I have been watching from the sidelines as Stocie builds his paraclypse dish. Today i got so motivated that i decided to go out and reposition my actuator to make the dish a little less responsive.
The plan was to move the actuator attachment point on the dish a little farther out towards the edge so that each click of my IRD would move the dish less. Well, that was accomplished, but when I returned to my 4dtv and tried to move the dish it would not move. I kept getting the error that said "dish is at physical limits."
For the next four hours I was running back and forth trying to make things work. I finally removed the actuator and set it up in the garage with a backup IRD. I attached a short piece of ribbon cable to both the tuner and actuator and the darned thing worked...
I then took the actuator down to the 4dtv and and attached it to the receiver and it worked in there.
Ok, back out to the dish and reinstall the actuator, and try to tune in a satellite. Once again I get the limits message.
By this time I was thinking that maybe it was the sensor wires not returning a pulse so I decided to look at my pull boxes to see if anything might be wrong in there.
Well, I looked in to the first box, and one of the coaxial cables is almost eaten thru by rats. I reached down to check it and the darned conductor snapped when I moved the cable. Further inspection of the other pull boxes did not indicate any breaks in the wires for pulse or voltage, but I have ordered new cable in order to eliminate any doubts as much of the cable is in conduit.
I guess the rats like that conduit too. Sort of a little subway for them in the rainy season....
Does anyone have any other idea as to why i would be getting the limits message? I was not at the limits, and the receiver did not seem to be getting any pulse.
It should also be noted that it did not seem to be getting any voltage out at the dish either., I did not put a voltage meter on the line, at the dish because no one was here to assist. I did check voltage at M1 and M2 and got 18 volts during the brief time the 4dtv was trying to move the dish.
I tried a different actuator out there, and even tried it with a houston tracker ird I had laying around. Still no motor noise nor pulse feedback.
The plan was to move the actuator attachment point on the dish a little farther out towards the edge so that each click of my IRD would move the dish less. Well, that was accomplished, but when I returned to my 4dtv and tried to move the dish it would not move. I kept getting the error that said "dish is at physical limits."
For the next four hours I was running back and forth trying to make things work. I finally removed the actuator and set it up in the garage with a backup IRD. I attached a short piece of ribbon cable to both the tuner and actuator and the darned thing worked...
I then took the actuator down to the 4dtv and and attached it to the receiver and it worked in there.
Ok, back out to the dish and reinstall the actuator, and try to tune in a satellite. Once again I get the limits message.
By this time I was thinking that maybe it was the sensor wires not returning a pulse so I decided to look at my pull boxes to see if anything might be wrong in there.
Well, I looked in to the first box, and one of the coaxial cables is almost eaten thru by rats. I reached down to check it and the darned conductor snapped when I moved the cable. Further inspection of the other pull boxes did not indicate any breaks in the wires for pulse or voltage, but I have ordered new cable in order to eliminate any doubts as much of the cable is in conduit.
I guess the rats like that conduit too. Sort of a little subway for them in the rainy season....
Does anyone have any other idea as to why i would be getting the limits message? I was not at the limits, and the receiver did not seem to be getting any pulse.
It should also be noted that it did not seem to be getting any voltage out at the dish either., I did not put a voltage meter on the line, at the dish because no one was here to assist. I did check voltage at M1 and M2 and got 18 volts during the brief time the 4dtv was trying to move the dish.
I tried a different actuator out there, and even tried it with a houston tracker ird I had laying around. Still no motor noise nor pulse feedback.
