So I believe I’ve solved my reception problem (A3/motor)

[Dee_Ann]

Maybe one of the moderators can move the majority of my A3 owners posts into here since it wasn’t really much of an A3 problem after all.

I pulled the Primestar LNBF off my dish and I noticed the connectors were a bit warm. Quite a bit warm, enough so that I let go of it real fast and used a wrench to take it off the rest of the way.



Maybe that LNBF was the fault. I don’t know for sure but it sure looks suspicious.

So I put my SL2PLL back in place and thanks to my excellent new meter I was able to tweak my dish and LNBF to what I think is pretty much OK.

After, I put my meter in-between the LNBF and the A3 and got a new voltage/power reading.



The results are very different now.

 

[Titanium]

Now that current reading is what I would expect to see! The resistance reading is a bit high. What did you have inline when the meter photo was taken?

 

[KE4EST]

123 Ohms? That is odd.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Now that current reading is what I would expect to see! The resistance reading is a bit high. What did you have inline when the meter photo was taken?

Hmmmm...

There is the 22k Ecoda in there, I think it is ~after~ the motor but before the LNBF. I’m pretty sure that’s how it’s connected. But I have so many wires going back and forth I’ve sort of lost track of what’s what and where. I have always been leery of putting any sort of switch in front of the motor as I’ve heard stories that you can burn them out. I previously had a 4x1 switch in there so that I could also tap the signal from my C-band. I had trouble with things so I pulled the 4x1 and put the Ecoda in it’s place, that’s why I’m about 90% sure that the Ecoda is between the motor and the LNBF and not between the motor and the STB.

It’s the 0khz side for the KU. To get a signal from the C-band I set it for “no motor, 22khz ON”
As far as I understand things, since the Ecoda isn’t being sent a signal to switch on, the C-band LNBF is powered off and is not seen by the STB until the Ecoda switches the USALS motor off and the C-band on. Right?

It’s the only way I can think of to get both signals down the same wire.

My BUD is set up now with a C1PLL feeding one side of a 3x4 switch. One output goes to the afore mentioned system, one output goes to my HTPC, another is a spare right at the base of the dish so I can easily connect my meter without disconnecting anything else. For now though, I’m not using this and I can disconnect it and just put an inline splice in place of the Ecoda, I guess I should to see if that’s the issue.

I noticed you guys have the C2WPLL back in stock again. Towards the end of the month I’m going to buy two of them so I can get away from the 3x4 thing I have going on with my BUD right now.
Ultimately I would like to have my BUD feed both the A3 and the MicroHD but the A3 will be the only STB to be able to move the dish, the MicroHD will just get a free ride and watch whatever bird the A3 is on.
But even so, I can still move the BUD through the A3 from anywhere in my house and yard with my phone or tablet so it’s not a problem.

BTW, my ASC-1 came in. OMG it’s a flippin TANK !
It needs WHEELS !



And it sooooooo reminds me of the War Games computer !

 

[jorgek]

Good work. You're right a connector should not run that hot neither should the LNB.

 

[Dee_Ann]

If you look in the very first picture I have wrapped the LNBF with some thermal heat shield bubble wrap stuff that my dad used to put in the roof of his barn. I got a few feet of it and glued it to my east facing window where the morning sun actually MELTED my mini blinds, they looked like they had been in a fire. Putting that on the glass inside made a HUGE difference in the morning, now it no longer gets 5,000 degrees in there.
It worked so well I figured I would wrap all my LNBF’s with it to protect them from the brutal sun and heat here. So yeah, I would think they shouldn’t be that hot.

 

[Dee_Ann]

I got new readings from inside the house with the meter placed inline right at the A3, using an 8’ jumper wire.
The earlier readings where taken outside, at the dish with the meter between the LNBF and the motor.

These readings are as follows:

1: 13v with Ecoda inline.
2: 18v with Ecoda inline

3: 13v with 22k side of Ecoda disconnected
4: 18v with 22k side of Ecoda disconnected

5: 13v with Ecoda replaced with inline splice
6: 18v with Ecoda replaced with inline splice

 

[Titanium]

Just a thought..... the insulation may have been trapping heat inside the LNB housing that is meant to radiate from the metal housing.

The resistance readings taken at the receiver look more in line with what I would expect to see from LNBF and other inline devices. You have eliminated the device that was drawing excessive current and solved for the strange resistance values!

I believe that an Ecoda 2x1 switch passes power through both ports at all times. Simple enough to test. Place your meter inline between the port 1 and the LNBF and set the receiver to select port 2. Does the meter still show power from the receiver?

