Can't get past 53°E

sonnetpete

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Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.

Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
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Normandy, France
Hi,

Now that the leaves have fallen, I have a chance of accessing the more eastern end of the arc. However, I cannot make my 7100 move my motor past 53°E. I've enabled and disabled the software limits and been through all the set up menus I can find. The hardware limits on the motor body are not stopping motor travel, as I altered these when the dish was upgraded.

With the dish set on for example 1°W, asking the receiver to scan 68°E results in no movement of the dish. Despite the screen showing "motor is moving".

The manual is, as most Vantage users know, less than helpful!! Is this problem down to a need for a software update, a factory reset or is there a workround?

Pete
 

Vipersan

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Hi Pete ...
I'm not familiar with your receiver ...but suspect this is a common type of problem .
I have the same issue on my IP9000HD ..which ..when using usals will not move my motor past East 60 deg and West 60 deg ...even though I set my hardware limits to 70 in each direction ...
I came to the conclusion that the motor or receivers software fails to calculate the position correctly and thus the dish refuses to move ..
I'm assuming the end result of the calculation is out of range or something like that.
What is odd ..is that I can drive the same motor to 70 degrees both East and West by switching off usals and using diseqc ..but this then messes up my channel list when switching back.
To combat the problem I export my channel list first ..then import it when I've finished.
Have you tried this ??
rgds
VS
 

ALAN 1

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Pete, each time you want to get a new sat like 53e make sure usals is turned on for each new sat
 

sonnetpete

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My Satellite Setup
Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.

Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
Free Sat V8 meter. Sony Bravia 46" LCD, Sony BluRay and Home Cinema.
My Location
Normandy, France
Hi,

Alan: Yes have made sure USAL's is turned on each time I try a new sat. This is the frustrating part of the problem, and I thought it might be a the motor software. But I'll try and hook up my Manhattan and see if it will drive past 53°E.

VS : I'm at least glad to hear that someone else has similar problems! I can't really attempt to do anything until after the end of next week, as my stepdaughter is over till then and as she is helping install central heating upstairs (she's an apprentice plumber - even was apprentice of the year at her college!!) I'm reluctant to prise her away from my Freesat box. But I'll get round to trying something asap. Thanks for the advice guys.

Pete
 

Huevos

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sonnetpete said:
With the dish set on for example 1°W, asking the receiver to scan 68°E results in no movement of the dish. Despite the screen showing "motor is moving".
Here's the thing, the box doesn't have any idea what the motor is doing, it just knows it has sent the command. For the box to keep track of the motor it would need to be diseqc 2.x compatible.

Also, on a diseqc motor hardware and software limits are both functions of the motor (with a v-box software limits are a function of the v-box). This is necessary because you don't want to drive the dish into a wall just because you change receiver. For this reason storing software limits in the receiver, rather than the motor would be impractical.

In the motor control menu of the Vantage you need to go in to the positioner menu, not the USALS menu and select disable limits. This will send a signal up to the motor to clear the limits.

If you can't figure it out with the Vantage use the Manhattan box to clear the limits.

menu >> install >> channel search >> switch USALS to diseqc 1.2 >> press select >> erase limits >> press exit once >> switch back to USALS >> escape all menus.

Hope it works.
 

sonnetpete

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My Satellite Setup
Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.

Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
Free Sat V8 meter. Sony Bravia 46" LCD, Sony BluRay and Home Cinema.
My Location
Normandy, France
Hi Huevos,

Thanks so much for that, it explains a lot. I'll try with the Vantage and if not, the Manhattan. In fact I might even have a go while my stepdaughter (Sarah) is having a lie in O-zzz

Pete
 

sonnetpete

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My Satellite Setup
Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.

Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
Free Sat V8 meter. Sony Bravia 46" LCD, Sony BluRay and Home Cinema.
My Location
Normandy, France
Hi Huevos,

Tried to clear limits after switching to positioner, but on that setting the option of enable/disable dissappears. Didn't have time to do much else for now, but will use the faithful Manhattan to clear the limits. (I assume that the workthrough you posted was for that receiver)

Would resetting the motor using the bent paper clip method have the same effect? Or will the limits be applied again once the Vantage is re - connected?

