can't get monoblock set up

JonnytheKid

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
55
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Age
51
My Satellite Setup
2 Panasonic TU-DSB30 digib0xes, FTV cards, quad LNB, Zone 2 dish, & VCR (remember those?)
My Location
rural Northern Ireland
Hello everyone

Firstly thanks to Swede, Llew and especially to rolfw for advice about my terrestrial reception (still haven't got round to fixing things yet...).

Meanwhile I have been trying to set up a monoblock with my Raven Gemini 90 dish. No joy at all. Tried changing the monoblock for another LNB, still no good.

In the past (on 2 occasions) I have had no great touble setting up a Sky minidish, and an 80cm dish for an analogue receiver.

This time around I even picked an analogue sat channel in Astra 1. I hooked up my sat finder, which works fine, but I could move the dish in all sorts of crazy directions, but the signal scarcely moved. I even put a wet towel over I LNB on the monoblock before all this.

Can anyone think what I'm doing wrong?

I'll post a photo as soon as the camera charges.

Thanks in advance

Jonny
 

JonnytheKid

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
55
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Age
51
My Satellite Setup
2 Panasonic TU-DSB30 digib0xes, FTV cards, quad LNB, Zone 2 dish, & VCR (remember those?)
My Location
rural Northern Ireland
Photos attached (I have taken collar, LNB & cable off until morning - in case of rain).

The Sky minidish (working fine) is in the background of one photo.

There is nothing in front of the dish to block the signal

Jonny
 

xaaxa

ASBO Club Member - Persona non grata
Joined
Aug 13, 2004
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Try it without the wet towel,mine wouldnt work with the towel either.:)
 

JonnytheKid

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
55
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Age
51
My Satellite Setup
2 Panasonic TU-DSB30 digib0xes, FTV cards, quad LNB, Zone 2 dish, & VCR (remember those?)
My Location
rural Northern Ireland
I tried it with a single LNB, when I took the monoblock off - couldn't get the single LNB set up either! :-(
 

rolfw

Believe it when I see it Admin.
Staff member
Joined
May 1, 1999
Messages
38,292
Reaction score
1,615
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
Technomate 5402 HD M2 Ci, DM7000s, Transparent 80cm Dish, Moteck SG2100 DiseqC motor, lots of legacy gear. Meters: Satlook Digital NIT, Promax HD Ranger+ spectrum analyser.
My Location
Berkshire
Hi Jonny, sorry to hear you're having problems, having a quick look at the dish, would appear to be a tad low in elevation for 19.2E, but it may just be the angle of vision.

Forget the wet towel method if you are using a meter, makes no difference, perhaps it might be worth trying a connection to the digibox and seeing if you can find the sat with that. What receiver are you using and what are the LNB settings?
 

JonnytheKid

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
55
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Age
51
My Satellite Setup
2 Panasonic TU-DSB30 digib0xes, FTV cards, quad LNB, Zone 2 dish, & VCR (remember those?)
My Location
rural Northern Ireland
I am using an Echostar AD-3000IP. I bought it a while back on bay. It worked fine with my old 80cm dish and Philips LNB when pionted at Astra 1.

The monoblock is a "Goldn Interstar" - also bought on ebay.

I am going to try the pold philips LNB, with the old cable, with the old (analogue only reeiver), at least that way I could narrow the "newness" down to just the Gemini dish.

I will post again after I try this

Jonny
 

JonnytheKid

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
55
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Age
51
My Satellite Setup
2 Panasonic TU-DSB30 digib0xes, FTV cards, quad LNB, Zone 2 dish, & VCR (remember those?)
My Location
rural Northern Ireland
I have tried again using the old cable and old LNB, still nothing - so it must be the dish. Have I assembled it correctly? I am attaching a couple of photos. The cheapo sat-finder can be seen attached to the cable a little below the LNB.

Jonny
 

rolfw

Believe it when I see it Admin.
Staff member
Joined
May 1, 1999
Messages
38,292
Reaction score
1,615
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
Technomate 5402 HD M2 Ci, DM7000s, Transparent 80cm Dish, Moteck SG2100 DiseqC motor, lots of legacy gear. Meters: Satlook Digital NIT, Promax HD Ranger+ spectrum analyser.
My Location
Berkshire
Dish looks fine, as does LNB, make sure that the meter is the right way round and that the attennuator is set at it's lowest initially, otherwise you will not see a deflection of the needle. It may be just as easy to use the analogue receiver with a portable TV and no meter.
 

JonnytheKid

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
55
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Age
51
My Satellite Setup
2 Panasonic TU-DSB30 digib0xes, FTV cards, quad LNB, Zone 2 dish, & VCR (remember those?)
My Location
rural Northern Ireland
OK, I took one bolt out of the LNB arm, so now the arm hangs much lower at the end where the LNB is - that did the trick.

Got an OK picture on Astra 1, a poor one on Hotbird. I have Astra 1 as the prime focus.

I can switch Ok with the monoblock's DiSEqC thing using the old analogue receiver, but the Echostar is mighty complicated.

Any tips for getting Hotbird a bit better, any any pointers of using the Echostar?

PS - snazzy new look for the forum - COOL!
 

JonnytheKid

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
55
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Age
51
My Satellite Setup
2 Panasonic TU-DSB30 digib0xes, FTV cards, quad LNB, Zone 2 dish, & VCR (remember those?)
My Location
rural Northern Ireland
Got new cable, monoblock, and Echostar all working together. Getting both Astra 1 & Hotbird, although the Hotbird is borderline.

Just one little problem remains...

When I use the button on the Echostar to switch satellites, I must then go through all the menus to change the DiSEqC port on the LNB menu. Astra 1 is DiSEqC port 2, Hotbird is port 1.

Shouldn't this be switched automatically on a monoblock?
 

Llew

cerca trova...
Staff member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
16,226
Reaction score
4,197
Points
113
Age
81
My Satellite Setup
Triple Dragon, Dreambox 8000, Echostar AD3000ip, TBS6522,6925,6983 PCie cards.
Gibertini 1.25m motorised dish driven by the AD3000, with either Inverto BU Quad or Norsat / XMW Ka LNBs . SMW 1.05m + 3 other dishes. Speccy: Promax HD Ranger+
My Location
The Flatlands of East Anglia
hi jonny
Not sure if you've got Hotbird configured on the Echostar, so I'll run through the setting up:-
Press Menu, Installation, LNB Setting, LNB Type 2 (assuming Astra is 1 ), LNB freqs to Universal, Switch Type Diseqc 1..4, Switch Port 2. Press OK.

Go to Menu, Installation, Program Satellites,Select Hotbird.
Choose a working transponder to get a signal level. Assuming Astra is OK on your monoblock, you should be OK.

Come back to us if you still have problems.

Llew

PS Sorry just read your last post. you have Astra on LNB2 so Hotbird is LNB1, Switch Type 1.
 

JonnytheKid

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
55
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Age
51
My Satellite Setup
2 Panasonic TU-DSB30 digib0xes, FTV cards, quad LNB, Zone 2 dish, & VCR (remember those?)
My Location
rural Northern Ireland
thank you Llew. Seem to be able to switch between the sats using the button now.

Thank-you for the advice. :-)
 
Top