First time a Pansat ever failed me

[jogon64]

All of a sudden I lost 11977H 1562 and 12024H 3000 on Satmex5. 12059V 3077 still came is strong as usual.

I changed lnb, diseqc, coax and tweaked my 30" dish with no luck. All my other fixed dishes (30,72,79,97,101ku and 99c) came in fine. So I never suspected of my pansat 3500.

Finally I tried a friend´s pansat 2500 and I got the channels back!

I went back to my 3500, factory reset, scanned in only those two tps but have not had any luck getting them again. It´s weird, I still get all the other channels.

What could be going on? Has someone experienced this before?

I have had and installed for friends and relatives a lot of pansats (250sm,2500,2700,3500) and other coolsats and viewsats. I have always considered pansats more reliable, but this time I don´t know what happened.

Any thoughts?

 

[turbosat]

If you are getting good signal strength on the transponder , it's a head-scratcher. You did delete the old transponders from the 3500 and then it still won't find them again? Weird.

 

[jogon64]

Turbo, thanks for responding.

I´m actually getting just 26%L 0% Q on these two tps while on 12059V 3077 on the same sat I get 70%L 55%Q.

All other sats are working fine. Seems the pansat doesn´t like these two tps anymore!

 

[Keith Brannen]

Turbo, thanks for responding.

I´m actually getting just 26%L 0% Q on these two tps while on 12059V 3077 on the same sat I get 70%L 55%Q.

All other sats are working fine. Seems the pansat doesn´t like these two tps anymore!

A level of 26 sounds like a power issue (LNB is not getting the required horizontal voltage), are other horizontal transponders coming in fine (same sat and/or different sats)? If so, could be a coax/fitting issue, might want to try changing ports, or if on a 22KHz switch, change it around, or put it on a port without a 22KHz switch, etc.

 

[jogon64]

Keith, I´m watching them right now on my friend´s pansat 2500 on my EXACT same setup!

Just went back to the 3500 to check but still no go on these two tps.

I´m getting both H and V tps on this and all my other sats.

I´ve also tried scanning them in on another dummy sat position.

 

[Keith Brannen]

Keith, I´m watching them right now on my friend´s pansat 2500 on my EXACT same setup!

Just went back to the 3500 to check but still no go on these two tps.

I´m getting both H and V tps on this and all my other sats.

I´ve also tried scanning them in on another dummy sat position.

Try clearing out unwanted transponders on sats you don't use (leave one transponder), as sometimes when the channel list/transponder list gets too full, the Pansat can act up in strange ways.

EDIT: Does the 2500 have a loop-out? You might want to try connecting your 3500 to it to see if you get the channels that way.

 

[stone1150]

Check the capacitors on the power supply. Look for any bulging. A cap going bad will make the receiver do all kind of wierd stuff including what you describe. It has been awhile, but I have changed out a few in the 3500. There should still be info out there on that issue and Rat shack carrys replacements that are not exact but work.

 

[hd fan]

Dont even bother, Digital Cable Techs face the same issue day in day out , I used to be one for a while, and for some unknown reason to me, sometimes it happens that a digital tuner is unable to tune in to a particular digital carrier yet test equipment or other tuners either show or work fine for that carrier. As a tech you just have to replace the tuner or receiver and call it a day. As a matter of fact I have a Viewsat Ultra that also does the same with the TVE Mux at 30W but it was working fine until one day that it stopped working for that mux. Everything else on the same SAT works perfectly and every other receiver in the home or others I have tried works also great on the whole SAT including that mux.

 

[jogon64]

Dont even bother, Digital Cable Techs face the same issue day in day out , I used to be one for a while, and for some unknown reason to me, sometimes it happens that a digital tuner is unable to tune in to a particular digital carrier yet test equipment or other tuners either show or work fine for that carrier. As a tech you just have to replace the tuner or receiver and call it a day. As a matter of fact I have a Viewsat Ultra that also does the same with the TVE Mux at 30W but it was working fine until one day that it stopped working for that mux. Everything else on the same SAT works perfectly and every other receiver in the home or others I have tried works also great on the whole SAT including that mux.

Thanks hdfan for commenting on your experience.

As I said earlier, I have had coolsats and viewsats go bad on me, but never a pansat before.

I know sometimes you are dealt a lemon and you´ve got to call it a day. Nobody likes losing though.

I might have to try convincing a friend who doesn´t care for these channels to exchange their stb for mine. All other sats are working fine.

Btw Stone, I did check capacitors and they all look fine. I have replaced caps and brought them back to life before but as far as I recall it was because the boxes would not power on at all.

Keith, I tried the loop out thing with the same negative outcome. Thanks.

