fortec lifetime classic/motor&receiver not working

[airgator96]

I just factory reset "again". Set my true south (G3c) did a channel scan. using usals. (I have G3C with a lock of 66%).

This is my exact next step.

fortec classic:

Name: I chose to set AMC 4KU
its not set so I go to "Positioner"
Positioner is set on Usals I hit save & exit (my lat & long are set).
it says information please wait while dish moves to amc 4ku... only problem is the dish does not move........
It does this no matter which sat I try to load.


a completed antena set up reads like this uning usals:
scan: press ok
name: amc 4ku
tp freq
lnb type: UNI
LNB Power: 13/18
22khz: auto
positioner: set(v13)
diseqc: off
sat lock: off
scan mode: FTA Only
network Search: OFF



I can go outside and manually find the sat using the e/w button on the motor. I then set the "position" do a channel scan, and everything looks cool, until I go to load the next sat. But it will not come back to that Sat once I leave to go manually go to another sat. The only sat that it seems to ever move to is my true south.

?

am i missing a step?

[wejones]

I would first check to see that you haven't accidently left East longitude indicated in your Lat/Lon, and/or in the sat position.

If that is not the case, then I'd recommend disabling the E/W limits. If you can then move the dish, then I'd recommend going outside, manually moving the dish to appropriate limits, then going inside and setting those limits.

One question though, I'm not sure how the user display looks on your receiver, but on mine, when using USALS, the firmware calculates the angular rotation of the motor shaft, and that number of degrees appears to the right of the move button. I'm curious whether anything appears there, and if so, what?

[pmb1010]

do you have any switches, amps, splitters or anything on the cable between the receiver and the motor? (stuff like that will block the DC voltage and make the motor not respond.

use a DC voltmeter, check and see if you get 13 or 18 volts as you change position on the lifetime unit on the coax cable going to the motor.

[glen4cindy]

Originally Posted by wejones

One question though, I'm not sure how the user display looks on your receiver, but on mine, when using USALS, the firmware calculates the angular rotation of the motor shaft, and that number of degrees appears to the right of the move button. I'm curious whether anything appears there, and if so, what?

On my STB, it does not show this information. There is a website that calculates the motor angle from your Lat. Long. and satellite position that I used to manually move my motor until I found out where I went wrong. Also, I could never find a place to set any limits.

When I first installed, I had 90 Lat. and 38 Long. instead of 38 Lat. and 90 Long. My motor, when trying for IA5 would move all the way to the 80 limit to the right and stop. I would have to manually move the motor to zero and do a reset. Then, if I would do a Move to Ref it would move all the way to the right 80 again.

Hope this helps.

[elgemcdlf]

Run your motor to 0 on the motor scale and hit the reset on the motor. It will require a paper clip to get inside the small hole and depress the button. The light on the motor should go orange (I think) then back green.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by glen4cindy

On my STB, it does not show this information. There is a website that calculates the motor angle from your Lat. Long.

Interesting. The web page is one reason why I asked, ie on my Fortec the angle pops up, which is very slightly different from what is on the web page, and is a bit more different from what I estimate (rough calculation) it should be, so I'm curious just how accurate the various USALS calculation are, that these receivers do.
However the other reason I asked, is that a couple times when I had accidenty left the "E" in for longitude or had some other setup messed up, it showed up by being a bogus angle there. So it's handy to have that readout of the angle.

[pr1947]

I have a Fortec Platinum and it does the same thing you are talking about. It is annoying to deal with this situation. I thought it would go away but it is getting worse. When ever I try to move the dish to a different location the screen would tell me that is moving but actually is not. Some times it falls short of it destination and some times it doesn't move at all.

Like I said it just started doing a few months ago. This unit is a year old. The only thing I have done different is I replaced the Fortec LNBF with the Invacom 0.3 Universal LNBF.

I hope I do not have to replace my receiver any time soon.

[rainman]

Originally Posted by pr1947

I have a Fortec Platinum and it does the same thing you are talking about. It is annoying to deal with this situation. I thought it would go away but it is getting worse. When ever I try to move the dish to a different location the screen would tell me that is moving but actually is not. Some times it falls short of it destination and some times it doesn't move at all.

Like I said it just started doing a few months ago. This unit is a year old. The only thing I have done different is I replaced the Fortec LNBF with the Invacom 0.3 Universal LNBF.

I hope I do not have to replace my receiver any time soon.

try referencing your motor in the recelver this happen in my ultra and this fixed it.

[glen4cindy]

Would water infiltration into the fitting that goes from the receiver to the motor? Do you have a ground block between the house and the dish? If so, maybe water got into your fitting there too. Just a thought, because I know water can be an issue with CATV and DirecTv and Dish.

