VBOX7 ? Is it real, or a knock off? It doesn't say VBox7 anywhere!

[Tom14]

! have no west drive after all limits have been cleared. Is this even a real VBox7 or a knock off. I got it from Amazon (Smartie Store.) It said it was a VBox7, but nothing on the unit says that it is. I took the top off, and the fuse is OK, but the work inside is a little shoddy. The relay was not seated down to the board when it was soldered. I have operated a solder wave machine before, and it is not brain surgery to get all the components to lay down on the board properly before they are soldered. That already makes me wonder. I can replace a part if I know which one to replace. If that will fix it. Otherwise, I'm going to be S.O.L. for a dish mover. I'm not going to keep buying crappy stuff, and be forced to buy the real expensive mover. (ATC1). We don't want to just keep throwing money into this venture. It's fun until you run into crappy products, and then it becomes more trouble that it's worth. It seems that the industry is all the same. Keep buying and buying and nothing holds up to any work anymore. I bought the dish mover about 3 months ago when we had a little extra money, but the warranty period was already in use before I even used it. I guess I should have waited to buy it before I was going to use it. "My bad I guess". Then my warranty would have been good still. You can't win for losing. More storms hit our area, and just about took a tree down into the house, but got lucky, and was able to take the tree down before the next storm wave came through. It also did a number on my OTA antenna for the TV, but it's still picking up channels, and will get it back together tonight. It's just so blasted hot outside, you can't get anything done. Can anyone tell I'm having a bad go of it? LOL For what it's worth, Thanks for listening, and if anybody knows what I can do, please fill me in. One way I tested this was to end up using a voltmeter to test the black/Red Leads for M1/M2, then reverse the leads on the voltmeter to establish that the East drive put out 36vdc temporarily until the ER2, and there was no voltage outside the West drive. Is it the Relay thats bad?. I sent you all some photo's to review... Thanks folks, and I'll just hang loose until we get this figured out. Tom

 

[Magic Static]

Yes, that is the current run of VBox 7. The older ones were made better. These have a high failure rate and are not being sold by dealers who wish to remain reputable.

 

[Magic Static]

The picture of the relays shows one relay out of place a bit. Probably a bad solder joint on that relay.

 

[Tom14]

! have no west drive after all limits have been cleared. Is this even a real VBox7 or a knock off. I got it from Amazon (Smartie Store.) It said it was a VBox7, but nothing on the unit says that it is. I took the top off, and the fuse is OK, but the work inside is a little shoddy. The relay was not seated down to the board when it was soldered. I have operated a solder wave machine before, and it is not brain surgery to get all the components to lay down on the board properly before they are soldered. That already makes me wonder. I can replace a part if I know which one to replace. If that will fix it. Otherwise, I'm going to be S.O.L. for a dish mover. I'm not going to keep buying crappy stuff, and be forced to buy the real expensive mover. (ATC1). We don't want to just keep throwing money into this venture. It's fun until you run into crappy products, and then it becomes more trouble that it's worth. It seems that the industry is all the same. Keep buying and buying and nothing holds up to any work anymore. I bought the dish mover about 3 months ago when we had a little extra money, but the warranty period was already in use before I even used it. I guess I should have waited to buy it before I was going to use it. "My bad I guess". Then my warranty would have been good still. You can't win for losing. More storms hit our area, and just about took a tree down into the house, but got lucky, and was able to take the tree down before the next storm wave came through. It also did a number on my OTA antenna for the TV, but it's still picking up channels, and will get it back together tonight. It's just so blasted hot outside, you can't get anything done. Can anyone tell I'm having a bad go of it? LOL For what it's worth, Thanks for listening, and if anybody knows what I can do, please fill me in. One way I tested this was to end up using a voltmeter to test the black/Red Leads for M1/M2, then reverse the leads on the voltmeter to establish that the East drive put out 36vdc temporarily until the ER2, and there was no voltage outside the West drive. Is it the Relay thats bad?. I sent you all some photo's to review... Thanks folks, and I'll just hang loose until we get this figured out. Tom

I have yet to test any other components on the board, as I haven't pulled the board yet. A Cap could also be bad, so I suspect time will tell.

 

[N6BY]

.... One way I tested this was to end up using a voltmeter to test the black/Red Leads for M1/M2, then reverse the leads on the voltmeter to establish that the East drive put out 36vdc temporarily until the ER2, and there was no voltage outside the West drive. Is it the Relay thats bad?. ...