Pete
 

Huevos

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sonnetpete said:
Would resetting the motor using the bent paper clip method have the same effect? Or will the limits be applied again once the Vantage is re - connected?
I don't know. The thing is when you do a motor reset you are resetting the motor to its default parameters. Whether those default parameters contain enabled software limits is down to whatever the firmware designer chose.
 

sonnetpete

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My Satellite Setup
Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.

Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
Free Sat V8 meter. Sony Bravia 46" LCD, Sony BluRay and Home Cinema.
My Location
Normandy, France
Hi,

I think the the Manhattan reset route is going to be simplest of all to attempt. Especially as it doesn't involve standing on a ladder outside in rain!!

May give it a go tomorrow morning and report again!

Pete
 

sonnetpete

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My Satellite Setup
Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.

Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
Free Sat V8 meter. Sony Bravia 46" LCD, Sony BluRay and Home Cinema.
My Location
Normandy, France
Hi,

Ok, I've been following another thread and from postings on that I believe the USAL's has an inbuilt software limit of 60° either side of 0°. This would explain why I can't reach 68°E!!

However, if I select 1.2 instead of usals for 68°E will this allow me to turn the dish to that position? Also will it turn usals off on all the other sats? If this is all going to be too complicated, I'll just ditch the Gibertini and get a CM 1.8 and go down the 36V route :-rofl2

Pete
 

Huevos

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sonnetpete said:
I've been following another thread and from postings on that I believe the USAL's has an inbuilt software limit of 60° either side of 0°. This would explain why I can't reach 68°E!!
I'm confused about this because if I tell my dish to go to 68.5E using USALS it does drive the dish. And we are more or less the same longitude (0.5W for me). Is this part of the spec of USALS or just something added by some software designers?

sonnetpete said:
if I select 1.2 instead of usals for 68°E will this allow me to turn the dish to that position? Also will it turn usals off on all the other sats? If this is all going to be too complicated, I'll just ditch the Gibertini and get a CM 1.8 and go down the 36V route :-rofl2

Pete
You cannot have USALS and Diseqc 1.2 running at the same time. Not for zapping anyway, but you could manually switch between the two before changing channel. If you want to be able to zap you will need to save all you other satellite positions as diseqc 1.2.

First though put the receiver in diseqc 1.2 and find out if you can drive the motor to 68.5E. According to the scale on the motor shaft you are going to need to get to almost 75 degrees.
 

sonnetpete

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My Satellite Setup
Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.

Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
Free Sat V8 meter. Sony Bravia 46" LCD, Sony BluRay and Home Cinema.
My Location
Normandy, France
Hi Heuvos,

I'm confused too!! However, have you any idea why we input our latitude into USALS? It can't obviously affect where a H H motor stub points vertically as that is fixed physically. But if you were on the Equator you would be able to access more satellites (given that you had line of sight to all of them) as they would be directly overhead. So as you are a bit further south than me, does that lower latitude 'tell' the software that you can access more of the arc and possibly let you go to 68°E?

It begs the question if I alter my latitude settings will I get the further ends of the arc? I did alter my physical limits when I changed the dish but can't remember what I set them at. I think it was about 80° E and W. I'll see about driving the dish on 1.2 and let you know.

Pete
 

Huevos

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sonnetpete said:
have you any idea why we input our latitude into USALS?
Latitude has a bearing on how far the motor needs to turn. This is because it tells how far offset from the earth's axis you are. For example it you were at the north pole you are right at the axis around which the geostationary orbit is positioned so to go from 0ºE to 30ºE you just turn the motor 30º. Simple as that (although the satellites are below the horizon viewed from the poles). If you were at the equator on the other hand you are offset from the orbital centre by almost 6,400 kilometres (because you are at the earth's surface, not its core) and because of this if you want to go from 0ºE to 30ºE the motor needs to turn 35º.
 
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