KBOX K2 with GEOSATpro 90cm

[brainlpb]

I bought a KBOX K2 Receiver on eBay and a GEOSatpro 90cm from Satellite AV and an extra dual LNB kit from them as well. Anyways, I have read every instruction and howto about this FTA stuff and am beating my head against the wall. No matter where I aim the dish, 97 degrees or 123 degrees, the best I can get is 47% signal and 47% quality, even if I aim the dish straight north or at a wall on my house the quality bars won't barely budge, 44% is low end, the best I got was 50% for a minute or so. Used dishpointer for the sat aiming settings, a compass to aim the dish, and all the frequency settings and such on the receiver are correct, referred to lyngsat for those. Used a RG6 25' cable straight from the receiver to the LNB. Tried a 2nd LNB as well to make sure 1st wasn't bad, tried another RG6 cable too. Kbox is un-modified, has factory flash of December, 2009? Just wondering if anyone else has used this equipment with luck?

 

[SatelliteAV]

This post has been moved to a better part of the forum to address your question.

Never set-up a K-box, but most DVBS receivers are similar in the set-up.

Here are a few installation steps that will assist.

• 
  Make sure that you have a clear line of site to the satellites with no trees or buildings. The satellite that you should aim for first is Galaxy 19. From your location, it is SSE (about where the sun is located at 10 am). If the location that you are attempting to mount your dish has shadows between 9am and 11 am, find a better location that has direct sun light between these hours.
  
  
• Install the dish with the single LNBF and rotate the LNBF to approx. minus 20 degrees (standing in front of dish turn the centering mark on the top of the LNBF clockwise to the 20 degree mark on the clamp).
• Set you TV and receiver next to the dish so you can see the screen as you adjust the dish.
• In the receiver choose satellite Galaxy 19 KU at 97W (may be called Galaxy 25 KU, G25 KU, IA5 KU / Telstar 5 KU, etc. in your receiver)
• Set LNBF type to standard or single
• Make sure LNBF LO frequency is set to 10750
• LNB Power is set to ON
• Set 22KHz to OFF
• Set the Transponder Frequency to 12177
  
  On a perfectly plumb, stable and mounted mast:
• Set the dish elevation to 36 degrees
• Aim the dish toward compass reading 140
• Slowly move the dish left and right of the compass reading by 10 degrees while watching the Signal Quality reading. If the Signal Quality does not indicate a stable higher Signal Quality reading, increase of decrease the elevation and repaet the slow panning process of 10 degrees on either side of the 140 degree compass reading. Patience.......
  
• Once you find a solid signal quality reading, perform a Blind Scan or Power Scan. You should be able to locate and peak the satellite in 15 - 30 minutes or less.
  
  Good Luck!

 

[Anole]

Most of us don't have a lot of experience with those predominantly hacker-boxes.
However, with a lot of 'em showing up on eBay and the flea market, we should pay attention.

That said, here are a few things to look for in the setup:
- use just one LNB and aim at 97°w 'till you get comfortable
- make sure your mounting pole is plumb, not just "close"
- use one of the aiming programs and pay attention to magnetic offset for your azimuth if you are using a compass
- check the LNBF and see if it's Standard (10750 Local Oscillator frequency)
- set the receiver to match the LNBf LO
- if Standard LNBf, turn off 22khz in the receiver
- turn on LNB Power

You are better off with the receiver and monitor beside the dish for initial tune-up, to get a better feel for how much minor aim-adjustments will affect your signal.

edit:
I was typing and having forum troubles while Brian was posting, so see above for a more comprehensive set of instructions. - :up

 

[brainlpb]