Without the reed sensor wires attached, it is normal for the voltage to shut off and give the error message. The unit is designed to detect pulses from the reed sensor in the actuator to know that it is still moving.

I understand that you did the test while moving east. Did you get any temporary voltage at all when you tried to move it west?

 

[Tom14]

The picture of the relays shows one relay out of place a bit. Probably a bad solder joint on that relay.

Yeah, it wasn't seated flat on the board when it was soldered, and was allowed to be sent out like that. I never let a board go to shipping with a relay laying like that. It makes me wonder why it's not laying flat. There could be a piece of cut wire, or debris of some kind underneath. Either way, thats unsat in my book. Try pulling that stunt with a military contract, and you would lose your contract. It's just so blatently obvious to see, and it grates your cheeze to see crappy work like that... Thanks for your reply...

 

[Tom14]

Yeah, it wasn't seated flat on the board when it was soldered, and was allowed to be sent out like that. I never let a board go to shipping with a relay laying like that. It makes me wonder why it's not laying flat. There could be a piece of cut wire, or debris of some kind underneath. Either way, thats unsat in my book. Try pulling that stunt with a military contract, and you would lose your contract. It's just so blatently obvious to see, and it grates your cheeze to see crappy work like that... Thanks for your reply...

Look closely at some of the terminology on the board... They a ZD1 for a zenor diode, but look at ZD2, it's marked as DZ2. Am I behind the times so far that I'm out of touch. When do Component names change. That would have been a parts fiasco where I used to work. LOL Correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[FaT Air]

I can replace a part if I know which one to replace (only if you can source the part or an equivalent)
I never let a board go to shipping with a relay laying like that (but this came from China, this is the US, do they care?)
Try pulling that stunt with a military contract (AFAIK, all Amphenol connectors are made there now. They supply our commercial and military)
I'll stop here so I don't go over that 'no politics' line.

 

[Tom14]

Without the reed sensor wires attached, it is normal for the voltage to shut off and give the error message. The unit is designed to detect pulses from the reed sensor in the actuator to know that it is still moving.

I understand that you did the test while moving east. Did you get any temporary voltage at all when you tried to move it west?

Oh yes of course. I totally understand that the ER2 Message will pop-up immediately as to the lack of sensor feedback, but as I had stated. I got the temporary 36V off the east, but nothing off the west. If I reverse the M1 and M2, the actuator will drive the other direction because the power was in the east and not the west, therefore opposite travel. I'm wondering if maybe one of the caps are gone. If that is the case, since I have no warranty to be voided, I might look into putting a better quality drive system on this board. First I need to see whats under that relay... Thanks again... Don't forget to ask what MacGuyver would do...LOL One could still add a switch in-line to reverse polarity for the drive wires to move the dish, but I don't like to have to think like that. My wife would have a fit.LOL

 

[Tom14]

We missed the NASCAR feed on NBC Sports on G27 or something. I don't remember now! That would have been cool!

 

[KE4EST]

Yes, that is the current run of VBox 7. The older ones were made better. These have a high failure rate and are not being sold by dealers who wish to remain reputable.

Exactly, this is why I stopped selling them, and then my source DMSI, stopped carrying them period. Was getting a return on every other one.
Got a small pile of those things.

 

[KE4EST]

No electrolytic Caps in the 36V side. Goes from transformer to Diodes D13-D16 then to relay to Motor. The relays are energized off the transistor array at U3.

 

[Lone Gunman]

I've got one of those that looks the same on the outside as yours and mine doesn't say Vbox 7 on the outside either. Never had it apart so I don't know about the inside. I've been using mine on my Raydx dish system now for about a year without any problems to date. Knock on wood BTW!

I do have a Vbox X (WSI brand) that is giving me some problems with the memory, ie, when I turn the power off on it it will loose all the locations that were stored in it and I have to reload them again. If I leave power on it works fine so that's a work around for now.

 

[KE4EST]

I've got one of those that looks the same on the outside as yours and mine doesn't say Vbox 7 on the outside either. Never had it apart so I don't know about the inside. I've been using mine on my Raydx dish system now for about a year without any problems to date. Knock on wood BTW!

