Lifetime questions/problem?

[wejones]

I'm not sure if what I am experiencing are problems with the receiver, or normal, so I have a couple questions.
(1) Is there a limit to the number of satellites you can define? Reason I ask, is that I have about 60 satellites defined, and went to define another one, but the "new" entry doesn't appear anymore. I had to re-name an un-used sat. Does this mean I've exceeded the max number of sats or is there something wrong with the receiver?
(2) I attached a DSS type lnbf to the side of my big dish feedhorn, and tried to use this lnb to experiment with tuning in some of the 12200-12700 CP sats. I assumed that the LO freq of the DSS lnb was 11250(perhaps wrong?), and entered that. I then defined a transponder, but when I went to tune it, the receiver seemed to lock up. Is there a limit to the LO freqs that can be entered into this receiver, or is there some other reason the receiver locked up? If there is a limit, I guess I can put in a conventional LO freq and adjust the transponder freq to match, but it didn't seem like this should be necessary.
Can someone comment on whether there is a problem with my receiver, or if I have exceeded some software limits on the receiver?
BTW, I only have about 250 channels saved, so I thought I had lots of memory space left.
Thanks. Any help appreciated.

[bobkat]

Originally Posted by wejones

(1) Is there a limit to the number of satellites you can define? Reason I ask, is that I have about 60 satellites defined, and went to define another one, but the "new" entry doesn't appear anymore. I had to re-name an un-used sat. Does this mean I've exceeded the max number of sats or is there something wrong with the receiver?

I'm not that up-to-speed on Fortec receivers but I would say you have reached the limit -- I mean isn't 60 satellites enough? You can't possible tune in that many. I think your only option is to start renaming satellites. There is nothing wrong with the receiver.

kat

[wejones]

Thanks. You are probably right (I hope). You're right that I have plenty of un-used sats that I can re-name, and I can't see 60 sats, but the reason I have so many is that I was defining the C and Ku side separately for several sats, plus the receiver came pre-programmed with a lot of sats, many of which I didn't have any interest in, but didn't have the ones I was interested in.
I guess I'll just start deleting a few, and see if it then allows me to put some more in.
I'm still kind of nervous about the thing locking up when I tried tuning a 12200-12700 dbs sat, so I'm interested in how other Lifetime owners do this.
Thanks.

[dtsexpert]

Before you delete the any sats, make sure you delete the one you will never use (Asian sats for example). The reason is that any new sats keyed manually can't be assigned the Long/Lat. Long/Lat is important if you use Diseqc 1.3 (USALS). If you don't use USALS, no needs to worry...:-)
Also, why not use a 22khz for switch between C and Ku. That's way you don't have to use 2 sats for C and Ku.
Yes, the LO for circular feed is 11250. I have no idea why your receiver locked up. It should work.
Michael

Originally Posted by wejones

Thanks. You are probably right (I hope). You're right that I have plenty of un-used sats that I can re-name, and I can't see 60 sats, but the reason I have so many is that I was defining the C and Ku side separately for several sats, plus the receiver came pre-programmed with a lot of sats, many of which I didn't have any interest in, but didn't have the ones I was interested in.
I guess I'll just start deleting a few, and see if it then allows me to put some more in.
I'm still kind of nervous about the thing locking up when I tried tuning a 12200-12700 dbs sat, so I'm interested in how other Lifetime owners do this.
Thanks.

[wejones]

> Also, why not use a 22khz for switch between C and Ku. That's way you
> don't have to use 2 sats for C and Ku.

I'm using a diseq switch to switch between C and Ku, which works, but when you set up the satellite in the "antenna setup" menu, I only see a way to enter one LO freq, ie not one for C and one for Ku, plus there is only one place to enter the diseq tone to be used, so I am confused as to how you can set up a sat for both C and Ku? Some of the sats came configured with both C and Ku transponders loaded, but I assumed that you'd have to change the sat setup to switch back and forth. Is there a way to do this with the Lifetime receiver that I am missing?

> Yes, the LO for circular feed is 11250. I have no idea why your receiver
> locked up. It should work.

OK, thanks. I'll try it again. Perhaps there was some other reason the receiver locked up. I just did a major re-organization of all the wiring out to the dish, relocated my receivers and put in new ribbon cable for the dish, and used the old ribbon cable for the add on DSS lnb, and perhaps I mixed up where one of the cables was going or something?
Thanks for the response.

[dtsexpert]

If you use 22kz switch for C/Ku, here is how to set it up:
Go to antena setting, change the "single" to "universal", set low LO 5150, High LO 10750.
It will be very hard to find the "right" position for circular lnbf on the C-band dish. Some users have done it, but it takes lot of time to find right spot.
Michael

Originally Posted by wejones

> Also, why not use a 22khz for switch between C and Ku. That's way you
> don't have to use 2 sats for C and Ku.

