Magicsat not locking on to Astra 28,2E

[HelenH]

If I'm honest I haven't checked the cables, primarily because there are so many of them that I'm not entirely sure what all of them do. I might have to communicate with hubby, as he is a bit better at the cabling side of things.

It's on a motorhome, and this last problem has only noticeably raised its head since we tried to use it last month.
It definitely worked last summer as we were in the lakes watching the Tour de France, and then I think we tried it last October. It didn't work then, but we were amongst lots of trees so I think we assumed that was why it wouldn't lock on to anything.

It couldn't find anything last week, so by looking on here, contacting scan terieur and popping to a motorhome show locally, I then tried a few other options. I tried only selecting one or more of the frequencies, rather than all of them, and it found both frequencies that had the Y, but then couldn't find the ones that had the N. I selected it to find both the Y channels which it did quite quickly, but then I didn't have any channels to watch!
I assumed it was locking onto the wrong satellite, so then I tried this and now it just spins around in circles for about 10 minutes before giving up.
The Tour starts tomorrow!!!!

H

 

[Rvator]

Mng H

Thanks for those updates.

As your installation is on a motor home the assumption is that the green wire on the rear of the control box is connected to the vehicles ignition switch. Having the green wire connected means that were the antenna to be up and you drive away then 12 volts is applied to the green wire via the ignition switch and it lowers the antenna. The secondary effect of the green wire connected as I understand it from reading the earlier forum posts is that satellite details held in memory are deleted.

With my own issue there was no green wire connected as the antenna is on the roof of the narrow boat and is not affected by movement. However as described in my posting even though I tried entering the frequency details supplied by Analoguesat and the dish locked on it still locked onto the wrong satellite(s) and the digital receiver scanned in only non UK channels. It was not until I applied 12 volts to the green wire when the antenna was parked in the down position that the apparent deletion of satellite information occurred and then entering all four of the frequencies suggested by Analoguesat that my system came back to life locking onto the Astra2 28e satellite really quickly and the digital receiver scanned in only UK channels.

Several things for you to look at, first do check that the 12 volts is getting to your control box, you can do this by raising the antenna allowing it to start scanning and stopping it with the stop button on the hand set. Turn on the ignition and the antenna should park. Assuming this is okay the can I suggest that with the antenna parked that the ignition is turned on (without starting the engine or not as you like) as this as I understand it should perform a deletion of satellite details.

On the subject of frequencies of those given on the Scan Teriuer web site and dated as December 2012 I believe at least one no longer exists and this I found from the frequency/channel details that I had from Analoguesat. So if you inputed the frequencies supplied by ST then the dish does not lock on as happened to me and will eventually time out and would likely give the message you showed on your screen dump although I stopped the scanning long before a time out would have occurred.

Again on the frequency subject I entered the four in my formum post in the order shown. I had a gut feeling that the order had some significance although I have no technical knowledge as to why it should be. Although it takes a long time with ones finger on the handset to make the frequency changes I suggest you give it a go and once done check that they are definitely saved by using the memo button and then looking again to see the details are correct.

Further and again no idea as to why or if it has any significance I amended the signal details against the two frequencies for the Astra 19e satellite to be 'no signal' as per the ST notes.

Rgds
The Rvator

 

[HelenH]

YEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally!!!!!!!!
It took about 4 complete and fruitless searches, but it is back!!!!!!!!
1 day to go before the Tour de France, and ITV4 is back in the room!!!!!!!

Thank you everyone for your help. I feel so elated!!!

H

 

[Lazarus]

Excellent. Still no Wiggo, though :mad:

 

[Analoguesat]

Great news Helen, enjoy Le Tour

 

[Rvator]

YEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally!!!!!!!!
It took about 4 complete and fruitless searches, but it is back!!!!!!!!
1 day to go before the Tour de France, and ITV4 is back in the room!!!!!!!

Thank you everyone for your help. I feel so elated!!!

H

Great news H

Can I ask if you would briefly detail what it was that you did to provide the resolution as it will help others that may be suffering issues. There could be something common to what is happening.


Happy cycling viewing.
Rgds
The Rvator

 

[HelenH]

Hi Rvator

I didn't do anything new. All I did was what you suggested above.
I retuned all the frequencies to the ones you suggested, and put the Astra 19 details to dashes.
It took 4 complete searches of finding nothing, but then all of a sudden it locked on and we were away!

Had a great few days watching the tour in the middle of the deepest Lake District, where there wasn't even any phone signal!

Thanks again

H

 

[Rvator]

Hello again Analoguesat hopefully you are still working this forum

Bad news after a year of steady performance the MagicSat System has failed me. We last used it at the end of April alongside in the marina and now three weeks later we are again out cruising and the first mooring we have stopped at with a clear view of the South East we have tried to use the Satellite System and it fails completely to lock on.

The dish is pointing towards the right direction and spends time adjusting vertical and horizontal alignment but without locking on and then spins around and does it all again.

Looking back on this forum posts I performed again the same process that appeared to sort it then and checked the frequencies and the criteria are still the same but no success.

Can I ask if you know whether any of the frequencies and the associated setting we use last year have now changed?

Rvator

 

[Analoguesat]

Yes Im still here

check all your frequencies here

http://www.flysat.com/satlist.php

There have been a lot of parameter changes in recent months

 

[Rvator]

Yes Im still here

check all your frequencies here

http://www.flysat.com/satlist.php

There have been a lot of parameter changes in recent months

Thanks for your prompt reply Analoguesat and apologies for the delay in getting back we've been a bit short on good 3G signal.

