Scored a Pansat 250sm cheap!

[McGuyver]

Thanks Ironsides, I don't know everything and I learn something everyday. I have more time than other's might but I don't have a lot of $$$ to throw away in smoked switches and other equipment. Robbie has offered a refund, exchange or store credit but I've already implemented the alternative configuration by running individual coaxial feeds and it works well. The DMX242 seems to work well in a stand-alone environment but I still have a channel switching problem on the dish with their lnb's. My other BUD works flawlessly and it has other brands of lnb's.

There are a lot of other test configurations to consider but as I said it's like shooting a dead horse. At this point I don't believe it's even worth the return shipping costs, everything costs $$$ and I'm convinced to let it go.

I only wish they could come out here and see this problem first hand and watch them scratch their heads. Not every setup is alike. I even used all new coax, the premium solid copper too and new F-connectors and new switches and even new receivers and it has stumped me. Now if I eliminate the DMX242 the problem goes away, go figure.

Have a nice day Bro!

 

[Ironsides]

WSI Robbie

Thanks Ironsides, I don't know everything and I learn something everyday. I have more time than other's might but I don't have a lot of $$$ to throw away in smoked switches and other equipment. Robbie has offered a refund, exchange or store credit but I've already implemented the alternative configuration by running individual coaxial feeds and it works well. The DMX242 seems to work well in a stand-alone environment but I still have a channel switching problem on the dish with their lnb's. My other BUD works flawlessly and it has other brands of lnb's.

There are a lot of other test configurations to consider but as I said it's like shooting a dead horse. At this point I don't believe it's even worth the return shipping costs, everything costs $$$ and I'm convinced to let it go.

I only wish they could come out here and see this problem first hand and watch them scratch their heads. Not every setup is alike. I even used all new coax, the premium solid copper too and new F-connectors and new switches and even new receivers and it has stumped me. Now if I eliminate the DMX242 the problem goes away, go figure.

Have a nice day Bro!

I totally understand and I can see why beating the horse applies. That being said due to the damages you've suffered perhaps WSI, Robbie can replace several of your burnt up 22hz switches if not all of them. Replacing your burnt switchs would have to be cheaper than replacing both lnbs and shipping on those would be my guess.

I understand totally about the expense of shipping, I live on a very tight and fixed income. No way I could afford to replace that many switches or pay shipping 2 times on the same items.

Hopefully WSI can understand as I do and offer to make some attempts to help you out. Robbie seems like a very good and decent person who cares about his customers and his products. From my experience with dealing with him, he has been very helpful to me. He tried to help me with my problems with the DMX741 but as you did I just decided it worked with my Neusat and forgot about it. The lnbf works fine with the Neusat so need to beat that horse any further either. I just need to get a 2nd Neusat to have as a backup incase I have troubles with mine later down the road! LOL!

I used to work in Technical Services and we did a lot of testing on machines and what not. It would be impossible to duplicate your problems without having the exact same set up. That would include coax, length, receiver, dish, lnbfs, switches. Everything involved in your setup! Otherwise the results will never be the same, in that case no way the problems you've seen could ever be truthfully explained. Even IF they saw some of the same errors or faults that you've encountered it still would not give and honest answer.

I really don't know enough about 22hz switches to understand why they burnt out or what would cause that to try and give you some help. It would have to be a voltage/current issue it would seem to me. That being said I am not sure what would cause that unless the Lnbf some how managed to amp up the current or voltage to the point the switch toasted. Or caused some type of feedback on your switches. Just be glad it wasn't the receiver that took the full surge. I am just throwing out things, I have no idea how those switches work, never had one and never used one.

Well what ever happens I hope that you get some sort of help from WSI even if you can't ship the lnb's back it's only the right thing for them to do. Replacing your switches would be a good thing as you've agreed to just keep the lnbfs.

 

[Ironsides]

After giving this thing

After giving the Pansat 250sm a few hard days of playing with it seems to have settled down some. The receiver runs really cool which I guess is good.
The PVR works well.
I see less screen freezes now that I used the RS232 for firmware install.
It still has issues with the "blind scan" and I still can't get it to let me manually find the CW stations. Seems like I can find other manually entered pids but for some reasons no CW. I did notice when it finds channels on it's own it's off both in frequency and symbol rate. I tried changing the frequency and symbol rates closer to what it finds on it's own and no cigar..

 

[McGuyver]

Ironsides, I would guess that if they had indeed found an issue and were able to dupe my problem that Robbie might have considered compensating me somehow but since they didn't I think it's out of the question, nice thought though.

