After being on the phone with every help desk available perhaps someone at this site can help me. My 905 sidecar has a green icon when I am switched to analog. When I switch to digital the green icon remains for about 5-7 seconds, then goes red. The signal and quality are both well within parameters. What is going on?
Problem with 905 sidecar
- Thread starter KDEAL
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 24
- Views 3K
- Status
Need a little more info plz
hello:
I have a 920 and 922 and am not that familiar with the 905...could you give us a little more info plz...what do the red/greed lights signify?
What is "within parameters"?
Do you get Quality above say 35 on the 905 receiver? With the other 4dtv receivers, I need about 35 on the quality meter to get a decent picture. Usually on a strong setup, I get about 70 on my quality....Digital reception is a bit more precise than analog and you can pretty much forget the signal strength and just tune for best quality!.
it sounds as though a little tweaking and bumping may be in order, assuming the lights tell you when you have locked????
Jeff
KDEAL said:
hello:
I have a 920 and 922 and am not that familiar with the 905...could you give us a little more info plz...what do the red/greed lights signify?
What is "within parameters"?
Do you get Quality above say 35 on the 905 receiver? With the other 4dtv receivers, I need about 35 on the quality meter to get a decent picture. Usually on a strong setup, I get about 70 on my quality....Digital reception is a bit more precise than analog and you can pretty much forget the signal strength and just tune for best quality!.
it sounds as though a little tweaking and bumping may be in order, assuming the lights tell you when you have locked????
Jeff
Jeff, the 905 is one of the 1st versions of the sidecar. I am getting around 60 on quality and 58 on strength. The green icon indicates there is a signal for the digital picture. The red light indicates there is no signal. It should stay on when I switch from analog to digital. Everything that can be tweeked has been tweeked. Thanks for the idea. Karen
KDEAL said:
Actually the 905 is the only sidecar, the 920 and 921 came before the 905, and then the 922 was released as the lastest 4dtv model, and they actually nearly put megapipe in the 922 but it would have been far to costly if they did... to bad
What satellite are you on? what channel are you trying to tune? are your analogs coming in ok?
Interesting
Sounds like your Quality is ok....Assumed you have nudged the skew....are you on the correct bird (not trying to be funny....has happened to me!>
had a feeling about the lights...I thought the 905 came out after the 920?
great idea....except for the little guys popularity! Pizza Kiilled off loads of Buds over the past 10yrs!
jeff
KDEAL said:
Sounds like your Quality is ok....Assumed you have nudged the skew....are you on the correct bird (not trying to be funny....has happened to me!>
had a feeling about the lights...I thought the 905 came out after the 920?
great idea....except for the little guys popularity! Pizza Kiilled off loads of Buds over the past 10yrs!
jeff
You will need to be sure you have a good pic free of snow on the analog channel of the satellite first. Since you skew is working properly on the analog, this is a possibility and only a possibility.
try going to digital mode using the A/D button top left of the sidecar remote.
when the green satellite icon turns red, switch to the next channel on your analog receiver while staying in digital mode. If the icon turns green and your picture comes on, the sidecar is not controlling the skew.
Be sure your servo motor wires are ran through the sidecar if you want it to control skew. Some folks just leave the servo wires straight to the analog receiver and control skew and polarity from the analog box, be sure to check which configuration you have.
Some sidecars have a bug that sometimes prevents them from properly controlling skew of the servo motor or not allowing the analog receiver to control when it is in analog mode.
If this is the case you can go to G-1 channel 3, turn off the sidecar and pull the plug for a minute, plug it back in, wait about 20 minutes, turn it back on and try again. This fixed mine when it acted up, never happened again.
Good luck-Trucker
try going to digital mode using the A/D button top left of the sidecar remote.
when the green satellite icon turns red, switch to the next channel on your analog receiver while staying in digital mode. If the icon turns green and your picture comes on, the sidecar is not controlling the skew.
Be sure your servo motor wires are ran through the sidecar if you want it to control skew. Some folks just leave the servo wires straight to the analog receiver and control skew and polarity from the analog box, be sure to check which configuration you have.
