ViewSat PVR 7000...screwy sat meter?

[markofca]

I just bought and successfully installed a ViewSat 7000 PVR from Gosatellite.com. It was one of their kits with Winegard DS2076, Digipower SG-2100 motor, and Invacom quad LNBF.

Everything works and I'm hitting satellites from east to west (yes, it took 3 days but I learned a lot in the process). Only problem is that the signal meter on the receiver is completely screwy. After wasting a day trying to understand it (I'm new to FTA), I went and bought a hand-held meter and was able to get everything pointed in a couple hours.

When you go to the installation antenna setup menu on the receiver, select a satellite, and then attempt to adjust the dish using the motor menu, Q stays at 0 and S also (!) goes to zero after a few seconds EVEN IF YOU'RE POINTED DIRECTLY AT THE SATELLITE.

I've messed with the LNB settings in the menus until I'm blue in the face (including calling gosatellite and using their settings). I know I'm pointed correctly because my handheld meter is screaming AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, if I do a blind scan, the receiver retrieves all of the channels and I can watch the retrieved channels. Also, during the blind scan, the receiver shows a Q meter which works correctly.

So, I think I'm wired up right...it just seems like the software on the ViewSat that shows the meter is screwy. I updated firmware. No help.

What's particularly odd is that when you first go to the antena setup menu, if you are pointing at a satellite, the name of the satellite will appear for a couple seconds and the Q meter will jump up high, but then both the name and Q just disappear.

I've put in a call to ViewSatUsa support, but it sounds like I'm leaving a message for some guy in his garage. Not too promising.

I'm connected from LNB L + C separately into switch ports 1 and 2 connected to motor connected to receiver.

Anyone have any ideas? Or a 7000 with a working meter? Going on my roof to find satellites isn't a winning proposition.

Thanks

 

[Anole]

If Viewsats are now running well with motors, don't complain!

 

[SatinKzo]

Well, are you getting any PQ problems? Pixellation? I am confused a bit on whether the wild meter is actually happening in conjuction with picture problems.

Also as Anole said, if the viewsats are now controlling motors properly, that's a big plus.

 

[RVD420]

I have yet to see a viewsat that has motor control that works for more than a few hours at a time.

Seems like Viewsat has another market in mind.

 

[markofca]

No pixellation problems. If I stand on my roof with my signal meter, peak the meter on some satellite, then do a blind scan with the receiver, everything behaves as you'd expect/want. You can view channels perfectly and can save the satellite position and return to it later.

And, except that perhaps there's some correlation between the motor control issue and my current problem, I haven't had any motor control problems yet. Currently, I have two different EchoStar satellites saved and I can move back and forth between them without any trouble.

I've also discovered that my receiver crashes (screen goes black have to power cycle) when I try to save the results of a channel scan.

It just feels like the firmware is lousy or possibly there's a small hardware issue in my unit.

Is Gosatellite not reputable? I bought this set of equipment because A) it was a package so I figured everything would work together B) I need a PVR and liked the idea of an easily replaced hard drive with USB access and C) I need two tuners.



The meter issue however just won't go away. Tech support guy had me check voltages out of the back of my receiver and everything seemed ok.

 

[Anole]

I think it's like anything new - it has a few warts to be sorted out.

That's what you get for taking unit #1 off the production line.
See another thread on the Coolsat 8000 hi def FTA receiver, as reviewed by Iceberg.
It was out for a month or two heavily handicapped, and then settled down pretty well.

I want to see if this one or one of its competitors "gets it right".
Just keep in mind who their main customer base is, and don't expect little things like motors to be high on the fix-it list.

 

[markofca]

Unfortunately, being new to FTA, I had no idea I was buying the bleeding edge. "Hmmm, that does everything I want. ViewSat seems to kind of a popular brand. Ooh, a kit! Now I don't have to figure out what works with what. I'll take it."

Any alternatives for FTA with PVR that would work with the rest of my equipment? No way I'm taking that dish and motor down after all the time I spent getting them up and pointed.

I can't really wait until they work out the bugs on this one. Thanks for your help.

 

[RVD420]

No pixellation problems. If I stand on my roof with my signal meter, peak the meter on some satellite, then do a blind scan with the receiver, everything behaves as you'd expect/want. You can view channels perfectly and can save the satellite position and return to it later.

And, except that perhaps there's some correlation between the motor control issue and my current problem, I haven't had any motor control problems yet. Currently, I have two different EchoStar satellites saved and I can move back and forth between them without any trouble.

I've also discovered that my receiver crashes (screen goes black have to power cycle) when I try to save the results of a channel scan.

It just feels like the firmware is lousy or possibly there's a small hardware issue in my unit.

Is Gosatellite not reputable? I bought this set of equipment because A) it was a package so I figured everything would work together B) I need a PVR and liked the idea of an easily replaced hard drive with USB access and C) I need two tuners.



The meter issue however just won't go away. Tech support guy had me check voltages out of the back of my receiver and everything seemed ok.

There is not much FTA on the EchoStar birds. Some audio, GOLTV, Nasa, but that is about it.

 

[SatinKzo]

It just feels like the firmware is lousy or possibly there's a small hardware issue in my unit.

Is Gosatellite not reputable? I bought this set of equipment because A) it was a package so I figured everything would work together B) I need a PVR and liked the idea of an easily replaced hard drive with USB access and C) I need two tuners.

The meter issue however just won't go away. Tech support guy had me check voltages out of the back of my receiver and everything seemed ok.

What version of the firmware are you running?

Gosatellite is a sponsor here, so if they screwed alot of people, they wouldn't get far here. That being said, personally I like satelliteAV and Sadoun because 1) I have dealt with them 2) they show up here and offer help for free. Not saying gosatellite is a bad company, just personal taste.

