New hair required, none left.. Installation blues :-(

[I_Just_want_to_know]

Good day everyone..

Wondering if someone can clear up some issues for me..

having spent about £250 in the last month on a Dreambox 500S, 90cm Dish, Motor, LNB and all the rest of it, I'm now preparing to go out and buy the meanest looking axe I can find, to smash the $**t out of it all..

I spent the last few days setting the dish up and everything, and eventually found astra2/eurobird1 at 28.2.

I'd initially just planned on using the dream box signal indicator to get the best position, but as I live alone and there was just me to trudge up and down the ladder all the time, I decided to get myself a sat finder from B&Q... within a few minutes, I had a more accurate target. Good oh!! NOT!!
I'm assuming Sky is using this satellite (I googled it for accuracy, as I thought I was looking at astra 19.2 or astra 23.5 but when scanning on those, I was getting nothing, despite my meter telling me I was (and given that my skydish is about 1m away, they both seemed to be pointing in the same direction)
Anyway, when I then plug the new cable into the Sky box to get a reference, I get no signal reading at all (dreambox is showing +60)
so 1st question, am I even looking at the right bird?? (it appears not, but I best check)
2nd question, when I do a transponder check on eurobird 1/astra 2a at 28.2, I'm getting about 80services (and only about 3 actually show anything, in italian..) the other transponders on this satellite are obviously carrying something, is it the same channels, or am I missing out on some by possible being set up incorrectly??

And the 3rd question, which is the main one really.. I bought a darkmotor, thinking this was a good purchase, metal gears and what not, but I cannot get it to move, (it will move manually if I press the buttons, so it is getting power) but refuses to do anything from the dream box.. I have since read that there are issues with motors on the dream box... have I just wasted the best part of £60 on that motor (and the way I'm feeling at the moment, £250 on everything I bought )

I'm wondering if I'm best off just buying a technomate box, as it appears you can get a lot more results a lot simpler using something like that...




(BTW.. for info's sake, I live on merseyside, I believe the DM500 to be real, its running a gemini image, although I'll have to check which one, I am a newbie, which I have discovered is not the best box to buy, but my colleage sold me a much better description than it turns out.. although I am quite handy with computers so flashing and stuff isnt a prob to me...)

Any advice, or help in smashing the crap out of it all will be greatly recieved..

Rob (in case you can't gather, I'm not best pleased at the moment)

[sonnetpete]

Rob,

Just a quick reply as I'm sure more informed people will do in due course. It sounds as though your dish is pointing are 15° west of where it should be for Astra 2. I believe you are picking up Hotbird @ 13°E if you can see Italian channels. Look at the sticky guides at the top of the page for setting up your system, they helped me a lot. Good luck (and don't take an axe to a Dreambox, for Gawds sake!!)

Pete

[Mickha]

The Dreambox is not the best receiver for a beginner, but as you're good with computers you will soon get it working.
For now ignore the Dreambox and concentrate on getting your dish set up.
Where have you got the dish installed? Is it ground mounted or on the wall?
Is the pole vertical?
If you're trying to set up your dish on 28E why not connect it to your Sky box and gently move the dish until you get a picture, I use an old B/W portable TV for this, feeding a coax cable from the receiver to the TV.

[rolfw]

You may be looking at Hotbird, but to line up a motorised system neither that nor Astra 28.2 are the ones to line up on, have you read the howtos in the stickies at the top of this section?

Do a scan using Hotbird as a satellite and see what it comes up with.

edit: too late.

[I_Just_want_to_know]

SonnetPete.. I just scanned telstar 15W got nothing, I then scanned hotbird at 13E and got some more channels, about 2 in italian, and a bunch in french, there was a load of MTV in there as well, but they were scrambled..
I would think that if I could pick up other satellites, that they would be ones very close to the 28.2 I had picked up on, but everyhting close by got me nothing... How can I therefore pick up on 13e which is much further away?