Some sidecars have a bug that sometimes prevents them from properly controlling skew of the servo motor or not allowing the analog receiver to control when it is in analog mode.
If this is the case you can go to G-1 channel 3, turn off the sidecar and pull the plug for a minute, plug it back in, wait about 20 minutes, turn it back on and try again. This fixed mine when it acted up, never happened again.
Good luck-Trucker
Excellent .....a 905 owner/pro!!
Excellent now we have a person on the thread who knows about these strange beasts! (an amazing concept!)_ And it is obvious that his polarity/ servo are fine since he can do normal analog...
I agree;....must be a tad off in one or more than 1 areas. C allows a lot of slop in analog...not nas much with digital! KU Diital is even more exact from little I have seen...can really get right on these sats with that Bir*** meter. I was ok with normal meter, but this thing gets you right on within seconds....no question nor continuous bumping!!
I remember when I first upgraded to a 920...thought I had good tuning on my Older Toshiba...SURPRISE!!!
Now with that new meter...big surprise!
Jeff
truckracer said:
Excellent now we have a person on the thread who knows about these strange beasts! (an amazing concept!)_ And it is obvious that his polarity/ servo are fine since he can do normal analog...
I agree;....must be a tad off in one or more than 1 areas. C allows a lot of slop in analog...not nas much with digital! KU Diital is even more exact from little I have seen...can really get right on these sats with that Bir*** meter. I was ok with normal meter, but this thing gets you right on within seconds....no question nor continuous bumping!!
I remember when I first upgraded to a 920...thought I had good tuning on my Older Toshiba...SURPRISE!!!
Now with that new meter...big surprise!
Jeff
sidecar beast
I love my sidecar and they are great cheap alternatives to have 4dtv without spending much money, but I can see how one of these could prove to be a real pain for most average satellite users. Since Motorola stopped manufacturing them i can assume they had some complaints with the fumbling of two remotes and since some analog receivers sat names can't be changed, you would have different names for the same sat to further confuse people.
My setup is quite complex for most since I have a free to air receiver, dsr-905 sidecar, ORB-7500 analog receiver, Bose 5.1 surround system, US Digital over the air HDTV receiver, and a DVD recorder I have 7 remotes on the coffee table.
My friends and family are stunned by the remotes and don't even try to figure out how to use them-LOL
It's a great hobby. Trucker
I love my sidecar and they are great cheap alternatives to have 4dtv without spending much money, but I can see how one of these could prove to be a real pain for most average satellite users. Since Motorola stopped manufacturing them i can assume they had some complaints with the fumbling of two remotes and since some analog receivers sat names can't be changed, you would have different names for the same sat to further confuse people.
My setup is quite complex for most since I have a free to air receiver, dsr-905 sidecar, ORB-7500 analog receiver, Bose 5.1 surround system, US Digital over the air HDTV receiver, and a DVD recorder I have 7 remotes on the coffee table.
My friends and family are stunned by the remotes and don't even try to figure out how to use them-LOL
It's a great hobby. Trucker
I would say that a dsr=922 would be the way to go for simplicity since switching between analog and digital is seemless plus perfect control of skew and dish position. If we had a 4dtv receiver with built in free to air dvb box with all the
features of the fortec ultra now that would be the pinacle of receivers!
features of the fortec ultra now that would be the pinacle of receivers!
Universal remote>>Excellent
Hi truckracer...
You might want to see my post about the harmony Universal remotes!
My setup is clogged with remotes as well but one shot with the harmony by Logitech...all remotes are now gone (OK, I still use the 4dtv sometimes for more comfort). This thing is programed over the net and is built for macros! (they have over 100,000 devices in their database and you can still teach it with an unknown remote, if you find one!)
darn thing even knew about my Viewsat FTA!!! it is really easy to switch between FTA and the 4DTV now,,,,Harmony does all the input switching needed with 1 button press. (All Video here is run through my Pioneer Elite 72TX and then upconverted to 720p and HDMI, then it goes to the Plasma....NICE! There is a mix of SVHS- Component, and HDMI SIGNALS IN, all being forwarded to a single HDMI OUT for convenience! NO SIGNAL DEGRADATION EITHER!
