My Install.....

[Mr Tony]

gary
blind scan, power scasn and smart scan are the same things. Each receiver uses a different name

blind scan is what you want to do

 

[GaryPen]

Excellent support from SatelliteAV! Nice!

Another idea you might try which I've used when I'm totally "lost in the sky" is to take a legacy DBS LNB and put it on the dish. If the neck sizes are wrong just tape it with duct tape or electircal tape since it temp anyways. Now go find 61.5, 82, 91, 110, 119, 129, 148, etc. Then switch back to the linear now that you know where you are in the sky.

Actually I already have a D500 pointed at 110/119 (152az) and a single pointed at 148 (203az). So, I have a good ballpark idea of where 121 and 123 relate to those guys. (The 148 dish is square to the back of the house, as well. Makes a good starting point to know that 203 azimuth points at 90deg angle to the house.)

 

[digiblur]

Actually I already have a D500 pointed at 110/119 (152az) and a single pointed at 148 (203az). So, I have a good ballpark idea of where 121 and 123 relate to those guys. (The 148 dish is square to the back of the house, as well. Makes a good starting point to know that 203 azimuth points at 90deg angle to the house.)

I realize that... but do you know where they are with this dish? I was almost in the same situation with you. I ended up testing the receiver for tuning capabilities by throwing up a 18 inch and pointing it at 91...yep signal works!...now time to tune the 36inch. Even with the 91 pointed close by and eyeballing the other dish I couldn't find any linear signals. So I ended up duct taping the legacy LNB to the 36inch's arm, found 91W in about 10 seconds as we were reading the elevation scale on the dish wrong (dang U mount!). Put the linear LNB back on and had the motor tracking the arc in about 5 minutes.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Replies within text ....

So, what are the proper entries for 110 and 119 satellite settings in the receiver for a DP Twin LNB? How are the two feeds distributed? Do both sats come through both lines, but separated into H/V. Or, is each line dedicated to a specific sat?

A DP TWIN sends both 110W and 119W down the same cable on the Horizontal (18V) with two LO frequencies. DP Twin LNBF has two independant outputs intended for two tuners. I have never set up for a DP, but it in therory it should be OCS 11250 / 14350. Someone .... correct me if I am wrong!


Of course. That's the first thing I did.
Do you mean 37? My latitude is 37.
Sorry, late night post .... 37 is correct .....

Dish elevation and Skew were correct from the beginning.
I did all of that, of course.

I will do this today after work, as I have a feeling that blockage may be my problem. I wasn't sure how to check for it, though. Thanks for this great tip!
I was going for E9/121. But, I would imagine that if I hit anything, I would have shown some quality, which never happened. Although, I haven't tried changing elevation, other than to correct my previous mistake.
If you did not select an active frequency for the satellite that you are attempting to locate, quality will never be displayed.

What is a "power scan"? The CS5000 has 3 choices": Auto-Scan, Blind-Scan, and Manual-Scan.
Iceburg got this one ...

Thanks. I'm glad I chose satelliteAV for my purchase! Of course, I only have time to work on the installation after 5pm on weekdays, and all day on weekends. (I assume the 8am-5pm time you mention is weekday-only).
Yes, but unfortunately I am often around VERY late with a few of the techs! PM me if you are stuck and we will give you a call if available.

 

[kurtsat]

I brought a very good friend of mine to SatelliteAV's yesterday, we spent and chatted with Brian for like almost 3 hours.. Didn't realized the time went fly so fast and we really had a great time!! We have learned so much stuff from him and also, toured around the warehouse. He is really really awesome guy!! So, we left around 7:15pm..

GaryPen, you can ask him to see if he'll be there at night.. I must tell you, it's WORTH it!! :up :up

Kurt

 

[GaryPen]

Some good news. I decided to remove the motor for now, and just setup the dish for single satellite use, just to make sure the LNB, cable, and receiver are all working properly together. I immediately got a lock on G10 at 123. I've got about 70% quality on TP1. Did a blind scan and got about 38 free TV and 6 free radio (only 1 radio had any audio).

I think the problem with the motor is that it made the dish too low, and the roof was blocking part of the LOS. The extra 6-8" height gained by mounting the dish on top of the pole, instead of on the motor, gives me a clear shot over the roof.

