Last month I received a phone call from a new Pansat AP-600 buyer and his tech. The customer had C-band since the 80's with a lot of knowledge, but was getting up in years and no longer able to work on his own system. The tech couldn't figure out how to program the AP-600 positioner to automatically move the BUD when they changed channels and had other "problems". Evidently the customer wasn't told that the positioner did not support DiSEqC 1.2 motor control and he would need to use two remotes (receiver and positioner) with a conversion chart paper taped to the wall! I explained that the AP-600 was an old school manual positioner and wasn't able to respond to the receiver DiSEqC 1.2 motor move commands. He had been using a Gbox for years with no problems. Then he asked me why he was told that he should "upgrade" to the AP-600? I felt bad to tell him that changing from even a Gbox to an AP-600 wasn't an upgrade!
The customer also had been told to upgrade from a LNBF to a orthomode feedhorn with high stability PLL LNBs. Trouble was that were losing vertical polarity channels when using his FTA receiver. Since the LNBs were provided by the receiver with 13Vdc voltage on vertical polarity transponders, the LNBs were having poor performance on the weaker TPs. LNBs are not designed to operate on 13Vdc.
The customer certainly was mad that they had been misled by the seller and told that the AP-600 was the best controller solution on the market. He ended up buying the ASC1 and going back to his old Corotor (upgrading the LNBs). I got a thank you from him a few weeks ago after the tech installed. Great outcome, happy customer and now set to live out his golden years in peace.
But, I definitely felt sorry that some BS sales pitch convinced him to "upgrade" to a product that had less function than his working Gbox.
KE4EST is right! Stay away from the Pansat AP-600 if you want automatic dish positioning. A Gbox or Vbox would be a better choice than having to use two remotes and a satellite conversion chart taped to the wall. Like I recently said on another site, my wife wouldn't watch C-band if she couldn't just pick up the receiver remote and choose her favorite channel. There is a reason that most positioners are DiSEqC 1.2 compatible!