AMIKO Amiko A3 Owners Thread

[Dee_Ann]

ZING!!!!! That did it! Thank you!!

Gosh, I wish I could learn to read directions..
Then again, I am pretty sure I lost them.

Anyway, that you very much kind sir! I am back in business!
Now I await my nifty new ASC1 which is en route to my humble abode. ETA, next week.

BTW, the VERY FIRST THING I DID when I got my A3 back was to make two backups of it (through the web interface) one to the 500gb disk and one to a flash drive which is going in a drawer.
I’ve also made an image of the flash drive backup with Disk Utility on my Mac so I can restore it in case I lose that flash drive.

For tonight I’m only going to worry about the USALS motor which will be used, I’m skipping the G-box because I think that confused the A3 last week which led to me messing it up big times.
I’ll add the C-band in once my ASC1 gets here.

Thanks again guys!

 

[primestar31]

Think you are safe with only 2 backups? I don't.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Oh I’ll probably make a third, just in case. I just do NOT want to go through that again !!

 

[KE4EST]

That is a good idea Dee to wait until you have your ASC-1 until you set-up your C-band stuff.

 

[Dee_Ann]

And I’m back to having motor issues again. The motor works perfectly on my MicroHD. Not so much on the A3.

It seems to be stuck on 87w now. It just will not move back west. I’m baffled.
However, I did install the plugin for my Mac and I’m able to watch TV in a browser window using Safari. Pretty cool.

Also on my little chinese tablet.

It’s too late to mess with it now. I’m calling it quits for the night and I’ll try again tomorrow. I suspect a complete rip-down is coming, soon.
Rip everything all the way apart. Every single wire and switch and start over from zero. All the old stuff doesn’t apply now.
This thing is fighting me every step of the way.

 

[primestar31]

Dee, are you registered over at fridgefta.info? That's Joe's home forum, and the main one for the A3. They have a whole forum JUST for the A3...

What motor, and how are you trying to control it? USALS? Don't forget to add your Lat and Long. coordinates to it.... Remember how those wipe out when the receiver is reset on the MicroHD, I'd assume the A3 is the same. If using your G-box, don't forget the original firmware made all the sat settings +1. You have to load the new firmware to fix that.

Oh, yeah, I remember reading a thread at the Fridge that mentions this receiver only puts out 400ma current for motor and lnb. That's not as much as the Microhd, so perhaps your wiring and switches need to be optimized because they are maybe drawing too much current.

P.s. When you scan 87W c-band, what do you get for Luken channel names? Mine are all funky on this receiver. I'm not home right now so don't remember what it names them, but some generic name instead of their true name.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Quick reply.

Motor is SG-9120. Dish is 1m primestar/channelmaster

Coordinates are in.

I can move the motor using the button on the motor and power from the A3



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[bpalone]

Primestar31

My A3 scans them in as PT 1, PT 2 and so on. I haven't upgraded a thing yet, so on upgrades that may change.

 

[sanjap]

ok. I have had my receiver for 3 days now and I can write a short review of things i like and don't like about the a3. I might be wrong as i am still learning so please correct me or show me how to improve the Cons.

Pros
- Smartest Remote ever on an STB
- Voice command input is accurate and works
- Blindscan is accurate and fast enough
- UI is cool
- Internal HDD Bay for 2.5"
- Android OS with XBMC
- Excellent Picture Quality

Cons
- Remote is not conventional, needs a little getting used to. Still don't know if i am powering remote On or power A3 On. I just press power several times until A3 boots.
- Highlighting a channel/satellite moves the dish. Dish should move only after selecting and hitting ok.
- Doesn't account for Daylight savings time and no where to set that.
- [ FIXED ] Channels display as icons. I will like my channels to be displayed as a list and per satellite by default.
- On-Screen keyboard doesn't have some special characters, such as ;.
- Saving a satellite on Position 1, will save on my V3000 as Position 2. Not a big deal but confusing.
- Every time i boot, i see a flash screen that " System Update failed ", still don't know where that is coming from.

But still happy with my A3. This is a great upgrade from my Azbox Premium Plus.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Sanjap, for the DST problem, at least for me, even though I’m in -6 (central) I had to select -5 which is shown as “Central Time GMT -5:00”
I ~ASSUME~ that this fall I will have to change it to “Central America GMT -6:00”



Apparently the Europeans that built the initial framework of the A3 have no concept of daylight savings time.

As for other options for other time zones, I guess you’ll have to choose some flippin weird city in another country just so that it shifts the time offset somehow to show you the proper time.
I did try setting it to manual time and it did not keep good time when running on it’s own internal clock.