I press "Watch FTA" and the receiver turns on and goes to the correct input, the Plasma turns on and goes to the correct input, and the viewsat turns on and goes to a favorite channel! it also then switches device that are not needed off!!! Made my room sane again!
I have the color harmony 880 but they all do a great job, and are SIMPLE to program over the net. You tell it what you have, their software looks up the device, and sets up all the "activities" like Watch FTA, Watch DVD, etc! At night, I press off and all components go off!
Regards
jeff
truckracer said:I love my sidecar and they are great cheap alternatives to have 4dtv without spending much money, but I can see how one of these could prove to be a real pain for most average satellite users. Since Motorola stopped manufacturing them i can assume they had some complaints with the fumbling of two remotes and since some analog receivers sat names can't be changed, you would have different names for the same sat to further confuse people.
My setup is quite complex for most since I have a free to air receiver, dsr-905 sidecar, ORB-7500 analog receiver, Bose 5.1 surround system, US Digital over the air HDTV receiver, and a DVD recorder I have 7 remotes on the coffee table.
My friends and family are stunned by the remotes and don't even try to figure out how to use them-LOL
It's a great hobby. Trucker
Hi truckracer...
You might want to see my post about the harmony Universal remotes!
My setup is clogged with remotes as well but one shot with the harmony by Logitech...all remotes are now gone (OK, I still use the 4dtv sometimes for more comfort). This thing is programed over the net and is built for macros! (they have over 100,000 devices in their database and you can still teach it with an unknown remote, if you find one!)
darn thing even knew about my Viewsat FTA!!! it is really easy to switch between FTA and the 4DTV now,,,,Harmony does all the input switching needed with 1 button press. (All Video here is run through my Pioneer Elite 72TX and then upconverted to 720p and HDMI, then it goes to the Plasma....NICE! There is a mix of SVHS- Component, and HDMI SIGNALS IN, all being forwarded to a single HDMI OUT for convenience! NO SIGNAL DEGRADATION EITHER!
I press "Watch FTA" and the receiver turns on and goes to the correct input, the Plasma turns on and goes to the correct input, and the viewsat turns on and goes to a favorite channel! it also then switches device that are not needed off!!! Made my room sane again!
I have the color harmony 880 but they all do a great job, and are SIMPLE to program over the net. You tell it what you have, their software looks up the device, and sets up all the "activities" like Watch FTA, Watch DVD, etc! At night, I press off and all components go off!
Regards
jeff
Good morning, Thanks for all the ideas and corrections. Trucker, I will try your suggestion. I have a great picture on analog. Also, I am positive the servo wires are connected to the sidecar and my analog unit correctly. I was told by an electronics shop I called that there was a bug in the software of the 905. He also said Motorola never provided a fix for it. Have a great day. I will let you know what happens. KDeal
dsr-905
thanks for the info on the harmony remote, this looks like a quality product. Does the remote loose its memory when changing batteries? I am going to research these remotes and probably get one.
Karen, hope you got your sidecar worked out. I don't use any skew or polarity control since i don't have a servo motor. I use lnbf's that switch polarity with coax voltage, 13 volts=vertical 18 volts=horizontal. I have read the 905 has had some issues with the skew control outputs to the servo motor.
What ever you do, don't give in to the pizza dish people. Keep your c-band and get a 922 if you can. There are a few on ebay that may save you some money. Nps has a good deal if your looking to get one with free programming.
The dsr-922 will move your dish and everything. It would eliminate "going to analog mode". It will switch seemlessly between analog and digital channels.
there are also a lot of DVB mpeg-2 channels on free to air. Not cable channels per say, but a lot of cool stuff. You can slave an mpeg-2 receiver like a Fortec star Ultra Lifetime or pansat 3500 to your system. These receivers are also fairly cheap to buy. Trucker
thanks for the info on the harmony remote, this looks like a quality product. Does the remote loose its memory when changing batteries? I am going to research these remotes and probably get one.
