problems on set up

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I also checked mine last night, and I do have a 15 degree on the LNB arm (in back of the dish), so I know that the dish is set up correctly. I checked both the latitude angle on the motor, and the elevation angle behind the dish, both are where they are supposed to be. (43.2 and 23.3 respectively).
I aimed to true south, set up the Viewsat screen to read for 79W, TP 12177 @H20500, and the motor moved ever so slightly, still no signal, only 'S' of about 45 or so.
Moved the dish up and down, left and right (slowly), nothing!

I think what I will do is switch the lnb over to a circular, and try and pick up Nimiq2 at 82W. (stronger signal)

I will set the Viewsat to go to 82W (instead of 79W) from true south and hunt for that signal first.

If I find that, maybe then I can go to the other end of the arc and tell the motor to turn to 110 or 119. If I find one of those, I should have a decent arc started.

I am hoping that another Viewsat Extreme user can chime in and tell me some pointers on this receiver? I have a few questions.
 
Last edited:
Just an update......

today I set out to try and get this motorized dish to work, this is what happened.

I decided to look for the stonger sats, circular.
But first I wanted to "factory reset" my viewsat and then set it, and the dish to "true south". I then told it to turn to 82W, and it, and the motor did. So the motor and receiver are thinkin along the same lines (82W). I left the Viewsat ON.
So I then swapped the Linear LNB on the dish for a circular. Borrowed a buddies older Bell receiver and wired it straight to the LNB. Found 82W no problem, with 100%. Tightened everything up!

So now I rewire the motorized dish and Viewsat, swap for the Linear LNB, and wire it straight through with no switch. So now I know that the dish is at 82W, and the Viewsat thinks it is at 82W also.

I then told it to go to 123W, and the motor did. It read about 25% 'Q'. So I attempted to adjust the dish. No matter where I put the dish the 'Q' would not get better. I tried every possible location, including moving the LNB closer, further, and even off of the hanger and holding it in mid air closer and farther from the dish to no avail. Maximum 'Q' was 25-30%. It pulled in about 5 channels. Only one of wich shows a picture. The other 4 show the 'No Signal" sign at the bottom of the screen.
I then tired 97W. Again the same results, 25-30% siganl maximum, even with adjustments.
Pulled in about 100+ channels, some watchable, some 'No Signal'.
Did the same thing with 79W, 25-30%.

So one problem I have is having only 25-30% on every sat. But at least I have SOME 'Q'.

So now I tried to rewire the Viewsat to how I want it to work with my existing stationary dish.

The line needs to be split by a SW21 switch to feed one stationary dish and one to the motorized dish.

The Viewsat reads the stationary dish just fine (all sats of that dish are set to SW21 Dish 1). The moorized dish is set to SW21 switch 2, but I cannot get any siganl form the sats. I know that there should be at least the 25-30% as from previous when wired straight through. The 'S' is about 50%, but no 'Q'. There is power at the dish, the green light is on, and the motor moves fine.

Why wont the Viewsat pick up the second side of the SW21 switch??
 
Could be a bad Switch.
Reason I mention the Firmware, is that many complained about weird behavior with non-factory firmwares.
 
The moorized dish is set to SW21 switch 2, but I cannot get any siganl form the sats.
Click to expand...
Universal LNBF and SW 21 (a 22khz switch) do not mix well. 22 khz switches also do not like circular or primestar LNBFs. If you look in the "Tip of the iceberg" section, it says the reason is that universal LNBFs have thier own 22k switch built in. The built in switch is for changing from low to high band.
If one dish has a standard LNBF and the other has a universal LNBF, put the universal on the switch port marked 0khz and the standard on the 22khz port. If they are both universal LNBFs then I would try changing the LNB settings to "standard, 10600" instead of "universal, 9750/10600" on the 22khz dish. Leave the 0khz dish set to universal. Can't say for sure if changing the LNBF settings will actually work, since I never actually tried it myself. Maybe someone else can provide the answer.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/66143-tip-iceberg.html
 
If all satellites have a consistently low Signal Quality, I would suggest that either the reflector is warped or the LNBF may be defective. We always suggest that installers check a reflector for warping before the install.

To check the reflector for surface accuracy follow the directions in this PDF: CHECKING FOR A WARPED REFLECTOR or use the string test as illustrated in the attached drawing.

As a rule of thumb, use a DiSEqC switch if a universal type LNBF is being used.
 

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Last edited:
giovanni1 said:
Just an update......

today I set out to try and get this motorized dish to work, this is what happened.

I decided to look for the stonger sats, circular.
But first I wanted to "factory reset" my viewsat and then set it, and the dish to "true south". I then told it to turn to 82W, and it, and the motor did. So the motor and receiver are thinkin along the same lines (82W). I left the Viewsat ON.
So I then swapped the Linear LNB on the dish for a circular. Borrowed a buddies older Bell receiver and wired it straight to the LNB. Found 82W no problem, with 100%. Tightened everything up!

So now I rewire the motorized dish and Viewsat, swap for the Linear LNB, and wire it straight through with no switch. So now I know that the dish is at 82W, and the Viewsat thinks it is at 82W also.