Micka.. Its on the wall above my kitchen roof (kitchen sticks out of the back of house, its not a flat roof, so installation hasnt been great), the dish bracket would not fit round the darkmotor.. well, the u-bolts wouldn't, and after not finding any that would, the set I did use required modifying along with the bracket... so there is a chance it doesnt fit as best as it possibly could.. I have tried my best though, it does seem straight... but maybe this is part of my problem..


Rolfw.. I had done a lot of reading regarding lining up, and it was all very confusing.. (my motors manual confused me even more).. all the different angles, and the 37 different names for them.. in the end I chose the one I thought my Sky was pointing at (as i could back up the signal strength on the Sky box, and also it was good reference for direction being close by..) all i found out about pointing was that choose one close to you.. I didnt find anything about using a particular one for correct arc..


The main issue though is getting the motor to move, becasue if it doesnt, there seems no point in lining it all up and making sure everything else is correct..
(and thats why I'm thinking of a differnt box???)


Rob

[I_Just_want_to_know]

One other thing pete..

You think its pointing at 15W, picking up hotbird at 13E (and according to the compass, its about 20degrees from south...

How confusing is this???

[Analoguesat]

Forget the directions. You need to identify which satellite you have found.

Give us 3 or 4 channels and we should be able to identify where you are pointing.

[nanochickin]

The problem lies with the Dreambox 500s. It was never a good receiver for controlling a motor due to just a plain lack of power

I had similar problems with an Eaglebox 500s (A DM500 clone)

I even tried to uprate the pathetic 1.5a power supply that came with it for a 3a one and even that made little difference

If i remember rightly i think it was Nabilosat V0.8 that worked the best on it for the motor, but even that was pretty dire at the best of times

Try to google Eaglebox & Motor and you should find your answers to the 500s



Nano

[compufunk]

You think its pointing at 15W, picking up hotbird at 13E (and according to the compass, its about 20degrees from south...

How confusing is this???

IJWTK,
What sonnetpete meant was that you were probably pointing 15° too far west of 28°E, which would leave you pointed at hotbird 13°E.

Hang in there, you'll get there in the end

[I_Just_want_to_know]

Thanks for the speedy responses so far fella's...
While tea was cooking, I got up on the roof again, meter in tow, and aimed it for thor1 at 0.8w.. Man, how easy is it to overshoot , appears after finding nothing on a thor1 search, that I get my best return yet on atlanticbird 4 (7w)
channels I have are.. ANB, Arriada, AZTV, CCTV9, Edusat, RTR, Salute to name a few..

I'll check out the eagle box searches.. but i'm guessing I'm going to be spending more... yes?

Out of curiosity, I bought a vision multiswitch off tbay with the view of sending the four lnb feeds to a disqec switch, plus the two feeds from Sky, and having them available to upto 10 outputs (I actually only need 3 at present), but thought powered multiswitches could feed power back to the LNB (via the motor) thus giving the motor enough juice..
I connected the switch up before (when i couldnt get the motor moving, and it still didnt move, and even when I put the metre in line as well, noticed a bit of signal loss... more than I expected).. the multiswitch didnt cost me that much as it happens, but I thought it was worth a go.. seems not to be the case though.


Rob

[satelliteman]

My advice would be start off with a basic satellite receiver first, something like a Technomate 3000/5000 series for example (can always pass it on after).

Set up the dish following the guides. You may need to read them over a few times. There are plenty here who can help and guide you through the installation process.

For a motor install, you'll need to start with setting up the dish due South (most likely 1W).

Re: the multiswitch, for two satellites, you need a 9 input switch.

SM

[tomthebomb1968]

Hi, there. My first receiver was a 500(clone) and all you need m8 is a methodical approach. Your is probably not moving as you may not have set the dreambox up to move it. Have a look at this video on gow to set the motor up correct.

_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k_yhxmGlEA&feature=related

[I_Just_want_to_know]

Thanks tom...

I have more or less done all that...

Tomorrow I shall drag the dish down, take the motor off.. double check how straight everything is..

I'll put the motor on again and see if that makes much difference...

I'll then do my best with the dish....


