ASCI Not Moving East!

[zack]

Brian, it has been at least three times you have asked me to open a new post about this!

You sent me a new motherboard despite it being out of warranty, that did not fix it! Thank You Again for trying!!

When I read about the ASC1 going away I bought one of the last ones available. It sat in the back bedroom for awhile and then I had someone hook it up for me.

The last time I had talked to you on the phone, my sat had taken off on a wild dive to the east with the ASC1 clicking and blinking on and off! My numbers still showed me at SES 101

You said it was do to my wiring, I disagreed, I said receiver glitch, you told me how to move the sat back and reset the counts, and all was good!

Last Friday I went to a sat and my channel had no signal, it did not take me long to realize it was an old channel no longer in use! I need to delete this sat and rescan it! That way I only see the new channels!

Dumbass me I do it again, I do not highlight the sat I want, I just hit delete all! That means I have to rescan all off them!

Saturday morning I realize I am missing some channels on some sats and I am unable to change my skew?

Sunday I do nothing, I am so disgusted, you select a sat you may have to wait 45 or50 seconds before the ASC1 clicks!

Monday, I realized that the ASC1 was controlling the skew motor again!

Today it is working perfectly! It has to be the receiver? Right?

 

[Titanium]

When two ASC1s and a replacement PCB all exhibit a similar issue, I would continue to suggest that distribution wiring / grounding is highly suspect.

Don't read anything in this post about an East movement issue. If the ASC1 only drives in one direction and testing points to it being due to the specific East or West drive circuit, this usually would indicate a failed relay. I often find East or West relay failure is due to a fused contact and likely caused by voltage potential from an improperly grounded/bonded dish. Did we test the unit(s) on our bench? If so, what did I find?

When the front display blinks on/off during a move, this is indicates a short or over current situation in the low voltage circuit and typically associated with a skew servo movement causing an over current draw. The ASC's low voltage regulator provides power to the servo circuit, logic board and display. Servo movement malfunction is probably due to common mode from the energized motor triggering the servo motor to slam against the mechanical stop (or in lessor interference, to cause the servo to stutter). Usually the servo slam or stutter is due to poor shielding or ungrounded shield on the servo wires, failing motor brushes. Did you upgrade the servo control cable to something more suitable than the cat5 that you had problems with in 2019?

As a side note: servo slam is also associated with improper rotational position installation of the servo motor.

How old is the servo motor? Swapped to a spare? Have you observed the polarity probe during polarity changes and see if it rotates or stutters during a motor move? If the probe movement isn't smooth or sounds strained, the servo may be failing or the probe housing may be broken. If the servo control is unreliable, ASC1 display flashing during a move, etc. This would prompt me to investigate the servo and associated distribution.

Failure for the ASC1 to respond immediately to a DiSEqC command likely indicates that the command was not received. This could be due to signal attenuation caused by a defective coax jumper between the STB and the ASC1, a bad coax fitting, intermitant or low 22khz/DiSEqC output amplitude from the STB (spec is 500-600mV), or even a deformed or improperly separated chokes on the ASC1 f-con PCB (pcb with f-connectors and serial port on the back panel).

Start with a basic test. Does the ASC1 display reliably light up and the polarity indicator (arrow on the right side of Horizontal or Vertical line item) track a polarity change on your STB?

Any components inline between the STB and the ASC1, or is it a straight short coax cable? Tried swapping the coax? Try a different STB? What STB brand and model?

How do you navigate the satellite and service lists? Does your motor move as you navigate a list or does it only move after you select a satellite or service from the list then press OK? Some STBs controls are poorly implemented and the GoTo commands are issued while simply surfing a list. This can cause logic issues with connected components as a dish is sent to a new position with each line item.

Hope you find this information useful as you troubleshoot your system.

 

[JFOK]

Brian,

After reading your post to zack, I hope my issue isn't a fused relay.
Will be out at the dish later today to do my investigating.

John

 

[Titanium]

Read my reply on your thread and you will see that your testing showed that this isn't the case.

 

[zack]

Brian, it has been at least three times you have asked me to open a new post about this!

You sent me a new motherboard despite it being out of warranty, that did not fix it! Thank You Again for trying!!

When I read about the ASC1 going away I bought one of the last ones available. It sat in the back bedroom for awhile and then I had someone hook it up for me.

The last time I had talked to you on the phone, my sat had taken off on a wild dive to the east with the ASC1 clicking and blinking on and off! My numbers still showed me at SES 101

You said it was do to my wiring, I disagreed, I said receiver glitch, you told me how to move the sat back and reset the counts, and all was good!

Last Friday I went to a sat and my channel had no signal, it did not take me long to realize it was an old channel no longer in use! I need to delete this sat and rescan it! That way I only see the new channels!

Dumbass me I do it again, I do not highlight the sat I want, I just hit delete all! That means I have to rescan all off them!

Saturday morning I realize I am missing some channels on some sats and I am unable to change my skew?

