Why doesn't this work?

[CenterFreq]

For some reason, my receiver doesn't know where my BUD is pointing. When I go out and look up at it, I can tell it's about halfway across the arc, maybe slightly on the Western side. It is *not* jammed all the way West like the receiver thinks. I can use the receiver to fine tune it in either direction, as observed by my wife standing in the yard. I have a Sadoun SF-95 satellite finder, which is listed in the catalog as being good for both C and Ku bands.
So here is my question: When I hook up the sat finder to my receiver, and I slowly "fine tune" the dish across the arc, why doesn't it suddenly spike sometimes? There's got to be bunches of C band birds up there. Why can't I seem to hit one?

And a bonus question: There are two wires coming out of the LNB; one of them is still cut off and hanging where the cable guy left it years ago. Could it be that I'm on the wrong wire coming down from the LNB?

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[bill42]

Tough to answer. Is it a wire or is it a coaxial cable? To my BUD I have two coaxial cables and six wires bundled together. The coaxs are for C and K Band LNBs and the wires are for motor, sensors and polarity

 

[Mr Tony]

If you could take pics that would help big time

 

[CenterFreq]

I also have two coax, and I think 5 smaller wires actually connected. A sixth wire is in the group, but is deadheaded. I'll go get pictures now.

 

[Lak7]

Is this a new setup, or it was working fine - up untill now?

 

[CenterFreq]

The first picture, D84, was taken with the camera pointed straight South. It shows that the BUD is aiming one or two degrees slightly East of straight South, definitely *not* at an East or West limit.

The second picture, D85, shows that the receiver thinks it's pointed at 6699, the value meaning all the way West. I changed the West limit to 6700 in an earlier effort to un-jam the BUD from the West limit. Changing numbers didn't work, however, just tweaking the fine tuning after manually disconnecting the rod worked.

The last picture, D86, shows where the wires had been cut off by the cable guy many years ago. I put new connectors on the coax, and I spliced in some wires I got from Home Depot to handle the control functions. BTW: I believe only one coax came into the house originally, and I don't know which it was. Or if only one really came in.

Lak, this is a continuation of a setup started months ago as "Newbies Go C-Band". I had to take time off for awhile.

 

[CenterFreq]

Sorry guys, I now must leave for about one hour. Thanks for your help.

 

[Lak7]

You need to set the limits....
NPS - Your One Call Solution

There are 2 types of Limits, 1 is what you set in the receiver, the other is a Mechanical Limit switch in the Motor.

 

[CenterFreq]

How do I set limits in the motor? Weren't they already set for the original customer?

 

[Lak7]

You should not have to set the Physical Limits in the motor, just in the receiver.
Can you drive the Dish farther West?

 

[1captain]

How do I set limits in the motor? Weren't they already set for the original customer?[/quote

Should be a little micro switch to set in the motor where the wires hook up.

but in you're picture of the limit screen of the 4dtv, you have no lnb connection or a dead lnb, (signal 10) the signal should read if its not on a sat about 50 or so, just from noise.

 

[jgbayless]

If The motor was ever removed from arm and then it was moved, it would cause this problem. Usually G10 is set to 5000 when new install is made. You could remove motor and move to 5000. Then manually move dish to G10 and then reinstall motor. Reset settings making 5000 home for for g10.

 

[eurosport]

It's Galaxy-15 (G1 on the 4DTV) that should be at 5000 on the counter.

 

[eurosport]

It's Galaxy-15 (G1 on the 4DTV) that should be at 5000 on the counter.

Upon closer look at your BUD picture, check to see that "Linear East" is checked in the receiver's menu and not "Linear West" -since your actuator is mounted on the east side of the dish. I'm on the east coast so mine's the opposite of yours. Hope this helps!

 

[CenterFreq]

Okay, maybe I'm connected to the wrong coax. It didn't even notice that signal 10 message. I've never even seen a working C-band rig. So I should "see" something, even just from noise? I was beginning to wonder just how much can be seen on C-band before we have even paid the fee for the Science Channel yet.