Somethinf I'll also try is setting the motor to the box on a very short lead out of the bedroom window, it currently has something like 20m of cable running to the front room... and reading other posts, it seems that this could play a part.. (its at this point I wish the switch would power the line too, but unfortunatley not)...
I'll be pi55ed off if it works on a short cable... as that means I'll then have to set it up on the TV in the back room, and thats not why I bought it all... are there no sort of cable amplifiers that might work in this situation, some way of remote/additional power?

Also.. What is the ideal satellite I want to point at to set things up on?(I can see compass south fairly well)...


I'm surrently setup to some dish, but god knows what, I'm just scanning one by one at the moment, scanned about 15 sats, got nothing so far



Rob

[satelliteman]

Also.. What is the ideal satellite I want to point at to set things up on?(I can see compass south fairly well)...

Rob

What's your longitude Rob?
multimap or dishpointer.com will tell you.

[bob-1]

I would use dish pointer ,it even gives you Dish Setup Data for different motors.
I have just set my motor up tonight for the first time and didn't take no more than a couple of minutes.
I must agree with the others though the output on the 500 is poor ,mine even struggled with switches, never used one on a motor though.

[I_Just_want_to_know]

lat 53.43 lon -3.01


So I'm wondering whats the benefit of having something like this (dreambox) if I cant have a motor to point it where I want??

What other options do I have..?? Flog the dreambox and get something else??


Rob..

(as I say, I'll try it all again tomorrow on a 4-5m cable instead of a 20m one)

[satelliteman]

Use either Atlantic Bird 3 @ 5W or Thor 1W.

[I_Just_want_to_know]

thanks sm... i'll have a go at that tomorrow...

one last thought for the evening..

Whhen I rotate the dish quite a bit to the east (thats one I tried usuilng the manual contril on the motor) the dish "twists" is the best way I can describe it...

Instead of swinging round so that everything seems at the same angle it was (I mean arm and LNB) the rotated sideways with the dish a bit, so that the LNB was now at a totally differnt angle.. does this seem right..??
I was thinking aboout how the motor moved, and I cant think of a way how it would therefore stay straight?
I can take some pics tomorrow if I havent explained it well..

thanks for your help again... no doubt I will be continuing the story tomorrow...

Rob

[satelliteman]

The dish mounted to the motor is designed to do that as it follows the satellites across the arc from horizon to horizon

Start off making sure bracket/pole are plumb and follow the guides. You'll need to get your receiver to motorise to one of the satellites mentioned above (using USALS) then you manually align the dish.

[tomthebomb1968]

(BTW.. for info's sake, I live on merseyside, I believe the DM500 to be real, its running a gemini image, although I'll have to check which one, I am a newbie, which I have discovered is not the best box to buy, but my colleage sold me a much better description than it turns out.. although I am quite handy with computers so flashing and stuff isnt a prob to me...)

Any advice, or help in smashing the crap out of it all will be greatly recieved..

You said you got the 500 about a month ago, well if its a new purchase then its 99.99% likely to be a clone so I would take Gemini off it pretty sharpish. On the flip side my 500 clone drives my motor no problem, my father in laws genuine box was a lot more trouble.

[I_Just_want_to_know]

Hi Tom..

Well, I'm now beginning to think it is..
I've been looking round a few forums today regarding checking it, and it has everything it should have, the way it should look (except that bottom hologram doesnt shine like I think it should)..
Another forum also suggested looking at the word "tampered" on the silver void if opened label.. and mine is spelt "tamperd" so I'd guess there is a definite sign of it being suspect..

When I asked the original sellers (who now turn out to be from china - there address has changed on their website, while I was waiting for it. I checked their cotact us link out, and it had a uk address.. somewhere a little more north than me.. now it says china on it), anyway, when I asked them for the switch they were advertising with it (unless I misunderstood and it was a soft switch), they repleied with a "we are not technical, sorry, don't know what you mean" kind of response..
I guess alarm bells should have started ringing then...
It was a work colleage who told me where to buy it from, stating that the site sold genuine dream boxes (so I paid a little bit more buying this clone, instead of one off tbay which would have cost me £20 less)
_dvbmonkey in case anyone is wondering_ (and I just goolged it, doesnt look good... paypal claim in progress)

Also, I see there is DM500 clone bomb checker utility, that tells you if you have one.. I can't even get it to run on mine.. I can ping my 500 ok, but when I put those IP settings into the bomb checker utility, i get an "illegal port command" error pop up, and I just cant get it to connect.. if I try again with the utility still open, i just get "error, connect to box"


And finally, this morning I got up on the roof and dragged everything down..
The motor is connected to the DM500 which in now running nabilosat 0.8 as suggested, on a cable thats about half a meter long.. and does it turn the motor... does it hell...



