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I'm using the EchoStar satellites as my test satellite for no particular reason. They're far apart, and I have existing fixed satellites pointing at them, so I can guess where they are. After I had these, I figured it would be easy to nail the rest...ah, not so lucky.

Firmware is 0.17 dated September 06. I'm getting it from viewsatusa.com They seem to be just a little distributor. Not sure if there's a better place for updates.

I was just surprised that Gosatellite would sell a kit with a ViewSat and a motor if everyone here immediately jumps in and says that ViewSat doesn't work well with motors.

To check voltages, I put a paper clip in the 'tip' hole, positive volmeter probe touching the paper clip, negative voltmeter probe grounded. You can watch it switch from 18 to 13 depending on polarity.

Well, maybe viewsats are changing their ways and taking time now to put quality into the motor controls of the receiver. The viewsat motor issue is more than I can explain, I don't know from personal experience, but everyone I have ever seen with a viewsat and a motor in the past has had issues with the motor behaving irradically. Like I said, maybe they fixed that problem with the newer models.

Glad you had a multimeter laying around to check voltages. I just found it odd they had you check it yourself. no big deal.

As for the firmware, that's the latest offical bin that I see. If the receiver keeps flaking out and freezing up, you might want to take that up with gosatellite while you are still in the grace period of the purchase.

markofca said:

I was just surprised that Gosatellite would sell a kit with a ViewSat and a motor if everyone here immediately jumps in and says that ViewSat doesn't work well with motors.

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the older viewsats have had issues with a motor. It will work fine for a little while then start to lose satellite positions and not stop at the correct satellite. I havent worked with a 7000 yet so I cant comment on that, but the older models did have that issue.

So I guess getting back to the task at hand are you not getting any satellites? or just Dish ones right now? DBS satellites are much stronger than KU so it is possible you arent getting those.

I guess the first question I'll ask is where are you located? Want to make sure the motor/dish settings are right

motor latitude should be the same as your latitude. There should be a latitude scale on the motor and match it up (as an example, I'm at 45N so the latitude is set to 45) and dont change it.

You would want to aim at the satellite that is at the same longitude as you. This is the true south satellite.

I would hook the receiver up to the "L" side of the LNB and not use any switches right now. They can complicate things. Once you know what satellite is your true south, then bring it up on the menu and make sure the LNB info is right. The Invacom QPH (quad) is 10750 standard LNB. So make sure that is set properly.

I actually can get all (pretty much) of the satellites from horizon to horizon (including L and C). The issue is that the process of doing so is god awful inconvenient.

The tech support at viewsat usa is, well, interesting. It seems to be one guy, and it felt like I was getting transferred to his cell. He was nice. His first effort was to try to get me to say I'd shorted the thing out by plugging in the LNB with the receiver on. Kind of funny...he said, 'well if you took it on the roof, then you'd probably do this at some point which would short it out'. The funny part is that he was convinced that something I would almost certainly have done would have destroyed the device...made me wonder about the engineering of the box.

He asked if I had a voltmeter around and then, judging by the fact that I had one on-hand, figured I wouldn't have any problem shoving paper clips into pin holes on the device. I didn't, so we got along great, but he got another call and had to go (?)

Anyway, long story short, I currently have a silly way to find satellites without climbing on the roof. It works, but it's painful. For anyone who stumbles across this thread with the same problem:

I start with a satellite I have. Add a new satellite "User Sat 1" in the Channel Scan menu. Go to the install menu and antenna setup and set the LNB (everyone has told me to use Universal, so I do that with high and low spanning from around 10000 to the highest value). Set the Diseqc 1 setting to the Diseqc port on your switch where you have L connected. Go to the motor menu with the red button on the remote.

Now the fun part. Move the satellite east or west for about 3-5 seconds. Save the new position (important to do this now, because the damn receiver crashes sometimes when you save the channels) Then do a blind scan. If you don't see any quality after 4 or 5 minutes, you're probably not on a satellite, cancel the scan. But most of the time you're hitting something, so let it go just until you have half a dozen channels.

Save these results. Exit back to the main menu and go to "Edit Channels". Find the channel # of one of the channels you just added. Exit the menus and switch to this channel. This is very important because we need to be on a channel from our current satellite. You'll see why in a second.

Now, we have to figure out what satellite we're pointing at and peak it. Here's the game: when you go into the antenna setup menu, the Q meter and the name of the satellite will show for about 2 seconds before disappearing for no particular reason. You may have to do this multiple times to get a Q reading. When you exit the menu, if you're on a channel from another satellite, the dish will move and you're screwed, hence the need to start on a channel from the satellite you're working on.

Figure out the Q reading, go back to the motor menu for the satellite. Do a 'fine move' and tweak the satellite 5 clicks to the east. SAVE THE POSITION. Exit back to the channel and then enter the setup again, get your 2 second Q reading, check if it's better or worse. Repeat this sequence moving a couple notches east each time and remembering how far you moved. If you go too far or you see the Q declining, go back west using the same process, saving each time. Repeat until you've peaked or shot yourself.

Now, go back to 'Edit Channels', remove all the channels which you added for this satellite before and do a blind scan. If the receiver crashes when you save, power cycle. Your channels have been saved. One satellite down...dozens to go.

markofca said:

I start with a satellite I have. Add a new satellite "User Sat 1" in the Channel Scan menu. Go to the install menu and antenna setup and set the LNB (everyone has told me to use Universal, so I do that with high and low spanning from around 10000 to the highest value).

Click to expand...

The Invacom quad is a standard LNB, not a universal. LNB LO (low & high) should both be 10750