I'm working with a friend trying to get his system up and running. He has a SV4k (SonicView 4000) and we can't get anything. Tried for hours. All settings are correct and pole is plumb. No line of sight issues. Very frustrating. One thing I can't figure out with the SV4k is how to set the reference point. If we hit 'go to reference', it drives the motor to the limit, eastward. I had to go up on the roof and manually move the motor back to 0. As far as setup, should I just pick a bird and tweak the dish until I get quality and then just move on from there, just as if I were setting up a stationary dish? Seems like the easiest thing to do. Even with that, I still can't figure out how to set the reference point with this receiver. The SV4k manual is useless. In the entire manual there is no mention, at all, about motor controls and settings. Not good.
Setup issues with Sonicview 4000
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There are a couple of threads discussing the SonicView 4000 and motors.
Best to search this section so you don't miss anything, but this is one of the threads.
Give it a read and see if it helps.
PS: oh,, and did you input your current location (latitude & longitude) to the receiver??
Best to search this section so you don't miss anything, but this is one of the threads.
Give it a read and see if it helps.
PS: oh,, and did you input your current location (latitude & longitude) to the receiver??
As an owner of a Sv4K, tell your friend congrats, he picked a nice receiver, just not a nice receiver with a motor. 
IIRC I set my coordinates, then just tweaked it on my due south satellite, hit store and then then I locked the dish down. From there it gets dicey. The USALS on it works okay from due south EASTWARD, but due south WESTWARD it will not stop on a sat. Just won't. What I have been doing is just setting the transponder to a known strong one, then using the motor east/west buttons I run it until I see signal. Then reduce the step size to one, tweak the motor position, then store. Once stored it goes back to the position perfectly every time. Just not with USALS.
I remember setting the reference position, but now HOW I did....
Post back if you need more help. :up
IIRC I set my coordinates, then just tweaked it on my due south satellite, hit store and then then I locked the dish down. From there it gets dicey. The USALS on it works okay from due south EASTWARD, but due south WESTWARD it will not stop on a sat. Just won't. What I have been doing is just setting the transponder to a known strong one, then using the motor east/west buttons I run it until I see signal. Then reduce the step size to one, tweak the motor position, then store. Once stored it goes back to the position perfectly every time. Just not with USALS.
I remember setting the reference position, but now HOW I did....
Post back if you need more help. :up
As an owner of a Sv4K, tell your friend congrats, he picked a nice receiver, just not a nice receiver with a motor.
Actually, I picked the receiver for him.
I heard good things about it, including that it was good with a motor. Without any mention of motor controls, in the manual, I was just winging it. I have no idea what the 'step size' setting does. I have it on 'continuous'. Right now, I just want to get a signal on this thing. Because of our work schedules, we can only mess with this on Saturdays. It's frustrating. I can put up a stationary dish and get a strong signal within minutes, but this motor stuff is really tough. Everything has to be precise. I'll try your suggestions next week and let you know how it goes.
Step size tells the motor to move a certain amount. Higher the step number, the more the motor moves. 1 is the smallest step, like a small nudge. I use 1 all the time once I find the signal, use 1 to bump the motor east/west.
Yeah, I read on some sites that it was good with a motor too. IMO, they LIED.
Yeah, I read on some sites that it was good with a motor too. IMO, they LIED.
Well, I'm happy to report limited success, at least, with my friend's setup. We had too abandon trying to get a signal on SatMex 5 (our true south bird), and focused on getting in Echo 7 at 119. We got a that in about 2 minutes, stored it and went to 123 using USALS. We got pretty good levels on there, locked it in, and got the hell off the roof. It was 110 today and we were up there for almost an hour. We cooled off watching the Mets game on WNGS on 123, then started to get the other birds in. Everything was fine until we got to 97. The levels were really low ( in the 30's). Most of the TP's were zero. I used to step control and got some TP's to go up to around 50, while most of the ones that were zero were now in the teen's. I concluded that we'll probably need to tweak the elevation setting a little. Nothing east of 97 was getting any signal at all. Hopefully, tweaking the elevation will solve this problem. The pole is completely level and is not flexing when the dish moves. I triple checked it with a johnson level so it must be the elevation setting. We'll try again next week.
Two things--I still don't know how to set a reference point with this receiver. I guess it doesn't matter at this point. Also, in the satellite list, there is no mention of Galaxy 27 at 129, only Echostar 5. How will I be able to bring in G27 if it's not listed? Other than this, everything should be running fine after next week.
Two things--I still don't know how to set a reference point with this receiver. I guess it doesn't matter at this point. Also, in the satellite list, there is no mention of Galaxy 27 at 129, only Echostar 5. How will I be able to bring in G27 if it's not listed? Other than this, everything should be running fine after next week.
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