Social Feed

No magical component to fix...

As the issue affects both input DiSEqC sensing and output voltage, i would be suspect of the source of the medium voltage suppy. Could be as simple as reseating the ribbon connectos between tbe main and F-fitting PCB.

Place the ASC1 menu for fixed 13V or 18v output and start probing for dc voltage starting at the F-fitting PCB and work back towards the voltage regulator. Basic circuit flow troubleshooting.

Titanium said:

No magical component to fix...

As the issue affects both input DiSEqC sensing and output voltage, i would be suspect of the source of the medium voltage suppy. Could be as simple as reseating the ribbon connectos between tbe main and F-fitting PCB.

Place the ASC1 menu for fixed 13V or 18v output and start probing for dc voltage starting at the F-fitting PCB and work back towards the voltage regulator. Basic circuit flow troubleshooting.

Click to expand...

Ok i'll have to open it up and take a look. Thank You

Kb Cool said:

Ok i'll have to open it up and take a look. Thank You

Click to expand...

I'd reseat any cables first, pull off connectors, then reseat them back again. Then look over carefully for any burned traces on the board, or burned/popped components. Then, look for bulged tops on electrolytic caps.

IF there's anything really blatant like that, replace them, or fix the traces, etc.

arlo Any input?

Yes I do primester! No LNB power. Things that make sense and just like Brian suggested.
Select either 13 or 18 volts and probe the LNB port at the rear.
I'm accepting that we have basic electronics skills and a lot of finesse. One slip and, well. You know.
A very good understanding of your mulitmeter and have a good set of cables and fine tipped probes.

I have a touch of reverse engineering on the ASC1. You're dealing with surface mount components but the voltage regulation and rectifications sections should be straight forward.
LNB Port. Voltage?
Backwards to the pcb connector. Be sure of the lnb power header pin and ground.
No power yet? Take good and clear photos starting now of connectors, etc. Sharpie marks for your reference.
Head to the low voltage LNB supply regulator IC. Get a datasheet if you're unfamiliar with it.
Got clean DC in? And out? Or is the problem further upstream and the rectifier bridge, filter capacitor?
(Mind you. This is general from memory and I don't have a board in front of me). But I could. Later.
A piece of paper and pencil to draw the circuit at the least. Start with the basics.

If I could catch Mr. Titanium in a good mood. I wonder. How many requests do you get for repairs?
I have a couple of these units here. I'm lacking just a little something to make two of them work.
I was wondering that since you (bummer) aren't offering repairs. If you wouldn't mind if I tinkered a bit.
At your suggestion. Kind of. I took a donor ASC1 board and pulled melf diodes and looked up datasheets from the smd marking codes of active components. I have a pretty good idea of what it takes to at least circuit trace and identify failed smd components. You know.....is that a zener, schottky, or small signal diode....pnp, npn?
What mcu pin is what and where do the via's go to......
Not to make a fortune. To keep them going. Okay, maybe a cold Sammy Adams Lager here and there.
I am in the same boat. If the ASC1 is a Zippo and a vbox is a Bic. Zippo is a 45 minute drive from me, As is Case and Ka-Bar. Oh. I have the Cyclone. I'd like to be able to try it out.

If you can't fix it then you'll have to give the Research Concepts controllers a try. They are the only alternative to the ASC1. I can attest that the V-box is ass. Don't waste your money on them. I don't know what cheap third world garbage those things are designed to drive, but I fried a V-box within minutes trying to drive my 12 foot dish with it

The annoying thing about the Research Concepts controllers is the unfriendly interfacing. Uses an obtuse serial port interface, so you'll have to get a USB adapter to control it. No DiSEqC support; you have to use their ancient software to change positions with a PC. And they charge an absurd $1,000 if you want to add a web server module to make interfacing with the controller less annoying. Clearly a price point that was designed to rip off a corporation, not for a home user.

There's definitely a market for a user friendly controller that can drive a decent dish without exploding. It's a shame that no more ASC1 units will be manufactured. All existing stock of it was sold out long ago and on the rare occasions that the ASC1 pops up on eBay I see it selling for several times its MSRP, indicating that there is still demand for them.

VictoriaFTA said:

I can attest that the V-box is ass. Don't waste your money on them. I don't know what cheap third world garbage those things are designed to drive, but I fried a V-box within minutes trying to drive my 12 foot dish with it

Click to expand...

Build a separately powered interface dual relay box with a more powerful transformer, say 6 amps 36 volts. It gets hooked to your dish motor, and the input to it is run by the V-Box. So the V-Box never sees a huge power drain, as ALL it controls is the relays in the interface box.

You can get these transformers out of old C-band receivers that have dish movers built in.

VictoriaFTA said:

If you can't fix it then you'll have to give the Research Concepts controllers a try. They are the only alternative to the ASC1. I can attest that the V-box is ass. Don't waste your money on them. I don't know what cheap third world garbage those things are designed to drive, but I fried a V-box within minutes trying to drive my 12 foot dish with it

The annoying thing about the Research Concepts controllers is the unfriendly interfacing. Uses an obtuse serial port interface, so you'll have to get a USB adapter to control it. No DiSEqC support; you have to use their ancient software to change positions with a PC. And they charge an absurd $1,000 if you want to add a web server module to make interfacing with the controller less annoying. Clearly a price point that was designed to rip off a corporation, not for a home user.

There's definitely a market for a user friendly controller that can drive a decent dish without exploding. It's a shame that no more ASC1 units will be manufactured. All existing stock of it was sold out long ago and on the rare occasions that the ASC1 pops up on eBay I see it selling for several times its MSRP, indicating that there is still demand for them.

Click to expand...

Actually if you contact dreambox 1959 on satellites.co.uk he might build you a better-than asc1. Not quite sure is it incorporates skew control for a polorotor.
RC controllers are robust and relatively cheap on eBay. Schematics and software are fully supported. I contacted them and asked if anyone had a diseqc interface. They have a lot of third party software developers. There are options for TLE satellite tracking if that's you desire and use an az-el mount.
But nobody I contacted was familiar with diseqc at all.
Then looking at the software reference manual and command string. Since there are Arduino diseqc projects. No hits on suggestions so far. A transcoder interface to receive and forward commands to the RC mover would do it.
Yes. An h bridge and external current limited power smps with would help a vbox live I would think.
More elegant and less parts would be one made from solid sate relays. Motor reverse polarity could be directly applied to the SSR inputs with current limiting resistors. Because the trigger side of SSR's is simply an LED.
You could do it Klipsch crossover style on a fancy piece of mahogany or oak. A Meanwell SMPS...you're golden.