2 days in and no linear sats

[TRG]

I'm going a little nuts here. First off I'm a newbie. But I hold a degree in electronics technologies and have been working with electronics and mechanics (robotics to be specific) for 17 years.


After painstaking research I decided that my first FTA receiver needed PVR capabilities. Despite the Viewsat VS PRO's lack of history I decided I'd give it a try. I also bought a Azure 90 cm dish from 3ABN, Invacom QPH-031 LNBF and a SG-2100 motor.


My plan was to set up a temporary platform for the dish so I could move it to a few different locations on my property. With a good view to the south I set the dish in location #1, plumbed the pole, zeroed the motor and pointed it true south. I then set up my linear connection (DiSEqC port 1) to 10750 MHz and the circular connection (DiSEqC port 2) to 11250 MHz. My true south satellite is Anik F1R at 107.3. I wasn't able to find that but a close by DBS bird at 110 had the meters just about pegged on signal and quality. BTW my S and Q meters appear to be backwards. On my receiver when scanning the sky the quality comes up with zero signal until the quality meter hits around 50 or so and then the signal starts to come up. Weird. Anyway no matter what I do I cannot get any signal on the linear Ku sats. I can get DBS sats @ 91, 101, 110, 119 and 148. Now I know that DBS signals will be much greater than the linear signals but you'd think that I would be able to get something on linear. I've tried moving the EL on the dish (not the motor) + and – about 4 degrees in ½ degree increments, still nothing. Either the setting of 10750 Mhz for this LNBF is wrong or I suppose the LNBF could be bad on L and only C works?


Another thing that I'm a little confused about is USALS vs DiSEqC 1.2. Perhaps someone here can describe the pros and cons of each method. I was under the impression that I could set up one sat close to true south and the receiver would know where the rest were. But I think I'm missing something.


And finally when I was ready to call it quits my motor quit working and was causing the receiver to reboot. I had been working the motor a good part of the day so I hope either the motor or the motor controller just needed to cool off a little. I have my fingers crossed.


Thanks in advance for any tips you might be able to throw my way. I'm going to take a break from this till tomorrow.

 

[Mr Tony]

Either the setting of 10750 Mhz for this LNBF is wrong or I suppose the LNBF could be bad on L and only C works?

the LNB LO is 10750 for linear. When it doesn't work 99% of the time people blame the LNB and 99% of the time that is wrong

remove the switch first and hook up to the L side of the LNB. Bring back up the satellite list for AnikF1. I havent seen the box so I dont know how the menus are but see if you can find on of the 2 strong transponders on the menu from the list from here
http://www.satelliteguys.us/thelist/index.php?page=107+Anik+F1R

You may need to turn the motor/dish assembly to lock on to the true south

Another thing that I'm a little confused about is USALS vs DiSEqC 1.2. Perhaps someone here can describe the pros and cons of each method. I was under the impression that I could set up one sat close to true south and the receiver would know where the rest were. But I think I'm missing something.

USALS allows you to input your latitude & longitude into the receiver and once you get your true south locked in, the rest of the satellites fall into place. Diseqc 1.2 allows you to move the motor to the satellite and fine tune the signal. Both get the job done but USALS is a little easier

 

[voomvoom]

I don't have a Viewsat, so I can't help with it. There are possibilities with the Diseqc switch, it could be bad? You could swap the cables and try the Circular on port 1 and the Linear on port 2 and see if the Linear starts working or if the Circular will still work on the different port? Also there are 4 outputs from the Invacom, you might check and make sure you have one from a C and one from an L, and not both from C's?
Since you say you can get 91 and 101 with Circular, I would suggest pick one of these and get the dish on one of them. Then take the Diseqc Switch out of the picture and run a cable from an L output to the Viewsat and do a Scan, a Blind Scan if the Viewsat does Blind Scan.
I heard that people have problems using a motor with a Viewsat, and I've also read where it was supposed to be fixed. Maybe yours is one that hasn't gotten the fix (upgrade) yet?

Ooops, wait a minute, just thought of something else. Where do you have the Diseqc Switch? It should be between the Motor and the LNBF.
Hope some of this will help you, Good Luck!

Al

Oh man am I slow, Iceberg beat me and I'm sure has better answers. Been writing for 30 minutes or so. Watching football more than writing.....

 

[TRG]

the LNB LO is 10750 for linear. When it doesn't work 99% of the time people blame the LNB and 99% of the time that is wrong

remove the switch first and hook up to the L side of the LNB. Bring back up the satellite list for AnikF1. I havent seen the box so I dont know how the menus are but see if you can find on of the 2 strong transponders on the menu from the list from here
http://www.satelliteguys.us/thelist/index.php?page=107+Anik+F1R

You may need to turn the motor/dish assembly to lock on to the true south



USALS allows you to input your latitude & longitude into the receiver and once you get your true south locked in, the rest of the satellites fall into place. Diseqc 1.2 allows you to move the motor to the satellite and fine tune the signal. Both get the job done but USALS is a little easier

Thanks for the fast reply Ice.