How did you check voltages from the back of the receiver?

 

[markofca]

I'm using the EchoStar satellites as my test satellite for no particular reason. They're far apart, and I have existing fixed satellites pointing at them, so I can guess where they are. After I had these, I figured it would be easy to nail the rest...ah, not so lucky.

Firmware is 0.17 dated September 06. I'm getting it from viewsatusa.com They seem to be just a little distributor. Not sure if there's a better place for updates.

I was just surprised that Gosatellite would sell a kit with a ViewSat and a motor if everyone here immediately jumps in and says that ViewSat doesn't work well with motors.

To check voltages, I put a paper clip in the 'tip' hole, positive volmeter probe touching the paper clip, negative voltmeter probe grounded. You can watch it switch from 18 to 13 depending on polarity.

 

[SatinKzo]

Well, maybe viewsats are changing their ways and taking time now to put quality into the motor controls of the receiver. The viewsat motor issue is more than I can explain, I don't know from personal experience, but everyone I have ever seen with a viewsat and a motor in the past has had issues with the motor behaving irradically. Like I said, maybe they fixed that problem with the newer models.

Glad you had a multimeter laying around to check voltages. I just found it odd they had you check it yourself. no big deal.

As for the firmware, that's the latest offical bin that I see. If the receiver keeps flaking out and freezing up, you might want to take that up with gosatellite while you are still in the grace period of the purchase.

 

[Mr Tony]

I was just surprised that Gosatellite would sell a kit with a ViewSat and a motor if everyone here immediately jumps in and says that ViewSat doesn't work well with motors.

the older viewsats have had issues with a motor. It will work fine for a little while then start to lose satellite positions and not stop at the correct satellite. I havent worked with a 7000 yet so I cant comment on that, but the older models did have that issue.

 

[Mr Tony]

So I guess getting back to the task at hand are you not getting any satellites? or just Dish ones right now? DBS satellites are much stronger than KU so it is possible you arent getting those.

I guess the first question I'll ask is where are you located? Want to make sure the motor/dish settings are right

motor latitude should be the same as your latitude. There should be a latitude scale on the motor and match it up (as an example, I'm at 45N so the latitude is set to 45) and dont change it.

You would want to aim at the satellite that is at the same longitude as you. This is the true south satellite.

I would hook the receiver up to the "L" side of the LNB and not use any switches right now. They can complicate things. Once you know what satellite is your true south, then bring it up on the menu and make sure the LNB info is right. The Invacom QPH (quad) is 10750 standard LNB. So make sure that is set properly.

 

[markofca]

I actually can get all (pretty much) of the satellites from horizon to horizon (including L and C). The issue is that the process of doing so is god awful inconvenient.

The tech support at viewsat usa is, well, interesting. It seems to be one guy, and it felt like I was getting transferred to his cell. He was nice. His first effort was to try to get me to say I'd shorted the thing out by plugging in the LNB with the receiver on. Kind of funny...he said, 'well if you took it on the roof, then you'd probably do this at some point which would short it out'. The funny part is that he was convinced that something I would almost certainly have done would have destroyed the device...made me wonder about the engineering of the box.

He asked if I had a voltmeter around and then, judging by the fact that I had one on-hand, figured I wouldn't have any problem shoving paper clips into pin holes on the device. I didn't, so we got along great, but he got another call and had to go (?)

Anyway, long story short, I currently have a silly way to find satellites without climbing on the roof. It works, but it's painful. For anyone who stumbles across this thread with the same problem:

I start with a satellite I have. Add a new satellite "User Sat 1" in the Channel Scan menu. Go to the install menu and antenna setup and set the LNB (everyone has told me to use Universal, so I do that with high and low spanning from around 10000 to the highest value). Set the Diseqc 1 setting to the Diseqc port on your switch where you have L connected. Go to the motor menu with the red button on the remote.

Now the fun part. Move the satellite east or west for about 3-5 seconds. Save the new position (important to do this now, because the damn receiver crashes sometimes when you save the channels) Then do a blind scan. If you don't see any quality after 4 or 5 minutes, you're probably not on a satellite, cancel the scan. But most of the time you're hitting something, so let it go just until you have half a dozen channels.

Save these results. Exit back to the main menu and go to "Edit Channels". Find the channel # of one of the channels you just added. Exit the menus and switch to this channel. This is very important because we need to be on a channel from our current satellite. You'll see why in a second.

Now, we have to figure out what satellite we're pointing at and peak it. Here's the game: when you go into the antenna setup menu, the Q meter and the name of the satellite will show for about 2 seconds before disappearing for no particular reason. You may have to do this multiple times to get a Q reading. When you exit the menu, if you're on a channel from another satellite, the dish will move and you're screwed, hence the need to start on a channel from the satellite you're working on.

Figure out the Q reading, go back to the motor menu for the satellite. Do a 'fine move' and tweak the satellite 5 clicks to the east. SAVE THE POSITION. Exit back to the channel and then enter the setup again, get your 2 second Q reading, check if it's better or worse. Repeat this sequence moving a couple notches east each time and remembering how far you moved. If you go too far or you see the Q declining, go back west using the same process, saving each time. Repeat until you've peaked or shot yourself.

Now, go back to 'Edit Channels', remove all the channels which you added for this satellite before and do a blind scan. If the receiver crashes when you save, power cycle. Your channels have been saved. One satellite down...dozens to go.

 

[Mr Tony]

I start with a satellite I have. Add a new satellite "User Sat 1" in the Channel Scan menu. Go to the install menu and antenna setup and set the LNB (everyone has told me to use Universal, so I do that with high and low spanning from around 10000 to the highest value).

The Invacom quad is a standard LNB, not a universal. LNB LO (low & high) should both be 10750