Sunday I do nothing, I am so disgusted, you select a sat you may have to wait 45 or50 seconds before the ASC1 clicks!

Monday, I realized that the ASC1 was controlling the skew motor again!

Today it is working perfectly! It has to be the receiver? Right?

Brian. Please reread the above.

Tues, it worked fine for what I wanted to see.

First thing Wed morning I new I was missing a few channels that I had not scanned back in since the skew was working again!

I started a blind scan on G-16 and waited for it to finish! It went on for a few very short minutes and then the ASC1 clicked and clicked again and then began scanning in channels on SES 101? ME TV- ME TV ALT? ect , It then began clicking again and when it stopped it scanned channels 1-10? on G-16?

I got up off my couch and powered off both the ASC1 and my Linkbox for a few minutes from the back side.

Turned the Linbox back on first, let it power up first, then powered up the ASC1, It clicked and then after all the menus the ASC 1 shows you on start up came the dreaded message!

Repowering the ASC1 got so that the relay clicked almost as soon as it came on! Every time I would send the dish to west and turn off the ASC1, every time I turned it back on it would crash to the east!

The counts were 194 or less, It stopped at 194 going East!

Then It really crashed, all the way to the mechanical limit to the East!

After I really noticed those numbers, I knew something was wrong, that low of of a number (194) was in the west!

I did all the resets I could find in the menu!

Skew wiring is bad, I will think about what you said.

 

[Titanium]

1.Swap to a different STB to test. A controller moves when it receives a command. The STB issues the move commands. The Linkbox motor control interface is poorly implemented and problematic for many users. You may also find that STB may need to be reset and the firmware reloaded.

2. Last year you reported skew problems associated with HVAC and lighning. In a long thread, we advised that cat5 was not appropriate for distribution, but instead of replacing the cat5, it was reported to be repaired. This remains the likely cause of the positioning error. Only use shielded wire for servo circuits.

To test: Place an ammeter on the servo ciruit and observe during a dish movement. I am expecting that you will see a significant current draw happen in association with these events and to a lessor extent during any actuator movement. Alternatively, watch the polarity probe as the dish is moving, I am 99% certain that the probe will be over-rotating when the actuator runs and the positioning error occurs. My guess is that the problem will be amplified at the edges of the arc, when the actuator is under the most load.

 

[zack]

1.Swap to a different STB to test. A controller moves when it receives a command. The STB issues the move commands. The Linkbox motor control interface is poorly implemented and problematic for many users. You may also find that STB may need to be reset and the firmware reloaded.

2. Last year you reported skew problems associated with HVAC and lighning. In a long thread, we advised that cat5 was not appropriate for distribution, but instead of replacing the cat5, it was reported to be repaired. This remains the likely cause of the positioning error. Only use shielded wire for servo circuits.

To test: Place an ammeter on the servo ciruit and observe during a dish movement. I am expecting that you will see a significant current draw happen in association with these events and to a lessor extent during any actuator movement. Alternatively, watch the polarity probe as the dish is moving, I am 99% certain that the probe will be over-rotating when the actuator runs and the positioning error occurs. My guess is that the problem will be amplified at the edges of the arc, when the actuator is under the most load.

Brian, I left out that after the first time I left the Linkbox powered down! I did not like that click just after turn on, I will take you word for it that my Linbox is causing my problems, garbage in, garbage out! Seems to happen after I use the last channel button a lot more than usual!

I have no way of reloading the firmware?

I do have an openbox that I have tried loading American sats into, but I had no luck!

Last year I bought shielded security wire, it is working really well, unless it is a really close lighting strike! As in the flash and boom are at the same time! I have had two since then. Makes you wonder if anything is left of your system!

I do have a spare skew motor, I used three jumper wires to connect it to the rear of the ASC1 and it worked!
I did not disconnect anything before doing so this tells me nothing is shorted out to the dish!

This was cheap security wire, this will be at least the third run of that stuff!

 

[zack]

Brian, I left out that after the first time I left the Linkbox powered down! I did not like that click just after turn on, I will take you word for it that my Linbox is causing my problems, garbage in, garbage out! Seems to happen after I use the last channel button a lot more than usual!

I have no way of reloading the firmware?

I do have an openbox that I have tried loading American sats into, but I had no luck!

Last year I bought shielded security wire, it is working really well, unless it is a really close lighting strike! As in the flash and boom are at the same time! I have had two since then. Makes you wonder if anything is left of your system!

I do have a spare skew motor, I used three jumper wires to connect it to the rear of the ASC1 and it worked!
I did not disconnect anything before doing so this tells me nothing is shorted out to the dish!

This was cheap security wire, this will be at least the third run of that stuff!

Dang it!

Put the end of the wire thru the hole in the floor, went outside and found it there, took off pulling it towards my dish, made to the dish only to find out my remaining security wire is 15 feet short!

Anybody know of a cheap direct burial security wire?

In the meantime I know I have a box of Cat-5 around here somewhere!

I just hope the same thing does not happen with it on Sunday!