AMIKO Amiko A3 Owners Thread

[Dee_Ann]

(1/8" is .125 decimal.) Your connector looks just fine! Nice work.
I've seen connectors (some sold commercially) with 1/2" sticking out. That's wrong.

Whew! Thanks! This is good to know. I watched a lot of youtube videos and I made tens of dozens of very, very bad connectors until I got to this point.
They are really hard for me to make because I have arthritis in my hands and trying to hold the wire and the connector and push it onto the wire causes me extreme pain.
I found out I if I wear a thick glove to hold the wire I don’t have to close my hand as much. And to hold the connector I have a little tiny pair of pliers that works pretty well.

I do not like the compression tool, at all. I want a much, much better one. Also the wire stripper is not very good and I also want a much, much better one.
I’ve begun to replace the cheap junk with quality things, I have a zero tolerance for cheap things. I’m a red head and a hot head and I have no patience.
When something gives me trouble I’ll smack it into atoms with a hammer then go buy the very best that I can find.



It’s time to replace these tools before I flip out and break them.

 

[Cosmo Blatz]

There should be an allen wrench clipped to the wire stripper. Have you tried adjusting the blades?

 

[Dee_Ann]

There should be an allen wrench clipped to the wire stripper. Have you tried adjusting the blades?

Oh no, I did not know about this. The little wrench was missing but I found one anyway in a little kit my dad had given me. I had a bit of extra wire that I could experiment with and after about a dozen tries, I got it set so it cuts through the shield wires a good bit better. Even though it works better now, I still don’t care for it and I would like to have a larger one that would be easier to hold.
But for now it is an improvement. Thank you!

 

[jorgek]

While on the subject of connectors, inspect them for any loose strands of shield that might be touching the center copper wire. Also make sure the connector is tight on the coax (after compressing) so it does not slide at all on the coax.

 

[Cosmo Blatz]

Maybe the stripper has dull blades. These strippers usually work well once adjusted for the brand of coax. The number '6' is positioned as shown in the picture right?

 

[Wayn23]

I really like my Klein stripper, it was cheap and works great.
http://www.kleintools.com/content/k...-strips-both-utility-and-standard-cable-sizes


Posted Via The FREE SatelliteGuys Reader App!

 

[jorgek]

Maybe the stripper has dull blades. These strippers usually work well once adjusted for the brand of coax. The number '6' is positioned as shown in the picture right?

I have the same stripper for many years and still works great. Depending on the coax I sometimes just squeeze it tighter around the coax. The thing is you don't want to nick the copper center wire.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Cosmo, yes, my wire stripper is set the same as the one pictured above. It is working better after adjusting it but I still would like one that’s easier on my troublesome hands.

Also, about squeezing the tool harder, that’s a pretty difficult and painful thing for me to do. It causes me terrible pain when I try to squeeze the tool down on the wire. These things are meant for young men with strong hands, not old ladies with arthritis.

I don’t know if this is any good or not but it looks really interesting to me.


Also, I ~always~ check, very carefully, to make sure the connector is on properly and before I even put the connector on the wire I inspect with strong glasses, to make sure there are no loose strands of wire or foil shorting anything out. I had that problem often in the early days and learned very early on that it’s infinitely easier to take a minute to inspect the wire before you make the connector permanent.

After thinking things over, I recall that when I was trying to use the SL2PLL on that dish I was having no luck with it, I took it off and put the original Primestar LNBF back on it.
But now I am absolutely certain that my dish is aligned properly and tracking the arc as it should be. I verified that yesterday with a re-tweak with my nifty new meter.

That considered, I’m going to put the SL2PLL back on the dish and see what that gets me. When I tried it the first time I did not have the AI Turbo S2 meter and my dish was badly misaligned anyway.
It wasn’t until after I got the meter that I was even able to align the dish, a 4+ year quest. Now that I KNOW the dish is aligned properly it’s time to try the better LNBF again.

Let’s see how that works. Maybe that will solve the high power drain, it will eliminate the 3x4 switch as well. Actually I could still use it but I won’t. For now.

 

[Dee_Ann]

And, I think I’ve fixed my problem. Might want to slice off all my posts in this thread and move them to a new one since it wasn’t really the A3 at fault here, it was my poor choice of LNBF and switches.
The witch’s switches.. Not such a good thing..

 

[primestar31]

And, I think I’ve fixed my problem. Might want to slice off all my posts in this thread and move them to a new one since it wasn’t really the A3 at fault here, it was my poor choice of LNBF and switches.
The witch’s switches.. Not such a good thing..

Come on, spill the beans.... Everything you have EVER done (good or bad) has been done by others, so stop beating yourself up already!

When you confess, you help others do better whether you realize it or not.

You get a lot of props just for continuing to try and do better. NOBODY is perfect, they just learn at different levels.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Ok, now I have a legit question.

I want to schedule a recurring recording on my A3. Actually a few of them.

I want to record H.R. Pufnstuf and Land of the Lost every Sunday morning. Rather than record two separate shows I just record it as a one hour event, I’ll watch it another time then delete it.
Anyway, the only way I can find to access anything resembling a record timer is to press the EPG button on the remote.

It appears to default to record a single event, this allows you to specify the DATE and the time.
But when you’re done there appears to be only two options, “Change Channels” or “Record” Um, ok?

