Yet another noob trying to set up ViewSat Extreme

[realife]

I am so glad I found you guys thanks to my gosatellite.com

I am a real noob for that I have no idea how any of this stuff works and I have been spend some time reading through this forum.

Unfortunly I have a viewsat 2000 extreme, stab HH90, with a fortec FC-90 with a invacom QPH-031 quad 4 lnb, 4X1 diseqc switch. I'm in Las VEgas NV 89123.

use Satellite finder I came up with

Las Vegas, NV 89123
Latitude 36° 2.298'N Longitude 115° 8.722'W

Which SAT in closest to me , where do I set latitude on rotor and satallite and which way do I point it. USe USALS or Disequ 1.2 setup??????

Thank you for the help, I look forward in time to be able to help others..

 

[dem0nlord]

You're making this more complicated than it has to be, just a couple of things you aren't thinking through, you have the answers already. Your longitude is 115, so what is closest to that? Satmex at 116.8. You point just a hint west of true south. Latitude on the motor is set to your latitude, 36.

USALS is easiest for beginners, but that may not be the case with a Viewsat, you may not get either way to work at all for you.

 

[realife]

I told you all I'm a noob!!
I did as you suggested and I used the USALS to move the motor. but Im still not getting any % on Q and only 56% on S. What's next?

SATELLITE: SatMax
LNB POWER: (On)
LNB TYPE: (Standard)
LNB HIGH: ?
LNB LOW 10750
TP Freq. ??
SEARCH OPTION: (FTA)
DiSEqC 1.0 (none)
MOTOR: (Off)

 

[dem0nlord]

Well as long as the motor was at the 0 position before using USALS to move it to where it thinks 116.8 is, now you start rotating it, motor and all on the pole to adjust azumith, and also move the dish elevation up and down until you peak it on a live transponder. Don't change the latitude setting onthe motor just yet, that will only come into play if it doesn't track the whole arc properly. I'd use 12080H 25635 to peak it, I know that transponder is hot.

 

[realife]

Well as long as the motor was at the 0 position before using USALS to move it to where it thinks 116.8 is, now you start rotating it, motor and all on the pole to adjust azumith, and also move the dish elevation up and down until you peak it on a live transponder. Don't change the latitude setting onthe motor just yet, that will only come into play if it doesn't track the whole arc properly. I'd use 12080H 25635 to peak it, I know that transponder is hot.

Thank you so much for your help.

I believe the motor was set at 0 position before we started to using USALS to move it around. But I have no idea when you say "peak it on a live transponder", How do I acheive this? Again, I am a total noob on this in terms of installation and terms. Sorry for the trouble and again, thank you for the help.

 

[moseley]

Thank you so much for your help.

I believe the motor was set at 0 position before we started to using USALS to move it around. But I have no idea when you say "peak it on a live transponder", How do I acheive this? Again, I am a total noob on this in terms of installation and terms. Sorry for the trouble and again, thank you for the help.

I used to use a plat and I think they are virtually the same. Forget usals, it just ain't gonna work. In the iantenna nstallation menu choose an active TP on the sat you want ( like 12024 or 12163 on 116.8). Then choose intstaller for motor. Then go east and west until you get a signal. Then exit out back to the antenna set up screen and change from installer to user and you can fine tune and save.

But, my real advice is to sell it. I sold mine then bought a fortec Mercury and an analog reciever and still pocketed money. I also doubled the number of channels I got overnight without touching my dish.

 

[dem0nlord]

Thank you so much for your help.

I believe the motor was set at 0 position before we started to using USALS to move it around. But I have no idea when you say "peak it on a live transponder", How do I acheive this? Again, I am a total noob on this in terms of installation and terms. Sorry for the trouble and again, thank you for the help.

A new out of the box motor is normally on the 0 position, so as long as you didn't move it before USALing over to 116.8 you're fine there. A live transponder means one that is actually known to have working channels on it. So, select one of those, then watch the signal meter while you adjust azumith and elevation.

