Mercury Dynamic

[turbosat]

Anybody using one of the new Mercury Dynamics? I notice that it has newer firmware than the Mercury 2, even though they are supposed to be identical internally. Curious if any improvements or changes have been made to the
menus/operation of the receiver.

 

[brentb636]

Tony,
I've loaded the Dynamic software into my backup Merc II, and i'm blindscanning amc6 right now. At least it loaded correctly, and appears functional. I'll report back further as I play with this. It is finding tp's on AMC6 and so far seems the same as ver 1.53 for the MercII. [edit] A cursory look through the menus and I don't see a difference. Seems to function the same .

 

[turbosat]

Thanks Brent, I did the same thing, ran a few blind scans, couldn't really tell anything improved but I didn't spend a lot of time on it. Mainly I was curious if they improved the menus and the way the thing goes about editing/deleting tps but saw no change in any menus. But, didn't try deleleting anything either. Will play around with it some more tomorrow.

 

[brentb636]

On the subject of deleting tp's, I noticed that with the sats ordered by position, the identical problem exists in the tp edit menu, that of giving a different bird name, greyed out. I'd bet it's about the same software.

 

[turbosat]

Thanks for the info, maybe the fact they decided to keep selling them gives hope that eventually they will fix that.

 

[Cadsulfide]

does the SPDIF out work on the new software?

 

[B.J.]

Tony,
I've loaded the Dynamic software into my backup Merc II, and i'm blindscanning amc6 right now. At least it loaded correctly, and appears functional. I'll report back further as I play with this. It is finding tp's on AMC6 and so far seems the same as ver 1.53 for the MercII. [edit] A cursory look through the menus and I don't see a difference. Seems to function the same .

I'm surprised that you guys risked doing that.
I did a DOS FC on the files, and besides being different lengths, the files are significantly different.
I've been so fed up with the numerous bugs in the Mercury firmware, that I haven't used my Mercury for about a year or so. But if this new firmware works on the Mercury, I might give it a try. The things I'd be looking for is whether they have fixed the (lack of) functionality of the DiseqC-1.2 motor control, namely that it scrambles the data if you delete a satellite. Also the Mercury has severe problems with respect to cutting off LNBF voltage randomly, but particularly when you're in the programming menus you'd be using when trying to search for a satellite.
Anyway, neat that this Dynamic firmware works on the MErcury. I might give the Mercury another try. I had taken out the power supply, hoping that it would work in my lightning fried Coolsat, but it didn't work (it was more than the power supply that got fried apparently). But I've put the supply back in, and give it a try. Thanks.

 

[updatelee]

I use v1.2 all the time and had no problems, but I dont delete satellites. unsure why you would... must be a reason, I just havent come across the need to.

I have noticed that sometimes when moving the dish from point A to point B that the motor would seem to stop for a split second then continue. I figured it was me imaginging things, lol. maybe not. minor quirk though for me, didnt effect any performance of anything.

 

[brentb636]

I use v1.2 all the time and had no problems, but I dont delete satellites. unsure why you would... must be a reason, I just havent come across the need to.

I have noticed that sometimes when moving the dish from point A to point B that the motor would seem to stop for a split second then continue. I figured it was me imaginging things, lol. maybe not. minor quirk though for me, didnt effect any performance of anything.

I delete transponders all the time, Lee, but not satellites. Blindscanning all the time gives a real big transponder list after awhile ( as well you know ) .

 

[updatelee]

Lol same here. The tp list needs to be trimmed else it gets full and odd things happen. Aparently this isn't unique to the mercury. I've heard many irds do this.

Do you exeperience the voltage cutout brent as well? Its kinda wierd but doesn't effect the perf.

 

[brentb636]

I haven't noticed a voltage cutout on my primary Merc II, but my backup does seem to cut out occasionally ( That's why it't the backup !) In fact, this is the first time I heard that it might be a general problem. Previously I thought the backup Merc might have been damaged by a previous user's carelessness. I got it for $25 on ebay.