Ok gents... suggestions please..
I was hoping to have this all set up this weekend, but thats not going to happen is it..
My two options I have are.. set it up, pointing at one satellite, or buy a technomate (please don't tell me there are clone versions of those) I have seen patched TM5200, 5300 and 3400 with various cam and CI options for between £65 and £80.. I'm sure they have more features that what I need for starting out.. however, any other suggetions happily recieved..

(I'd rather have a working motorised system than have the box pointing at just one satellite, are there any issues with technomate driving motors like I've discovered with the dreambox??)


A downbeaten Rob

[I_Just_want_to_know]

bugger, my original reply disapperaed.. ok, here goes again, short version..


Dragged the lot down today, connected it on a 0.5m cable in the front room, running nabilosat 0.8 as suggested, and it doesnt move at all..

I started to consider if it was a fake (as it got shipped from china, and after doing a search of the seller, yes, they deal in clones alright
I have emailed them and await a response, and have filed a complaint with paypal.

There are a couple of checks you can do externally (like looking at the way tampered is spelt on the silver void label on the back), as I couldnt even get it to run the clone bomb checker utility, it just would not connect despite being able to ping the 500 easily enough.

So now I'm wondering what to do next..
on Ebay I see patched technomate boxes 5200, 5300 & 3400 models with various cam options for between £65 & £80 - (I dont want to be going and spending loads more, as my wallet already feels pretty conned at present)

I think what I will try and do in this bit of time I have (while I still have the dreambox) is to try and get the dish and motor all set up straight on the wall pointing at one of the suggested satellites.. so that if I get a new box, its already set up.

Any other suggestions greatly recieved..


Disgruntled rob

[mhku]

Your post went into automatic moderation because of some the words in your post.

There's a lot to read so my couple of questions are:

Is the dish setup correctly e.g. elevation is correct when it points to 1W?

What image are you using? Make sure gotoXX is unticked in motor setup as it doesn't work.

What's the voltage from the back of the Dreambox where the coax connects (to the dish)?

[I_Just_want_to_know]

Hi MHKU... I realised that after I sent the second post (I didnt read the fact it needed administrating 1st time round)

I decided.. the box is going.. end of..

I've seen a box on the aforementioned auction site that looks useful, and is HD as well, so will kill an extra bird witht he same stone, its twice as much, but then its advertised as doing 9and screening) the sort of thing I'm after.. I've asked the seller rather a few questions and just await his reply..

I have today had the lot down, made sure everything was straight as I could possibly get it, set the dish to the motor at ground level and made everything perfectly straight..
(I ghad previously been moving the dish on the motor arm, which wasnt good... watching that youtube vid last night showed me to move the motor on the wall fram, rather than the dish on the motor arm.

I now have 4 LNB's all connected and pointed in the direction of Thor 1

I picked atlanticbird 2 & 3, thor 1 and hotbird as my 4 targets, and all but hotbird 3 got me some channels (although on thor 1, i selected free only, and got 1 data channel - does this mean i'm slightly off, or that thors channels arent free)

I've not measured the output voltage, Is it a multimeter from center of cable to center of socket, and something else to join the shields?

Its running nabilo v.08, but as I say, I pretty much think I'll be getting something else.. I wasnt aware at the time of buying the 500 that is was dire at running motors.. (its not something you think to search when looking at buying one)
I tried every kind of goto function.. on, off, with cherrys on top... could get nothing out of it..

Rob

[Topper]

I now have 4 LNB's all connected and pointed in the direction of Thor 1

Please explain what it is you mean as what you have said is not physically possible as four separate lnb's cannot be in the same place at the same time