Installation Blues

[lingshu8]

I just got a motorized kit from Sadoun. I'm trying to get a signal from Amc 5 @ 79.0W since that is the True South satellite for my location (longitude 79.227°W).

So far, I can't get any signal at all.

Here's my info:

Latitude: 37.430°N
Longitude: 79.227°W

Genpix Skywalker-1
DVB Dream 1.3c
Windows Vista
90cm Fortec dish
Invacom QPH031 0.3 dB Quad LNBF
Digipower SG-2100 Motor

Followed the Sadoun installation guide:

- clear line of sight
- perfectly vertical mast
- set latitude on motor to 37.4
- Fit the dish and motor on mast.
- adjusted dish's elevation to 30° - 6° = 24°
- Calculated True South for my location as 189°; Used compass to get in ballpark (though I noticed that when I held the compass near the motor, the needle pointed at the motor and not north! Is there a magnet inside the SG-12900? I managed to work around this.)
- Connected cable from Invacom linear port to LNB port on SG-1200 (for setup purposes, I'm not using a switch and just focusing on one connection at a time)
- Connected Genpix Skywalker-1 and opened DVB-Dream
- Confirmed that green light on motor is illuminated. Confirmed that movement commands from positioner program in DD will move dish.
- Set up DD:
* Diseqc type: none
* Port 1: 2810 - 79.0°W - AMC 5
* LNB Type: NA Legacy
* Lof-1: 11250000
* 22 KHz: Off
* Uncommitted Switch Port: Disabled
- Scan channels: 'No Signal' on all transponders!!!

Any ideas?

I'm in the process of tweaking:
- true south azimuth
- dish elevation +/- 5°

But so far, nothing.

I also have a DN Dish 500 with twin LNB's aimed at 110/119. I tested the Skywalker with that and was able to get full signals (albeit encrypted) on both birds. So Skywalker, cables and DVB Dream seem to be in working order.

If the problem is with the Invacom QPH031, I wonder if I could somehow mount it on the Dish 500 to check? I hope to exhaust all other possibilities before dismantling my Dish 500 and jury-rigging something like that.

Obviously I'm doing something wrong, or something is broken, or both. Can anyone see anything that I'm doing glaringly wrong from the above description? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[rainman]

set you lnb LO to 10750 this is the number you use for linear sats. the 11250 that you are using is for circular sats.

[lingshu8]

Originally Posted by rainman

set you lnb LO to 10750 this is the number you use for linear sats. the 11250 that you are using is for circular sats.

Thanks, rainman. You're right... but unfortunately that was a typo on my part -- I already have the LO set to 10750

I just tried connecting the Invacom linear LNB port directly to the Skywalker-1 (bypassing the motor) but no luck!

Anyone have any other ideas?

[pmb1010]

even though you might not get a picture, use transponder
12182 H 23000 on AMC5 to aim your dish.
This is the NY NET frequency, and its pretty strong.

Another trick is walk away from your dish towards 189, then turn around in front of your dish with the compass, and have 189 be behind you --- and then look at your dish, and the LNB arm should be pointing right at you.

[lingshu8]

Originally Posted by pmb1010

Another trick is walk away from your dish towards 189, then turn around in front of your dish with the compass, and have 189 be behind you --- and then look at your dish, and the LNB arm should be pointing right at you.

That is a really cool trick, pmb1010. I'll definitely add that to my playbook. I tried it out and repeated it several times to get the LNB really pointing dead on 189. Alas, I'm still without even a trace of signal on any of the transponders. With such a big dish, I would think that I would get at least some sort of signal, what with all the alignment tweaking around 189 that I've done! Could I have some settings wrong?

[pmb1010]

I'm not sure what a Genpix is, I suspect it's either USB or PCI type card.
How does it know where to move the dish? Does it have USALS?
Did you put in your Long and Lat in the software?
I'll mention that using PC & software is much more difficult to setup than dedicated receiver. Actually, you really need to be at the dish with the receiver to align since it's very touchy to do... are you capable of doing this with your PC setup??

The normal procedure for motor setup (using usals) is:
- put motor at center or zero
- align to mag corrected south (for you 189)
- have motor drive to highest south sat (for you AMC5)
- put on active transponder
- move whole contraption on the pole, or dish elevation (only, not motor) up/down till signal quality is found.

The aiming point is very small. An 1/8" movement will lose the signal. It is very touchy. Aiming DishNetwork type stuff is MUCH easier than this because their signals are high powered compared to these FTA signals.