I did remove the switch and tried both of the L connectors. I'd like to lock onto the “strong transponders” you mentioned but there is no signal even when I manually turn the dish to try and lock on my true south satellite.


I know you don't believe the LNBF is bad and you are probably right. But one of the things I'll try tomorrow will be to install my spare Sat Radar standard LNB and see what happens. It's just two screws and a coax connector. It will satisfy my stubborn ways to do so.

 

[TRG]

I don't have a Viewsat, so I can't help with it. There are possibilities with the Diseqc switch, it could be bad? You could swap the cables and try the Circular on port 1 and the Linear on port 2 and see if the Linear starts working or if the Circular will still work on the different port? Also there are 4 outputs from the Invacom, you might check and make sure you have one from a C and one from an L, and not both from C's?
Since you say you can get 91 and 101 with Circular, I would suggest pick one of these and get the dish on one of them. Then take the Diseqc Switch out of the picture and run a cable from an L output to the Viewsat and do a Scan, a Blind Scan if the Viewsat does Blind Scan.
I heard that people have problems using a motor with a Viewsat, and I've also read where it was supposed to be fixed. Maybe yours is one that hasn't gotten the fix (upgrade) yet?

Ooops, wait a minute, just thought of something else. Where do you have the Diseqc Switch? It should be between the Motor and the LNBF.
Hope some of this will help you, Good Luck!

Al

Oh man am I slow, Iceberg beat me and I'm sure has better answers. Been writing for 30 minutes or so. Watching football more than writing.....

Thanks voomvoom, I tried and checked most of the things you suggested. I didn't try reversing the L and C connections though. One of the first things I did was eliminate the switch and yes it was wired correctly. The VS PRO is a brand new beast. Firmware dated July 2007 and there are no updates on the website yet.

 

[TRG]

It looks like there is a firmware update I might benefit from. By receiver has version 1.01 and there is a version 1.02 here; http://www.viewsatusa.com/support.htm
The only problem is that the manual doesn't tell you how to do it. I'd say in general the manual stinks. Any ideas? I'd prefer to use my USB thumbdrive over the serial port.

 

[turbosat]

usb updates

Just as easy as it gets, to update firmware. Download the file to your computer, you may need to unzip the file if they offer/suggest a decompression utility-use it (I forget, i have viewsat ultra , but should work same way)
Put the PGM file onto your USB thumbdrive. Stick in USB port on VSPro.
Go to the menu, where it says "system information, select Upgrade"
If it gives options, select USB with your remote and hit OK.
File will load to the VS, rec will reboot in 10seconds or so, let it reboot. Remove thumbdrive. You may lose any settings you have made, but prob not.
Doing Factory Default shouldn't be necessary-you're just writing over the firmware that was on there.
Good luck!

 

[TRG]

I might be on to something here. I started thinking about Iceberg’s recommendations about the “strong transponder” frequencies for Anik F1R. I’ll have to admit that at first I didn’t know what I was doing. But then I stumbled upon a “Edit TP List” in the installation menu. While perusing the list I noticed that all the frequencies started with 3XXX and 4XXX no 11XXX or 12XXX. So I used the “new TP” function and added transponder freqs 11903 H and 11911 H to the list. Don’t laugh, I’m new at this. I don’t understand why Viewsat only included C band frequencies in the TP list. I’ll just be happy if this discovery helps me progress forward.

The firmware update wouldn’t work from the USB thumb drive. But I was successful loading the updated firmware via my laptop serial port. Firmware 1.02 dated 8/20/07 now displays on the screen.

Now if the rain would just stop I could get back outside and try this sucker out again.

 

[Mr Tony]

I might be on to something here. I started thinking about Iceberg’s recommendations about the “strong transponder” frequencies for Anik F1R. I’ll have to admit that at first I didn’t know what I was doing. But then I stumbled upon a “Edit TP List” in the installation menu. While perusing the list I noticed that all the frequencies started with 3XXX and 4XXX no 11XXX or 12XXX. So I used the “new TP” function and added transponder freqs 11903 H and 11911 H to the list. Don’t laugh, I’m new at this. I don’t understand why Viewsat only included C band frequencies in the TP list. I’ll just be happy if this discovery helps me progress forward.

Viewsat mixes both C & KU frequenices in the satellite list and since most of the transponders on 107.3 are C-Band thats all they put.

