whuu huuu, play time today.

[chaskuchar]

I should have been patient one more day. yesterday, after two months waiting for my asc1 I checked with titanium about my order. well, lo and behold, fed ex stopped here this morning with the order. and thank you brian for the extra k-band lnbf included with the order. will be reporting on my tests. little cold out here in Nebraska this morning, about -1, but should be in the twenties today. charlie

 

[Kraven]

I wish you many hours of happy fun testing. Looking forward to some reviews and results!

PS- Still curious on your 8' homebuilt

 

[chaskuchar]

first tests are with the sadoun 6' and the 1.2 satav fed through a 22k encoda switch. this is in the garage work shop. next will be the 8' which is my primary dish in the house. the 8' has the dmx741 lnbf but I hope to change it so I can have the new c band lnbf and new k band lnbf fed through a switch. that will be later on when the weather improves here. charlie

 

[northgeorgia]

PS- Still curious on your 8' homebuilt

After the testing, it'd be nice to see pics and hear how you built it

 

[chaskuchar]

first serious problem. my dish has twice gone to the east hardware limit. not a problem because my east physical limit doesn't jam the dish so I still can move it west. however. the asc1 moves it when I power up the systems. I am working on 55w and trying to change out to the original geosat lnbf because I wasn't getting all the channels on the new lnbf. so I moved the dish to my south, 97w but now the asc1 has my 0000 setting for the south satellite but the dish is pointing approximately to 83w. I do write down the counts for each satellite so it is not a big problem to correct them but what am I doing to cause this problem? charlie

 

[Titanium]

Is the ASC1 being controlled by a STB or using it as a stand-alone controller? Something in your configuration is instructing the motor to drive to a previously saved sensor count position. This doesn't happen randomly or arbitrarily.

When pressing the EAST button on the ASC1, does the dish move towards the East or is it reversed?

If the ASC1 is connected to a STB, the STB may be calling out a new satellite position (Index) number when it powers up. What STB are you using? What satellite is selected on the STB when you power up all of the equipment?

If using the ASC1 as a stand-alone controller with no STB connected, the ASC1 will remain on (or move to) the last selected (used) satellite position before the power was removed or master power switch turned off. It will not drive to a position unless it has been programmed and saved.

Until you get more comfortable with the system, move the motor to the furthermost WEST position then perform a Global Reset. Use a STB in the DiSEqC 1.2 motor control mode to program each satellite position working towards the East.

You can zero the postioner at any point of the arc, but be aware that one side of the arc will then display negative positioner counts.

 

[chaskuchar]

Is the ASC1 being controlled by a STB or using it as a stand-alone controller? Something in your configuration is instructing the motor to drive to a previously saved sensor count position. This doesn't happen randomly or arbitrarily.

asc1 is being controlled by the microhd.


When pressing the EAST button on the ASC1, does the dish move towards the East or is it reversed?

the dish moves east when the east button is pushed.

If the ASC1 is connected to a STB, the STB may be calling out a new satellite position (Index) number when it powers up. What STB are you using? What satellite is selected on the STB when you power up all of the equipment?

when equipment is powered up, 55w was selected. I had already saved count 224 on that satellite. then the equipment was powered down with the master power switch, the power strip.

If using the ASC1 as a stand-alone controller with no STB connected, the ASC1 will remain on (or move to) the last selected (used) satellite position before the power was removed or master power switch turned off. It will not drive to a position unless it has been programmed and saved.

I use 97w as my zero point. that coincides with my gbox readings. what is interesting is that after the dish moved to the east hardware limit, I chose to move to 0000 point, 97w. but 0000 was not 97w. when I moved to 97w using the west button on the asc1, the count was -224, the same count as I had saved on 55w except it was a plus 224 count. I did set the count to 0000 again when the dish was pointed to 97w. after that, all the satellites were ok with the counts already saved on the asc1.


interesting fact. a couple of times the software limit has come up. i was having problems resetting the software limit until i discovered that the dish has to be moved at least one count from the software limit before it resets.

Until you get more comfortable with the system, move the motor to the furthermost WEST position then perform a Global Reset. Use a STB in the DiSEqC 1.2 motor control mode to program each satellite position working towards the East.