[pr1947]

I'm not sure what you mean by referencing the motor to the unit. I did use the USALS and found out that I'm off about .5 degree. I can live with that. What bothers me is when the dish misses the sat altogether or when doesn't move. Maybe I should replace all the outside cable connections and see if it makes any difference.

[rainman]

on the antena page should be a setting to set motor to zero.sometimes when we get impaitence on the time it takes to move from one sat to the other we start hitting buttons and confuse the info between the motor and receiver.

[pr1947]

When I get home tonight I will look into it. Thanks rainman.

[pr1947]

Good morning,

Before I get started I want emphasize that my receiver is a Platinum NA not a Lifetime however I have some of same issues. The motor and receiver are talking to each other not all the times anyways.

Rainman suggested that I should reset the motor back to zero and use the USALS instead of the Diseqc 1.2. I did that and the were not changes. Let me remind you guys that it doesn't happen all the times but when it does it bugs the heck out of me.

Anyways, I went ahead and rotated the motor & dish slightly to the west. I thought since I was 1/2 degree off rotating the Assembly west would take care of the problem. Well it didn't. I made it worse. So I moved the whole thing back were it was before. I must have gone past my starting point because I didn't have the signal output I was getting before. So once again I moved the Assembly back (west) a tad. To my surprise the signal strength came back up. Here is the kicker, from 58 W to 129 W the signal has increased by at least 10% above what it use to be. Here comes the but, I lost signal on Telstar 12, NS 7 and I got a weak signal on Hispsat 30 W.

What can I do to improve the reception on those three Birds? Do I screw around with the elevation? Any suggestions?

P.S. The motor still not stopping were it suppose to.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by pr1947

Good morning,

Before I get started I want emphasize that my receiver is a Platinum NA not a Lifetime however I have some of same issues. The motor and receiver are talking to each other not all the times anyways.

Rainman suggested that I should reset the motor back to zero and use the USALS instead of the Diseqc 1.2. I did that and the were not changes. Let me remind you guys that it doesn't happen all the times but when it does it bugs the heck out of me.

Anyways, I went ahead and rotated the motor & dish slightly to the west. I thought since I was 1/2 degree off rotating the Assembly west would take care of the problem. Well it didn't. I made it worse. So I moved the whole thing back were it was before. I must have gone past my starting point because I didn't have the signal output I was getting before. So once again I moved the Assembly back (west) a tad. To my surprise the signal strength came back up. Here is the kicker, from 58 W to 129 W the signal has increased by at least 10% above what it use to be. Here comes the but, I lost signal on Telstar 12, NS 7 and I got a weak signal on Hispsat 30 W.

What can I do to improve the reception on those three Birds? Do I screw around with the elevation? Any suggestions?

P.S. The motor still not stopping were it suppose to.

If you have your receiver or signal meter out at the dish, MY way of peaking, whether it is dish elevation on your south sat, or rotating the mount on your extreme sats, is to also use the buttons on the motor to nudge the dish back and forth across the arc while you are peaking. The reason for this, is that when you do a peaking operation, often the changes you make don't always result in more (or less) signal, unless you also peak using the motor as well. So for example, after I've set my south sat, and go to an extreme sat, I'll make a small adjustment, turning the whole mount on the pole, then nudge the motor back and forth to find the best signal, and compare this to the signal I had before the adjustment. Ie peaking on an extreme sat is not just a one step thing, but requires a bit of back and forth between the adjustment you are making, and verifying the results by nudging with the motor. If you don't do the motor nudge step, it can take you a LOT longer to get the thing aligned. I have found that very often, the proper adjustment will result in less signal prior to the motor nudge, but you see the improvement after you have nudged the motor, however this depends on how far off you were prior to the adjustment.

[elgemcdlf]

If your motor is "not landing properly" it actually is landing properly but your adjustment is off. Dish elevation sets the shape of the arc and motor elevation sets the position in the sky.

[pr1947]

I have taking the same steps that you are talking about and I was able to track the Arc from East to West with some degree of success. I think I am like must of you guys, tinkering is part of our hobby. One thing is for sure my system is not completely setup wright.

I have to rethink whether or not I should tinker or no tinker. I have another 90cm dish that I could use for Hispsat. Telstar 12 is difficult for me because I have a building on the southeast corner that partially blocks that sat. That's another story. Thanks for your inputs. I do appreciated.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

If your motor is "not landing properly" it actually is landing properly but your adjustment is off.

This MAY be the case some times, but certainly not always.

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

Dish elevation sets the shape of the arc and motor elevation sets the position in the sky.

I keep hearing this description, and I know where it comes from, which is from some diagrams trying to show the "arc" of the Clarke belt going across the sky, then using that to show what adjustments do to cause your aim to describe a different "arc". This description is a good aid toward fig