 

[Othea]

Gettin' started

Lyngsat.com gives you general info on the different satellites, their locations, active transponders and settings.

If you are looking for Satmex 5 at 116.8, then you can look for signal quality on transponder 12080 H 25635. That's just one possible transponder; you can find other active transponders at Lyngsat. You need to move your dish up-down-left-right until you find the transponder you are looking for. Keep your quality meter in sight so that you know when you hit the satellite; if you can't see your quality meter the entire time, you probably won't be able to locate your satellite before the warranty on your equipment expires. The satellite may be 5-10° off of where you think it is.

Sadoun's website has loads of great help files that explain things in detail.

 

[realife]

Thanks for all the advices... I'm going to try something...

I will zero out the motor and move the dish by hand based on the information I have. Now... do I point the dish at 115 (which is my longitude) or do I try to point my dish to true South? I figure out once I find true south SatMax by hand, then I can add the motor and switch. Am I correct in this assumption?

Also, is there any particular order I need to connect my diseqc 4X1 switch to the quad LNB?

 

[moseley]

Thanks for all the advices... I'm going to try something...

I will zero out the motor and move the dish by hand based on the information I have. Now... do I point the dish at 115 (which is my longitude) or do I try to point my dish to true South? I figure out once I find true south SatMax by hand, then I can add the motor and switch. Am I correct in this assumption?

Also, is there any particular order I need to connect my diseqc 4X1 switch to the quad LNB?

I thought your dish was already set. I think people do it differently than me but here is what I would do. Skip the switch during set-up, I'm not sure you need it at all but, certainly not during set up. Make sure you a plumb. Zero out the motor then use it's usals to 116.8. Then I would go outside and point the dish without moving the motor and max out you signal on 116.8. Then once inside do what I posted last time.

 

[dem0nlord]

Thanks for all the advices... I'm going to try something...

I will zero out the motor and move the dish by hand based on the information I have. Now... do I point the dish at 115 (which is my longitude) or do I try to point my dish to true South? I figure out once I find true south SatMax by hand, then I can add the motor and switch. Am I correct in this assumption?

Also, is there any particular order I need to connect my diseqc 4X1 switch to the quad LNB?

Your longitude and true south are one and the same, if the dish was pointing at true south, it is pointing at about 115W in the Clarke belt. Since there is no satellite exactly there, the closest is Satmex at 116.8. So, that means the motor will be rotated ever so slightly to the west from the 0 position.

What makes USALS so much easier is that once you have entered the correct latitude and longitude into your box, it knows how much to move the motor to the west from the zero position. Then once you adjust dish elevation and azimuth of the whole motor/dish assy to peak on Satmex, you are likely on the belt, and done. With 1.2, you don't know exactly how many clicks to move the motor to the west to get started, so once you peak the elevation and azumith, you very well could be off the arc, high on one end, low on the other. So you get to peak over and over again on serveral different satellites to get it all right. But if USALS is completely unreliable with the Viewsats, that's the only choice you have.

I totally agreee with the above, leave the switch out of the picture for now. Until you are tracking the arc properly, you want to keep it as simple as possible.

 

[realife]

Thank you for the replies, I really appreciate them.

Tomorrow morning I will by-pass the switch, zero out the motor and make sure everything is plump then I will attach the motor to the reciver directly and hook up to the small TV outside to max out SatMax by following all the replies I have gotten today. Will post the result tomorrow so hopfully I can resolve this with all the help provided in this forum.

Thank you. See you guys tomorrow.

 

[digiblur]

You'll soon find out that the Viewsat only works well with stationary dishes or slaved behind another unit. USALS doesn't work...you'll start saving positions and find out it "forgot" half of them. It's a pain. If you want good motor control and ease of use ditch it and get a Fortec or Coolsat.

 

[realife]

Ok, I zero out the motor and pointed at SatMax 5 at 116.8, by-pass the diseqc switch and motor, punch in all the TP but I still got nothing on Q. S is at 72% now but nothing for Q at all. Am I missing something completely?

 

[Othea]

Your settings

Can you see the signal quality meter when you move the dish, i.e. is it in your line of sight when you move the dish?