You can zero the postioner at any point of the arc, but be aware that one side of the arc will then display negative positioner counts.

however, i really like the asc1 because it only moves one count east or west when i am positioning a satellite. the vbox would always move it two counts east or west when i was trying to set the satellite count in the vbox. charlie

 

[chaskuchar]

now I can't get the dish to move. asc1 says I am hitting the west limit and I am at the end of my east satellite position. I can go through the soft limit reset and I can move the dish further east but anytime I want to move west, it says I am at the limit. I am at 50w. I just finished 55w and then went to 50w and then searched for channels, then can't move west... I can switch the vbox in instead of the asc1 but don't know what I did to cause this incident. charlie

 

[Titanium]

Maybe something was mistakenly reset or fat-fingered?

Are you setting the East/West limits with the STB or the ASC1?

What happens if you clear the West limit with the STB DiSEqC 1.2 menu?

Are you programming the ASC1 positions with the STB or the ASC1?

If the STB is disconnected, with the ASC1 front panel or remote move the dish West and East?

 

[chaskuchar]

Maybe something was mistakenly reset or fat-fingered?

Are you setting the East/West limits with the STB or the ASC1?
I did not set limits with the stb or the asc1.

What happens if you clear the West limit with the STB DiSEqC 1.2 menu?
I went to the limit page on the microhd and disabled limits.

Are you programming the ASC1 positions with the STB or the ASC1?
I am programming the asc1 positions with the stb.

If the STB is disconnected, with the ASC1 front panel or remote move the dish West and East?

I will have to hook the asc1 up again. I changed the cables to the vbox to get the dish moved. now I am at 97w, my south satellite. I am reading the instructions again for the asc1 to hopefully keep the record of my positions but I have written them down anyway. they are the same positions with the vbox. same actuator used with both boxes. will answer that last question when I have the asc1 hooked up again. charlie

 

[chaskuchar]

hooked the asc1. dish is set to 97w. asc1 came up with limits locked or motor locked or something that it doesn't like. did global reset and got data cleared report. still could not move dish either way. this is with the stb off. did sat reset, soft limit reset, global reset, and position reset. could not move the dish... I do have another actuator to hook up to the asc1 but since the vbox is moving it ok would that help in any way? charlie

 

[Titanium]

Always a good idea to disconnect the STB from a controller when troubleshooting. Many STBs still provide voltage and issue DiSEqC commands in the standby mode.

Place the extra actuator near the ASC1 and use short jumper wires to connect M1/M2 S1/S2. See if this actuator is moving properly when connected to the ASC1. If it does not, connect with the jumper wires to the Vbox and test. Once we know if the extra actuator works when sitting next to the ASC1, we will start the troubleshooting from there.

 

[chaskuchar]

one thing that happened today is that I was hooking up the ws meter to peak the signal. when I hooked the meter in at the lnb I already had power. in the past I shut off the stb and then power does not go to the lnb. I reread the asc1 manual and it says there is a way to not provide power to the lnbf from the asc1 but I could not find the 'off' position on the lnb power settings. I wish the actuator would not provide the lnb power. should I go to the stb setting and set it to not provide power? that might be a problem for me?

the other actuator is running my main 8' dish using a gbox controller. to hook to that actuator I will have to wait for better weather to go out in the yard and disconnect the cabling for that actuator and hook it up to the asc1 by running new cables from the garage to the dish. one thing, my motor wires are 18ga. your manual says 12 or 14ga but this actuator is pretty small to be using that gauge of wire. charlie

 

[chaskuchar]

double checked my connections again since I was moving from asc1 to vbox and back. one of the sensor wires was broken this morning. had better light than last night. asc1 is moving dish both ways now. will go back to testing and implementing the asc1. charlie

 

[rodder]

Little confused is this for use with a co-rotor only are can it be used like a vbox with 1 cable.

 

[Titanium]

The Titanium Satellite ASC1 is a combined positioner and polarity controller. The VBox only positions the actuator, but the ASC1 also controls a Corotor mechanical servo motor. It can either be used as a stand-alone controller or be automatically controlled by any satellite receiver using DiSEqC 1.2 using the one coax cable.


Brian Gohl
Titanium Satellite

 

[rodder]

Thanks Brian I will keep that in mind when i need another dish controller.