Need Help With: Mini HD Se / Stab90HH / GEOSAT 90cm Combo

[Cosmo Blatz]

Installed the dish and motor today. Using USALS. Initially, I had the latitude set to S 42.60 instead of N42.60. Dish would not move. After the lat. error was corrected the dish moved to what looks like about 97W. The dish has not moved since. Tried powering down everything and no change. Will not go to reference point. Shows "moving" when sat is changed. Step and continuous move do not work either.
Have 13v/18v at the LNBF.
Nothing in-line between motor and receiver (no switches or meter).


Mini HD SE Settings:

DiSEqC 1.0: Disable
DiSEqC1.1: Disable
Positioner: USALS
22K: Off
0/12V: Off
Polarity: Auto
LNB: On

Local: Manual
Local Long: W 087.80
Local Lat: N42.60
Step Move: Stop
Cont. Move: Stop
Limit Setting: Disable Limit

Positioner is disabled for all C-Band sats. Confirmed that the settings for all the usable Ku sats are the same.

What am I missing???

 

[Titanium]

Does the HH90 LED light and show power? Does the LED flash when sending a move command from the STB?

 

[Cosmo Blatz]

Does the HH90 LED light and show power? Does the LED flash when sending a move command from the STB?

Thanks for the reply. I swear it wasn't working but now it is! Doing blind scans and finding stuff. It's all good!

I started off just watching the dish through the kitchen window. Didn't see movement. Brought the receiver out to the dish and everything was working. Peaked the dish on 97W and checked a few other sats. Brought everything back in the house. Maybe I'm just used to watching a big bud swing around and didn't really see the puny Ku dish moving. Also, the "Moving Dish" message does not go away when the dish has changed satellites. Have to hit the exit button to clear the message. I think that may have been part of the problem.

Didn't realize I had to grind the lip off of the Stab to mount it on the GEOSAT. Glad I've got a big old bench grinder.

 

[Nov-01]

Glad you got it working, I hope to buy one of those movers for Christmas...for the kids of course

 

[iBoston]

My receiver is always showing dish moving when its not moving, or removing the message when its still moving. I have learned to ignore it and have faith the dish is moving. Ill tell you - My patience is tested going from 125 to 72. The 'Moving Dish' display long since vanishes. I just have to have faith and patience and at some point the signal jumps in.

I like the Cband better. At least with that, i can listen to the ASC1 clicking on/off and know its working that way.

 

[Cosmo Blatz]

My receiver is always showing dish moving when its not moving, or removing the message when its still moving. I have learned to ignore it and have faith the dish is moving. Ill tell you - My patience is tested going from 125 to 72. The 'Moving Dish' display long since vanishes. I just have to have faith and patience and at some point the signal jumps in.

I like the Cband better. At least with that, i can listen to the ASC1 clicking on/off and know its working that way.

Yes, I'm getting used to this ' dish moving' quirk. C-Band is better. The VBox shows the pulse numbers moving up/down so you know the dish is moving. One advantage of Ku is USALS - that's just frick'n magic!

The Stab 90HH seems nice and tight. There's not much slop in the drive.

I trusted Dish Pointer when selecting the pole location. The program was correct! Over at 125W, the dish 'looks' like it's pointing right at the side of my neighbor's 2-story house, but it's on the sat just as planned.

Couple more questions on the Mini HD SE:

1. On Ku 97W the receiver shows C-Band frequencies for the Ku transponders. Example - Kentron TV International shows 3964/H/19999. On Ku 87W the receiver displays the Ku frequencies for the transponders. Why?

2. Noticed this in the Satellite Installation menu. When a frequency of an active transponder is selected, the signal and quality bars do not show a signal when trying to tune in the transponder.
I was moving the dish az and el trying to tune in 97W using House of Yahweh in the Satellite Installation Menu. Nothing! Switched to the regular sat menu and the signal popped up right away. Is this normal?
( I had scanned in all the 97W channels on my 1.2m fixed dish in Nevada.)

 

[iBoston]

Couple more questions on the Mini HD SE:

1. On Ku 97W the receiver shows C-Band frequencies for the Ku transponders. Example - Kentron TV International shows 3964/H/19999. On Ku 87W the receiver displays the Ku frequencies for the transponders. Why?

2. Noticed this in the Satellite Installation menu. When a frequency of an active transponder is selected, the signal and quality bars do not show a signal when trying to tune in the transponder.
I was moving the dish az and el trying to tune in 97W using House of Yahweh in the Satellite Installation Menu. Nothing! Switched to the regular sat menu and the signal popped up right away. Is this normal?
( I had scanned in all the 97W channels on my 1.2m fixed dish in Nevada.)

