Pansat channel editing 101 needed.

[Shawn95GT]

I'm trying to get my Pansat 3500s setup with all the C/Ku sats from 45w - 146w.

I listed all the sats from 45w - 148w and picked the ones I want. I need 35 positions to do it.

I need to utilize DiSEqC 1.2 positions 1-35 to make this work (normally you can only select 27-49). Sounds easy, right? I wish.

As per the reccomendations here, I grabbed Channelmaster and went to work.

I uploaded the channel data, added / fixed the sats, and pushed it back to the receiver. This is where the fun began!

The first thing I noticed was that all the skew settings got zero'd. This sucks big-time. CM also won't let you enter a negative number for the skew value. PITA for us polarotor users. CM managed to dork the DiSEqC 1.0 settings too. It transposed position 1 to 3 and position 4 to 6. Yes 6 .

I decided I had screwed that channel list up bad enough and decided to do a Factory Reset and try again with GTools (aka Pansat 3500s Channel Editor). I noticed that only the sats that were checked retained their skew settings. The unchecked ones got changed back to zero .

Factory reset again, check all the sats in the install menu.

GTools now worked nice for re-ordering the sats and setting the DiSEqC switch settings. I wasn't able to set the sat to use 1.2 or assign a position number per sat using GTools.

I saved the .GTD file and opened it with CM. CM let me set the sats to use 1.2 and assign a position number. I sent the CM edited .GTD file back to the Pansat from GTools and some sats got the position numbers, some didn't .

Are there any tricks to this I'm missing? GTools won't set the 1-27 1.2 position numbers and CM trashes the skew numbers (and generally seems to corrupt the channel data).

The Pansat Channel Editor (GTools) is Version 1.87
The Channel Mastersoftware I tried is Version 1.61

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[voomvoom]

Shawn, I don't use Diseqc 1.2. I can't help with G-Tools or CM Editor, as I never use either. I use USALS exclusively. Have you tried it. All you have to do when a Satellite gets off, is go into Antenna Setup, choose Satellite of choice, go down to Positioner Setting, OK - USALS, while on Satellite Position, change position numbers by using a "point" something (such as 89.0 or 88.8), you'll have to hit one of the right or left arrows to get the "W", go down to Store, and OK - Store. This works great for me. The USALS remembers all the programmed positions. I don't have a V-box, but I don't see why it wouldn't work with it. Hope this helps.

Al

 

[Shawn95GT]

USALS needs to be supported by the positioner. The VBOX can't use USALS because the geometry of a polar mount is such that the extension of the actuator isn't 1:1 for the movement of the dish.

The best I can explain that... It's a about 12"extension between my East limit and TS (113W). TS to West limit is the last 6" of extension on the actuator (and it'll go west of 148). There are different places on the mount I can put the actuator so it takes less or more extension to move the dish. I don't think USALS can account for this.

I loved USALS with my SG2100 and I wish I could use it - .

It seems I either need to make 1.2 work or slave the pansat to a BUD receiver (which would make it a PITA to use).

I think my pains with this software re-affirm my belief that legit FTA users aren't exactly the target audience of the software. The forums link at Channelmaster (I'd love to help them get it fixed) takes you to a site openly discussing Dishnet hacking .

Shawn

 

[Shawn95GT]

Ugh... What is the deal with Pansat?

I flashed the firmware to latest from Pansat USA, so that's good.

I'm using the Pansat channel editor that came with the Firmware...

Now I'm noticing that since re-ordering the sats, the wrong sats are getting updated when I edit in the channel editor. I set IA13 to DiSEqC position 24 in the software. I check on the receiver and it's set to Null. Kind of by accident I checked G10R/Ku and it got the position 24 setting .

Ok, new game plan....

Reset to factory, check all the boxes (via the reciever), setup DiSEqC switch and to use 1.2 to point (via the receiver), set the position numbers via Channel Editor - see if that flys.

THEN, I'll try to re-order the sats.

Shawn

 

[Shawn95GT]

Progress update...

I think I've found the trick to updating the DiSEqC 1.2 stuff. The sat gets the value of the sat above it.

So to Edit PAS-1R, I edit the DiSEqC 1.2 info for INT-705 and on the receiver the change will be applied to PAS-1R.

Now I need to see if re-arranging the sats breaks it again. If so I need to get 'em all arranged before I setup the 1.2 positions.

<edit>
I re-arranged the sats and the 1.2 positions were lost. I went into the sats again now that they've been re-arranged and I was able to consistantly set the desired DiSEqC 1.2 position number by editing the sat above the slot I actually wanted to Edit.

I re-arranged by alpha and then sat position. To edit PAS-1R/Ku, I edited PAS 3R,6B/Ku. To Edit PAS-1R/C, I Edited PAS-1R/Ku.

It's stupid, but it works.
</edit>

Shawn

 

[Shawn95GT]

Finally!

I ended up being able to do everything I needed in the Pansat Channel Editor (GTools). I had terrible data corruption using ChannelMaster. I think their 2700/3500s code needs some tweaking!

I got sat positions 1-35 assigned to all the sats that I want to use. I did have to do the goofy 'edit the sat slot above the one you actually want to edit' in the Chanel editior to make this happen. If I need to add any I'll still have positions 36-49 which are easy to add via the receiver.

I've also got the satellites list re-ordered by the Satellite position .

The first pic shows that I was able to assign DiSEqC 1.2 position '3'.

The second pic better shows the re-sorted sat list. Check out that Cox Sports transponder on IA13/C!

Everything had to happen in order to work right:
1. From the receiver, select all the sats so they are checked.
2. '"Upload' the channel list (note the skew numbers are retained).
3. Go through the sat list and add / move the sats as needed. I added IA8, moved AMC9 etc.
4. Now sort the sats the way you want.
5. Now setup the DiSEqC 1.2 positions in the Channel Editor using the 'edit the one above it' method described above.
6. 'Download' the channel list to the reciever and smile.

I attached my 'fixed' channel list (zipped) in case anyone else with a 3500s & VBOX might be able to use it.

 

[saidias]

I have the same problems!

Its conforting to know someone else has the same issues....I thought I was crazy!!!

Thanks for sharing your progress!

MD
Pansat 2700A

 

[digiblur]

My favorite on the GTools is when I add a satellite it looks right on all the Fortec screens but when you go to it the dish moves to the extreme east.

I've found they are all quirky, the least of the bunch for me is ChannelMaster. If I knew the commands for the receivers I would write my own!