I will checkout that web site and let know how I get on.

Rgds
Rvator

 

[Rvator]

I've checked out the Astra 2 frequencies I used last year against the listing from the web site you gave and they appear to be the same.

They were:-
10714 H (Freesat)
10788 V (Freesat)
12207 V (Sky UK)
12610 V (Sky UK)

Can you make any different suggestion on what to try?

Our decoder is a Maxview unit should we drop frequencies that are Sky UK related or are those there to just get the satellite antenna locked on?

Rvator

 

[Rvator]

Hi Rvator

I didn't do anything new. All I did was what you suggested above.
I retuned all the frequencies to the ones you suggested, and put the Astra 19 details to dashes.
It took 4 complete searches of finding nothing, but then all of a sudden it locked on and we were away!

Had a great few days watching the tour in the middle of the deepest Lake District, where there wasn't even any phone signal!

Thanks again

H

Hello HellenH

Hopefully you are still around. It's a year on and has been good for my use of the Telco MagicSat Satellite antenna until as I said to Analoguesat it has now stopped locking on.

Can I ask please if your system still performs okay? I have looked at the frequency listing web link suggested by Analoguesat and they appear to match what we used last year so I am looking now towards a possible issue with the Magicsat decoder box which might be the issue if you can confirm your setup is still working okay.

Rvator

 

[Rvator]

Here with update on the failure to lock on problem. Went back to basics and got hold of the latest criteria from the Scan Teriuer web site which is dated November 2014.

Used the 12volts on the green wire routine to erase the memory and and then after entering the settings as given by ST including those for Astra 19 the antenna eventually locked onto to Astra 28,2e and normal service is resumed.

Clearly there is a frequency change as suggested by Analoguesat to one of those used to resolve the same issue from a year ago. Despite checking out the info on the flyway.com web site I can't at the moment determine which of the frequencies needs to be changed and given that it takes so long to make changes to the Research Criteria I may just accept that using ST info is acceptable.

It is interesting to note that the info supplied by ST in November 2014 is significantly different to the previous data from December 2012.

 

[HelenH]

Hi all

Motorhome is back on the drive ready for this year's Lake District trip, and the delights of the tour! Can't believe it was a year ago that this was all going on.

Ours still works, I tested it yesterday and it locked straight on without any hunting around, and I haven't changed any of the settings.

H

 

[Rvator]

Hi all

Motorhome is back on the drive ready for this year's Lake District trip, and the delights of the tour! Can't believe it was a year ago that this was all going on.

Ours still works, I tested it yesterday and it locked straight on without any hunting around, and I haven't changed any of the settings.

H

Thanks H

Seeing as yours is working still on the configuration we all worked out a year ago I am totally confused now as to why ours decided to refuse to lock on.

There doesn't seem to be any logical sense however fingers crossed your system continues without a hiccup however should it begin to refuse to play also then you may find a solution in my last forum post.

Good luck for your holidays
Brgds
Rvator

 

[HelenH]

It's knackered again.
I've just changed all the settings to the ones on the ST details, but it's spinning round fruitlessly........
Mind you, last time I had to do about 4 complete searches.
How do you erase the memory?
H

 

[Analoguesat]

Hello Helen, welcome back. Sorry to hear you are having problems again.

However first of all there have been numerous frequency changes over the last 2-3 months.

Have a look here

http://www.flysat.com/astra28.php

and delete any dead frequencies.

 

[HelenH]

I don't really understand that site.....

 

[Analoguesat]

Just work your way through the frequencies listed on your Magicsat comparing them to whatever is listed as active

Taking the first active frequency at the top of the chart

The most important bits are the frequency, 10714, the polarity (H) the symbol rate (22000) and the FEC (5/6). Nothing else really matters (apart from ignoring the West Africa beam stuff! (2nd column from the right)

If you scroll down to the bottom of the chart you will see everything above 12480V has been discontinued - (its moved to lower frequencies) so if you are looking for channels formerly on those freqs you wont get them

 

[Rvator]

Hello Helen

So you have suffered the same issue we did and from Analoguesat's last post I can now understand from the explanation what potentially has occured.

To reset the memory it will require the green wire to have 12volts which logically as you are in a mobile installation should always be connected to ensure you never travel with the antenna up.

In theory it means every time the vehicle ignition switch is turned on 12volts is applied to the receiver resetting the memory the assumption being the vehicle is moving to a fresh location and would need to search again.

So I assume your green wire is connected however it would not hurt to look at the back of the receiver and confirm it is. Then another check to make sure 12volts is actually getting to the box put the antenna up and stop it searching with the handset. Turn on the ignition which should lower the antenna.

From the November 2014 ST criteria provided I put in both Astra 28 and 19 and I did notice it was taking a fair bit longer for the antenna to lock on with those in relation to the settings we were using from last year.

I was up on the boat two weeks back and the system was still good with the ST settings use as I described in my posting.

Checkout the memory routine and let us know what happens. If still no success with those November 2014 ST settings then I will check back on our previous postings from last year as I am sure I wrote down what frequencies we used and I might be able to work through the website info as Analoguesat says and come up with something you can try.

Good luck
Rvator