Finding satellites

kungfumaster

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I just got my DB on Friday and having difficulties and need help!!

What is the best way to find and store satellites? It seems very trial and error and i'm sure it's not meant to be like that?

Also, can i use a standard power cable from an old UK video recorder on my German DB?
:)
 

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kungfumaster said:
I just got my DB on Friday and having difficulties and need help!!

What is the best way to find and store satellites? It seems very trial and error and i'm sure it's not meant to be like that?

Also, can i use a standard power cable from an old UK video recorder on my German DB?
:)
Once you have your motor/LNB etc. setup complete, and your dish is aligned correctly, simply go to auto transponder scan, confirm which satellite you are aimed at, and once the DB has confirmed that it has found a 'valid' frequency for that sat, you can start the full scan. You can also manually adjust the existing transponder list and re-scan if you're missing some channels.

A standard UK 'figure 8' 230V power lead is fine for your German DB.
 

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the db uses an xml file to tell it the transponders to scan, this is called satellite.xml. I assume you are using the default image that came with db, ie you didn not "flash" the box with another image. The xml file lives in /var/etc check that is there.Then perform a transponder scan for your satellites.
 

kungfumaster

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Thanks guys.

I don't know if everything is set up correctly as the installer installed it on Friday. But I do manage to get 19.2 and previously I had 13.0 as well but now i can't get it back.

What do you mean by a full scan? I have already located the Astra 19.2 with a SNR of 86 and AGC of 69 and scanned for the channels, which I can see. How else now do I add another satellite to my list?

I have already changed the image to latest hydra so that satellites.xml should be ok?
 

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kungfumaster said:
Thanks guys.

I don't know if everything is set up correctly as the installer installed it on Friday. But I do manage to get 19.2 and previously I had 13.0 as well but now i can't get it back.

What do you mean by a full scan? I have already located the Astra 19.2 with a SNR of 86 and AGC of 69 and scanned for the channels, which I can see. How else now do I add another satellite to my list?

I have already changed the image to latest hydra so that satellites.xml should be ok?
xml file should be there on hydra. Do you have a motorised or a fixed setup?. I have a fixed setup and I know that I have 13e on antena 1 and 19e on 2. So in the satellites configuration I enter hotbird first.
 

kungfumaster

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I have a motorised setup so i guess that's slightly different to set up? I don't change anything in the satellites configuration apart from choosing 'many satellites using diseqc'.
 

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Sounds about right.

My setup is a little odd at the mo, as I have my DB setup as if it were driving a motor, but the motor is actually driven by my PC.

If you have one sat setup O.K. then go to SETUP/SERVICE SEARCHING/SATFIND, select the new sat at the bottom, wait for the motor to drive you there, then go back to SERVICE SEARCHING and do an AUTOMATIC TRANSPONDER SCAN.

Then when you select channels on different sats, the motor will auto-drive.
 

kungfumaster

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That's my problem - when I go onto satfind and try to find hotbird, it simply says 'Please wait while he motor is turning to 13.0E and stays there OR the 3 numbers (SNR, AGC and BER keep changing for a long time (and i mean a long time, something like 1/2 hour.. surely it doesn't take this long to find?) without getting a lock . This happens 99% of the time but on the 1 out of 100 i have actually managed to find both satellites! That's the strange thing, otherwise I would be sure that motor or something is broken...
 

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....and does the motor actually drive?

My guess would be that when it has driven the motor, it's positioned inaccurately.
I reckon that if you plugged another receiver in at that point, you would not get a lock either.

The 'please wait while the motor is driving...' message only dissappears once it has locked a transponder, either in scan mode or in normal TV mode when switching between channels on different satellites. In scan mode, it's looking for any one of the sats in the existing transponder list. Check to see if your satellites.xml file is loaded by viewing the 'manually edit transponder lists' option or whatever it's called. It should be full of transponders.

As I say, my motor is driven by my PC, so I know that when I've driven it to another sat correctly, 'cos I can check it on my Skystar.