Concerning various receivers, I tried 5 different ones at the dish site with only a short coax feed straight to the stb with only two lnb's and one 22k sw' and all stb's gave the same negative results. I then thought that maybe there was conflict with the other brand lnb so I snagged the DMSI BSC621 from my 8 ft and paired it with a DMX242 and had the same issue. But when I paired a Panorama with the DMSI there was no problem at all. My 8ft dish has worked fine with a 22k since I installed over two years ago. This is the only time evr encountering this issue. All of my stb's are trust worthy and at one point so were my 22k sw's until they smoked. I will say that only one 22k sw survived the ordeal and it's an "Ecoda", the little booger still works in other applications but not with the DMX242. The Ecoda seems almost "bullet proof" in spite it wouldn't work with the lnb in question.

The 22k sw is an electronic switching device that responds to a 22khz frequency tone, it's not neccessarily a voltage spike as you may think that is causing the trouble. Other frequencies might conflict causing it to malfunction or even short circuit by other means and those other means are unknown if they apply to this issue. My guess is that the 242 lnb has something that interferes or conflicts with certain paired lnb's, this may be why Iceberg couldn't dupe the problem. Maybe if he used the same brand lnb's to test he might have had the same negative results. I'll never know until I have the same lnb's he used to test with, maybe then the 242 is compatible with a GEOSATpro. And testing with a Ku linear lnbf wasn't the issue either, I never methioned having a problem with that combination. It's sort of like somebody claiming to have a performance problem with a car, a gasoline model having contaminated fuel bought at one fueling station and the tester trying the same fuel but aquired at another site which isn't contaminated. The tester then reports that his car runs fine on the same brand fuel while never testing the fuel pumped from the same holding tank. Oh well

 

[jibaro29]

I know this is an old post but, has anyone been able to enter pids ussing the manual option? If someone knows how to do it please let me know. Thanks.

 

[Mr Tony]

most Pansats you use the "advanced scan" option.

Select the TP you want ot manually add a channel to
enter the PIDS
press OK and it will log the channel as "CH-A"

 

[Ironsides]

Not sure

I worked and worked with the 250SM and some channels it will let you enter in manual PID's and others it will not let you enter. I am not sure what the problem is but I just moved on. I think it's firmware and I could not find any channel editor that would work with the 250..It does a decent job blind scanning and finds most channels and it has a decent PVR but I found it to be more of a headache that what it's worth.

 

[jibaro29]

I did the manual entry for CW channels on G17 and I got noting however I did the same thing on AMC 87 TVU and it worked. So what's up with CW chs and Pansat 250?

 

[jogon64]

Same here. I could never scan CW in manually on the 250sm. My 2700 and 3500 had no problem at all.

The only reason I still keep the 250sm is because it looks nice, and being black it matches the rest of my equipment and tv furniture.

 

[Ironsides]

CW

It's odd as hello that we can add other pids manually but can not add the CW channels. I tried it over and over for about 2 weeks...

It's an awesome looking receiver and actually it does a great job with the PVR.

Maybe several of us can complain to Pansat and see if they will respond..The receiver is not that old and with some upgraded firmware from Pansat it would be an awesome SD box...

 

[McGuyver]

Have you guys tried using other channels that are already scanned in and change the PID's to the CW's?

 

[Ironsides]

I tried it

I tired it but it didn't work so I might have to try it again...I'll have to hook it back up when I get some time. I just disconnected and left it in the my center.

I picked up 2 APC Surge Protectors with back up batteries and had to make some room in my center for one of them. I found both of them at a yard sale and donated $5 bucks to cancer research and got them. I found a Tivo in working condition with a remote I also picked up. I gave that to my son, they love it. At any rate I am going to have to move somethings around and when I get it all sorted I will try that on the Pansat 250sm again that might solve the problem but the last time we talked about it, I tried it and couldn't get it to work. I think it was because of the transponder info..Not sure..

Anyway good day, good Hunting!

Peace Bro!

 

[Mr Tony]

I did the manual entry for CW channels on G17 and I got noting however I did the same thing on AMC 87 TVU and it worked. So what's up with CW chs and Pansat 250?

It probably has to do with the PAT info....TVU has a PAT info (it just takes ions for the Pansat to log it as TV1) but the CW has no info

 

[Mr Tony]

Have you guys tried using other channels that are already scanned in and change the PID's to the CW's?

Pansats dont work that way sadly. The TP is logged in even if the transponder is deleted

 

[jibaro29]

Oh crap!!! I guess I just stick to my Geosat... no issues there. Thanks Ice!

 

[jogon64]

Have you guys tried using other channels that are already scanned in and change the PID's to the CW's?

Unfortunately that can´t be done on the pansat.

Or does someone know of a third party software that could allow this?