I do have a Vbox X (WSI brand) that is giving me some problems with the memory, ie, when I turn the power off on it it will loose all the locations that were stored in it and I have to reload them again. If I leave power on it works fine so that's a work around for now.

The EEPROM chip has gone bad.

 

[. Raine]

I've had my V-Box 7 do that a few times before but it was so long ago that it's not entirely clear in my head anymore what I did to straighten it out. I believe I just factory reset the V Box and my receiver both and then without the V Box hooked up I manually moved my dish to it's true south position [center of the arc]. Hooked the V Box and receiver back up and then started setting sat positions from the receiver, not from the V Box or the V Box remote.

For some reason or another, the V Box 7 that I have here, if you began programming in sats from one end of the arc or the other and not from near the center, or didn't lock in the sats from the receiver, it would do that nonsense of moving in only one direction, IIRC. I haven't had to wipe out everything on that dish and start over for a long time, but I would always start with 101W when setting the receiver and V Box up, then lock in all other sats. That dish can 'see' from 61W to 127W.

 

[Titanium]

To clarify the original question about it being a clone. There is no Gbox or Vbox manufacturer. Those are just generic model references that are used by many manufacturers to identify a DiSEqC 1.2 motor controller. Similar to what is seen with the STB Openbox brand or the HH motor SG2100 model.

Rest assured that you own a genuine controller built by someone. I apologize in advance for making such a poor joke!

 

[N6BY]

The picture of the relays shows one relay out of place a bit. Probably a bad solder joint on that relay.

A bad solder joint could be easily fixed. Worse case would be if the relay leg lifted off the board and took part of the circuit board trace with it. Should be fixable either way.

 

[Tom14]

Exactly, this is why I stopped selling them, and then my source DMSI, stopped carrying them period. Was getting a return on every other one.
Got a small pile of those things.

OK, so what now, is there anything I can do? What is the weakest link in this thing?, The relays, the Caps? I'm not ready to give up on this thing just yet. Something is defective, and theoretically can be replaced.. Yes, No? No user serviceable parts doesn't mean anything to me. Did anyone notice the 230v/50hz. embossed in the body. That is crazy to me. With the 120v cord no less. I want to find out what the problem is with this unit. Sometimes I do something kind of unorthodox when doing a pre-test on electronic components. I use a lazor temperature gun to look at caps, res. and any component that can heat up, and compare operating temps to see if anything is running way out of temp range for what would seem normal. Well, just for giggles, the west side relay has a tendancy to rise in temperature after several presses, whereas the east side relay doesn't change temp. at all after several pushes. Now I'm not sayin'... I'm just sayin'... My soldering gun is hot now, so I'm going to see why the relay was not seated flat on the board. "I'LL BE BACK" T

 

[Tom14]

I've had my V-Box 7 do that a few times before but it was so long ago that it's not entirely clear in my head anymore what I did to straighten it out. I believe I just factory reset the V Box and my receiver both and then without the V Box hooked up I manually moved my dish to it's true south position [center of the arc]. Hooked the V Box and receiver back up and then started setting sat positions from the receiver, not from the V Box or the V Box remote.

For some reason or another, the V Box 7 that I have here, if you began programming in sats from one end of the arc or the other and not from near the center, or didn't lock in the sats from the receiver, it would do that nonsense of moving in only one direction, IIRC. I haven't had to wipe out everything on that dish and start over for a long time, but I would always start with 101W when setting the receiver and V Box up, then lock in all other sats. That dish can 'see' from 61W to 127W.

The crazy thing is, I thought about that originally, and reset the limits, and it fixed it, but after a bit, it happened again, and to no avail, the west went south as it were! Excuse that pun... I know it's probably not worth the effort, but that is why I want to fix it because I don't like living in such a throw it away, and get something better world. If I can repair it to the best of my ability, and it dies anyway, at least I gave it the old college try. I just don't have as much electronic training as I would have liked, as my knowledge is limited here. But I'll get by with a little help from my friends... Thanks! T

 

[KE4EST]

Yes it is very serviceable. The MCU has decent enough code running. It is just the workmanship mostly. Something could stand to be beefed up. Start with replacing that relay most likely if it is that warm.
Trace the tracing coming from the transistor array to the west relay and put a an analog meter on it set for more than 12V. See if the needle jumps as you hit the west button. If so most likely the relay.
Would not hurt to replace the diode across the relay coil while your at it.