Well,
I've been doing a lot of re-configuration of my system, working on how to fit in the pieces of the Merc II's, CS8000, and AZbox Elite on two motorized dishes.
For one thing, I got rid of Diseqc switches and used a 3x4 switch on my 90cm dish, so I could attach more than two receivers.
That started the problem that took me several hours to debug.
What happened is that I would drive the dish to a satellite with the Merc II, then go to the AZbox and select that bird to scan. This system seemed to work well, while I was doing it. Saturday, though, I started using the Merc II to simply blindscan a few birds. The DARN dish wouldn't stay in place. If I went to Horizon 2 to scan, it would display ONN for a moment, but then drift off. I went outside, and sure enough the dish was moving between true south and Horizon 2, like it had lost its mind.
Then I tried AMC15, with the same results. The dish went to AMC15 then back to true south with no sign of stopping. The only satellite that I COULD stay on was AMC3 ( my true south).
I decided to turn my 1.2M into a Ku only system, while I fought the the 90cm dish, so I moved the AZbox, 3x4 switch over to that system, and put on my Ku Lnbf.
NOW the 90cm dish works fine, but the 1.2M dish is doing the same thing!!!
Solution:
The AZbox, though, it was not hooked to the motor input, still had USALS enabled and was selecting a channel on AMC3 ( my true south) . The USALS instructions to move to AMC3 must have been "leaking" thru the lnbf to the other side and reaching the motor. Even without the 3x4 switch, the same behavior was noted, so possibly it also leaked thru the 3x4 switch as well.
My GUESS is that removing the Diseqc switches ( I have never before NOT had Diseqc switches in the system) also removed the isolation that they provide . Right now I'm running just fine on both systems, but with motor control turned off on the AZbox.
I spent half of Saturday playing with this problem, and learned a valuable lesson. When it's working , don't change a thing !
I've been doing a lot of re-configuration of my system, working on how to fit in the pieces of the Merc II's, CS8000, and AZbox Elite on two motorized dishes.
For one thing, I got rid of Diseqc switches and used a 3x4 switch on my 90cm dish, so I could attach more than two receivers.
That started the problem that took me several hours to debug.
What happened is that I would drive the dish to a satellite with the Merc II, then go to the AZbox and select that bird to scan. This system seemed to work well, while I was doing it. Saturday, though, I started using the Merc II to simply blindscan a few birds. The DARN dish wouldn't stay in place. If I went to Horizon 2 to scan, it would display ONN for a moment, but then drift off. I went outside, and sure enough the dish was moving between true south and Horizon 2, like it had lost its mind.
Then I tried AMC15, with the same results. The dish went to AMC15 then back to true south with no sign of stopping. The only satellite that I COULD stay on was AMC3 ( my true south).
I decided to turn my 1.2M into a Ku only system, while I fought the the 90cm dish, so I moved the AZbox, 3x4 switch over to that system, and put on my Ku Lnbf.
NOW the 90cm dish works fine, but the 1.2M dish is doing the same thing!!!
Solution:
The AZbox, though, it was not hooked to the motor input, still had USALS enabled and was selecting a channel on AMC3 ( my true south) . The USALS instructions to move to AMC3 must have been "leaking" thru the lnbf to the other side and reaching the motor. Even without the 3x4 switch, the same behavior was noted, so possibly it also leaked thru the 3x4 switch as well.
My GUESS is that removing the Diseqc switches ( I have never before NOT had Diseqc switches in the system) also removed the isolation that they provide . Right now I'm running just fine on both systems, but with motor control turned off on the AZbox.
I spent half of Saturday playing with this problem, and learned a valuable lesson. When it's working , don't change a thing !
