Novice with problems. Save me from tearing out what little hair I have left !

kitch45

Hi, Took delivery of my shiny new Dark Box, Fortec Star motor/dish/lnb 3 days ago and set about installing as per all the great instructions given here. Dishpointer provided all the other details needed.
Got my mast vertical,motor/dish pointing due south,into usals to punch in position and send to Thor. Set about getting a signal, result= nothing, 61% on signal 0% on quality no matter how much I moved it.
I should point out motor was working fine at this point. Thought I must be doing something obviously wrong, so back to the site. Discovered I was using wrong cable and connectors so decided to change these and As I was doing that I might as well change the place I was putting the whole thing to a more favourable position.
Did the set-up, switched on receiver but discovered motor was now not working. No l.e.d. Sure I haven't worked on it with power on but it has been peeing down all morning, so has it shorted?
Where do I go from here?
Any help would be much appreciated

bigtee

If it wasn't dark and cold I'd offer to pop round and help you with it as I'm local to you.

I don't think the motors short that easily; suggest you re-check the cable and connections once again.

When (hope) motor works again, it is a good idea to have one of those sat-finder beeper things (though some talk them down); they help you locate one satellite at least and from there it gets somewhat easier to find other satellites on the arc; with one of them you get a general idea as you hit/pass each satellite.

kitch45

Thanks Bigtee, I'll have another look but I've already re-checked them once before. I'm so desperate I'll get up there once again in the cold and dark!
I'm not known for quitting anything (some might say i'm a stubborn b*****) but this has got me contemplating defeat !!

bigtee

Keep at it; hope again the motor is still fine; if that is eliminated as a problem, I am convinced you will successfully set it up eventually.

Take out the F-connectors and re-do them; check connection to receiver; check that cable from LNB goes to right section of motor; and that cable from receiver goes to right section too (these two can easily be mixed up).

By the way what kind of cable are you using now?

kitch45

OK, been and checked connections and all seemed well, so I thought I'd try an experiment and run some co-ax with new connectors from motor to receiver, knowing that I'd got power to the motor previously using this cable, and the result was the same. Dead as a Dodo !
Looks like either my brand new motor has had it, or the receiver is not sending power along.
Found something in the receiver menu about antenna power but that was showing "on" anyway.
Bit of knee knocking up that high in the dark, I can tell you !!
If it is the motor shorted, can I repair it ?
Any help/input is most gratefully received

kitch45

I'm using ct100 and I've checked the other things you mentioned already. Like you say, it's easily done, especially when you're cold, tired, stressed, frustrated and ready for the lunatic asylum. Not having any decent telly for 3 days doesn't help either !!
Thank you for taking the time to listen to my woes. I can assure you I'm not normally this despondant lol

pedro2000uk

is the motor control on (usals or diseqc)? is there no manual control buttons on the motor?

you can test the stb by bypassing the motor and go straight to the lnb and just line the dish up on a satellite ... 1w if the motor is on 1w.
that will show you if the 13v/18v 22k is all OK on the stb

kitch45

Hi Pedro, i can't move motor manually or when in usals or DiSEqC. The power L.E.D. on motor is no longer lighting up. Not sure what stb stands for but I will try to bypass motor as suggested tomorrow. I've had enough climbing up ladders in the dark !!
Many thanks for taking an interest and I'll keep you informed of how I get on.

pedro2000uk

Sorry .. stb is just set top box.

Robbo

If it is a Fortec Star LNB, read this thread, re; skew peculiarities.

http://www.satellites.co.uk/satellit...nb-fckuvn.html

Also to test the motor, I think I would be tempted to take it down and try it inside in the warm, with a short length of pre-made sat coax from the DIY store.

kitch45

Hi Robbo, I had read this thread about the Fortec lnb but thought as it's a motorised system the lnb needed to be perfectly vertical. I also came upon a reference in the receiver menu to lnb polarity, which was set to horizontal. Didn't touch this setting, so is this correct?
I'm about to have another go at it and if I can't get any joy I'll take your advice and bring it down.
I was wondering if there is any way I can use a multimeter on the receiver terminal or cable to see if I'm getting any voltage?
Thank you for your suggestions.

rolfw

If it's the LNB from the sticky thread, then you need to allow for the built in skew, it should be at about 20 past the hour.

