Just when things are going great...

[PopcornNMore]

Just when things are going great...

Tonight after work I adjusted my 8' dish and began to receive additional channels on AMC3 C-band. Then I rescanned AMC1 KU-band and received Universal Sports and an additional NBC channel that I never received before. I then relaxed and watched a movie on the Golden Nugget before turning off the receiver (Openbox S9).

Then just a few minutes ago I decided to try to receive Hispasat at 30 degrees now since all the leaves are gone. When I turned on the receiver I noticed that the Golden Nugget no longer was available, so I turned to AMC9 for TUFF TV and that too was gone. In fact ALL the KU satellites from my motorized 4' dish are gone and no signals are received. DISEQC switch port 3.

1) The dish turns properly from satellite to satellite.
2) The Openbox S9 receiver receives signals fine from my two stationary dishes on DISEQC ports 1 and 2 on my DISEQC switch.
3) I tried moving the dish E & W using DISEQC on one of the KU satellites and no signal was received.

I hate to say it, but I believe my new 0.1dB Spitfire Elite LNB went bad after being installed only 1 week. I will try replacing it tomorrow night after work.

 

[stanleyjohn]

One other possibility might be your dish went slightly out of alignment when you went to 30w.because 30w is pretty far east in my case the dish gets somewhat top heavy and alittle unstable that far east which sometimes caused my dish to miss align slightly till i tighten things up abit and move dish very slowly when i get down lower than 40.

 

[Dishman Dan]

... I will try replacing it tomorrow night after work.

I hope that this "bug" does not turn out to be a big headache for you!!!

It gets dark very early now! How do you seem to get so many projects done???

 

[AcWxRadar]

Just when things are going great...

Tonight after work I adjusted my 8' dish and began to receive additional channels on AMC3 C-band. Then I rescanned AMC1 KU-band and received Universal Sports and an additional NBC channel that I never received before. I then relaxed and watched a movie on the Golden Nugget before turning off the receiver (Openbox S9).

Then just a few minutes ago I decided to try to receive Hispasat at 30 degrees now since all the leaves are gone. When I turned on the receiver I noticed that the Golden Nugget no longer was available, so I turned to AMC9 for TUFF TV and that too was gone. In fact ALL the KU satellites from my motorized 4' dish are gone and no signals are received. DISEQC switch port 3.

1) The dish turns properly from satellite to satellite.
2) The Openbox S9 receiver receives signals fine from my two stationary dishes on DISEQC ports 1 and 2 on my DISEQC switch.
3) I tried moving the dish E & W using DISEQC on one of the KU satellites and no signal was received.

I hate to say it, but I believe my new 0.1dB Spitfire Elite LNB went bad after being installed only 1 week. I will try replacing it tomorrow night after work.

Popcorn,

Before you get too carried away with any component replacement or moving your dish, remove just the DiSEqC switch and run your cable direct to the LNBF. Then recheck your signal.

RADAR

 

[PopcornNMore]

Popcorn,

Before you get too carried away with any component replacement or moving your dish, remove just the DiSEqC switch and run your cable direct to the LNBF. Then recheck your signal.

RADAR

Excellent tip! I'll try this first.

 

[PopcornNMore]

I hope that this "bug" does not turn out to be a big headache for you!!!

It gets dark very early now! How do you seem to get so many projects done???

I'm the type of person who can't sleep until a problem like this is resolved. I'll probably be outside later in PJ's with a flashlight trying to see what the problem could be.

 

[PopcornNMore]

This morning before work I decided to turn on the Openbox S9 receiver to see if the KU motorized dish was still not receiving any signal and it didn't turn on. I then saw that the red standby LED was out. I almost had a heart attack.

I then toggled the switch on the back of the receiver and it powered up correctly. I realized that the receiver is plugged into a non surge protected outlet on my Monster power strip and that I must change that tonight after work.

As soon as I arrived to work I ordered two additional Spitfire Elite LNB's just in case my first one had failed.

 

[Corrado]

The old power switch cycle on and off works wonders on these receivers when things start acting strange. In my first days of running my old Fortec Lifetime Ultra receiver 6 years ago, I learned everything the hard way. I didn't belong to forums like this. More than once I was out checking or adjusting something that didn't need it. A simple reboot of the receiver would have fixed it or waiting for the weather to clear in Little Rock was another one that used to get me.

 

[PopcornNMore]

The old power switch cycle on and off works wonders on these receivers when things start acting strange. In my first days of running my old Fortec Lifetime Ultra receiver 6 years ago, I learned everything the hard way. I didn't belong to forums like this. More than once I was out checking or adjusting something that didn't need it. A simple reboot of the receiver would have fixed it or waiting for the weather to clear in Little Rock was another one that used to get me.

The reboot restored power to the receiver, but the KU signals still were gone. Tonight I'll bypass the DISEQC switch and if that doesn't work I'll replace the LNBF. It's raining here all day, but that won't stop me from working on the dish.