Karen, hope you got your sidecar worked out. I don't use any skew or polarity control since i don't have a servo motor. I use lnbf's that switch polarity with coax voltage, 13 volts=vertical 18 volts=horizontal. I have read the 905 has had some issues with the skew control outputs to the servo motor.
What ever you do, don't give in to the pizza dish people. Keep your c-band and get a 922 if you can. There are a few on ebay that may save you some money. Nps has a good deal if your looking to get one with free programming.
The dsr-922 will move your dish and everything. It would eliminate "going to analog mode". It will switch seemlessly between analog and digital channels.
there are also a lot of DVB mpeg-2 channels on free to air. Not cable channels per say, but a lot of cool stuff. You can slave an mpeg-2 receiver like a Fortec star Ultra Lifetime or pansat 3500 to your system. These receivers are also fairly cheap to buy. Trucker
Well, after 1 week of tweeking, resetting and any thing else I could think of-I give up on whatever the problem is with this 905. It has to be a software problem. When I get some money ahead I am getting a new digital receiver. This is not worth the headache.
Hello,
You say you have good picture on analog, but do you have good picture on both odd and even channels on the same satellite on the analog? If odd and even channels work on the same sat then your servo motor is good, if you only get evens and no odds or odds and no evens, then you will probably have to replace the servo motor. I have a spare if you need one. If you have odd and even we will go to next step.
I also have a 905. Never had a problem yet, because I avoided there bug from the get go by letting my analog control the polarity. If the servo motor is hooked up to your sidecar I want you to remove it from the sidecar and hook it back up to analog receiver. It is a little bit of pain but it works for me.
After it is hooked back up to your analog all you will have to do is change the analog from an odd to an even channel when needed. The analog will switch the servo motor for you. After going thru about five to ten channels on the 905 and you get a red light again just flip to the next channel on the analog, and you will have green light again.
You say you have good picture on analog, but do you have good picture on both odd and even channels on the same satellite on the analog? If odd and even channels work on the same sat then your servo motor is good, if you only get evens and no odds or odds and no evens, then you will probably have to replace the servo motor. I have a spare if you need one. If you have odd and even we will go to next step.
I also have a 905. Never had a problem yet, because I avoided there bug from the get go by letting my analog control the polarity. If the servo motor is hooked up to your sidecar I want you to remove it from the sidecar and hook it back up to analog receiver. It is a little bit of pain but it works for me.
After it is hooked back up to your analog all you will have to do is change the analog from an odd to an even channel when needed. The analog will switch the servo motor for you. After going thru about five to ten channels on the 905 and you get a red light again just flip to the next channel on the analog, and you will have green light again.
Last edited:
Hello Daveyhouse
I have an excellent picture on odd and even channels on analog on all satellites. I hooked the servo wires back up to my analog receiver. The 905 is still doing the same thing. For the 5-7 seconds when I switch back to digital the signal is around 66 and the quality is around 75 then it loses both. It does this on all satellites. I tried switching channels on the analog receiver and still getting the same results. I was really hoping this would work. Thanks for the advice. It was worth a try. Karen
I have an excellent picture on odd and even channels on analog on all satellites. I hooked the servo wires back up to my analog receiver. The 905 is still doing the same thing. For the 5-7 seconds when I switch back to digital the signal is around 66 and the quality is around 75 then it loses both. It does this on all satellites. I tried switching channels on the analog receiver and still getting the same results. I was really hoping this would work. Thanks for the advice. It was worth a try. Karen
Is this a new addition to your analog, or has the 905 just quit working on you?
Dave
Dave
Last edited:
We have had the 905 for about 2-3 years and did not have any problems until the warranty ran out. One other thought about it- it quit reporting sometime in June 2004.(in the options list of check system status/last successful report time.) This occured even when everything was set to G1,3. Of course when we got the unit the satellite was G0 for the nightly report. Karen
- Status
