of the morning change to G1 for EPG download but if someone actually wanted they could turn that off. We are slaved through the 922 for C Band on the DVB receiver.

If I remember I will look but if memory serves me well the 922 stays wherever I last turned it off unless the night passes the EPG download. At that time it will change to G1 to whatever channel I was last on & if it be a digital channel performs the download. If not a digital channel it will change to one. That is where I will find it the next day.

She normally tunes G3 then turns the 922 off to watch DVB from that sat. It slows down the little one from changing channels on her since the 922 is VHF remote If he gets his hands on it you can be in for an interesting ride

Interesting. I'd still ask the same question though, ie how do you know it isn't changing channels? Ie when I say my Drake changes channels, it's something that wouldn't be noticed unless you either monitor something over the baseband out, or notice the polarity switch on another receiver, because as soon as I turn the Drake back on, it instantly reverts to whatever channel I was on before, so without additional info I would have said that it didn't switch channels either.

But what you say is interesting. Looking at G3, I don't see any VCII channels, so there aren't any VCII channels it would stop on, however I do see a DCII transponder. I wonder if perhaps the 922 might get it's data off the DCII channels as well as or instead of the VCII channels? Ie transponder 5 is a DCII mux, ie the same polarity as the transponder I assume she's watching. Might be interesting to some day stop the 922 on a vertical transponder instead of horizontal, turn it off, and see if it eventually switches over to horizontal?

[rainman]

I also notice Bill if you remove the vc II board this does not happens on my undien so i think your assumption is correct.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by rainman

I also notice Bill if you remove the vc II board this does not happens on my undien so i think your assumption is correct.

I know that the search for VCII channels was why the pre 4DTV receivers did this, but I wasn't sure whether the 4DTVs looked just for VCII channels, VCII and DCII channels or just DCII, or what. I have heard from 4dtv owners that they do search, but I'm not sure of what they search for.

Also, interesting about the Uniden with the VCII removed. I'll have to try that with my Monty 50/55 (ie 50 with 55 software). I've taken the VCII board out of that. I still have the VCII board in my Drake, but I let the subscription lapse last year so it behaves a bit differently than it did when subscribed. However it still definately searches. Yesterday, I hooked up an FM SW receiver to the baseband, and listened on 6.8 MHz, and when I turned it off, I first heard static, then the audio on channel 4 came through, then several minutes of static, then the audio from channel 12 or something like that, then several minutes of static, then the audio from channel 20, then static, then it switched polarity and did the odd channels, but there weren't any odd analog channels, so just static there.

When I did have my Drake subscribed to VCII, I'd often need a re-hit at the beginning of a new month, because I generally kept my dish on AMC3, which doesn't have VCII channels, so the VCII would lose it's subscription info. I used to subscribe through the mom/pop place in NH, and would have to call them for a re-hit, but when they went out of business I switched to NPS, and could do it on line, which was nice. But last year I forgot to renew, and haven't really missed the few channels I was receiving. I was only subscribed to CNN, ESPN (for NFL), USA (for the Masters), but I get them on DTV, and quality wasn't an issue with those, so I didn't re subscribe.


EDIT: I just checked my Monty 50/55. I may not have waited long enough, but it does not seem to search either, with it's module removed. It does seem to still be operating though, as with a voltmeter, I could see that it switched to horizontal polarity, and kept sending out polarity pulses. I apparently don't have it set up to not send pulses after setting polarity... I seldom use the Monty, even though it's a great receiver. I'm just more used to using the Drake.

[elgemcdlf]

She was on channel 11 last night. I will choose a channel of reverse polarity and see if it switches polarity when off. If the DCII channel is of the same polarity as the channels she watches it should come back after a bit.