Yea, probably just a muck up on their end having Cband freq in the KU sat. You can delete the transponders. You will find quirky things with all STB's. I have bought 4 of em so far, and have a 5th on the way in the mail, and everyone of them has quirks. I would suggest clicking on the remote - Info twice, Red Button to fine tune if your using the STB to fine tune.

 

[iBoston]

On an other note, the USALS is awesome - Butt....... I have the HH120 with a 1.2 meter dish, and have only been running it a few months, and have already noticed back and forth play in the main shaft. I am hoping it wont continue to get worse.

 

[Cosmo Blatz]

On an other note, the USALS is awesome - Butt....... I have the HH120 with a 1.2 meter dish, and have only been running it a few months, and have already noticed back and forth play in the main shaft. I am hoping it wont continue to get worse.

I thought Stab's didn't have that problem. Just sold an Italian motorcycle last spring. Why do Italian mechanicals usually turn into a love-hate thing? LoL!

 

[FaT Air]

1. On Ku 97W the receiver shows C-Band frequencies for the Ku transponders. Example - Kentron TV International shows 3964/H/19999. On Ku 87W the receiver displays the Ku frequencies for the transponders. Why?

Receiver is programmed incorrectly. You have the Ku LNBF selected via switching, or a direct connection. BUT the LNB Frequency is set to 5150 instead of 10750.
Delete all transponders, correct the LNB Freq, re-scan the satellite.

 

[iBoston]

Crumb bugs... FaT Air is right. I though he was saying only one transponder in his list was showing the lower frequency. Now it clicks!

 

[Jason S]

Receiver is programmed incorrectly. You have the Ku LNBF selected via switching, or a direct connection. BUT the LNB Frequency is set to 5150 instead of 10750.
Delete all transponders, correct the LNB Freq, re-scan the satellite.

I must admit that I did something similar, but in reverse. C-band transponders scanning in with Ku frequencies... I had to scratch my head for a minute, then I figured out I had the LO setting wasn't 5150.

 

[Cosmo Blatz]

Receiver is programmed incorrectly. You have the Ku LNBF selected via switching, or a direct connection. BUT the LNB Frequency is set to 5150 instead of 10750.
Delete all transponders, correct the LNB Freq, re-scan the satellite.

But when I do a blind scan, I do get all the Ku channels on 97W. It's just the frequency listings that are wrong. Does the blind scan over-ride an incorrect LNBF frequency setting?
Figured that if the frequency was set to 5150 I wouldn't receive anything on Ku.

 

[KE4EST]

Yeah you would still receive them, the displayed frequency would be wrong though.

 

[Cosmo Blatz]

Yeah you would still receive them, the displayed frequency would be wrong though.

O.K. I've got it.
There must be two separate modules in the software and that's why the blind scan still works. I just checked, and yes on 97W the freq was set to 5150. Set it to 10750, deleted everything and rescanned. I've got 269 channels all with 'real' Ku frequencies listed. Thanks to FaT Air for initially pointing out the problem. And also thanks to to everyone else for your useful advice. LoL. I can sleep in peace now. All is well at earth station Blatz!
Good Nite!

 

[KE4EST]

Glad you got it figured out. Sleep tight!

 

[Jim S.]

But when I do a blind scan, I do get all the Ku channels on 97W. It's just the frequency listings that are wrong. Does the blind scan over-ride an incorrect LNBF frequency setting?
Figured that if the frequency was set to 5150 I wouldn't receive anything on Ku.

It doesn't override anything. The LNB (for either band) converts everything to the L-band. The frequency setting in the box only affects the displayed frequencies, not what's actually going on.

 

[jorgek]

Does the HH90 LED light and show power? Does the LED flash when sending a move command from the STB?

My Stab 90HH does not have LED lights. Do the more recent ones have?

 

[Titanium]

You are correct. My mistake on the model.

 

[Cosmo Blatz]

RE: Amiko Mini HD SE
Figured out why the 'dish moving' stays on when changing satellites in USALS mode. If channel 1 of the sat the dish is moving to is not an active channel 'dish moving' stays on. If channel 1 has a good signal 'dish moving' automatically goes off.
The dish stops in the right place even when there is no signal on ch1. So it looks like the software could be changed rather easily to eliminate 'dish moving' staying on after the dish is correctly positioned.