Problem with HT System VIII Plus and Vbox II

[linuxman]

Okay guys,

Getting ready to rock and roll with the Pansat 3500SD and Vbox II combined with the HT System VIII Plus analog unit. I hooked everything up last night as instructed on this site using the add a receiver link, but didn't turn anything on untill a short while ago. I wanted to see if the HTS unit would function with the Vbox II as a stand alone positioner. The Vbox II works and moves the 10" BUD okay. The problem I have, is getting the HTS to move to a different stored satellite. Because the motor is not hooked up, it gives a motor error.

So my question is the following in several parts:

Can I erase my stored satellites that I currently have programmed?
Proceed with the Pansat setup, write down the location of each satellite that shows on the Vbox screen position number?

Come back later to the HTS and re-program each satellite again using the Vbox II positions for movement, and have more than one satellite stored in what will be the same position as far as the HTS is concerned, so it doesn't think it has to move the dish when I change stellites?

I think this can be done, but wanted to be sure.

Just so I am clear on what I am trying to achieve. I have the HTS and Pansat both hooked together as shown above. I want the Pansat to control dish movement using DiSeqc and USALS. I have an A-B swith setup to alternate between allowing the Pansat to control polarity when using it, and allowing the HTS to control polarity when using it.

When using the HTS analog, I will first move the dish with the Vbox II, and then change satellites using the HTS after they are re-programmed and stored as above if that will work.

I am sure I will have a few questions as I proceed with the Pansat, but wanted more minds than mine on the HTS problem above.

 

[voomvoom]

Fred, that's an interesting situation. Are you trying to drive the dish with both the HTS and the Pansat? If so, I wouldn't know how. Or just the Pansat? Don't quite understand the error part on the HTS. If the Pansat is going to be the only driver, the only thing I can think of for the HTS, would be to program every satellite in the same position on the HTS, so when you change sats, it won't show a move, so there should be no error. Just a theory or guess, but it might work.

Al

 

[linuxman]

Hey Al,

I am only going to drive the dish with the Pansat.

However the Vbox II comes with a remote control which will allow you to use it as a stand alone positioner without the Pansat even being on. It is my plan to use the stand-alone part of the Vbox to drive the dish for the HTS, unless I happen to move the dish with the Pansat to where I want to be with the HTS.

The error part of the HTS was when trying to change stored sats in the HTS this morning with no motor hooked up, thus giving the error. I could move the dish wherever I wanted with the Vbox, and once on the satellite, I could change channels just fine which prompted my question about the "virtual position" storing the sats in the HTS.

So if we are correct, I can re-program all the stored sats in the HTS so that they will show only one position and will not attempt to move the motor.

I think it will work too, just wanted someone else tell me if I am guessing wrong. If this all works, I will have the very best of both worlds.

PS. I plugged in the Pansat a while ago, and am going through the setup. I about s**t my pants when I pushed the power button on the remote and then on the front of the box. Nothing. I frantically looked through the manual and discovered the real power button on the back.

I am moving through the installation now.

 

[voomvoom]

Good luck Fred, I know you're going to enjoy it.

Al

 

[Shawn95GT]

since it's slaved.... it doesn't matter. Polarity would be controlled by the Pansat so all your need is the frequencies. You should just need 1 C-band, and 1 Ku band.

This is all from about a year ago so I may be hazy .

 

[iammike]

I'm not sure if your plan for the satellite locations will work or not. I did want to suggest one alternative in case it doesn't. When I first set up my dish I used my Toshiba analog receiver in setup mode. It scans through every transponder on both vertical and horizontal polarity, regardless of whether the sat it normal or reversed. When it finds a program, it stops scanning and stays on that transponder until you tell it to continue scanning. If your HTS has a similar mode, in a worst case you could always just leave in in setup mode. This is also pretty helpful when looking for feeds.

Mike

 

[linuxman]

Hi Shawn,

Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try as soon as I have the Pansat opertional and all the sats programmed into it.

BTW, for all who are interested, I am watching FTA MPEG C-Band right now on my Pansat on Galaxy 11 which is my true South satellite. WoooooHoooo!!!!! :up

I have a signal strength of 87 and a quality strength of 89. I thought the picture in the Drake was good but it was dying and I didn't know it. The HTS analog picture was brilliant in comparison. The picture on this Pansat is fabulous, and I am not even using the component cables.

BTW, I don't know how I am going to watch all this stuff. Man there is a lot of stuff up there.

I want to thank everyone here for your love of this hobby and your willingness to help new people.

I am going to scan the KU side now, and then move to my Western most satellite and Eastern most. I have it set right now to use USALS, we'll see if it works momentarily.

The KU side should tell me if I have it on the money or not.

 

[linuxman]

Wanted to give you and update on progress.

USALS will not work with the Vbox II. USALA is a DiSeqc 1.3 command set, and the Vbox II only goes up to 1.2.

I had to reset the Pansat and start over, set the limits etc.

Good news is, I have 3 sats programmed in and I got a channel I was looking for. I am a STNG fan. I am getting quality strength of 75 - 85 on those far west sats.

I am beginning to think that Shawn is correct above, I have been following along with the analog as I am coming across the arc, and each satellite I come to, I pick a channel, and when I get to the right position, the channel comes in. Don't have to change polarity or anything.

The next sat actually has some KU on it, so I'll see how that goes.

 

[Shawn95GT]

Hehe - this is like dejavu!

Get to know Channelmaster. You can reclaim positions 1-25 via channelmaster. Via the reciever it only lets you choose 26 on up.

USALS won't work because it has no idea what position the actuator is at with relation to the Clark belt.