I'm using a diseq switch to switch between C and Ku, which works, but when you set up the satellite in the "antenna setup" menu, I only see a way to enter one LO freq, ie not one for C and one for Ku, plus there is only one place to enter the diseq tone to be used, so I am confused as to how you can set up a sat for both C and Ku? Some of the sats came configured with both C and Ku transponders loaded, but I assumed that you'd have to change the sat setup to switch back and forth. Is there a way to do this with the Lifetime receiver that I am missing?

> Yes, the LO for circular feed is 11250. I have no idea why your receiver
> locked up. It should work.

OK, thanks. I'll try it again. Perhaps there was some other reason the receiver locked up. I just did a major re-organization of all the wiring out to the dish, relocated my receivers and put in new ribbon cable for the dish, and used the old ribbon cable for the add on DSS lnb, and perhaps I mixed up where one of the cables was going or something?
Thanks for the response.

[wejones]

> If you use 22kz switch for C/Ku,
> here is how to set it up:
> Go to antena setting, change the
> "single" to "universal", set low
> LO 5150, High LO 10750.

OK, I'll try that. I didn't realize you could change the LO values in any category except the "Standard". That will simplify things if that works.

> It will be very hard to find the
> "right" position for circular
> lnbf on the C-band dish. Some
> users have done it, but it takes
> lot of time to find right spot.
> Michael

Yeah, I'm finding that out. I connected a DTV receiver, and got a reading of 40, which I guess is OK considering the lnb is just tied on with wire ties, but I think I'll try tweaking it a bit before I proceed.
Thanks.

[wejones]

> If you use 22kz switch for C/Ku,
> here is how to set it up:
> Go to antena setting, change the
> "single" to "universal", set low
> LO 5150, High LO 10750.

I had a bit of time to experiment with this. I don't have a 22khz switch, so I tried the above with the diseqc switch turned on. I assume your answer must be generic for other receivers or perhaps for a different firmware version, because it didn't work. When set to universal or anything but standard, I could not get into the LO window to change anything. They are fixed, and grayed out. Only in the "standard" category can I change the value. I thought perhaps it might be different if I selected 22khz, but it is the same there, ie I cannot change the LO values in universal mode, only in standard mode, and that doesn't have a high/low, just a single entry.
Perhaps there is some way to change this via the serial software, but I haven't tried using this yet. So I think I am stuck with defining the C and Ku sides as separate satellites.

> It will be very hard to find the
> "right" position for circular
> lnbf on the C-band dish. Some
> users have done it, but it takes
> lot of time to find right spot.

Had a bit of time to play with the circular lnbf too. Actually got it to work. Picked up a few of the music channels on one of the dish sats. Pretty poor reception. I'm not sure what my problem was before when the receiver re-booted, although before I was using the MPEG receiver to power the circular lnbf. This time, I used an old DTV receiver to power the lnbf, and ran the MPEG receiver off a T with DC block. I'm losing half my signal this way, but at least it works. Even worked out a little spreadsheet to calculate where to aim the dish based on the offset in lnb position.
Thanks.

[dtsexpert]

When you select the "non-standart" setting, the 0/22khz is greyed out. That's normal since there are 2 LO settings, low and high which are switched by the 22khz switch)
I have never had any problem for changing the LO values regardless what setting I use. My receiver is Fortec 786v3.
Michael

Originally Posted by wejones

> If you use 22kz switch for C/Ku,
> here is how to set it up:
> Go to antena setting, change the
> "single" to "universal", set low
> LO 5150, High LO 10750.

I had a bit of time to experiment with this. I don't have a 22khz switch, so I tried the above with the diseqc switch turned on. I assume your answer must be generic for other receivers or perhaps for a different firmware version, because it didn't work. When set to universal or anything but standard, I could not get into the LO window to change anything. They are fixed, and grayed out. Only in the "standard" category can I change the value. I thought perhaps it might be different if I selected 22khz, but it is the same there, ie I cannot change the LO values in universal mode, only in standard mode, and that doesn't have a high/low, just a single entry.
Perhaps there is some way to change this via the serial software, but I haven't tried using this yet. So I think I am stuck with defining the C and Ku sides as separate satellites.

> It will be very hard to find the
> "right" position for circular
> lnbf on the C-band dish. Some
> users have done it, but it takes
> lot of time to find right spot.

Had a bit of time to play with the circular lnbf too. Actually got it to work. Picked up a few of the music channels on one of the dish sats. Pretty poor reception. I'm not sure what my problem was before when the receiver re-booted, although before I was using the MPEG receiver to power the circular lnbf. This time, I used an old DTV receiver to power the lnbf, and ran the MPEG receiver off a T with DC block. I'm losing half my signal this way, but at least it works. Even worked out a little spreadsheet to calculate where to aim the dish based on the offset in lnb position.
Thanks.

[Sadoun]

Michael

The DVB-786v3 and the LifeTime have two different menu systems.

In the Lifetime you can only change the LO freq in the STANDARD mode.

In the lifetime you have to define separate spots for the C and KU band satellites. for Example one will be called T5KU and the other will be T5C