SAMI, DMX-741U and Vbox X Up And Running.

[Lone Gunman]

I think I've finally gotten my SAMI dish setup straightened out and from what I can gather it was a declination problem. One turn on the nut and most sats are coming in between 75 and 95% Q now.

I finally figured out how that DMX LNBF worked also and since then it's done OK for the most part. I do think I will get the "standard" model next time though.

I've read some stuff on the Vbox that wasn't so good, and, I've also read some stuff that was good so for my second dish I just bit the bullet and bought a Vbox X so I could find out for myself what was good or bad about them. One major plus is that they are only $59.99 shipped to your door. I've had this one almost a week now and so far I got zero complaints. I have yet to program any sats in because I'm not sure yet which actuator I'm going to use on that dish but I have been writing down counts for sats that I have programed in and when I go back to that number it's on the sat I wanted to be at. As far as it being controlled by the Diseq function in my Pansat goes, that will come later after I figure out how to make up a channel list that I want for that receiver.

All this brings me to another decision I have to make and that is concerning my 4DTV receiver. Right now it's only a dish mover for my AZbox and I'm loosing interest daily about a sub of any kind what with all the other free TV that's available now. Probably 50% of my TV now comes from OTA stuff and about 20% comes from streaming video online and the rest comes from FTA stuff so I'm seriously considering just buying another Vbox X and a DMX-741 to replace my Corotor and just putting that 920 on the shelf. I do like the way the Pansat and the DMX blind scans both H and V without having to switch polarity in the 920.

Dunno. I guess it will all work out in the end but for now, 4DTV and subs aren't looking too good at my house!

 

[truckracer]

congrats!! glad its all working. i have a 7,5" sami that gets most everything. i also have a 10' sami

 

[Lone Gunman]

Yeah Truckracer I've been surprised at how well this old 7.5ft SAMI is performing and to be honest, I'm still tweaking on it so it may get even better.

Originally I was only going to test it out to see how well it works then put that 6ft Janeil Junior prime focus on that post and make a comparrison. The way it stands now, looks like that Junior will get it's own post about 12 feet east of that SAMI and it also looks like I might be purchasing yet another Vbox X as well since I do have 3 FTA receivers. The original plan was to make the Janiel Ku only because it's a solid aluminum dish and that still may happen.

You just can't have too many toyz! Especially when you're retired.

 

[beavs2112]

I think I've finally gotten my SAMI dish setup straightened out and from what I can gather it was a declination problem. One turn on the nut and most sats are coming in between 75 and 95% Q now.

I finally figured out how that DMX LNBF worked also and since then it's done OK for the most part. I do think I will get the "standard" model next time though.

I've read some stuff on the Vbox that wasn't so good, and, I've also read some stuff that was good so for my second dish I just bit the bullet and bought a Vbox X so I could find out for myself what was good or bad about them. One major plus is that they are only $59.99 shipped to your door. I've had this one almost a week now and so far I got zero complaints. I have yet to program any sats in because I'm not sure yet which actuator I'm going to use on that dish but I have been writing down counts for sats that I have programed in and when I go back to that number it's on the sat I wanted to be at. As far as it being controlled by the Diseq function in my Pansat goes, that will come later after I figure out how to make up a channel list that I want for that receiver.

All this brings me to another decision I have to make and that is concerning my 4DTV receiver. Right now it's only a dish mover for my AZbox and I'm loosing interest daily about a sub of any kind what with all the other free TV that's available now. Probably 50% of my TV now comes from OTA stuff and about 20% comes from streaming video online and the rest comes from FTA stuff so I'm seriously considering just buying another Vbox X and a DMX-741 to replace my Corotor and just putting that 920 on the shelf. I do like the way the Pansat and the DMX blind scans both H and V without having to switch polarity in the 920.

