DiSEqC no go on SG2100

[Jose47]

Hi guys,

I finally did it. I took off the east limits on my SG2100 and ever since then I have nothing but problems with the DiSEqC. The USALS works great with most of the Sats. However, there are a few that I have to tweak and that is when the diSEqC goes ape Sh...t. It doesn't matter how many times I set up a Sat with the DiSEqC it won't remember to go back to that position. What it does is it goes back to O or some were near it.

I have done a master reset, I have changed the cables, I even switched motors and the problem still there. Ok you may think is probably my receiver, Right? Here is the strange thing I also have two units and is doing the same thing on both of them. If it is a software problem I would be totally .

Why did I removed the East Limits? I wanted to get Telstar 12 @ 15W and Atlantic Bird 1 @ 12.5W.

I would appreciate any inputs from you guys.

Thanks!

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Jose47

Hi guys,

I finally did it. I took off the east limits on my SG2100 and ever since then I have nothing but problems with the DiSEqC. The USALS works great with most of the Sats. However, there are a few that I have to tweak and that is when the diSEqC goes ape Sh...t. It doesn't matter how many times I set up a Sat with the DiSEqC it won't remember to go back to that position. What it does is it goes back to O or some were near it.

I have done a master reset, I have changed the cables, I even switched motors and the problem still there. Ok you may think is probably my receiver, Right? Here is the strange thing I also have two units and is doing the same thing on both of them. If it is a software problem I would be totally .

Why did I removed the East Limits? I wanted to get Telstar 12 @ 15W and Atlantic Bird 1 @ 12.5W.

I would appreciate any inputs from you guys.

Thanks!

Do I understand that you switched to DiseqC-1.2, found the sat in question, then saved the position, then you were unable to return to the sat?

Having disabled the limits shouldn't have made any difference if the position was saved properly. HOWEVER, I guess I should have asked.... WHAT RECEIVER ARE YOU USING??? If it's a Mercury, then the Mercury really doesn't do DiseqC1.2 properly, and that is your problem right there. You can use the Mercury in DiseqC1.2 mode, but as Bill190 pointed out, if you ever add and remove sats, or don't save the sats in order, then it really mixes everything up. In all likelihood, the mercury is trying to send your dish to some sat that is out of range of your dish, in which case it just goes to zero. The only way to tell is to use the serial port to download a channel data file, and look at it with a binary editor. My Mercury got hopelessly mixed up, but I was able to edit this file, re-load it to the Mercury, and now it's taking the dish to the right sats.

Relative to it being the same on different receivers, that's the way it SHOULD be with receivers that do DiseqC properly, because all the position data is stored on the motor, not in the receiver. The problem is, that the Mercury doesn't give the user any capability of choosing what position number is used for each sat, so it's pretty hard to jump back and forth between different receivers. With other receivers, I was able to set up the sat positions with one receiver, then set up the 2nd receiver to use the same position numbers, and it would take you to the proper position without ever needing to search for the sat. But this can't be done with the Mercury, unless you use a binary editor on the data file.

ANyway, I'm guessing that you're using a Mercury. If so, you're in for some annoyances.

[Jose47]

Whoa!! I am impressed by you responds. I do have a Mercury and also have a Fortec Platinum. And do switched them back and forth with A/B switch.
I have to tell you that up to the point where I had the East limit still operational (before I removed it) I had some problems with the Mercury. Not a lot but some. And it is true USALS works great with both units but for me I have some issues with some of the Sats. No matter what I do must of the times I have to peak the Dish. Perhaps I should change the settings on those Sats that have I have problems with. For example AMC 1 @103 W change to read 103.2 W instead and do the same thing with AMC 3. In regards to Telstar 12 and Atlantic B.1 I just have to take my chances.

Once again thanks Bill.

[wejones]

Well I DO feel kind of dumb that I didn't notice that you have Mercury and Platinum listed in your Signature block (unless it wasn't there before, which isn't likely since I'm just not to observant some times).
But it's possible that the Platinum behaves something like the Mercury, with respect to not giving you access to what sat numbers are used. On my Lifetime, and Ultra, and on computer software that I use with Twinhan cards, I can choose what DiseqC1.2 position number goes with each sat. For example, before I got my Mercury, I had saved things like

Position # Sat
23............ AMC 6
24............ Galaxy 6
25 ............ SBS 6
26 ............ AMC 5
27............ Nimiq2
28............ AMC 9
29............ AMC 3
30 ............ IA-8
31............ Galaxy 11
etc.
into my motor, using my Twinhan card, then I went into my Lifetime and later for a few sats with the Ultra, I went into the DiseqC1.2 section, and manually entered these sat position numbers into the Fortec receivers, and at that time, I could use any of the 3 receivers to send the motor to a satellite. (Note, I did have a bit of a problem entering numbers less than something like 26 or so into the Fortecs, because those were defaulted to European satellites for some reason, so I had to use the channel editor to change those numbers.)
However once I got the Mercury, I found that no-where in the memory or in the channel editor program, do you have the capability of selecting or changing the sat position number, ie the Mercury chooses them itself, and starts with 1,2,3,4 etc, so I basically had to start over. Not only that, but Bill190 discovered that if you have stored some DiseqC1.2 positions, and then delete a sat, the numbers got transferred to the next sat in the list and everything got mixed up, so when you'd tell it to go to one sat, it would actually go to another sat. Bill190 found the section of memory where these numbers were stored, so I wrote a program that displayed the sat number lists, and found that I could correct the data in the Mercury, but it was a lot of work. I hope Fortec fixes this bug, and I also hope that they change their channel editor so as to allow you to change the position numbers.
But bottom line is, that if you are trying to run the dish with two different receivers, one of which is a Mercury, then you are just asking for trouble.

I'm curious though... does the Platinum give you the option of changing sat position numbers, either via remote or by whatever channel editor program it uses? If it does, you might be able to save the numbers using the Mercury, then use a computer program to figure out what numbers the Mercury used, then put those numbers into the Platinum. Otherwise I think you'll have to just have only 1 receiver control the dish.

But I'm starting to think that all Fortec receivers after the Ultra must have eliminated the ability to select DiseqC1.2 position numbers.

[lumpkin666]

Originally Posted by wejones

...I'm curious though... does the Platinum give you the option of changing sat position numbers, either via remote or by whatever channel editor program it uses? ...

My Fortec Classic does not allow changing sat position numbers. In fact, the whole "storing numbers" concept eluded me (but still plagued me!) until reading this thread. This explains a lot!

thx!