AMC6 at 72W is the same way. Good job on adding the transponder info
now to get rid of that rain

 

[Panavision]

The freqs on The List for Anik F1R are occasional CBC news feeds. I always use the StarChoice TP of 11715 MHz Vertical SR 19510 to find Anik F1R. It's DigicipherII, but it works to find the bird. If you wish to use the CBC feeds, I'd recommend 11912 MHz Horizontal SR 5859 as this TP is often the strongest. Thoughts, guys?

 

[Mr Tony]

DVB boxes wont pick up DCII channels

 

[Panavision]

Exactly. What I meant was that I use a DigicipherII TP to aim my dish based solely on signal level. I don't use it to tweak quality or lock a signal. Like you said, Iceberg, boxes that do only DVB won't lock onto DCII.

P.S. I deleted my last post because it contained info that pertains to feeds. Sorry if I broke the rules, I didn't intend to do so.

 

[Mr Tony]

The freqs on The List for Anik F1R are occasional CBC news feeds. I always use the StarChoice TP of 11715 MHz Vertical SR 19510 to find Anik F1R. It's DigicipherII, but it works to find the bird. If you wish to use the CBC feeds, I'd recommend 11912 MHz Horizontal SR 5859 as this TP is often the strongest. Thoughts, guys?

one of the feeds on thelist is just that
11911 H 5859

 

[Mr Tony]

P.S. I deleted my last post because it contained info that pertains to feeds. Sorry if I broke the rules, I didn't intend to do so.

I undeleted it as what you listed is on thelist (just off by 1)

 

[Panavision]

Thanks, Iceberg for undeleting my post! I probably haven't been very clear. The reason I posted in the first place is because the TPs on The List for Anik F1R are occasional. Thus, they may not be the best option for aiming a dish unless you know they're active. I may be totally missing the point here, though.

 

[Mr Tony]

11911 I've always seen up. Mainly its color bars (well I can hear the test tone since its 4:2:2)

 

[TRG]

****UPDATE****

I made a major breakthrough last night that ended up with me finishing off the evening watching Hawaii 5 O, Hunter and Perry Mason among others on Galaxy 10R.

First off I’d like to say that the firmware on the Viewsat VS PRO is very buggy. Even with the latest August 20, 2007 update I occasionally get lockups during TP scan. The thing that really kills me is that blind scan doesn’t work at all. I finally figured that out after entering TP data manually, performing a regular scan and finding around 40 TV channels on G10. Then I did a blind scan of the same satellite and after about ten or fifteen minutes returned zero channels. That really sucks considering Viewsat advertises this receiver as being capable of blind scans. Hopefully future updates will correct this issue.

The transponder lists are incomplete or inaccurate. Adding and editing TP information via remote control is a PITA. Does anyone know of a way to edit the list on my computer?

I haven’t had time to try the PVR functions yet.

As I get more stick time on this puppy I’ll keep the group updated. Once I’m comfortable with the way things are working (or not) I’ll write a formal review.

How accurate is Lyngsat? I manually entered some TP data and cannot find some of the common channels talked about here. Is there another reliable source of satellite data other than Lyngsat?

 

[Mr Tony]

congrats on getting it working

Lyngsat is kinda accurate. The owner is in Europe so he cannot see our sats here. Check out thelist for most KU stuff. There are feeds up there too but they are only on temporary (and that is where the blind scan comes in handy)

 

[TRG]

OK I'm officially pissed off with this Viewsat VS PRO.

Wednesday night I went through and edited all the transponders for the satellites I'm interested in (about 10). I never found a way to edit the list on my computer so all this was done with the remote control (PITA). Since you cannot change satellites in the TP edit page you have to activate and de-activate one satellite at a time using the choose satellite screen. Doing so forces you to delete all the channels that have been built for that satellite. OK fine, about an hour and a half later the TP data was updated.

Tonight I went to check out my work from the night before. "Strong Transponders" from the list don't always work. I'd say only about half work on this box. The funny thing is that other transponders come in good on the same satellite but the "Strong Transponders" don't. The dish is peaked and I'm getting good signal and good quality on the TP's that work, greater than 70 percent quality in most cases..

While scanning the TP's the unit will occasionally lock up.

When changing channels that require moving the dish the unit will occasionally lock up or loose signal. Power cycling the unit will usually recover from this.

One of the lockups erased all my transponder edits.

Blind scan will not work.

Viewsat USA tech support is ignoring my e-mails.

I think I'm sending it back and trying something else.

 

[turbosat]

TRG, join the crowd! I bought a Viewsat Ultra last fall when they hadn't been out long, thinking it was the one with the best processor and memory etc.
Most of it works fine, but the AC-3 sound pass-thru NEVER worked properly.
I called those folks many times over the next 5 months or so, and they never did fix it. Kept telling me a firmware upgrade would be 'out soon' and "next week at latest" etc.
They had other markets in mind, apparently. Read about their lawsuit if you haven't already. My next one won't be a viewsat.