 

[Keith Brannen]

Keith, I tried the loop out thing with the same negative outcome. Thanks.

Just to confirm what you did, I assume you had the 2500 on a horizontal channel (on one of the suspect transponders) and the 3500 would not lock on it? Did any horizontal transponders lock? And did you check a vertical transponder on the 2500 and then try a vertical on the 3500? (checking to see if the loop out worked).

Did you try removing a whole bunch of transponders from the list? Another thing you might do is re-load the firmware.

Hate losing myself, so try as many things as possible!

 

[jogon64]

I assume you had the 2500 on a horizontal channel (on one of the suspect transponders) and the 3500 would not lock on it? Did any horizontal transponders lock?

Correct, it would not lock on the horizontal channel I´m looking for...but I was able to lock and scan BYU 12173H 3935 which I had not scanned before!!?? So at least this H tp is working on this sat.

And did you check a vertical transponder on the 2500 and then try a vertical on the 3500? (checking to see if the loop out worked).

Yes, all other transponders work on this and the rest of the sats.

Did you try removing a whole bunch of transponders from the list?

I practically removed all of 97w ku which is a bunch of tps. Still nothing.

Another thing you might do is re-load the firmware.

Might have to try this. Where could I get the SW?

This is all real odd.

PS. At least with all this posting I´ve learned how to quote from a previous message

 

[Keith Brannen]

Thanks for the clarification of all you tried with the loop-out and transponder list.

Where could I get the SW?

Latest version at: PANAREX

This is all real odd.

That is definitely an understatement!

 

[jogon64]

Borrowed a viewsat ultra and I am able to see the channels my pansat 3500 won´t get. It´s definitely something wrong with the pansat. I´ve done all that´s been suggested by all you guys short of reloading software. I´ll do that as soon as I can find my null modem cable. I haven´t used or seen it for a long time. I hope it´s still here at home. Thanks everyone.

 

[migold]

Power supply capacitors can be bad and not be bulging. By the time they have expanded and bulged out noticeably, they are REALLY BAD. Since they are cheap, relatively, why not replace them and see if it helps...

 

[Keith Brannen]

Borrowed a viewsat ultra and I am able to see the channels my pansat 3500 won´t get. It´s definitely something wrong with the pansat. I´ve done all that´s been suggested by all you guys short of reloading software. I´ll do that as soon as I can find my null modem cable. I haven´t used or seen it for a long time. I hope it´s still here at home. Thanks everyone.

Good luck. Only other thing I could think of was that your channel list may be corrupt, but since you don't have a 3500SD (and, therefore, can't save your list with an SD card), you might not want to delete your channel list (unless you can save it with the null modem to your computer, which I don't know whether you can or not). Hopefully, the firmware will do the trick.

 

[thebaggins]

Channelmaster (see firmware section of site) will work with the Pansat, you could DL the channel list edit it using the null modem cable

 

[jogon64]

Got it working now!

Don´t ask me how I´m more puzzled now, but it´s working.

Changed switch again and I got the channels I was looking for back.

When the pansat 3500 first failed with these channels I changed to a new switch I had for a long time. I can´t remember the brand because I threw away de box and there´s no brand on the switch. It says GD - 41A, freq range 950-2400 Mhz, Insertion loss 3db, power passing 500ma. Anyway, this switch got all my channels on my pansat 3500 except the ones I needed. But when I used a pansat 2500 I got the chennels I needed!

Today I found another new switch I had from a long time ago (a captiveworks switch, looks a lot like those small pansat switches) I installed it in place of the brandless one, connected my pansat 3500 and now I got ALL channels back! The captiveworks switch has the same specifications as the other one.

I don´t understand what happened, but wanted to let you all know. Some of you (a whole lot fta and electronically smarter than me) might understand what´s going on.

Can´t totally blame Pansat as in the title I guess!

Thanks a lot.

 

[migold]

Great!!! Glad you have your channels back!

 

[Keith Brannen]

Excellent news! The only thing I can think of is that the new switch might be passing just a tiny amount more power to the LNB than the old one (but that still doesn't explain you getting the other horizontal channels, unless it was a weird switching/power problem). Regardless, it is indeed good to hear it is fixed!

 

[mr.crane]

Power supply capacitors can be bad and not be bulging. By the time they have expanded and bulged out noticeably, they are REALLY BAD. Since they are cheap, relatively, why not replace them and see if it helps...

Very correct, I am a electronic hobbyist, have worked on many power supply units, lately LCD tvs...A ESR meter works flawless, on testing Capacitors.
Like migold mention, a cap can look good, but in reality it is bad.