OTOH, It could just be that the motor adds a level of complexity to the aiming procedure. I would like to try it with the motor again. But, I will need to extend the mast. Currently, I have a 12" extension on the Winegard mast. I had it lying around in my box o' parts. Does anybody know if somebody sells a 24" extension? Otherwise, I will get a 3' length of pipe, and u-bolt it to the Winegard mast. That should do the trick. If I still can't get a signal when using the motor with the added height, I'll know it's something I'm doing wrong with the motor.

Now, as to the CS5000. The remote is really pissing me off. The arrow keys and ok button especially. I'll hit OK, and it'll go up. I'll hit down, and nothing will happen. So, I press harder, and the button gets stuck under the face. It's a real piece of crap. And, the IR sensitivityon the receiver is awful. I programmed my universal to operate the CS5000, and the pickup range doesn't even reliably make it across the living room!

As for scanning the sats, it has different TP freq numbers from the Lyngsat list, which makes it a little difficult to match up TP's when looking for stations on the list, which I was trying to do for renaming channels in the list.

I'm not that thrilled with the CS5000 so far. I'm really wondering if I shouldn't have gone for the Mercury II, Pansat 3500, or even Viewsat Extreme. I might hit the flea market this weekend, and see if I can pick up a another model stb, just to compare.

 

[digiblur]

Don't be too fast... if you would have gotten the Viewsat, then you can ditch the motor, as the Viewsat has very poor motor control and constantly "forgets" where satellites are saved at.

 

[SatinKzo]

gary, I am wondering if you have a funky cs5k. My remote works as advertised. IR sensitivity is what I would expect also. I am going ahead with my motorized setup here this weekend, I just can't wait till fall. So I will report back. I am also getting a mercury II (got it on ebay for $60 so why not try it) and I will try and let you know how it works.

 

[Mr Tony]

Now, as to the CS5000. The remote is really pissing me off. The arrow keys and ok button especially. I'll hit OK, and it'll go up. I'll hit down, and nothing will happen. So, I press harder, and the button gets stuck under the face. It's a real piece of crap. And, the IR sensitivityon the receiver is awful. I programmed my universal to operate the CS5000, and the pickup range doesn't even reliably make it across the living room!

Weird. My 5000 remote works flawlessly. Havent had any issues with it.

As for scanning the sats, it has different TP freq numbers from the Lyngsat list, which makes it a little difficult to match up TP's when looking for stations on the list, which I was trying to do for renaming channels in the list.

the frequency may be off by 1 or 2 and that is normal. It depends on the LNB. When I scan G10, the 1st transponder (listed at 11720) I have picked up at 11718, 11719 (normally), 11720 & 11721

I'm not that thrilled with the CS5000 so far. I'm really wondering if I shouldn't have gone for the Mercury II, Pansat 3500, or even Viewsat Extreme. I might hit the flea market this weekend, and see if I can pick up a another model stb, just to compare.

As mentioned above, if you want a Viewsat dont get a motor
I had the 3500 and its a nice unit but the blind scan is slower than the Coolsat and it gets "hung" up on some transponders (where it scans for like 2 minutes then finally moves on)

 

[SatelliteAV]

Please post the chanel name anlong with the frequency that is displayed. If the frequency is more that a few MHz off, say 150 or 1000 off ..... then the LNBF type / LO is not set correctly.

 

[GaryPen]

The freq seems to be off by only a few points. 5 at most. But, the remote issue is driving me crazy. Also, it doesn't seem to be picking up all the free channels listed in Lyngsat. Could it be a bad box?

I will definitely stay away from the Viewsat per everybody's suggestion. But, if I see a good price on an MII or PS3500 at the flea market, I might give it a go. I can sell the one I don't want on ebay. (Although, if the CS5000 is bad, I'm sure the good folks at SatelliteAV will exchange it for a good one...IF they have any left at that price.)

 

[Mr Tony]

what free channels is it missing?

Some channels (seems like the religious ones) show $ (scrambled) but are free

 

[GaryPen]

gary, I am wondering if you have a funky cs5k. My remote works as advertised. IR sensitivity is what I would expect also. I am going ahead with my motorized setup here this weekend, I just can't wait till fall. So I will report back. I am also getting a mercury II (got it on ebay for $60 so why not try it) and I will try and let you know how it works.

So you're the guy that got that one. I had it in my watch list, but didn't pull the trigger. If I don't find something this weekend, I may look around on ebay.