Dunno. I guess it will all work out in the end but for now, 4DTV and subs aren't looking too good at my house!

glad ya got her runnin.

some free advice if you want to learn from from my experience. i've owned and used both the g-box and the v-box. g-box is better than v-box due to 2 reasons. more accuracy due to higher counts and better build quality. v-box and g-box both use motor wire terminal attachments that are spring loaded not screwed down like your 920. however on the g-box the wire terminals are made differently than on the v-box. on the v-box the terminals are in a square pattern two on top and two on bottom. on the g-box the terminals are in a line left to right. look at the back of your v-box and you'll see what i mean. when i inserted the heavy guage motor wires on my v-box 10 the spring popped out and the red plastic terminal popped out also. so once i found them on the floor and put them back in carefully they were still loose and didn't hold the wire snug. the terminals can be pulled out by hand and this you shouldn't be able to do. loose terminals means loose wire connections and that is never a good thing. so when i took the v-box apart i found out the manufacturer had cut off the right side screw attachment part for the whole wire terminal assembly block. here's a pic of what i mean

so stupidly now the whole block is only attached by one screw. look at the back of your v-box and you'll see what i mean. there was no good reason to do this other than it saves the chinese the cost of drilling another hole and another screw. so after ditchin that cheaply made piece of crap in the garbage i got a gbox. the wire terminal connection block is made differently so the wires are held snugly. also the terminals and springs cannot be pulled out like the v-box and trust me i tried.

 

[Lone Gunman]

Appreciate the info but to date I haven't had any issues with the Vbox X. Don't know how your wire connector was fastened in but mine is soldered to the PC board and doesn't even have a screw in it. Having read about this potential problem before I bought mine, I did exercise caution when inserting the wires in those terminals though. Since this isn't something that is done daily I really don't see it as a problem for me at this point and if it does mess up then I'll just take those wires running down to that PC board loose and connect them to a regular screw type terminal strip I'll mount on the back, which is how both brands should have been made in the first place.

Counts per inch hasn't been a problem yet either and if it does come to that then that junk SuperJack actuator that came with that SAMI will come off and I'll put on one of the VonWeise setups I modified with 60 counts per inch. That should be enough for most anything I'd ever do. To date the 21 sat locations I've recorded are still the same as I've "peaked" a couple since I originally found them and they are still right on the same number.

I guess the bottom line for me is that I'm retired, on a fixed income and have too many expensive hobbies so I do cut corners where I can and for the price of this Vbox X, I can almost buy two of them for what one of the other brand costs. So sometimes cheaper is better, at least it is at my house.

Here is a pic of how my Vbox X is made and there is no screw on the outside of the case coming into that one location one might be inserted.

 

[truckracer]

my vbox is not nearly accurate as a good analog receiver

 

[Lone Gunman]

Funny you mention the analog receiver thingie. I have an old Echostar 7000 which came with my first system back in 1988 and when I upgraded to the 920 in the mid 1990s I took that one and put it in storage. Pulled it out some time ago to run that new to me SAMI I put up but when I got all of it together the counter in the receiver doesn't work now?

So I went on fleabay looking for an analog cheap and found a HTS 5 down in Carolina. Bought that one for $10 plus $17 shipping only to find out it had no remote with it and therefore there's no way to program sat locations. THAT was when I got pissed and just ordered the Vbox X. That same seller in Carolina has about a half dozen of those old receivers advertised but they are pretty much useless without a remote to program them with. Nice thing about my 7000 is that it has a key pad on the receiver itself and you can use that to program it but if it won't count pulses from the reed switch then it's useless also.

Another down side of those old analog receivers is they put out a ton of heat even when they are off, which means they use a bunch of electricity even when they are off.

I've gotten to a point where I disconnect power from everything TV/computer here when it's not in use. A penny saved is a penny earned and pennies do add up. Took some pennies that I had saved in a 24" tall Coke bottle bank over the years that was only 2/3 full to the bank a couple of weeks ago and wound up with $130 in my pocket. Had an 8"x10" tin bucket of nickels that I saved during that same time period that wound up being $225. So that was about $355 worth of pennies and nickels that wound up being real money that I can spend on more Big Boyz Toyz!