I find the air mouse difficult to use. I’m old and arthritic and don’t have the best motor control. I would imagine a younger person would be ok with it. Or someone who plays video games.
I had to go into settings and drop it’s sensitivity down to the lowest setting, 1. Even then I find that I need to use two hands to be able to control it with any degree of accuracy. Otherwise it’s all over the place.

There is a feature where you just run your finger around the ring of arrow keys and that scrolls up and down. I can’t find anyway to adjust that or disable it. I very, very frequently accidentally brush my finger across it and the cursor goes off on it’s own. Again, I blame my being old on this problem as I do not like those stupid video game controllers which I think were the inspiration for this thing.

As for not changing channels until you press OK, when you have it in this mode, you can cursor around to the channel you want and it won’t change channels until you press enter/OK...

 

[Dee_Ann]

I need to find a better way to move the dish than USALS. The piddly little motor must be too much work for the A3.
I guess I’m going to have to build a KU dish that moves with all the stuff that a C-band dish uses to move.

I think I’ll have to use two ASC-1’s to do it.

Assign alternating positions between the two controllers so that position 1 is 83KU on the first ASC-1 and position 2 is 83C on the second ASC-1.
Then I should be able to chain then because there won’t be conflicting instructions, right?

 

[Titanium]

Dee Ann, I am not having any problems moving a KU hh motor with the A3. Since the inability to reliably move a dish was the basis of teh reset error, maybe go over with us how you are programming each satellite to issue a USALS command? Is the motor LED blinking when the A3 issues a USALS command?

 

[Dee_Ann]

THIS, I do not know what this is for but it defaults to “ON” on every single satellite regardless C or KU.
I was ASSUMING that it relates to the old 12v on/off switches of yesteryear. It doesn’t seem to matter what I set this to so I leave it at it’s default of ON.

I haven’t found a way to simply tell the system that all of the KU satellites are USALS so I have to go to each and every satellite and set these options then save them then scan each satellite, one at a time.

As for the light on the motor, I have not tried to watch it while it moves because it’s hard for me to get down on the ground where I can see it. Also my WIFI is at the very fringe at the dish so operating it remotely is a bit of a problem. I suppose I could prop my phone up and record video of the lights while I stand back within range and try to move it.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Something I found while looking for a PDF of the manual for my motor is this PDF about “backlash adjustment” where it says it can make the motor draw too much current and maybe burn out the STB.
I think I better check that!

BTW, I got this motor form everyone’s favorite place to hate on, WSI. Ugh. Sorry about that but it is what it is.

 

[primestar31]

I had one of those motors and it failed within 2 months. It started having all sorts of issues with not starting up, or would only go one way, and then not go back, etc. I junked it after messing with it for a while.

 

[Dee_Ann]

I actually bought the motor over four years ago and it has not given me any trouble. My dad also has exactly the same motor on his system and it’s working great there (Openbox S9)

While I don’t really know what “backlash” is as far as this situation but the PDF I attached had an ominous warning about it so I’ll heed that and check it as soon as it quits raining.

However, perhaps it’s time that I search for a superior motor.
I am open to suggestions and recommendations..

 

[FTA4PA]

However, perhaps it’s time that I search for a superior motor. I am open to suggestions and recommendations..

Stab HH100

 

[Titanium]

Any switches in line or a straight run from the A3 to the motor?

Unless there is significant wiggle of the shaft (dish), don't mess with the backlash adjustment.

I would do a reset on the motor:
Receiver Master Power On - Motor LED lit
Drive the motor to 0 degrees (zero) using the manual buttons or GoTo 0
Push the reset button on the bottom of the motor using a paper clip or similar tool for 2 seconds
LED light will blink Orange
Reset is finished when the LED light turns Green
The preset satellite table is now re-installed and current position is set to 0 (zero)
Power cycle the motor by turning receiver off/on

 

[Dee_Ann]

Straight wire from the A3 to the motor, nothing at all in the middle, not splices or switches or anything else, one unbroken wire.

When I push the button on the motor the motor will move from horizon to horizon.
The A3 will not operate the motor except when it randomly feels like it.

The MicroHD moves the motor 100% of the time.

Something ain’t right here..

I checked this to make sure it wasn’t too tight. I tightened it until the dish had no play in it then I loosened it up as I wiggled the dish and got a very small bit of play. I checked it by running the dish horizon to horizon with it’s buttons. In the rain.

 

[primestar31]

How about taking your A3 closer to the motor, and running it through a short piece of coax to see what happens?

It sounds to me like you have too much of a voltage drop for some reason that the A3 is sensitive to... 100ma difference in current rating between the MicroHD (500ma) and the A3 (400 ma) shouldn't make that much difference.