And the other point, about the arm being on the East side. I completely forgot that, although this BUD was in use years ago, this *receiver* only just arrived here recently. I'll look for that setting also.

Okay, first I'll go switch to the other coax, then I'll check that setting about the arm.

 

[CenterFreq]

Okay, first I switched to the other coax.

Then I checked the arm's menu setting, which was "Horizontal", so I changed it to "Linear East". Then I went to the Sat screen and selected one after another while reading the newly found signal strength. The big surprise I got was when I went to G5. All the other birds read 10, but G5 gives me 68. And when I selected Go Back, the black screen was replaced with snow and audio noise. When I adjusted the BUD East and West, the number dropped from 68 to 64, then 62, etc, to the East. When I adjusted it West, it dropped from 68 to 65, then 57. I left it centered at 68.

Another thing I noticed was that no matter which bird I chose, and no matter how much I fine tuned, the position always reports as 6699, and lots of times I get the "Antenna has reached its limit" message, which is incorrect, because I went out each time, and the BUD is still pointing near the middle of the arc, just now a little more to the East than before.

One final thing. In the Set Limits screen, I can change the West limit back and forth at will, but when I changed the East limit one number higher, I could not change it back. This scared me a little because I was afraid of slowly losing more degrees of East, so I left it alone after that. And of course, through it all, the position always reports the same; 6699.

So am I actually pointing at G5? If I am pointing at G5, can I call up the service and pay for a couple of months worth of the Science Channel? Is there any FTA on C-band?

Lots of questions, but they don't call us Newbies for nothing. Thanks guys.

 

[Lak7]

Another thing I noticed was that no matter which bird I chose, and no matter how much I fine tuned, the position always reports as 6699, and lots of times I get the "Antenna has reached its limit" message, which is incorrect, because I went out each time, and the BUD is still pointing near the middle of the arc, just now a little more to the East than before.

Sounds like the Motor's Reed Sensor is not properly connected to the Receiver.
NPS - Your One Call Solution
Or the Reed is bad, and not giving a Pulse.

 

[B.J.]

...

Another thing I noticed was that no matter which bird I chose, and no matter how much I fine tuned, the position always reports as 6699, and lots of times I get the "Antenna has reached its limit" message, which is incorrect, because I went out each time, and the BUD is still pointing near the middle of the arc, just now a little more to the East than before.

...

On following this thread, it occurred to me that despite the fact that your dish is aimed south, that you still could be reaching a hardware limit in your motor. I thought of this because back when I used an actuator, I once didn't tighten the collar around the tube, and it's position shifted. So I looked at the picture of the dish again. I can't tell one way or the other, but something looks very strange about the way the actuator is connected to the dish. I soon realized that half of it is that since you're out west, the actuator is on the west side of the dish, contrary to what I'm used to seeing on the east coast, but it sure looks to me, as if your actuator is fully extended, despite only being mid arc. Ie, it looks like the collar is connected way out near the end away from the motor as far as it can go. It may be an optical illusion though, so it might help if you would post a closer view of the actuator. If it IS fully extended, then I think my guess about the collar slipping on the tube might be the problem, and if so, you should probably start over, manually retract the actuator, find your easternmost sat and set your east limit just past that, and then you should have maximum span to the west.

Anyway, I may be way off base, but it's something to consider.

 

[CenterFreq]

Here are some pictures I took months ago, the dish is pointing generally South, and the rod is connected on the East side. This setup worked for someone long ago, and may have been in service for years. I hope I didn't mess something up.

 

[Lak7]

Did you double check the Motor wire connections?
Especially where they were cut, where you just switched the connection to the LNB.
If you have an Ohm Meter, you can quickly check by disconnecting the Pulse wires from the Receiver, twisting them together, and going up to the Dish, remove the back Motor cover, disconnect the Pulse wires, and check continuity.
Same for the Motor Power wires.
Be safe!