Run away motor with 4110 firmware

cracklincrotch

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Sep 28, 2007
1,026
0
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Anyone else using 4110 firmware notice their Azbox sending their motor off in one direction or another that you have to stop manually? Since updating, occasionally my box will do this. It's happened to me four or five times now.

Last night my bud flopped when this happened. My actuator had the mechanical limit broken before I got it and I hadn't set up the limits on the new Gbox. I only noticed when I thought that it was taking a lot longer to go from G16 to G28 than normal, and the gbox count was at 1200 points past where it should be. Out I went and held up the dish and told the wife to drive the dish east and west a few times to get the actuator to thread on again.
 
Check to make sure the Motor setting are correct in the AZBox, USALS vs. DiSEqC 1.2.
Also, in the AZBox, check that the Motor Position Numbers are correct.
 
I found the opposite.
The software limits in the azbox had mysteriously set, and would not go any further east than 105ºw.
Took me a minute to figure out that I had to clear the limit settings in the Azbox.
 
Cracklincrotch,

I read a complaint from another person that this firmware had entirely "removed" the software limits or basically turned the limits OFF. But, no mention was made about the motor actually running away on its own.

The only two logical reasons I can come up with are:

That either AZBox is instigating the command to position the motor in DiSEqC 1.2 mode EAST or WEST with CONTINUOUS step size selected. You would therefore have to issue a command to STOP the motion.

Or, if using a H-H motor which you are not in this case, that when selecting to move to another satellite, the relays within the motor are sticking ON. However, this doesn't seem quite plausible as I believe that there would need to be two separate failures occurring simultaneously. Not only would it need to erroneously apply power to drive the motor, but also be stuck in moving the motor in one direction or the other. I believe that most H-H motors would fail in a manner that either wouldn't allow the motor to move at all, or that they would only drive in one direction.

Personally, I think I would load the previous firmware or one that you have trusted and see if the problem goes away, and be sure to set limits in the GBox.

RADAR

P.S. With my DG-380 H-H motor, I have not found any problems like this yet, and I have been using my system a great deal since installing 4110 firmware.
 
Motor running away may happen also, if a) the motor east and/or west hardware (the motor's memory) positional limits are erased or were never set - some motor models seems to loose 0 point under such condition; b) a user is trying to switch to a channel now re-mapped to another sat - it often happens with Pay TV sats, even if the selected channel to watch is in clear.
 
I've had this twice again this morning. I sent the dish to 89W and the motor just kept going. I went to the menu and hit go to position and it went to 89. Then I sent it to 55.5 and and it just kept going. I did another "go to position" and it stopped, and went back west to 55.5.
 
It sounds like the Sat is set for USALS.
Does it happen on all Sats, or only when you select Go To Position?
Use the Positioner's Remote and enter the number for your 89 Sat. Where does it go?
 
Try to hardware reset your motor and/or G-box following its Manual. Then using motor or G-box control buttons manually move it to and set its 0 point, east and west limits, so that they're memorized by the hardware. If that's not enough, also factory reset your STB and rescan sats.
 
Did the reset already. Been there, done that.

Azbox is set to Diseqc 1.2, not usals. As I said, I can interrupt the motor by issuing another go to position command and it does go to the correct position.
 
Did the reset already. Been there, done that.

Azbox is set to Diseqc 1.2, not usals. As I said, I can interrupt the motor by issuing another go to position command and it does go to the correct position.


Just recently, I had problem with Diseqc 1.2 as well. Most of my sats are set to USAL, but few had to be set to Diseqc 1.2.

After few recent FW upgrades, my AZBOX got amnesia.
On USAL sats, everything was OK, but on Diseqc 1.2 motor was driving all over the arc. Trying re-save Diseqc 1.2 position was not working.
Ony solution was to format an application area, reload FW (0.9.3877) and restore channels from backup.
 
I ve had my az ( 2 times now) sending out drive east commands on its own.. It would send my v box 2-3 counts each every couple seconds with out me touching anything.. Only way to stop it was to reboot.... spooky!!!!
 
Found the problem. The G-Box operates correctly when before all other switches/motors.

Putting it after a switch/other motor brings back the problem, whether it's a 22khz or diseqc switch. Putting it back before all other devices eliminates the issue completely for me.
 
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)