Dish Motor Has Failed :-(

[Tony1A]

This morning I have conducted some tests to see what is going on. I connected the RX cable and LNB cable together and my box still went crazy. I reconnected them to the motor and and then tried a different box....RESULT....the technomate box is bad. I think the power supply is defective due to our house power tripping a couple of weeks back and the box went beserk. The internal fan started running and the red display light flashed continuously.

The box I have put in place is a Medion and as soon as I connected it, set the location and all that, it sent the dish to the satellites and started scanning. The motor, LNB and cable is fine. The medion has lots of advantages over the Technomate one as it switches aspect ratio to the broadcast and it's better picture quality to my eyes. It also scans very quickly, but I'm unsure of the channel capacity it has.

Other than the Technomate, can anyone recommend a different box? I'm a bit reluctant to get another one.

 

[Captain Jack]

You can probably repair the TM box by replacing the capacitors and, perhaps, some other components such as transistors/voltage regulators. They are the most common parts that fail and they are cheap and easy to replace, if you have any soldering iron skills.

 

[Tony1A]

Yeah, I have the skills! Been into electronics and stuff like that since I was a kid.

 

[Lazarus]

Well it is good that you've found the real problem, but as for what to replace the box with, as always that depends upon your requirements and interests.

But haven't you already answered the question, given the positive comments about the Medion?

What precise Model is it, as it shouldn't be diccifult to dig out a spec. that includes Channel capacity. In any event, I doubt it would be less than 5000.

 

[Tony1A]

It's the MD24285. I think it has around 4000 channels

 

[Lazarus]

It's the MD24285. I think it has around 4000 channels

I have found the Manual, but only in German.

Too large for auto-translation on the GoogleWeb, so I'll try to find the relevant bit and translate that!

 

[Lazarus]

Aha!

Having realised the Tech Spec was on page 51 out of 230, which seemed a bit odd, I've scrolled down further and found English text.

Just plodding through it now.

 

[Lazarus]

Hmm. Everything but Channel capacity!

Anyway, went to Amazon site and found a summary that mentions 4000 Channels, so your recollection seems right.

I only have around 1000 stored on my boxes as I like to weed carp out.

Storing everything isn't really necessary, unless you're keen on Religion, Shopping etc. !

 

[Tony1A]

I still have around 1500 spare channels to play with so I may put more satellites on later. I'm just glad that my dish motor is OK, I'd have looked like a right lemon installing a new motor just to find it was the box all the time. I'd still be interested as to what boxes other members use on their systems

This box I'm using is 2 watts on standby and 8 watts in use. Not at all bad!

 

[sonnetpete]

I'd still be interested as to what boxes other members use on their systems

As per my sig : A Clarke Tech USALS motor onto a Dr HD 15. The motor has been super reliable and was powered by my VU+ previously.

 

[Lazarus]

Skybox F3 (Times two)