Well since I wanted a recurring event I pressed the repeat option whereupon it let me select which day of the week to record. I click Sunday but now the start date is greyed out and I can’t specify that.
~I ASSUME~ it will start on the very next Sunday it runs into.

(the pictures are a bit out of sequence. Ooops.)

So then again there is the change channels or record options. Wait, I think I know. That’s for if I want it to only change to the channel but not record vs changing to the channels THEN record. Ok, that makes sense.
So once I do that, it goes away and back to the EPG (which is totally empty BTW). I can’t see my scheduled event, ANYWHERE.

So I go back to the create event option and do it all over again but this time it complains there is already an event scheduled and that the new one will conflict with it.

Where can I find a list showing my scheduled events? I have looked through every single app in the device and nothing shows me the recording schedule.

On the MicroHD it was a real snap to see your scheduled events.

Thanks.

 

[primestar31]

I haven't figured it out either as of yet, but it seems like it's a separate app. Hopefully your post will get a clear response.

 

[Babadem]

When updating XBMC for Android do you use "ARM" or "X86" files?

 

[Dee_Ann]

ARM. The A3 uses a ARM. x86 is desktop computers.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Seriously, whoever invented that stretch-o-vision BS, I want to beat them in the head with a brick.

 

[KE4EST]

You tell 'em Dee!

 

[Dee_Ann]

Well, moving on along past the topic of stretched videos...

I recorded some videos today while I was gone so I could watch them later and also give copies to my dad.
Playback on the A3 is abysmally poor. It’s so bad that it’s not usable, at all, not even a little.

Recorded files can be downloaded and played back on a computer, my Mac plays them back, a little better.
When it recorded 4 shows on MeTV, and maybe it’s just because there’s something odd about their signal, every single recording has these hiccups throughout that really, really messes with the playback.
My Mac handles the recorded hiccups much bette than the A3 but I don’t want to use my Mac to watch recorded shows, I want to watch them on the A3.

To illustrate how awful this is, I’ve setup my iPhone to record video of the screen as it is seen by me during playback on the A3.
I’m uploading it now to youtube and I’ll post it when it’s available.

Certainly this can’t be only me that’s seeing this.

Also, I tried playing back the recorded videos using VLC on the A3 and that was even worse than using the A3’s built in playback app.

I’m sitting here right now watching MeTV and it’s a good, clean, stable picture with no hiccups, I’m getting 90/70 on signal and picture quality.
I’ve removed all the extra things from my system so it’s very simple and basic, using a C1PLL. Live viewing looks excellent.
Recording and playing back, not so much. At all.

 

[primestar31]

Yeah, I've stuck with my MicroHD for my everyday recording and watching. Too big a learning curve on the A3 for me so far, but I'm working on it slowly hoping for better firmware.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Yeah, I've stuck with my MicroHD for my everyday recording and watching. Too big a learning curve on the A3 for me so far, but I'm working on it slowly hoping for better firmware.

Watching live satellite, it’s OK. So far as I can tell. I haven’t spent a great deal of time just staring at the screen yet, I’m jumping all around between several sources watching different things.
As an experiment last night I hit the record button during Lost in Space (I love sappy, silly, campy stuff like that) then I set timers to record HR Pufntsuf and Land of the Lost (from my childhood, still love em!) and then Green Hornet and Man from UNCLE. I like the Sci-fi and the Spy-fi stuff too. Really disappointed in how the recordings came out. They play back on my Mac but not so great. The playback on the A3 is just useless.
I have no idea why because when I watch it live it looks excellent.

I ordered a pair of C2WPLL’s from Titanium but they won’t ship until after the 20th so it’s going to be the end of the month before I get them.
I plan to replace the C1PLL that’s in my BUD then I can setup the the MicroHD to record these shows (which by the way it has been recording stuff for me for MONTHS with nary a single glitch or hiccup. Very reliable STB and it does an excellent job. It’s a bit lacking in features but that’s fine because it more than makes up for it in reliability and performance.

So I’m going to fall back to the MicroHD for recording and the A3 will be just for live TV and whatever else. The learning curve on it is HUGE. There are a lot of things that seem to be missing or maybe just overlooked. Several things need outright fixing. Recording/playback is a biggie... I put a disk in it so I could do exactly that.

Maybe they’ll get things sorted out somewhere down the line. I hope so. I had high hopes for this thing. For now it’s going to the back burner. I have other things to focus on anyway.
Turns out I will be moving after all so I get to move my dishes and do them all over again.




edit: Here’s a video I took with my iPhone 5 of the playback of previous recordings.
The hiccups are not at all from the iPhone, it’s purely from the A3.
Also I set to record the Man from UNCLE for one hour but it only recorded 15 minute of it.
I wasn’t watching while it recorded so I don’t know if any error messages came up during the failed recording.

There are about 6 minutes of various recordings here, the Green Hornet was pretty bad too, about the time they were prying open the safe. On the Man from Uncle, it goes into slow motion, then speeds up then rewinds and plays back a bunch of times. I assure you, I am not playing with the controls, this is doing it on it’s own. The audio is out of sync in several places too. It’s just all kinds of messed up.




However, one good thing I did just stumble across, the timer manager !! WOO HOO!!

 

[bpalone]

Dee_Ann, that is strange. I have only done a few short recordings, just to see how it works and never saw this. I will try a longer recording today and look at it tonight. That way maybe we can see if it is potentially all units. I'll post my findings.