Dreambox 500s Does not move motor HELP PLEASE !!!

B

bopper1968

Member
My Satellite Setup
Dreambox 500s (sorry)
1.2 m Motorised dish
My Location
West Lothian Scotland
Hi guys and firstly let me thank anyone for their help.
I have a dreambox 500s and it doesnt seem to have enough power to move the motor, so what I have done is reinstalled my Technomate 5400 to drive the motor which it does no problem and finds all the sweet spots in all satellite I have searched for without a problem.
I have run a cable from the TM5400 out of LNB out to the LNB In on the dreambox and can watch all the channels that way via Scart of course.
Is there anyway possible that I can use to dreambox via the TM5400 to drive the motor without having to change cables all the time?
Thanks again in advance
Bopper
 
DM 500s are not the best for driving motors but they do work slowly , have you got a long run from dish to stb that could possibly cause dm500 not enough power to move dish, alternativly use tm as positioner and loop through to dm
 
Hi dale yeah the run is about 40 mtrs or so and the dm just doesnt move it at all but if i press the east / west button on the motor it will move then.
Thanks for getting back as quick by the way.
Billy
 
have you tryed too increased the power in settings....
 
if the motor moves manually then it has the power, try turning usals of and manually scan a couple of sats in ie 13 e 15.8 e 19.2e note that you have to save every sat you tune in , then try and see
 
The DM500 doesn't have the power to move a motor plus its a clone so it definitely wont have enough power to move the dish. Don't think you can use the Dreambox to control the Technomate you'll just have to switch between them.
 
you must be using different DM500S to me then aamir007 cos most ive fitted for customers on reletavely short runs do move the motor and only occasionally stick with a reboot normally rectifying the problem, personnally i wouldnt supply them for motorised i usually use tm500/600/super with technomate motors with no problem whatsover, not all members can afford top of the range boxes and have to make do with what they can afford , so i think we should be helping these members not telling them that dm500s dont work with motors, which is not the case m8

:confused:
 
Sorry about that dale094 i've never used a DM500 to move a motor and from what i've seen and heard there not very good at it. My apologies i've got this one wrong i'll be sure to mention in my future posts that they are capable of moving motor on short runs.
 
If it doesn't happen with the Technomate receiver it is not down to cable length. Maybe just getting a better quality power supply would make all the difference. If the motor is moving when you push the button there is enough power to drive the motor. What is probably happening is once the motor starts to move the power it is drawing causes the voltage to drop sufficiently that the controller circuit in the motor forgets the command it has just been sent. Making sure the first channel when the motor moves is horizontally polarised might help because in horizontal mode there are 5 volts more going to the motor.
 
mine had problems moving the motor with the stock power supply you get with the dm500. replaced the power supply with a 5amp one from a broken pc monitor, this solved it and it has been fine. the clones are renouned for dodgy power supplies.
 
Bopper has already stated that the dish moves manually so the power supply doesnt look like the problem , It could just be a case of the sats have not been saved , try a manual scan of sats and save positions then try.
 
dale094 said:
Bopper has already stated that the dish moves manually so the power supply doesnt look like the problem
Click to expand...
Dale it can still be the power supply even if the dish moves when you press the button. When you press the button you are just looping power straight to the motor. Voltage drop doesn't matter. When you send a DiSEqC command you are using the microprocessor in the motor to interpret the command and control the motor. In this case if voltage drop is too much the the microprocessor will "forget" what it is doing and the motor will stop... or not even start in the first place.
 
Correct me if im wrong but all switching and voltage control is determined through the box.

The specified power supply voltage (Vcc) is 5.0 volts ± 10%.
At a nominal oscillator frequency of 6 MHz the typical current consumption
of the chip is 6 mA.
The normal port pins in the 80C51 series of microcontrollers have “quasi bidirectional”
characteristics. To achieve this, the on-chip circuitry provides a
weak pull-up (source) current of about 50 μA, and a rather stronger pull-down
(sink) current of a few mA when a logical ‘0’ is written to the port pin. At
power-up and reset, the microcontroller’s internal hardware automatically
sets all the port pins high. To use any pin as an input, the software leaves (or
sets) the pin “high” and then the external signal only needs to sustain the
relatively small pull-up current. When used as an output, an “active low”
(sink) current of up to a few mA is available, or some “active high” (source)
current may be obtained via an externally connected resistor of typically
3.3 kW to Vcc.
The switching characteristics for the normal port pins are:
Input “low” voltage = 0.8 volts maximum at 4.5 volts Vcc
Input “high” voltage = 2.0 volts minimum at 5.5 volts Vcc
Output “low” voltage = 0.45 volts maximum at 1.6 mA (sink)
Output “high” voltage = 2.4 volts minimum at 60 μs (source)

so if voltage looped through works then it should when switched
 
dale094 said:
Correct me if im wrong but all switching and voltage control is determined through the box.
Click to expand...
Forget the Dreambox and it's power supply for a minute. Just think about the motor. Supply it with 13 volts down the coax. Press the button and the motor moves. Send it a DiSEqC command down the coax and the processor circuitry inside the motor interprets that command and moves the motor. Lower the voltage on the coax to 8 volts. Press the button and the motor moves. Slower than with 13 volts but it moves. Send a DiSEqC command down the coax to the motor and it doesn't move. It doesn't move because 8 volts is not enough for the processor in the motor to work properly and interpret the DiSEqC command. Since all power ultimately comes from the plugin power supply if it is not man enough to maintain the demand the voltage level at the motor will fall below the point where the processor in the motor ceases to function properly or at all.
 
dale094 said:
so where is the 8 volts coming from to the motor !! source
Click to expand...
It's a chain: power supply -> receiver -> coax -> motor. If anything in the chain is not man enough there will be voltage drop at the motor.
 
So you have just answered my question : power supply: not multi but single to reciever-> reciever ->coax->motor->LNB: The motor being the slave: so if the power supply is man enough to move motor manually-> and reciever is first point then sending commands to slave: then chain working to motor, so it is the box and not the power supply that supplies the power to the slave .

I stand corrected: but hey we are here to help , but it seems Bopper has moved on weeks ago and cant be bothered to return any findings to us : so as Alan Sugar would say : Im out.
 
Lets face it the DM500 isn't a proper receiver. I've had the pleasure of setting up a few, even had one myself for about 3 days :(

They are only any good for single sat systems or multiple ones that run off a DISEqC switch. Motors have always been a waste of time with these receivers.

Even if you can get the motor to move, nine times out of ten it will try and park itself in the wall.

Horrible nasty pieces of kit which should be avoided at all costs.

Nano
 
Thanks everyone for your thoughts on this problem, i still have the problem though so I am saving my cash to buy a better box so now the question??? What is the best box to get that is like the DB500s.
Cheers
 
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