Connecting the C1PLL to one side of the 3x4 multi-switch will only provide one polarity of C-band for both receivers.

 

[rsmithwi]

Maybe one of the moderators can move the majority of my A3 owners posts into here since it wasn’t really much of an A3 problem after all.

I pulled the Primestar LNBF off my dish and I noticed the connectors were a bit warm. Quite a bit warm, enough so that I let go of it real fast and used a wrench to take it off the rest of the way.

View attachment 101046 View attachment 101047 View attachment 101048 View attachment 101049 View attachment 101050 View attachment 101051

Maybe that LNBF was the fault. I don’t know for sure but it sure looks suspicious.

So I put my SL2PLL back in place and thanks to my excellent new meter I was able to tweak my dish and LNBF to what I think is pretty much OK.

After, I put my meter in-between the LNBF and the A3 and got a new voltage/power reading.

View attachment 101052

The results are very different now.

I may have missed it in the posts, but what model is that meter?. Looks pretty neat and makes peaking a dish much more easy.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Just a thought..... the insulation may have been trapping heat inside the LNB housing that is meant to radiate from the metal housing.

The resistance readings taken at the receiver look more in line with what I would expect to see from LNBF and other inline devices. You have eliminated the device that was drawing excessive current and solved for the strange resistance values!

I believe that an Ecoda 2x1 switch passes power through both ports at all times. Simple enough to test. Place your meter inline between the port 1 and the LNBF and set the receiver to select port 2. Does the meter still show power from the receiver?

Connecting the C1PLL to one side of the 3x4 multi-switch will only provide one polarity of C-band for both receivers.

I will try that test with the Ecoda tomorrow. Too late tonight, the mosquitoes are pretty dangerous around here lately.

I had no idea the Ecoda had both ports active at all times. So that means it is trying to power EVERYTHING on both sides of it, no matter which side is selected, right?

What if I take the Ecoda out and put a 4x1 in it’s place? Would it still try to power everything?


As for the BUD with the C1PLL and the 3x4, I know it will only give me one polarity that way. Not my first choice but I couldn’t get a C2WPLL at the time.

What I intended to do was setup two dishes and essentially leave them parked at SES1 and SES2 and have them both setup with the two C1PLL’s that I currently own and a 3x4 switch on each one.
One BUD would supply only Luken stuff to two STB’s and one BUD would supply only MeTV/Movies! to two STB’s..
But with the C2WPLL’s becoming available I’ll be ordering a pair of them toward the end of the month so I can get rid of the 3x4’s and have each BUD feed two STB’s...

I may have missed it in the posts, but what model is that meter?. Looks pretty neat and makes peaking a dish much more easy.

My meter is an AI Turbo S2. It’s the cat’s meow of meters..

http://www.appliedin.com/www/products/AI_Turbo_S2.html

 

[jorgek]

Dee_Ann,
I tested 2 Ecoda 22khz switches and indeed both ports pass power at the same time. This result is also documented in posts on this forum from a number of years ago.
The 4x1 will only pass power to the selected port but it must be placed behind the motor and not in front of it.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Dee_Ann,
I tested 2 Ecoda 22khz switches and indeed both ports pass power at the same time. This result is also documented in posts on this forum from a number of years ago.
The 4x1 will only pass power to the selected port but it must be placed behind the motor and not in front of it.

Excellent! Thank you!

I have a mission to complete now.. Replace the Ecoda!

 

[Dee_Ann]

One thing I’ve found about trying to use my new ASC-1 with a USB to serial adapter.
On my Mac running OSX 10.9.x (Mavericks) and using Parallels to run windows 7 and windows 8.1, it does not recognize the USB adapter.
So I’m going to have to dig out an ancient laptop I have, somewhere, that has windows xp on it. It does have a real serial port so I should be able to edit my ASC1 once I find the thing.
But on the Mac? Nope... Which is funny because it works for my meter.

 

[Titanium]

Did you install the driver package from the CD sent with the USB/Serial Converter?

 

[Dee_Ann]

Did you install the driver package from the CD sent with the USB/Serial Converter?

I did.. Well at least I tried. When I tried to install it on windows 8.1 it comes up with a list of stuff I have no idea about.
When I try, it opens a menu listing a bunch of I guess model numbers of different types of adapters.
I select pretty much any number then select windows and it opens to the same folder on the disc which is an installer file.
I run that and it says the driver is installed.

When I plug the adapter in Parallels saw it the first time and asked me if I wanted it to be used as a Mac device or a windows device under Parallels.
I told it windows and to remember that choice in the future when I plug it in again.