How far left, right, up, down have you moved your south-pointing dish? (Your satellite position cannot be even marginally off the mark, otherwise you will get no signal quality).

What transponder is your receiver set on when you move your dish? What live transponders have you tried?

If you continue to have problems, you will need to tell us what ALL of your settings are in your menu/setup.

 

[realife]

Can you see the signal quality meter when you move the dish, i.e. is it in your line of sight when you move the dish?

Yes, I can. A little adjustment at the time to see if any changes at all on the % of Q but no changes at all when moving dishes, do I need to do a blind scan? (what is a blind scan anyway?) Sorry for the stupid questions.

How far left, right, up, down have you moved your south-pointing dish? (Your satellite position cannot be even marginally off the mark, otherwise you will get no signal quality).

I have moved very little in any direction and when I move it, I move it in small increments to see if I can get ANY bars on Q, but so far, no dice.

What transponder is your receiver set on when you move your dish? What live transponders have you tried?

12080 H 4195
12080 H 3105

I print out the information I got frmy lyngsat.com for SatMex 5


If you continue to have problems, you will need to tell us what ALL of your settings are in your menu/setup.

The following is in my Antenna setup menu for the ViewSat 2000

Satellite SatMex 5
LNB Power On
LNB Type Standard
LNB Frequence 10750
22Khz Off
TP Frequence 12080
Search Option FTA
DISEqc 1.0 Off
Motor Off

I will keep trying differt transponder to see if I can get anything.

 

[realife]

update

ok, here is the update:

While search for SatMex 5 at 116.8 and TP Frequence at 12080, Signal strengh is at around 60% and no Quality Strengh at all (0%). I did a blind scan (F2 function on ViewSat Extreme) and after a little while, it found 2 channels - it turn out to be UWTV and Research TV. After little research, I found those 2 channels on the Galaxy 10R @ 123W LyngSat guide at 11805 H. Is this mean my dish is actually pointing at Galaxy 10R @123.0W?

I went into Antenna Setup Menu and select Galaxy 10R and set the TP Frequence to 11800 and did a blind scan and found 7 channels that listed under the Lyngsat guide for Galaxy 10R and including UWTV and Research TV at 11805 H.

What is my next step? I feel I finally got somewhere because all the help I have gotten on this forum and we are getting close!!!

Before I do anything else, I would like to see anyone suggest the next logical step.

 

[Mr Tony]

ok, here is the update:

While search for SatMex 5 at 116.8 and TP Frequence at 12080, Signal strengh is at around 60% and no Quality Strengh at all (0%). I did a blind scan (F2 function on ViewSat Extreme) and after a little while, it found 2 channels - it turn out to be UWTV and Research TV. After little research, I found those 2 channels on the Galaxy 10R @ 123W LyngSat guide at 11805 H. Is this mean my dish is actually pointing at Galaxy 10R @123.0W?

correct

What is my next step? I feel I finally got somewhere because all the help I have gotten on this forum and we are getting close!!!

move the dish 7 degrees EAST, which if you are moving the dish/motor is about 1/8" on the mast (if you make a mark on the mast, move it 1/8" to the right of the mark) and repeat blind scan.

The dish elevation probbaly needs to be moved up a smidge (just a little bit)

 

[realife]

FOUND SatMex 5!!

Ok, I found SatMex 5 now but how do I save this as my true south or what is my next step?

I use the motor to user and move the dish 7 degree to find SatMex 5 but I don't think I can manually move the dish to where I was beause the motor move the dish by swing it upwards and manually you can't "swing" the dish, can you?

Am I making any sense at all?

 

[Mr Tony]

if Satemex5 is your true south, the motor needs to be at 0 and you move the whole assmenly. In your original post, you said that you were at 115 longitude so you have to move the motor almost 2 degrees west and then move the whole dish/motor assembly. As the motor moves, the dish elevation changes. Your true south satellite is the highest satellite for you so right now its off. Once you move away from the TS satellite, the signal wont come in