Yeah, messed around late last night with it, flashed it to latest firmware so who knows if that helped but ended up getting up to 75% signal and quality at the low end TP's, and 66% on the higher ones. Eventually did get a lock but the box said it found Galaxy 25 (93.1) which isn't even in the box's list of predetermined sats, so is the "Galaxy 25" name broadcasted by the sat? Anyway, didn't get any channels on it even though lyngsat showed one or two fta's. Moved it around some more and couldn't get the same lock. Another TP it went green bars on at 66% but couldn't determine sat name was at 12050, couldn't figure out from lyngsat what sat that would be, none seem to list any programming in the vicinity there. Was looking for a motor, it would be much more enjoyable to point this thing with a joystick, but appears none of the ones I've seen do elevation, so what in the heck is recommended? I know DirectTv has motorized mounts for on top of motorhomes, those must do elevation for sure... I bought the Kbox because most of the fta sat sites out there listed it as one of the newest boxes and I wanted a HD + DVR model. From what I researched, it had the sharpest video, which it does appear to have, even on composite, but this also does HDMI and component video for my HDTV system and Dolby surround sound. The onscreen menu's also appear to be much more modern looking and user friendly than others and it has a USB port for external drives which I already have a few of. I might of considered the nFusion but it required eSata drives, however an integrated ATSC tuner would of been nice. This morning I broke down and bought the Dishpointer google phone app and looks like the neighbors tree is indeed blocking Galaxy 19 (97), so go figure... thought I was missing it for sure. Luckily my dish is mounted on a pallet at the moment for testing so I am going to drag it around the yard later today for further testing. The pain about this Geosat dish is the vertical elevation bar indicator is so fat, you have no idea where it is set at, the white line is probably at least 4 degrees fat, so trying to figure if the center or an edge of it is where to point is a pain, directions don't say. Also, the bolts they included are your typical maid in china recycled aluminum or something, one already snapped in half when tightening it. Anyway, this is just a hobby I picked up while waiting for Dish to come out with their slingbox receiver, amazing it has finally arrived. But of course, it appears you can't order TWO of them on their website, figures... I have Time Warner cable in my area and across the border a few miles away is Comcast. Comcast has had a recent surge of ads for Xfinity which is their new marketing campaign for essentially the same technology they have always had, but when I visited Seattle last, they did indeed have a ton more HD channels, so I imagine if I take the plunge and go with Dish then Time Warner will probably upgrade their HD programming right after (that's the way it always works). I just hate the cable company's Motorola box, it only has a 120GB drive and half the time the TV guide info is off and doesn't record the right program. I also have a Tivo HD Series 3 but it requires 2 cable cards, their new Premier model out now requires 1 newer model card, but who the heck wants to pay Tivo monthly fee + cable company card fees? It's a total pisser especially when every modern TV can tune QAM channels without a card. Tivo's excuse is they wouldn't know what channel to match up to the TV Guide, well, let the user match them up then dummies! Looks like they only want to offer lifetime subscriptions on older boxes, ones you already paid a 3-4 year subscription, you drop $500 on the receiver, $400 on the sub, then another lifetime after sub after that, so $1100-$1200 a box, forget that... And who wants analog cable on their HDTV, every channel up to 75 looks like crap on HDTV, fuzzy... at least Dish and Direct are digital, sure wish cable would go purely digital. So that's my rant... stuck in cable land, need it for cable modem anyway. Tivo HD at least has an ATSC tuner for when Time Warner has a spat with Fox etc... over royalties. Roku, Vudu, Sky Angel and other IPTV based services look interesting but the limited programming is a joke. So stuck with cable, Netflix, and ATSC backup for now. Hoping to get FTA up and running so I can watch all the nut jobs in the middle east for even more entertainment...

 

[turbosat]

Brainlpb , I typed in an answer to your post but the forum balked and lost it.
You were on 91W if you were seeing 12050, there's 10 channels there, law enforcement and emt training stuff, and 2 color bar/test channels...I think you mentioned being on G25 first, which is right next door to 91. Possibly you weren't on the satellite exactly and lost the signal.

edit: Once you have a motor installed and setup properly to track the satellite arc, you wont have to worry about setting the elevation, the motor's movement takes care of that as it moves the dish east and west.