So then, nothing.

I open windows device manager and I can see the device recognized but in error.
I unplug it and it pops out of device manager, I plug it in and there it is again, but reading an error.

I went into the advance settings and changed the com port number to several different numbers and they all give the same error.

I also went to the Prolific website and tried to download the most recent driver from them, they do list a driver they say is windows 8 compatible but it does the same thing.

Oh, and I tried installing it in windows 7 under parallels but it doesn’t even recognize the device at all. The driver installs fine but when I plug it in nothing at all happens.

I can only assume it simply does not like running on a Mac like I’m trying to do. Not a big deal really.
I’ll find that old laptop. I know it’s here. I just have to dig around through mountains of stuff.

 

[Titanium]

Sorry, no experience with running WIN on a Mac. Have no idea if it is capable of running WIN drivers or how the Loader/Editor would work, but interesting results to share with others that might try.

For now, why start a new project when the ASC1 works fine as programmed and shipped? Wait and edit your Satellite List to add custom satellite names after it is installed and all the other system bugs are worked out.

 

[Cosmo Blatz]

For now, why start a new project when the ADC1 works fine as programmed and shipped? Wait and edit your Satellite List to add custom satellite names after it is installed and all the other system bugs are worked out.

Titanium, don't forget you're talking to Dee_Ann here!
Fearless FTA adventurer!

 

[Dee_Ann]

LOL!

Yes, I have given up on the computer stuff for now. I found my laptop and it won’t boot. I know there is another, much older one in the pile but I’m not too anxious to dig it out just yet.
I did try putting the gadget on my HTPC which is an actual PC running windows 7. It instantly recognized the gadget and all by itself went and downloaded/installed the drivers for it without me having to do anything at all. I didn’t even have to use the disk. But when I tried to load the satellite list --> ASC1_SatList_1-139w_20140601.csv <-- into the loader app, the app went unresponsive just hung up indefinitely and I had to kill it.
After a half dozen tries I gave up. I just wanted to see what it was, I was poking things with a stick.

(One of my favorite Doctor Who scenes and also my personal ethos)


So, giving up on that for now and moving along..

I wired the ASC-1 into my system. Let me say that the G-box that I took out of there, will move the dish fully east to west and back again without any error events until the motor reaches the hardware limits I set inside the motor (because when I first got it it would flop over in a very uncool manner).

When I first connected it the wires were backwards so when I pressed east, it went west. That was easy to fix by reversing the wires.
But now when I try to move the dish I get an error on the ASC1 that it thinks it’s reached the hardware limits, I guess a motor error and it stops and won’t proceed until I press OK.

Sometimes it will move quite a bit and not error, sometimes it errors instantly.

I tried reversing the sensor wires and that didn’t seem to make any difference at all.

I did have the forethought to take a photograph of the wires on the G-box BEFORE I disconnected them. On it there are + and - marks on each connection.
I looked up on the ASC1 and it says that the polarity of the S1/S2 wires do matter but on the next page it says it does not matter. A bit confused here.

At this point I don’t know what’s wrong or what to do.
I need to fix this before I go running amok breaking other things.

Edit: Wait. I recall Brian telling me something about putting something across the terminals.
I just can’t remember what.

 

[Titanium]

OMG.... Everthing is broken!!!!!!

Contact technical support if you have questions. 530-652-4405

 

[Dee_Ann]

Cr*p......

Don’t know where to get these things.

My wire, which is in the ground and will be a nightmare to replace, is ethernet cat5e wire and is part of the siamese wire I use on everything.

The BIG problem is that the pipe underground is full and getting another wire through it would be really hard.
But there is an even bigger problem than that.

Last year I was digging a hole to plant some roses and I heard something go CRUNCH! and much to my horror when I looked in the hole I saw white plastic looking back up at me.
I had broken the PVC pipe all the wires go through. Ooooopsy..

Well I had a can of that expanding foam stuff you put around leaky windows and wall outlets. It’s like the stickiest stuff in the universe and if you get it on you it takes days of scrubbing to get it off and it you get it on your clothes they are ruined forever.

Like that but a different brand.

So I stuck the tube into each side of the busted pipe and pumped it full of that foam in hopes of keeping water out. I let it expand and dry for a day and there was this fonky looking mound of styrofoam there for a long time until I finally cut it level with the ground and piled dirt on top of it. With that stuff plugging the pipe where it’s broken, it’s impossible for me to pull any wires through the pipe ever again without digging it entirely up and replacing it completely. THAT is going to be a big problem, a BIG DEAL if I have to dig all that up.