 

[updatelee]

I personally wouldnt call it a problem, it doesnt effect anything kinda just odd. its actually so quick I thought I was just hearing things lol.

 

[gabshere]

I had taken out the power supply, hoping that it would work in my lightning fried Coolsat, but it didn't work (it was more than the power supply that got fried apparently). But I've put the supply back in, and give it a try. Thanks.

you know Sat AV has a power supply for coolsat listed on their specials but lightning might have gotten the tuner

 

[SatelliteAV]

Ask and we will throw in a tuner with the purchase of the Coolsat 4000 power supply........

 

[B.J.]

I use v1.2 all the time and had no problems, but I dont delete satellites. unsure why you would... must be a reason, I just havent come across the need to.
....

I guess for me, it's just that the default sat lists generally have dozens of sats that I can't view from my location, and they just tend to clutter things up. Plus, after my experiences with the Fortec Ultra, which has limits for the number of sats, number of channels, number of transponders, number of active transponders, etc, and if any one of those categories is exceeded, the receiver goes beserk, I guess I try to keep the number of sats to a minimum, even though I'm not sure just what the maximum is on the Mercury.
Anyway, for a discussion of the 1.2 issues, look at:
Mercury positioner numbers save location in ch. file. - Sadoun Tech Forums

If you don't delete channels, this isn't a significant issue, although it's annoying that the receiver doesn't let you specify which DiseqC-1.2 sat # to use with each sat, as earlier Fortec receivers did, although the earlier receivers were annoying too, because they excluded the first 26 or so sat numbers, which were reserved for European satellites for some reason. Although you could get around that using the channel editor, something you can't do with the Mercury.

 

[B.J.]

you know Sat AV has a power supply for coolsat listed on their specials but lightning might have gotten the tuner

Thanks for the power supply info.
Unfortunately, I think the lightning took out more than just the tuner. The darn thing wouldn't light up at all. Initially I thought that it was just the power supply, which was missing 2 or 3 of the various voltages, and one of the missing voltages was the +5, and I don't think the processor will do much without that. So I rigged up a temporary power supply, and had ALL of the voltages correct where it connects to the main board, but the thing still wouldn't light up at all. I don't think the lightning came in via the Coolsat's sat or ota coax, but instead, I think it came in via the ground of my DirecTV system, which was grounded improperly by the installer.
Off topic, but interesting, besides the lightning knocking out the Coolsat, 2 DirecTV receivers, a network switch and one of the serial ports on my computer, it also went down the pipe on my water well, and knocked all the corrosion off the inside of the pipe. When I tried running water into a sink shortly after the strike, you couldn't even see through a glass of water, it was so full of fine rust colored particulates. I had to run the water for an hour or two before it cleared up. Really weird.

 

[updatelee]

the fortec mercury does have its own channel list editor for the pc. its not overly friendly, but it does work. maybe give that a shot, might be easier if your going to edit. mine gets used only for wildfeeds so I just goto the factory reset menu and delete all channels once in awhile.

 

[B.J.]

the fortec mercury does have its own channel list editor for the pc. its not overly friendly, but it does work. maybe give that a shot, might be easier if your going to edit. mine gets used only for wildfeeds so I just goto the factory reset menu and delete all channels once in awhile.

Assuming that the editor hasn't changed since I last used it, the editor for the Mercury is OK for channels, but it doesn't allow you to edit any satellite data, except for the name and longitude. Compare that to the editor for the Ultra, which allows editing LO freqs, DiseqC-1.2 sat numbers, diseqC, 22khz and 0/12V switch settings. Also, the channel section allowed selecting AC3, which is necessary if you're trying to create manual channels with AC3 audio. The Mercury's editor only allows you to set the PIDs.
Anyway, I found the Mercury's editor to be very lacking, however it wasn't really the fault of the editor so much as the fault of the lack of data included in the channel data file saved by the Mercury.

 

[updatelee]

The merc channel editor is not great that's for sure. I had hopes that sharpc would be able to add support to chanelmaster but I guess it wasn't in the cards