Please post your comparisons and opinions between the two receivers.

 

[GaryPen]

what free channels is it missing?

Some channels (seems like the religious ones) show $ (scrambled) but are free

I'll have to check tonight. I was gonna bring the box in, and edit the channel list via CM. But, I had too much to do here. Plus, once I get the motor installed, I'll probably wipe everything, and start from scratch anyway.

I did notice that some channels marked $ were viewable. Most of them, actually, as it didn't pick up too many $ channels at all.

 

[SatelliteAV]

The freq seems to be off by only a few points. 5 at most. But, the remote issue is driving me crazy. Also, it doesn't seem to be picking up all the free channels listed in Lyngsat. Could it be a bad box?

I will definitely stay away from the Viewsat per everybody's suggestion. But, if I see a good price on an MII or PS3500 at the flea market, I might give it a go. I can sell the one I don't want on ebay. (Although, if the CS5000 is bad, I'm sure the good folks at SatelliteAV will exchange it for a good one...IF they have any left at that price.)

Coolsat 5000's are notorious for the IR receptor being incorrectly positioned behind the front panel during assembly at the factory. Also, the IR receptor has a metal cross band across the face. We often repositioned or replaced the IR receptor with a compatible, but different component and even have snipped the cross bands off to fix a remote reception problem.

Satellite AV is happy to repair or replace any item that is DOA or failed due to factory defect. We encourage you to call our technical support department at 888-483-4673 to arrange for an RMA on the product.

Just because Lygnsat says it is there, doesn't necessarily mean that it is. Lyngsat is a list of information that is updated as new information is found and deleted as it is verified. Please be more specific on what channel you cannot find. Give us names and frequencies of the channels that you suggest are off frequency. The Fortec FSKU-V LNBF could be slightly off the LO frequency or the Lyngsat chart could be incorrect.

Channels with the $ indicator could often be normally encrypted, but have turned off the for testing, allowing a affilaite station to access the information during an reception / decoder equipment failure, incorrect setting in the uplink encoder or the encoder places an encrypted flag erroneously - I.E. POWERVU

 

[GaryPen]

Before I go the RMA route, I'm gonne take a look inside, and see if the IR receptor is blocked or improperly installed. I'm just starting to have fun with it! Yup! I got some good news...

I picked up a longer mount arm from a local satellite installer, and replaced the stock arm from the Winegard 76cm. BTW, the long arm mount is a Winegard product, part #DS-3000.

I got a lock on G10 fairly quickly. It helped knowing where it was from when I hit it without the motor. I also locked into and scanned channels from IA-5, AMC-3, and AMC-5. I've got about 125 TV and 40 radio channels. I haven't had a chance to sort through them all yet. I'll scan some more tomorrow, and edit with Channel Master. A fun Saturday I'm sure.

 

[iafirebuff]

Ahh...scanning and sorting/deleting channels! Now the fun really begins!

 

[GaryPen]

Success!

Of course, now I have a few more questions:

-Is there supposed to be a beep tone in the setup screens of the CS5000? Even with the TV visible through the veranda doors, it would have been nice to hear when I got signal, so I wouldn't have to look down after every nudge.

-On almost every TP that I can receive, I show a quality level of 60-65%. Never lower, never higher, as far as I've noticed. Does that sound about right?

-How can I add sats to the CS5000? Some appear to be missing. I'm not referring to mis-named sats, but to slots that are missing altogether, such as 74(sbs6), 83(amc9), 89(ia8), and 127(g13).

I figured out how to rename, which I had to do for SatMex6-113 which they had listed as Solidaridad2 (114.9 according to LyngSat). But, I don't see an obvious way to add one. (I tried to do it by renaming one of the many 0.0E slots that the CS5000 lists. But, I couldn't change the sat location.)

-If I RMA this CS5000, due to the remote reception prblem, can I save my settings in a file to transfer to the new unit, if they send me a different one? I know I can save channels. But, does that include all of the satellite setup info, as well?

 

[iafirebuff]

GOOD JOB! It's a great feeling, isn't it! Now the fun begins

 

[john green]

I take it from the complete lack of "Atta boy!" or "Way to go!", that everybody gave up on my "My Install..." thread, and did not read the fact that I got the motor and dish setup OK on the longer mount arm last night. Woohoo!

I think your avatar might be the problem but "Atta boy,Way to go"