One of the HTS boxes I had had a feature called 'Master Track'. It was kind of like USALS. You store a sat at or near TS and one on each end of the arc and it sweeps the arc saving all the sats it sees in between.

It looks good for you so far!

 

[dfergie]

I'm watching with interest, got my coolsat 5000 in today, tried a blindscan on G4 with signal but no low PQ... will mess with later ...

 

[linuxman]

Hey Mike,

I hadn't noticed that kind of setup mode on the HTS yet, but it is certainly worth a shot.

Shawn, I went through the entire setup with USALS, telling it the position that the actuator was, my longitude, and latitude, everything, no go, just wouldn't send the command to move. If I have done something wrong, the USALS is certainly easier than what I am doing. But I kind of like it this way too. I get a feel for the receiver, the skew the positioner., everything. After a while, you can pretty much guess how many numbers it takes on the Vbox to move 2 degrees.

Shawn, I haven't seen the Master Track on my HTS yet, but I think what you suggested earlier will work.

I tried for White Springs TV, but I don't think it was on yet, couldn't get a signal.

I think it might be easier to use my laptop, and move it into where the tv is. It would save a lot of wear and tear on the printer.

Thanks, Fred

 

[Shawn95GT]

USALS works with the DiSEqC motors because it knows exactly what degree from TS it's at for any given position of the motor.

With a polar mount / actuator 500 counts could be vastly different on different mounts / actuators / whatever. The VBOX would have ot be smart enough to figure it out and it's job is hard enough as it is .

 

[linuxman]

You are right Shawn, and I am giving it a work out today.

If it survives this set up, I will pronounce the Vbox II well worth the money.

 

[linuxman]

Ok.

Finally I have some more questions.

I locked into my first KU channels on G10R. When I first set it up, I didn't have anything to go on as far as signal quality to set the skew so I just left it at the factory setting, saved it and let it scan. It didn't find any programs. I backed out of the installation screen and went into the smart scan and came up with about 10 channels.

Of those channels, some have a sig quality as high as 75 and some as low as 15 and some in the middle.

Can this be fixed by now going back into the installation and setting the skew a little differently? Can skew be adjusted on the fly with the Pansat and saved for the entire Sat?

Maybe a little adjustment east or west? I haven't been able to find a way to adjust east or west either on the fly.

If I wasn't on the arc, I don't think I could even get the ones with the 15. Maybe I am wrong, and the elevation needs tweaking a little?

The channels at the 75 look fine, but the ones with the 15 kind of chop a little now and then.

I have not yet been able to tune into White Springs either. It is a KU signal too.

All answers and suggestions are appreciated very much.

Thanks,
Fred

 

[voomvoom]

Fred, Iwish I knew. I would think the Pansat should move/change the polarotor if you change the skew in the settings. With my 4dtv, the skew is either 45 or -45 depending on H or V or vise-versa. With my Pansat or Coolsat the skew is always 0, but the Coolsat won't run a polarotor and I've never tried my Pansat.

Al

 

[voomvoom]

Another thought, maybe the Pansat isn't changing the polarotor at all and you're getting only one polarity. Sure hope this isn't the case.

Al

 

[Shawn95GT]

With the VBOX 1 I found it a lot easier to fine tune the actuator count via the VBOX. The Pasnat just stores the current position as P##.

 

[linuxman]

Hey Al and Shawn,

I answered my own question a little bit by going back into the install on G10R KU and made some slight adjustment to the skew and saved it, and now my low sig quality is about 25 which practically eliminated all the choppiness I was seeing.

I am getting the full use of the polorator using the Pansat so I don't think I have to worry about that.

Shawn that is a fantastic idea I never thought of. I can tweak East and West witht the remote on the Vbox while the picture is playing and see if that helps. I'll give that a shot and report back in a few.

Thanks, Fred

 

[linuxman]

Shawn you are a genius.:

I moved it two clicks and it brought the quality signal up to 29 -30 on the low ones. I want to tell you, that is all it takes to make a better picture.

Well, I would love to play with thing all night, but I am going to put it away until morning when I will advance further across the Arc.

Thanks Guys,

Fred

PS, I am going to have to learn how to use Channel Master real soon. I also need to learn how to backup the channel list, and also how to upload the edited list.

 

[linuxman]

Allrighty then!

Now I have a real problem!

I think my diseqc switch is bad, or I have it configured incorrectly in the Pansat installation for the satellite.

Here is how I discovered the problem.

The three satellites I had programmed into the machine that had supposed KU and C-Band digital all had the same channels which I didn't think too strange because I am new at this and thought well maybe they have something coming in on C and on KU for some reason. After looking them over this morning, I would choose a channel from C then choose the same channel from KU and the only difference is that the signal quality was a little lower on KU.

Here is the troubleshooting I have done so far.

I have run the KU input directly from the dish into the Pansat and have now scanned in a dozen or so real KU channels from Galaxy 11. These are totally different from what was scanned from the C side of Galaxy 11.

The good news is that the signal quality is in the 60's on all of them.

The only other thing is that the servo is not switching properly, but I don't think that is the case, because if it was, I couldn't get any KU channels.

Those of you with Pansats, please answer the following:

Should the 22Khz tone be turned on in the setup? I have had it on when doing the scanning last night.

I have checked all the RG-6 connections, and redid a couple of them. I have eliminated the A-B switch to the polorator as well, just to be on the safe side.

Also, don't know whether this matters, maybe it is crucial, but the box the diseqc switch came in says, "Pansat 4x1 DiSEqC 1.0 digital satellite equip. control".

Does a 1.0 switch make it incompatible with what I am trying to do here?

If you have an answer, please share it.

Thanks again everyone for all your help so far!!!!

Fred