 

[Sadie]

I had a similar thing with mine it turned out to be a bad coax connection at the computer one I had neglected to crimp.
While trouble shooting the problem it occurred to me that the Spitfire Elite is a universal LNB, I had only bothered to set up one local oscillator frequency and no switch frequency. On the chance that a program crash had some how sent a signal out to the LNB causing the oscillator frequency to switch I then set all the settings correctly, of cause it didn't help because the LNB was disconnected.
I don't know your set up but it may be something to check.

 

[PopcornNMore]

My system is fixed!

My guess was correct I had a bad Spitfire Elite Universal LNBF which I only had installed for a total of 8 days. My guess it that it got water damaged due to no coax boot included with the product. I'm going to keep it inside for a week or so to dry out and then will try reinstalling.

For now I'm using an older Sadoun 0.4dB Universal LNBF which I purchased a couple of years ago and never used.

The PBS channels on AMC21 look awesome using my Openbox S9 HD PVR receiver. I'm sitting here watching "Cat in the Hat", because it looks so good. Have I ever mentioned just how much I love my new Openbox S9 HD PVR FTA receiver?

I also moved the power cord to the Openbox S9 receiver to a surge protected outlet on my Monster power strip tonight to help prevent what I experienced this morning with the receiver needing to be rebooted due to no power.

Thank you everyone for your help and suggestions.

 

[FaT Air]

Have I ever mentioned just how much I love my new Openbox S9 HD PVR FTA receiver?

Yes, and I like mine too!

 

[turbosat]

The Spit-Fire-Spat , eh? Glad you figured that one out, I was going to ask where you had the switch wired......

 

[PopcornNMore]

The Spit-Fire-Spat , eh? Glad you figured that one out, I was going to ask where you had the switch wired......

In my communications room located in the basement behind the home theater.

 

[turbosat]

Popcorn, I meant, was it wired before the motorized dish, or between the motor and the other dishes like it's supposed to be......lol. I have heard of people using diseqc switches between a receiver and a motor, but getting sometimes strange results!

 

[PopcornNMore]

Popcorn, I meant, was it wired before the motorized dish, or between the motor and the other dishes like it's supposed to be......lol. I have heard of people using diseqc switches between a receiver and a motor, but getting sometimes strange results!

Now you got me thinking, but it's still early in the morning and I need some coffee before I can think. The coax goes from the LNBF to the motor then from the motor to the diseqc switch (port 3) then to the receiver. My other two stationary dishes are connected to port 1 and port 2 on the diseqc switch.

 

[dougruss]

Switch should be between LNB and Motor !

If you are going to use an HH Motor and a DiSEqC switch, we recommend you position the DiSEqC switch after the Motor as follows:

Receiver ----- HH Motor ----- DiSEQC switch ---- LNBFs

If you place the DiSEqC switch between the Receiver and the HH Motor, it will impact the performance and operation of the HH Motor.

 

[turbosat]

That's what I was getting at, switch usually works better when wired in between the motor and the lnb/other dishes, or so I have read. I never tried it the other way to see.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Just FYI:

It is recommended that you install the switch between the motor and the LNBF and NOT between the receiver and the motor.

However, installing the switch between the motor and the receiver will not harm any device except (possibly) the switch itself. This being due to running the motor drive current through the switch. The only other drawback to installing the switch in this position is that the motor may not always respond to MOVE commands.

I personally tested this (installing the switch in the manner that was NOT recommended). I operated my system and my motorized dish with this improper configuration for over a year without any failures or hiccoughs.

I did this knowingly and on purpose, simply to test it and because (at the time) it was convenient for me to configure it this way. When I found that it worked, I left it set up this way to see how long it would last and if there were any glitches. After one year and several months passed, I finally revamped my system. Now I use my motorized dish exclusively and have removed all switches.

My intention is not to persuade anyone to set up their system incorrectly or in a manner that is not recommended, but to simply inform everyone that some rules and recommendations can be misleading as they have become "blanket" statements that are universally or generically applied. This prevents errors and headaches and equipment failures. But, sometimes you can color outside the lines without getting into trouble.

RADAR

PS: That switch configuration that I used consisted of (1) SW21 switch, (2) Chieta 1.2 DiSEqC switches, (7) fixed point dishes/LNBFs and (1) motorized system:

COOLSAT 5K RCVR -> SW21 switch -> Chieta 1.2 DiSEqC switch -> MOTOR -> LNBF
...............................................|.....................................|-> FIXED PT LNBF
...............................................|.....................................|-> FIXED PT LNBF
...............................................|.....................................|-> FIXED PT LNBF
...............................................|-> Chieta 1.2 DiSEqC switch --> FIXED PT LNBF
...............................................|.....................................|-> FIXED PT LNBF
...............................................|.....................................|-> FIXED PT LNBF
...............................................|.....................................|-> FIXED PT LNBF

 

[PopcornNMore]

Switch should be between LNB and Motor !

Thank you Dougruss. This is how I originally had the switch installed, but moved it so that the switch could be installed inside the house within the communications room about a year ago and have never had any problems.

With a direct coax to each dish I can easly reconfigure my system without going outside. I also can easily remove a dish from the diseqc switch and use it with a Digicipher II receiver, PC FTA card or perform testing.