Is it a new motorised dish, or have you just upgraded receivers? Does your old receiver drive it between the two sats OK? If it's a new motor/dish, chuck a meter on it in the second position, and see if it's out. Is your pole vertical? Is your az/el/decl set right? Did you enter your long/lat into the Dreambox correctly? Are you sure?

STICK
 

kungfumaster

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It's a new setup and it was done by an installer so i can't really answer your last paragraph. As for the long and lat figures, I didn't enter any as I had unticked the goto xx function. Do I need this? (How do I enter negative longitude with the remote? mine is -2.212 50,5075 and i can't enter the first one..)

To be honest I don't think the motor moves but i can't see it as it is on the roof. Again the only thing that disproves this is the fact that i can sometimes get hotbird and sometimes astra and on one occasion both. Can a single lnb pick both of these without the dish moving??

I have looked the the transponders list ans it looks fine..

Arrrrgggggh
 

BGonaSTICK

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You will need lat and long.

Leave goto x.x on.

Enter your longitude as (360 - 2.212) which is 357.788 E (or put it in as 2.212 W)

Your Latitude of 50.507 N is fine.

You will only get one of Astra or Hotbird at once on a normal, single LNB dish.

The above may get you sorted. You certainly need to enter it. Get someone to press some buttons while you check your dish is driving. It would be nice to know!

Why didn't your installer get you up and running?
 

kungfumaster

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OK, i'll try that when i get back in tonight. If you can only get one satellite at once then that means the the motor is at least moving.. sometimes.

The installer installed it but he had never seen a dreambox before so didn't have a clue. He stayed til 10pm then gave up, i was trying to get it working all night and got where i am now.
 

BGonaSTICK

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Well don't give up hope. We'll sort you out.... sooner or later! :)

The motor movement is dependant on where you are, so with your new settings, I think you may be in for a plesant surprise...
 

kungfumaster

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Nah, it still doesn't work. Programmed in the lat/long - had it tuned to astra and was picking up picture. Then went to satfind, which at the time is locked to astra, changed the satellite to hotbird and can't get a lock.. :(
 

BGonaSTICK

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It's sounding like maybe your installer didn't get it right then.

If you can, snap all the sat setup screens in the DB and post them here. Make sure you don't post any keys though!

Is goto x.x set on? What signal are you getting on 19.2E?

Try stepping your dish round from 19.2E to the west once it's looking for Hotbird, or once it thinks it's on Hotbird, step east and then west 50 steps in an attempt to find it.

Can you see your dish at all from the ground?

Can you drive it 45 E and then 45 W at have a look at it in both positions?

You could ask your installer (or a mate with an FTA or better receiver) to bring round another receiver to test if it's working correctly...
 

T_G

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Whuuuuuhooooaaaahhhha aaaaaaahhhhhh (just had to practice my Kung Fu cat torturing cry O-Ha )

Here is what you do: You go to the one sat you can get such as Astra 19. Then you press the dreambox button on remote, get into service searching, motor setup, then you reached the page with the go to xx command. Press the blue button to the next page. Then you will see:
Mode (Position)
Satellite (Astra 19)
TRansponder (whatever is on)
Direction (Stop)

Underneath it you can see the signal strength and the lock/sync little grez boxes.

So when you are on the 19 east you shopuld see the grey buttons x'ed.
Then you go to the satellite pulldown menu and choose the Hotbird 13 east sat. Then choose a strong transponder such as 12597. Then you go to the
direction box and move the dish carefully to the west using the left arrow on your remote (it should tell you either "one step to west" or " Turning to west").
Now I would press it repeatedly for a second each time, watch the signal bar. You will see it suddenly get higher, and then the grey bastards get x'ed. Once you have found the sat you can fine tune it by going a bit to the left or the right until it is the highest. Then press the button to save the position. I have doen this many times, It does not take more than a few minutes to find all 5, 6 sats you can get.
After you've done that you will be able to scan for those sats with the automatic scan, even though I don't do this anymore, I just get the settings from satelite forums who post them. You can enter these by using the Dreambox edit program (but you knew that because you read the idiot guide ;) ).
Anyway, setting the channels manually might not be the elegant method, but if you tried the automatic way and couldn't get anuthing, this is your thing...Let us know how it went!