[lingshu8]

Originally Posted by pmb1010

I'm not sure what a Genpix is, I suspect it's either USB or PCI type card.
How does it know where to move the dish? Does it have USALS?
Did you put in your Long and Lat in the software?
I'll mention that using PC & software is much more difficult to setup than dedicated receiver.

Genpix Skywalker-1 is a USB 2.0 DVB-s card. See here:

Genpix Electronics Store - What is SkyWalker-1? (Powered by CubeCart)

It does not have USALS, only DiSEqC.

Originally Posted by pmb1010

Actually, you really need to be at the dish with the receiver to align since it's very touchy to do... are you capable of doing this with your PC setup??

Yes, I can bring the laptop with USB card attached out next to dish. Only problem is, with software I have, I can only signal test on channels that have previously been "locked in."

Originally Posted by pmb1010

Aiming DishNetwork type stuff is MUCH easier than this because their signals are high powered compared to these FTA signals.

Since I already scanned and locked-in signals for 110/119 using my Dish 500, maybe I will try pointing at 119 rather than AMC5. It's not my true south bird and it will be encrypted, but at least I will get a stronger signal and can use the PC as a signal level reader.

Thanks pmb1010! I'll keep working on this.

[lingshu8]

WOO-HOO! I did it! I got a signal on AMC 5!

For anyone who has the same problem in the future, here's how I did it:

I downloaded a module plug-in for DVB Dream called yTpSpeak. You can get it here:

DvbDream Community :: View topic - New Modules

This great little module continuously scans a chosen transponder and has a voice that reads out the level and/or quality ("zero... zero... zero...")

I positioned the dish as close to True South as possible using a trick I learned from pmb1010 at the Sadoun forum ("walk away from your dish towards 189, then turn around in front of your dish with the compass, and have 189 be behind you --- and then look at your dish, and the LNB arm should be pointing right at you." THANKS PMB1010!)

Then I opened DVB Dream and cranked up the volume on yTpSpeak so that I could hear the voice through my speakers from outside at the dish. I selected the transponder 12182,H,23000 because, according to posts elsewhere on this forum, it has the strongest signal on AMC5.

I went back out to the dish and started manually sweeping the dish east to west. No change, just a female voice droning "zero... zero... zero". Then I lowered the dish elevation a degree and swept again. "Zero... zero... zero." I lowered the dish elevation down another degree to about 22 deg (2 degrees below the recommended elevation of 24 deg according to the SG2100 manual). I swept west a little bit and the voice suddenly said "six five... six five..." indicating a signal level of 65. PAY DIRT!! After tweaking up, down, east and west for a couple minutes, I was able to get a maximum of 79% quality and signal on transponder 12182,H,23000. I tightened everything down and went back to DVB Dream. When I scanned again, I was indeed on AMC5 with a 89% signal on 11900,H,2170 (a Spanish language channel) and 79% on 12182,H,23000 (New York Net)!

Now... here's the only problem. The motor positioner in DVB Dream (run through Skywalker) does not accurately move the dish. If I enter "Goto angular position: 44.4 west" (which, according to the GAAPS Goto X Calculator should be the location of 119 at my latitude/longitude), the dish moves -- but when I check the motor calibraion I see that it only travelled about 30+ degrees! I verified that the hardware limits were not stopping it. I disabled software limts in DVB Dream. I set the motor back to 0 and reset it. I tried doing "goto" to an arbitray number (75 degrees), but this time the motor only went to about 60+ degrees.

Any suggestions?

[pmb1010]

you mentioned that you set to 189 - then hunted for amc5.
The issue here 189 is the highest point on the arc - but AMC5 might be over to the side a bit on that arc, and not at highest point.
The procedure is to position motor at 0, point to "true south" (189) then use the motor positioning software to MOVE to AMC5's position on the arc and search for it.

WHen you use DISEQC 1.2 to position, it makes it harder. you have to move to where you think amc5 should be using the remote control - and hunt for it moving the dish elevation.
If you moved the whole thing around without having the motor drive to where amc5 is, you just moved the whole contraption off the arc. Yes you will get 1 sat, but that will be it.

I hope this makes sense. And I don't have a good answer for you. You have to keep working at alignment till you get it, locating highest sat and a couple on the edges, tweaking as you go.

That's why USALS is easier. The motor will drive to where it thinks AMC5 is based on your locaiton co-ordinates.

[idk]

FYI -- the skywalker does support USALS.
Lingshu8 -- are you sure you were talking about signal and not quality?