Diseqc 1.2 plugin??

[paddy22]

Got my ss2 card and the dish is going up tomorrow I've installed My Theatre and the ss2 latest drivers and software, I also put the diseqc plugin in as described in the readme file supplied.

while becoming familiar with the plugin I noticed the goto option, if the motor on the dish do'snt support this will I harm the motor (Cryptik), or would it pay to play safe and use "Drive motor East/West" option.

I've been told by the dealer who sold me the dish kit to take it to west 1% "Thor" and tune it in then "auto search".

I'm a newbie and "I know Nothing" I'd appreciate any advice. thanks in advance

 

[BGonaSTICK]

Can't be sure if you will damage your motor, but I can't see that being a real possibility.

Good advice to start at 1W.

Before you start, get a list of all the sats you want to view, with their positions in the sky, then you'll know roughly where you need to be pointing with your plugin (it won't be exact for any of them).

I'd say the most important thing to get right from the outset is to make sure your mounting pole is exactly vertical, and rock solid. Without that, you are wasting your time.

Not sure which 1.2 plugin you've got, but (if you have it) the 'Max Signal' button is very useful. It will 'lock in' to the sat in the E/W plane.

You'll be able to work out how far 'off' you are (physically) from 1W by playing around with that. Use it on other sats as well to get a feel for how well your dish is 'tracking the arc'.

Good luck.

 

[paddy22]

the motor is supposed to have 26 presets stored, the way the guy explained it once W1 was locked in with good signal the auto search would then locate the rest, but he was refering to a stb, not the ss2 card.

thanks for replying in laymens terms(cos thats what I am) I'll have a crack at it tomorrow, dug out the plumb rules and the drill ready, lol

 

[BGonaSTICK]

On the 1.2 diseqc plugin I have (not sure which one/which version you have), the function you refer to is called Auto Goto X.X, and as you say, once you've found ANY sat and locked it in, will calculate the postion of all the others for you.

If you start by locking in 1W as the reference sat, that will give you the best chance of compensating for any small errors, but as I said, the calculations for each sat will always be a little bit off, so using the 'Max Signal' button around where you would expect to find each sat will give you the best results, (the best signal/quality).

 

[paddy22]

the plugin is Diseqc 1.2 for skystar2 v1.5

is that the latest version?

 

[BGonaSTICK]

Not sure what the latest is (and there are variations written by different people), but if your readme file looks like the attached, then you should be fine. As you can see, mine is V1.5 by MiBi and has been trouble free for some time now.

 

[paddy22]

Yeh, they are the same thanks, got the dish up the day but unable to tune in due to the lack of a body, tried the plugin, to see if the motor would work, got some success, but that was using a 0 setting in the "Drive motor East to West" option, tried using increments but to be honest I don't think it moved. I vagauly remember a post saying that sometimes you have to either restart the proggy or reboot(searching the posts now), the main thing is the sods moving, hopfully I'll get a hand tuning it in tomorrow, can't do anything til then, thanks for the assistance BGonaSTICK appreciate it.

 

[BGonaSTICK]

No worries.

Check back here if you need anything alse.

 

[paddy22]

that 1.5 plugin has gone belly up, probably something I've done!!! instead of saying East to West it's gone bonkers and said it's running east to north, Iused the config button and i ave the right settings, but I re-entered them just in case, 1.5W 55 still reads wrong, uninstalled all the bloody software after pulling my few remaining hairs out! still comes up with thor being at 359* , decided to start from scratch (good learning curve, B*ll*cks!) took everything off, including the "skynet" file in the drivers directory, put it all back on still the same any ideas!

one sad old fart will have nowt to watch after the footy, drink maybe the answer!

 

[BGonaSTICK]

Calm down and leave your hair alone. It won't grow back if you pull it out. That's wot my Ma says, anyway.

If you imagine the world as a 360 circle, and you start at 0 degrees and rotate anti-clockwise (east in sat terms), by the time you have rotated 360 degrees, you'll be back where you started, right?

It therefor follows that if you start again, and rotate 359 degrees anti-clockwise (east), you'll be at 359 degrees east, or 1 degree WEST!

Geddit?!?!?! They are the same thing!

Some satellite software refers to all offsets as being EAST, so ten degrees west will be the same as 350 degrees east, and ten degrees east will just be ten degrees east!

Go re-install, and have fun.

As I say, 1 degree west could actually read 356 East or 6 East. Physically re-align the dish so that it's as close to what your software interprets as 1W as you can get it, but don't be suprised if it's then a bit out when you rotate the dish to say 19 degrees east. It could easily be a degree or three out. The more accurate you can align on 1 West the better, as the dish has to track an arc in the sky, and not a straight line.

Don't forget two things. When you are at 0 degrees, you should actually be pointing DUE SOUTH, not north, as the satellites orbit above the equator, which is SOUTH of the UK. If you were in the southern hemisphere, you would have to point due north. That's why in the UK, anti-clockwise is EAST, and clockwise is WEST. Look at your compass upside-down if you don't believe me!

Secondly, when aligning on 1 W, make sure that your actual motor is set right in the middle of it's H-H travel, or you really WILL be bald by Monday morning.

 

[paddy22]

I've got two clumps left (hair that is), yes i've come to the conclusion that it makes no odds what the software say's as long as it's working. I've no intentions of adjusting the dish as I'm get 98% signal from thor and I no longer have the use of the metre.

this is all new and I'm delighted with the results and the help I've recieved from yourself and the others on this forum. Now I'm going to see if anyone has had problems pipeing it thru to the tv using a geoforce mx400 graphics card, don't seem to be getting much joy, got a sneaky suspicion that the card don't like my tv.
thanks again your a star

 

[BGonaSTICK]

No probs.

I couldn't get any 'live' picture from my ATI Radeon 9600 TVout card to my Sony TV, and I never found a solution to it. I can however record stuff to my HDD, then play it back through my TV OK. I think it's due to the resolution of the satellite stream not matching what the TV is expecting from the card, or rather what the card is trying to push to the TV.

You may have the same problem, and if you ever find a solution, I'd be pleased to hear it!

I think that with the NVIDIA chipset, you stand a chance of using another piece of software to interface to the TVout port, but it's only something I read somewhere.

Glad to be of help anyway.

Cya.

 

[paddy22]

well I've posted to see what people recommend, but I may stick in the old Hollywood card to see if that brings any joy. I read a post by Starman, I believe he was getting a live feed, may mail him and ask advice, if protocol permits it?

thanks again for the support, Kick off in 2 mins , "Come On England"

 

[BGonaSTICK]

Sorry, can't fix the England result, but I think if the subject is likely to interest others, then the best place to discuss it is on the board. If you wanna discuss in private, then PM is cool.

 

[paddy22]

point taken, have had some joy. took on board your comments and borrowed an old portable tv, set it up and it worked. My tv is a Asda "Schneider" and for whatever reason it don't like the signal. This forum is really paying off for me, now all i'll do is find somebody with a compatable tv and I'll swap tvs while there not looking, Big thanks for the thoughts!