I then told it to go to 123W, and the motor did. It read about 25% 'Q'. So I attempted to adjust the dish. No matter where I put the dish the 'Q' would not get better. I tried every possible location, including moving the LNB closer, further, and even off of the hanger and holding it in mid air closer and farther from the dish to no avail. Maximum 'Q' was 25-30%. It pulled in about 5 channels. Only one of wich shows a picture. The other 4 show the 'No Signal" sign at the bottom of the screen.
I then tired 97W. Again the same results, 25-30% siganl maximum, even with adjustments.
Pulled in about 100+ channels, some watchable, some 'No Signal'.
Did the same thing with 79W, 25-30%.

So one problem I have is having only 25-30% on every sat. But at least I have SOME 'Q'.

So now I tried to rewire the Viewsat to how I want it to work with my existing stationary dish.

The line needs to be split by a SW21 switch to feed one stationary dish and one to the motorized dish.

The Viewsat reads the stationary dish just fine (all sats of that dish are set to SW21 Dish 1). The moorized dish is set to SW21 switch 2, but I cannot get any siganl form the sats. I know that there should be at least the 25-30% as from previous when wired straight through. The 'S' is about 50%, but no 'Q'. There is power at the dish, the green light is on, and the motor moves fine.

Why wont the Viewsat pick up the second side of the SW21 switch??
Click to expand...

Giovanni,

Of course, it is recommended that you not incorporate any switch when setting up your motorized dish. This simply becomes a distracting obstacle.

However, since you are at that point currently, try swapping the hardwiring of the ports (reverse the fixed point and the motorized dish connections) and change the settings in the menus to reflect that change in hardwiring. Since the one port seems to work ok with the fixed dish, let's see if the other port works as well with the fixed point dish.

This will at least inform you that both ports of the switch are operational. It will not tell you too much about (why or why not) the switch functions with the motorized dish's components (LNBF), but it may provide some useful hints.

RADAR
 
I have tried to do some rewiring. What I have done is have the SW21 switch feed into Port 3 on my 4x1 disecq rather than have the SW21 switch before the disecq. That would leave Port 4 for the motorized dish, and have 2 standard LNB's feed into the SW21 switch. I have been told by a local sat guy that SW21 switches will not work with FTA. Is this true?

Just curious.... what is the difference between the SW21 switch and a 22KHz switch??

The Viewsat seems to read from both LNB's that are on the SW21 switch but I will have to scan. Did not have time last night.
 
Currently I have the motor fed from Port 4 on my Disecq switch and the motor does behave as it should, going from sat to sat. I am having other problems with signal 'Q'.

Is there a specific reason for not having the Disecq before the motor like you are saying?

If I cant split the line before the motor, then I cant feed the stationary dish.
 
Is there a specific reason for not having the Disecq before the motor like you are saying?
Click to expand...
The Switch will probably fail very quickly.
The DiSEqC Switch is not designed to handle the amount of power the motor is using.

If I cant split the line before the motor, then I cant feed the stationary dish.
Click to expand...
But you can Split "after" the Motor, no problem. In the Receiver, setup the Sats that are on Fixed Dishes to the proper DiSEqC Port and Motor to Off. The Motor will pass the DiSEqC commands, just not move the Dish.
 
I will do that...to save the switch in the long run.

But in the end, I believe the switch problem that I am having wont be solved. The Viewsat that I have seems to read one side of the switch only, not the other.
I set it correctly in the Viewsat to read either SW21 Dish1 or SW21 Dish 2, but the signal does not come across on one of the selections. Both are standard DBS LNB's.
 
Alltogether 5.

4 are from a stationary toroidal dish.
1 from the motorized.

Right now I have this....or will have once I put the SW21 switch after the motor like you mentioned:

receiver-->motor-->4x1 disecq

ports 1,2 are for standard DBS LNB's
port 3 feeds into the SW21 switch to split and have 2 more DBS LNB's
port 4 is the LNB on the motorized dish (Universal LNB)

I used to have only the 4 LNB's from toroidal dish feeding into the 4x1 disecq. Since I am trying to add the motorized dish, I simply split one of the ports on the disecq into 2 with the SW21 switch. Make sense??
 
I have no experience with an SW21, only Ecoda 22KHz.
Try this.....

Receiver----->Motor------>SW21------->DiSEqC----->LNBs
...................................................\------------------->LNBs
 
After a little Googling, it looks like you can not use an SW21 in combo with a DiSEqC Switch
You need an Ecoda 22KHz

Receiver----->Motor------>Ecoda22KHz Off------->DiSEqC----->LNBs
......................................................... .On\------------------->LNBs

EDIT: Even more Googling shows that an SW21 will pass DiSEqC commands, so worth a try.
 
22 khz switches also do not like circular or primestar LNBFs.
Click to expand...
yes they do. I have a 22k switch on my 2nd motorized. One Standard KU and one circular DBS LNB hooked up to it. WOrks fine
 
Status
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G

When and where to scan?

  • giovanni1
  • Replies: 9
S

I think my motor took a dump.

  • srgrounds
  • Replies: 6

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