TG
 

kungfumaster

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Thanks for trying to help me out guys.
It's beginning to seem more and more like either the DB is bust (even though it's new) or the installation is dodgy.

I have done the things that both of you have suggested many times. The stepping to the east and west doesn't seem to work, the numbers don't change much apart from the usual fluctuations. Even when I have found a satellite (astra), saved it, scanned the channels and recieve them and then view them, when I try to add another new satellite, it says turning motor to 13.0E but it doesn't lock. I then try and view the stored astra channels but they have gone also and when i ask my motor to drive to position 1, where i saved it, it can't find a lock again! So I lose that as well. This happens 95% of the time if I get hotbird first. Astra seems easer to get and lock.

It's total hit and miss and trial and error and luck getting any satellite. There's no set pattern, I just try every combination of gotoXX, use motor, satfind, auto scan...until i sometimes get a lock...

I managed to get the installer to comeback on friday to see if he can sort out the dish setup. He said he would also bring another reciever to test whether it;s the DB at fault or his installation. I think i'm gonna give up with this until then as it's doing my head in... Why didn't I use get a 5400??!! :(

Anyway, thanks for your efforts and i will let you know what happens on friday.

cheers
 

BGonaSTICK

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kungfumaster said:
Why didn't I get a 5400??!!
No, you did the right thing. :)

You'd have had the same problems with that, I'm sure...

I think it's a good idea to get away from it for a few days. It'll seem a lot more straightforward then!
I also think you've done the best thing by getting the guy back with another reciever. Once you've checked that, you'll know which half of the installation is shot. Hopefully, it'll be the dish/motor setup, and your installer can put it right.

Good luck, and let us know next weekend. We'll always try to help, as we've all been there. :D
 

T_G

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kungfumaster said:
Why didn't I use get a 5400??!! :(


ooooooohaaaaaaaaaa

Man, don't get upset, I wanted to chuck my dreambox out of the windows the first week I had it. I had exactly the same problems, and even some more, and if it wasn't for Rolf to cheer me up I would have...
Even though I agree you should have gotten a 5620, you will sort it out.
If I was you I would go back to the original image you had and sort out the satellites first. I have tried the latest two editions of Hydra and found them to be really crap compared to the previous ones I had, so having the latest is not always a guarantee it is good.

P.S What is your favourite Kung Fu song?
 

kungfumaster

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Hi guys,
This is what happened.. the guy came at 8.30pm on Friday when it was almost dark AND he didn't have a test reciever, so he came and tried to play about with the DB. I had already been playing about with it for the last week so sort of knew it, but it was obvious he didn't have a clue! Anyway, I managed to to persuade him to come back on Sunday as he was wasting his and my time.

He came back on Sunday, at 8.30 again even though we had decided 6pm on Friday!, with a test reciever, he apparently re-aligned the dish, and it seemed to work on the test reciever. We connected it back to DB and found 19.2 and 13.0 and we could switch between the 2 satellites!:D something that i only managed to do once before right at the start. I then tried to find Sirius and Thor, but couldn't get them... the install guy then had enough and went away. I had enough as well and left it for the day.

Yesterday, I tried again to find the satellites and found 28.2E, and then i could find a lot of the other satellites as well, as long as I used a good transponder! :D

So now it seems to work OK. Got Thor, Hispasat, Astra, Hotbird and some others.. but the one i can't get is Sirius - I have a 88cm dish and in west london - should i be able to get this??

Also, my other problem is that when the DB freezes or crashes, the only way it will boot up is if I take out the coax cable. Anyone know why this is? Basically, I take out the cox cable, restart DB once it's booted up, put it in standby - re-insert the coax cable, then turn it back on. Otherwise it will freeze at the "Dream Multimedia" stage of the bootup process on the LCD.
Why? :confused

T_G, don't have a favourite kung-fu song, though i thought there was just one - kung fu fighting!
 
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