GEOSATpro Can't get RTP with microhd (but do with another receiver)

[Sousanator]

My parents are renovating their new house, and I thought this would be the best time to also upgrade all of their old A/V equipment. After some research I decided to buy the microhd receiver to replace my dads old Coolsat 5000, which would give him the ability to record his shows without the VCR.


We pointed it to 97W with our motorless 1m dish and get about 72-74% signal. The receiver seems to work fine, bringing in over 300 channels, except it doesn't get the only channel my dad watches, RTP.

The same dish, with the same cable, and same settings on the Coolsat works flawlessly. RTP comes up no problem with at least 72% signal. When I scan the TP 12060H 22000 with the microhd however, I get 3 channels that are actually from 12053H 22000. I wont get any channels that are on the list for 12060H despite having 73% signal most of the time. Increasing the frequency will give me no results until 12074H which will then be the 12083H channels. A detailed and normal blind scan get me a bunch of channels, but still no RTP. When I manually look for the PID -> VPID 2001, APID 3001, I get no results.

I've done a factory reset, upgraded to the latest firmware, and did a factory reset after that but I get exactly the same results every time.

Am I doing something wrong, missing a setting, or do I just have a buggy receiver?

 

[SatelliteAV]

RPTi scans in with no issues. Probably the LNBF LO frequency has drifted. If 12053 channels scan when preprogrammed TP 12060 is searched, the LO frequency is likely no longer at the correct frequency.

Delete all channels and transponders then perform a blind scan of G19. You will notice the the frequencies that scan will not match the published frequencies. Sounds like it is time to replace the LNBF.

 

[Sousanator]

I tried scanning at a friends house who also uses a Coolsat for RTP, but with a dual LNB on his dish and I got the same results.

If my LNB is off, how does the Coolsat find the channel, but not the microhd? Shouldn't a blind scan be able to pick it up even if it was off?

If I were to buy a new LNBF, anything I should be looking for in particular to get this channel?

Thanks for the reply

 

[SatelliteAV]

Delete all channels and transponders then Blind Scan again. The channel scans in as RTPi America. There are 16 TV channels on this transponder:
RTPi America
Emmanuel TV
PNG
Asre Emarooz TV
3ABN Proclaim TV
Melli TV
ORTM
Al Hyat TV
LoveWorld TV
Gem TV
Tele Anacaona
Appandana
E2 Channel
CTN-Christian Television Network
TV Verdade
GCN

Are you receiving any of these channels?

If the same scan result on another LNBF and dish, then it is not likely a LNBF issue.

Blind Scan will find a transponder even if LO has drifted, but the transponder frequency will not be correctly logged.. Often a receiver will tune a channel that has been previously scanned, but will not log a channel during a TP scan of the LO frequency is too far off.

 

[Sousanator]

I'm not 100% sure since I don't have the receiver with me, but I'm pretty sure the channels in that area went like this:
ORTB -12053
Press TV -12053
Eburu -12083
Samanyolu -12083

Emmanuel TV does look familiar though, so I will have to double check.

I won't be able to check until the weekend, but if he are any more suggestions, I'll make sure to put it on my list

 

[Mr Tony]

working fine here in Minneapolis on my Micro

 

[Mr Tony]

I'm not 100% sure since I don't have the receiver with me, but I'm pretty sure the channels in that area went like this:
ORTB -12053
Press TV -12053
Eburu -12083
Samanyolu -12083

Emmanuel TV does look familiar though, so I will have to double check.

I won't be able to check until the weekend, but if he are any more suggestions, I'll make sure to put it on my list

Those are vertical transponders.....you need to scan horizontal
12058 H 22000

 

[Sousanator]

You are right, those are Vertical transponders, but I definitely scanned Horizontal.

Does this lead back to a bad LNBF? The one my dad and his friend have are over 5 years old, has LNBF technology changed for these newer receivers?

 

[Mr Tony]

The one my dad and his friend have are over 5 years old, has LNBF technology changed for these newer receivers?

nope. I've had the same LNB setup for over 5 years now

 

[Mr Tony]

Do you get ANY horizontal transponders?

 

[tede]

Make sure you have your polarity settings correct because the 12053 transponder is Vertical not Horizontal and also the 12083 is Vertical.
On the Horizontal side you have a transponder at 12027 then you have 12060 where RTP is and then 12090,
on the Vertical side you have a transponder at 12021 then you have 12053 and then 12083.
I just posted the ones whitin the range you are looking for. Hope this will help you.
Tede

 

[pwrsurge]

This issue could be caused by a bad and/or excessively long coax cable run lowering the voltage enough that the LNBF does not get the proper 18V required for horizontal anymore. Each type of receiver outputs a slightly different voltage so your other receiver probably outputs enough juice to overcome your coax cable or LNBF issue. If possible, try to temporarily hookup a new shorter RG6 coax directly from the dish to the receiver to see if this works. If this works, carefully inspect your coax run to see if you have any bad connectors or damage to the coax. I have also sometimes seen this issue caused by one or more cable TV splitters used to join two coax runs together instead of a proper F-81 barrel coupler. If the same issue exists when hooking up a shorter RG6 coax directly to the dish then your GeosatPro microHD could very well be defective but I would try replacing the LNBF first.

A stop gap measure to temporarily solve this issue assuming that the only required channels are on horizontal polarity is to flip the LNBF skew 90 degrees which will change all horizontal channels to vertical and all vertical channels to horizontal. You will then need to change from horizontal to vertical on the 12060 transponder and it should work. I really would not recommend this as a long term solution however but just to temporarily restore service until the issue can be fixed for good either by fixing the coax cable and/or replacing the LNBF.


Regards,

PwrSurge

 

[Sousanator]

Thanks for the reply guys, here are my results:

- I'm getting no listed horizontal channels at all. When doing a blind scan I will pick up plenty of horizontal channels, but they are actually vertical. When looking at their info, they'll be on a horizontal transponder that doesn't exist. For example Press TV was on 12055H 22000 (When it's actually 12053V 22000). They all seem to be consistently 2-3Hz over from their actual vertical.

- I'm getting Verticals twice. It'll pick the channel up as a horizontal with 2-3Hz difference, then it will pick it up again on its actual transponder.

- There are no horizontals that get picked up as verticals.


PwrSurge: I didn't have a short RG6, but I used a short RG59. At 4 feet RG6 vs RG59 shouldn't matter for what is being sent/received. I ended up with the same results.
I do have a 50ft RG6 cable installed and it passed certification with my certified cable tester. Same results.


Only thing I haven't tried is a brand new LNBF, but I did try at my friends house with a different 'working with his CoolSat' LNBF and I got exactly the same results. All horizontals I pick up are actually verticals

 

[SatelliteAV]

Test the voltage on the coax cable at the back of the receiver and also at the LNBF. Vertical transponders should provide 13vdc and horizontal TPs 18vdc (+/- 10%).

 

[Sousanator]

Results:

microhd
H: 13.5v
V: 13.5v
(same directly out of the receiver and at LNBF)

CoolSat
H: 18v
V: 14v


I'm getting the full 12.2v from the microhd power supply so it seems to me I have a defective unit

 

[SatelliteAV]

The unit may be defective, but check a setting: Is the Channel Search polarity set to auto, vertical or horizontal?

 

[Sousanator]

It was set to Auto, but setting it to Horizontal will still give me the Vertical channels (and still outputs to 13.5v)

 

[SatelliteAV]

Good trouble shooting! Sounds like a damaged / defective voltage regulator.

Please contact your reseller for an RMA.