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DarkSider1

i have a fskuvn lnb and the skew is higher than that of my uncles lemon lnb. whether thats due to our pole possibly not being 100%, straight i dont know..
our skew seems to leave the top of the lnb at approximatel 9pm... unusual but works fine.
just looked at the link and my lnb skew is very similar...

kitch45

OK, the saga continues. I'm ready to launch this system into space !!!
Tried everything to get motor working. Ended up taking it all down and as suggested used a short run of cable from receiver to motor, which didn't work at first, but then did after a couple of minutes.
Went off and on intermittently when I picked up and put down motor. Eventually it stayed on and I was able to move it the full range manually and through the receiver. Seemed to be back to normal so I thought I'd take a chance and put it all back up, and you've guessed it, it doesn't work again. Even took the receiver up into the loft and ran another run of cable to it. Again nothing.
Taken it all down again and tried the original short run of cable to it, kinda worked first time, didn't work at all this time.
So I'm guessing my brand new motor is faulty unless anybody has got any other ideas ?

tomslick

Hi Kitch. I think I've the same motor as you (maplains) and I find it only really works when you've got the polarity of you stb on H. This sends 18v to the motor where V only sends 12v. I've spend many, many hours abusing my box/motor/cables only to find this out. Even now with everything finished nice, I sometimes have to manually drive the dish with polarity of H because V can't do it.

I'll explain more if you need help.

kitch45

Hi Tom, thank you for taking an interest, if you look at one of my previous posts I mention that very thing. I wasn't sure what it meant so I didn't touch the setting which was already on "horizontal"
I don't think this is my problem as the motor is not showing any life at all, no matter what I do.
The stb menu also has a facility for turning antenna power on or off. Obviously, I have it toggled to ON.

tomslick

Ok. Check with a multimeter between outer of F conn and Center Core. This should be 18v DC in a healthy system on H. On a few occasions when I shorted the cable the Technomate cut the supply out. This only returned with the box was restarted. Also check the signal strenght with and without the LNB connected. On the Technomate no LNB=0% with 20%. This may help to check connections. Let me know how you get on.

Robbo

Sounds like a dodgy motor. The motor should work on both H and V polarisations, just more slowly on the lower voltage.

I usually test a motor before putting it up, and it should work reliably, not intermittently.

Just to add, the receiver should always be OFF when making connection to the LNB input.

Channel Hopper

Easy way of testing voltage at the end of the run is with the tongue, not for long mind.

There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

kitch45

Thank you, to you all. Tested voltage at cable end and there's definitely power (19.1v ) re-attached it to motor just to be sure and nothing happened, so the motor is at fault. Got to try and get it replaced now, and then back to start all over again. Is there a record for the longest first install ? LOL

bigtee

If still possible, consider going for a Moteck SG 2100 A instead.

bobdisk

Sounds to me like the soldered connections on the back of the socket on the motor have come unsoldered. If you waggle it about (gently) does it start and stop? Forgive this sugestion, but could you have been a bit rough with it? Sometimes these things are a bit fragile. Can you use a soldering iron? It is possible to open it up, and re-solder the socket and/or its connections.

Robbo

Yes, that is possible, but would invalidate the warranty, as he'd have to remove the warranty label to fix it. Not worth the effort if it's still under guarantee.

kitch45

Hi,I'm getting a constant voltage through the cable so logically the motor should come to life. I've tested it with numerous runs of different cable/connectors and there's been no problem with the voltage.
The motor is about to be replaced by my supplier so hopefully that'll be the answer.
Going back to the LNB, there are, as somebody mentioned previously, the faintest of adjustment lines around the edge. Trouble is, they are barely perceptable and not where you expect to see them. For a newbie like me, you would assume that the connecting socket would go right at the bottom when trying to mount vertical. This of course, is going to throw it all out. Also, there is no literature with the item to advise you otherwise. Poor design, and very frustrating for installer.
Anyway, thank you all for your input, I'll keep you informed when/if I ever get the system finished.