AZBox Premium HD quality meter

[tonydix]

I am using my AZBox to view Ku signals from a fixed dish and C Band signals for a C Band dish with an actuator. In order to peak the signals when viewing a C band signal it would be nice to see a quality measurement while tweaking the actuator. Is this possible with an AZBox ?
Thanks

Tony

 

[ZetaMale]

I am using my AZBox to view Ku signals from a fixed dish and C Band signals for a C Band dish with an actuator. In order to peak the signals when viewing a C band signal it would be nice to see a quality measurement while tweaking the actuator. Is this possible with an AZBox ?
Thanks

I've done it with my Ultra by going into Settings->TV Channel->Tuner->Antenna Setup, selected the sat and watched the quality indicator while panning the dish. Too bad it doesn't have an automated peaking feature.

 

[tonydix]

thanks Johnnynobody. It works well just a bit of a fiddle. Its a shame the quality is not shown on the channel start banner.
Tony

 

[AcWxRadar]

Hey Tony,

I may not be following you precisely, but I think that I understand the jist of your dilemna.

You need to monitor a legitimate and 24/7 TP while you adjust your dish and motor/actuator. When you go to the ANTENNA SETUP menu where you can access the motor control features, you have to be careful as the TP that the receiver is looking at can revert to the very first TP in your list for that particular satellite. If that TP is not the one you want to use to track or align the satellite position with, maybe it is an outdated or a dead TP at the time you are searching and aligning, you won't detect the signal quality. Hence, you must keep going back to the first page to re-select that specific TP while you are making adjustments. This can become a little confusing or troublesome.

The trick is, delete all the TPs from that satellite, except the one that you absolutely KNOW to be good. Then conduct your motor and dish adjustments with that one TP. Does this make sense for you so far?

The next thing that you will have to remember is that you should monitor the signal strength level first. As you approach the correct alignment, the signal level should rise slightly. Maybe not a huge amount, but you should be able to detect the difference. Then, if you are really close to proper alignment, the signal quality level should start to pop in for you. Once that appears, be very patient, slow and critical of your adjustments. If you are using DiSEqC 1.2 motor or actuator control, you should change the step size from continuous to 4 to 3 to 2 and then to 1 the closer you get to your target.

The AZBox signal strength and signal quality meters are slower to respond than other FTA receivers, so be very patient after each adjustment that you make.

Once you have located and dialed in on that good TP to peak the signal (peaked your dish/motor alignment) then you can rescan for all the other TPs on that satellite or manually reenter them.

The main theme of this all is to ensure that your receiver continues to look at just that one (known good) transponder on the satellite. The Coolsat 5000 receiver is simple throughout this process as you can go into the motor control menu and select the TP you want to track and it remains set on it. The AZBox seems to want to revert to the first TP in its list as you fiddle around, so you have to go back and reset it to the TP you want to track.

Sorry if my explanation is a little confusing. You will understand what I mean more when you experiment for yourself. It will become apparent to you eventually and you will understand what I am referring to.

RADAR

 

[i4tas]

The AZBox signal strength and signal quality meters are slower to respond than other FTA receivers, so be very patient after each adjustment that you make.

I have noticed my AZbox Ultra to take up to 25 seconds to respond. Sometimes when i am checking TP signals i have to wait very long for the signal levels to go from 0% / 0% to the actual levels. I am never able to use the signal meter to find the satellite when moving my motor, I have to stop the motor where I think the signal is the strongest and then wait. I also am thinking that my nearly one year old receiver is getting slower as times goes on.

 

[jsattv]

Just to add to Radar's good info, after you peak your Tp Signal & then save your position re the Counts in the AZbox re your VBox and Actuator, the East Limit will come on in the AZbox and NOT allow you to move to the East after storing your Satellite Position. This is one of the quirks in the AZbox that has been pointed out to OnSat - the AZbox designers.

The only fix for now to this is press on "Disable Limits" then "Store Position" again - then Reboot the Azbox from the DisEqc 1.2 Motor mode and the East Limit will be removed. After rebooting the Azbox will comback in "Settings Mode" and you should be good to go for your Blindscan of your Tp's, or go back to TV. Also after Blindscanning in the Channels, the East Limit also comes on, so you may need to Reboot again.

 

[Lak7]

I just use the Positioner's remote to save / tweak positions.
A minor inconvenience, but very tolerable.

 

[hd fan]

I always disable DiseqC before blind scanning to avoid setting the limits a PITA but. maybe with the ultra it happens but with the prem + it does not set the east limit everytime you SAVE a DiseqC position . I always use AUTO after re-clicking the VBOX and therefore it saves with the same position number. I hardly ever use the controllers remote just to manually peak in rare cases.

 

[Keith Brannen]

I wish that the signal/quality bars were thicker, and the numbers bigger! It is rather difficult to see improvement (or even the bars!) on the meter when you are looking at a 13" TV sitting on the ground while you are standing on a ladder or the roof!

When I added the AZBox to my system, all the LNBs/dishes (all fixed dishes) were already peaked, so the only two I did any tweaking on were 125 (trying to boost Montana PBS without losing much on LPB) and on 103. It wasn't the easiest to do, since I had to constantly get off the ladder to check the numbers (which were unreadable at a distance).

When I went to add a new LNB (for 61.5) the limitations of the AZBox meters and blind scan were very evident. The first time I tried, I spent over two hours trying to lock the satellite, and failed completely to even get a hint of a signal. For starters, I was not totally sure what was a good transponder to aim with (conflicting websites about active ones or settings), and any I tried failed to produce a signal to peak on. Plus, I had to constantly climb up a ladder on to the roof to adjust the LNB, then come back down and would have to wait (forever!) for the blind scan to complete when I decided to see if the blind scan would help (it didn't). Finally, when it was getting dark I gave up.

Two days later, I tried again, this time using my Pansat to aim. Took little more than half an hour in total to get set up, to find, peak, and lock it all down. The difference was the blind scan on the Pansat. With the Pansat, if there is no signal to find, it quickly breezes through the blind scan. If you are close to a signal (but not quite on it) it pauses while trying to get it and then moves on, meaning a slight adjustment one way or the other will bring in a signal to peak on. With the way the AZBox blind scans, there appears to be no difference in the length of time of the scan when you are on a satellite, or totally off it (and no indication, such as a pause in the scan, to suggest you are close to getting a signal). Now the AZBox is not just scanning for DVB-S like the Pansat, so there has to be some allowance due to its wider range of types of signals it is trying to find. All I know is that the next time I add a new satellite/LNB I will use the Pansat to aim!

 

[jsattv]

I just use the Positioner's remote to save / tweak positions.
A minor inconvenience, but very tolerable.

Using the V Box III or Positioner's Remote Control:
Lak7 I also use the V Box III's Remote to fine tune the Actuator & Dish mainly because when you go into DisEqc 1.2 Positioner on Azbox to move the Dish, it very quickly defaults back to the original or first Tp. (Unless you remove all the Tps on the Satellite you are working on except for the one Tp that produces the best signal as Radar has suggested, but this can be a bit of extra work). Also what I have found after Peaking the Dish with the V Box III Remote is that if you don't Store the final V Box III position in the AZbox, the Dish and V Box III will start to move the Dish up or down at random. Once you store the final Peaking Position in Azbox and Reboot its stored permantly.

 

[tonydix]

Thanks for all the responses. As usual very informative
Tony