Dish Won't Move...

[Bibbler]

Well, It was going too good... I have the 80 Cm dish plugged into DiSEqC 3. I have the setting on the receiver matching.. But it just sits there..

Any ideas????

[pmb1010]

should work.

try barrel connector in line (rather than diseqc) to bypass switch for now.

try motor on port 1 rather than 3.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Bibbler

Well, It was going too good... I have the 80 Cm dish plugged into DiSEqC 3. I have the setting on the receiver matching.. But it just sits there..

Any ideas????

Do you have the switch after the motor?
I'm confused about how you have the system wired. I know you said you have C-band on #1, Ku-2, 80cm on #3, but unclear about whether the switch is before or after the 80cm motor, and I forget what you have driving the C-band, and how it's connected. I think you said you were getting analog, so I assume it's slaved, but I'm not sure which way.

[Bibbler]

OK Bill...

I just disassembled all the wiring, start over from scratch... For the moment, let's forget the Analog and moving the C band dish. Let's just see if I can get the LNB's to send me a signal from both dish and getting the small dish to move (the C band dish is more complicated because of the vBox etc)....

I am going to try the 80 CM dish Alone...

From the receiver I am going to go into the switch (Output), out of the switch (using the #3 connector) and then into the motor..... The dish ought to work as normal before I even had a C band other than I need to set the Sats in the Receiver on DiSEqC to 3....

Im thinking That should work ...

Next, if the little dish moves and works as normal, then move on to the big dish.... Come out of the C band connector on the LNB and run it into the switch (connector #1), Come out of the Ku connector on the LNB and hook it to the switch (Connector #2)...

At this point I should have my normal Ku stuff on the little dish, and the C band and Ku for whatever sat the big dish is pointing to..

Does this all sound about right??? If it works, then I'll go back and hook up the vBox and add that to the equation ..

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Bibbler

OK Bill...

I just disassembled all the wiring, start over from scratch... For the moment, let's forget the Analog and moving the C band dish. Let's just see if I can get the LNB's to send me a signal from both dish and getting the small dish to move (the C band dish is more complicated because of the vBox etc)....

I couldn't remember if you were moving the C-band dish via VBOX or an analog receiver. If you're trying to control both VBOX and 80cm through the same coax, then that sounds like all sorts of potential issues that could be problems.

Originally Posted by Bibbler

I am going to try the 80 CM dish Alone...

From the receiver I am going to go into the switch (Output), out of the switch (using the #3 connector) and then into the motor..... The dish ought to work as normal before I even had a C band other than I need to set the Sats in the Receiver on DiSEqC to 3....

Im thinking That should work ...

I think this is still a problem. I don't have any direct experience trying this, but most people here say that you can't put the motor after the switch. I don't know if it's a power issue, or if the switch doesn't pass the diseqC signals or what, but most people say not to do this. However besides the power issue, and filtering the signal issue, there is also the question of whether the dish move signal is sent before the switch signal. Ie say you are on C-band port 1 and want to move the 80cm, if the move command is sent first, it would go to the C-band not the 80cm. Even if the switch command is sent first, it might then send the move command before the switch actually switches. Anyway, all sorts of potential problems here.

Originally Posted by Bibbler

Next, if the little dish moves and works as normal, then move on to the big dish.... Come out of the C band connector on the LNB and run it into the switch (connector #1), Come out of the Ku connector on the LNB and hook it to the switch (Connector #2)...

At this point I should have my normal Ku stuff on the little dish, and the C band and Ku for whatever sat the big dish is pointing to..

Does this all sound about right??? If it works, then I'll go back and hook up the vBox and add that to the equation ..

Without the VBOX, and assuming that you put the switch after the 80cm motor, it sounds OK, but once you put that VBOX back in there are potential problems. I have a 4 port diseqC after the motor on my 90cm, and run a C/L lnbf and a 2nd dish off it, and am thinking about running a line to a 3rd dish, but the 2nd and 3rd are fixed dishes. If I tried going to a motor after the switch I'd be looking for trouble. I think you should just run a 2nd coax out there, or perhaps another route might be a 12v switch, although that requires more wires too.

[Bibbler]

The C Band isn't an issue because it moves by 36v through hookup wire, not through the cable...

I'm confused... I might very well end up running a second piece of RG-11, something I was trying to avoid.. 200' of cable is a bit pricey.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Bibbler

The C Band isn't an issue because it moves by 36v through hookup wire, not through the cable...

The power consumption issue might not be a problem with the C-band, but isn't the VBOX getting it's diseqC1.2 signals through the same coax that goes to your 80cm, which also accepts diseqC1.2 commands? Plus it still isn't clear to me how well motor commands will go through a switch. It may well not be an issue, but if things don't work, it's something to consider.

[lumpkin666]

Almost every report of reciever-->diseqc-->motor-->lnbf that I've ever read about had troubles. Apparently the diseqc isn't designed to pass commands forward through the switch to other diseqc devices.

If you're only controlling 2 devices, you might consider a 0/22k switch designed to pass diseqc commands. The ecoda series switches will do this. That allows you to do something like receiver-->switch-->motor-->diseqc-->lnbf

However, I'm finding that the 0/22k commands appear process after the diseqc commands. So if you have two motors on the other side of your switch, both motors move regardess of which leg of the switch is selected. So to control 2 motors with one line, you might have to utilize a combination of a 0/22k switch and ulsas on your smaller ku dish and 1.2 diseqc on the vbox (since it should ignore the ulsas) I don't know if that will work or not, but should have time to exeriment with that type of setup when I get back from traveling next weekend.

[elgemcdlf]

Al,
You blew the port on the DiSEqC switch. The switch needs to be between the motor and lnbf not receiver and motor. I learned this lesson the same as you. The hard way. Requires miles of extra cable but not really once you plan it out. At this point I have 3 poles up. Both side poles feed into the center pole. Line from the house goes to the center pole and up to the motor. Motor out to DiSEqC to each of the lnbf/lnbs is use. My SG2100 quit moving and have yet to resolve that. I think it has burned up. Starting to get a little disappointed with these small motors. I may replace it but I think I will use the main dish for Ku and the little one just for eastern Ku. Perhaps all the moving she does helped with it's demise. From 123 for Univision to 79 for Telemundo to 99 for Tv Azteca to ...

I am really seriously considering a stationary dish for her Ku just need to figure out how to make all the lnbf's tie together and work.

[Bibbler]

OK, thanks for all the replies guys...

I'm back at work today so the job will have to go into standby mode for awhile, but I think maybe the answer is to leave the 80cm stationary as well...

Live and Learn!!

[siliggy]

Bibbler I have had this problem three different times, three different causes.

1) The total DC resistance through each device and cable added up to enough to stop the small motor from working. I had a C dish on port A and a Ku motor after the diseqC on port B. The Ku motor only occasionally worked.
Solution: Replaced the long run of coax (RG6) with RG11.

2) The same setup later on: Swapped the Ku LNB with another and the motor would not run.
Solution: Removed the problem LNB and replaced with one that was OK.

3) At someone elses place: The motor just would not go with his decoder but would with mine.
Solution: Found the decoder to have a well known common problem for that model (Dreamax DT470).
Solution: Another decoder.