FTAing... Comments and Questions

[acadiancowboy]

My Pansat 9200HD came in late Friday and I've been playing with it all weekend. I have it hooked up to my 10' aluminum mesh BUD with a C-Band LNB and SuperJack II actuator. My Toshiba TRX-80 is hooked up to the actuator and the polarotor so I have to use that receiver both to move the dish and to change the polarity.

Some comments and questions:
1. I had to go outside and tweak my dish's alignment a bit. As expected, analog C-band is much more tolerant of positioning errors than digital. I ran a cable outside and hooked up the TV next to the dish so I could get visual feedback on signal strength and quality on several benchmark satellites. The best signal strength that I could get on any satellite was 92%, and most are coming in at 86-89%.

2. It appears that using my analog receiver to position the dish introduces some type of "drift." I can set the BUD on satellite A and program the position in the receiver, move some distance to satellite B, then come back to satellite A only to find that the signal quality isn't the same, and I have to use the WEST/EAST buttons to gently knudge the dish to the sweet spot.

3. Given the problem encountered with #2, I would think a more modern positioner box with polarotor control would be a good addition to my digital FTA setup.

4. Using the smart scan feature of the Pansat 9200HD, I found plenty of SD channels, but just a handful of HD FTA channels so far.

5. I notice when doing Smart Scan that channels with nice names start appearing in the list during the scan. Does each transponder "advertise" its available channels?

6. The Pansat came with a September 2008 firmware (not the latest 1218 on the website). I noticed that occasionally the box would just lock up, and a total power down/power up was required to get it back responding again. I've since used the USB stick to update to 1218 and have not noticed lock-ups for the little while I've played with the new firmware. Is anyone aware of this problem?

More questions as I can think of them. Thanks again all.

 

[Inno]

Sounds like you're having some fun with it.
I can really only help with problem 2. I believe it's likely because most C-Band actuators use a magnet wheel with 4-6 magnets which equals only 4-6 return pulses for each revolution while moving the dish. This amount of precision is fine for C-Band analog but for digital (and Ku) it likely won't quite be enough and you'll have to "bump" it to find the sweet spot as you noted. Some members here have fabricated their own magnet wheels with many more magnets for more precise control over the dish. This would likely help in your case as the more pulses the positioner counts for a smaller movement, the more precise your moves will be
The other scenario is that your actuator is worn and has a bit of slack, causing it to not quite go back to the right spot or kind of "flop" past it.
I don't know if a more modern positoner would help out in this case, my guess would be no.

As regards question 5, some channels have names, others don't. If they don't have a name your receiver will call it something like TV1, TV2 etc. at least that's what my Pansat 3500SD does.

 

[turbosat]

actuators

Super-junk is more like it!! Oh, I'm kidding, but only somewhat. I've had good and bad superjacks, I've noticed the one on my 10' dish seems to work better than the one I've used on my ku dish. (stops the big dish in the same place more exactly than the little dish). I know part of that is because KU is more exacting due to the frequencies involved. I find myself nudging the ku dish quite a lot when moving my primestar-on polar mount rig. Even bought bigger guage wire to use on the sensor circuits, doesn't seem to matter.
Seems we all just need more efficient actuators with digital signals. One of those thompson saginaw motors would possibly work better. Have yet to own one of those, they're like the quali-tv of actuators lol.