Need a sat installer ne1 interested ?

longstockings

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I feel I have ended up at a brick wall with my new motorised system and need expert help.

I have posted numerous questions on all the main sat forums and really have tried my hardest to get the system working

My setup is Dreambox 7000s running latest hydra agrahad or whatever it's called
I have a t and k bracket
Polycarbonate dish 80cm
Diseqc 1.2 rotor
Universal 0.3 lnb

The above setup it basically a copy of RolfW's system

I just can't find the arc and having major problems finding more than 1 sat
I have picked up Astra 19.2 but nothing else.

This has taken me 2 months and it still will not work correctly
If I sound desperate it's because I am

What I need is someone experienced with the Dreambox to come round and help me get this bugger sorted out.

I have a limited budget of around £100 and I live in Totnes which is in South Devon.

I have tried local installers but they either don't want to touch a motorised setup, don't do sats during the winter, won't answer my calls, have been cut off by BT or generally know less then me.

If you have a spare weekend and think you can set this up for me and you live in the South West please contact me via email.

rich@NOSPAMtotnes.com ( remove NOSPAM when emailing )
Please include your satellites.co.uk user name when emailing

Thanks again

Sorry it's a little off topic but I was unsure as to where I should post this.
 

rolfw

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It does seem to be the case that not many installers are interested in motorised systems, I guess that we must have some helpful members living not too far away, don't think that the Dreambox is your problem, more likely the dish and motor setup.
 

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i know what you mean longstockings (wierd name by the way :) )

i thought about installing my own dish, but ended up getting pro's in, cost me £150..... but with the sounds of it, it was a good move.

good luck though, i have had my Dreambox for just over a week, and i have had a few problems... but i have seen what this baby can do :)

so stick with it, it will be worth the wait :D
 

gameboy

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Have another go yourself - just one more!

I am still fine tuning, mostly working across the arc. If you don't have a cheap Satellite meter, buy one, you can get one for around a tenner.

Start from scratch with the mount - I thought my walls were vertical until I tried to set up the mount. In the end I used a plumb line which worked out a lot better than the spirit level.

The mount I bought wasn't that great and I had to use washers to get it perfertly vertical. Try and leave a bit of movement in the bolts in the slots on the mount to get it perfect (like Rolfw). Once vertical tighten the bolts and check it again!

Once the mount is vertical, fix the pole and check with the same plumb line on all sides. If the pole is not perfect you're wasting your time. Spend as long as it takes to get it correct.

Next, mount the motor on the pole and check your Long/Lat settings to give you the angle (do a search in the forums for websites that will give you exact settings). Lock that angle on the motor and don't move it (yet). Mount your dish on the motor and set it vertical to the pole. Check that the dish arm for the LNB is inline with the seam on the motor mounting.

Now connect the receiver and the meter to the LNB/motor (make sure you connect to the correct side for each. At midday the sun should be near South so that's a good starter. Make sure the motor is on 0 (zero) and rotate the whole lot round the pole until it is pointing to the sun.

Check that the receiver is on as you won't get any power to the meter/LNB.

With the meter on, move the dish from the vertical a few degrees upwards (not too much). Time to rotate the motor back and forth, do this until you get a siganl on the meter ( doesn't matter what sat it is yet). If you don't get a signel move the dish up a few degrees and try again, up and down, back and forth, until you get something. Do this only a few degrees around South.

Once you get a signal stop moving the dish back and forth and only move the dish up and down until you find the strongest signal then tighten the bolts on the dish a bit.

The chances are this is 'Thor' or 'Intelsat' so go down the ladder to the DreamBox and go to setup and scan Thor to see if you get a lockon if you do then 'great'. If not scan the sats each side.

Once you have found Thor check where the motor is pointing i.e. 0,1,2 etc East or West. It should be just West of the 0 (zero) marker.

You should be able to guess which way to turn the dish motor assembly on the pole to get Thor to this position (1deg West). Move the motor dish assembly - then use the motor power to find the signal again. After a few tries you should have set South.

Once South is set, take a chance and rotate the dish (motor power) East and West to 30deg each side. Use the meter to see if you find any other signals.

If you can find East signals but not West the the motor/dish assembly is not bang on South move it a few degrees West. If you find West but not East do the opposite - move the whole assembly East.

Scan back and forth until you get both East and West. This will take some time but with a meter it is a lot easier. Once I found signals East and West I moved to the furthest East signal and tried tilting the dish to see if the signal was stronger. Before you do this mark with a felt pen the angle your dish is at before you started. Fine tune the dish angle. I found that the motor angle was better slightly higher than the recommended setting from the web (again mark the position that works before you move anything)

If you don't get anything other than Thor then the dish needs to be tilted a bit more. Take your time and it will work (if the pole is vertical - most important).

Once you can get a signal on the meter from both East and West move inside for part two - this will follow....
 

BGonaSTICK

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**** ME! You can't leave me hanging like that!?!?!?!?

What happens NEXT?!?!?!?!
 

gameboy

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BGonaSTICK said:
What happens NEXT?!?!?!?!

The GoTo XX function happens next - don't want to open that 'can of worms' until the dish is sorted.

If you can hear a good strong Bleep or Signal on the arc let me know and I'll open that 'can of worms'

Please, Please try - just one more time, I know you can do it.
 

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gameboy said:
Have another go yourself - just one more!

I am still fine tuning, mostly working across the arc. If you don't have a cheap Satellite meter, buy one, you can get one for around a tenner.

Start from scratch with the mount - I thought my walls were vertical until I tried to set up the mount. etc etc snip
Once you can get a signal on the meter from both East and West move inside for part two - this will follow....

aagghh
you've just talked me into sticking with my 2 dish 4 lnb DiSeqC system
 

BGonaSTICK

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R~o-O ~F~L~M~A~o-O !...
 

longstockings

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I don't think the dish is bang on straight and this is the problem.
I did however spend the last 3 hours playing and have had some results

I had the latest Hydra image installed which I replaced with rudream which appears to be better when it comes to setting up a new system.

I tried astra 19.2 first because the signal is strong and eventually managed to pick up a load of channels.

I then tried some of the other Astra Sats and again was able to pick up some channels.

However I have not been able to pick up anything on the West so I assume that I am only part way on the arc.

Now it's all starting to go somewhere and I'm very excited.
The weather in the South West is apauling at present so I'll have another go at aligning the dish and ensuring my pole is straight (ooh er mrs) at the weekend.

Thanks for all the info guys
 

gameboy

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longstockings said:
However I have not been able to pick up anything on the West so I assume that I am only part way on the arc.

See you're part way there - get that pole vertical and it will all fall into place.

I have added another few sat tonight thanks to the strong transponder post.

I have created the list in order...

53.0E 11100V, 6000, 3/4
45.0E 11.495V 3254
42.0E 11.135V 4444
39.0E 12.524V 27500
36.0E 12.695V 3030
33.0E 11472H, 30000, 5/6
28.2E 10.773H 22000
26.0E 11.919H 27500
23.5E 11.675H 27500
19.0E 10.832H 22000
16.0E 11.554V 28800
13.0E 10.758V 27500
10.0E 11.054V 4375
07.0E 11.175V 27500
05.0E 11.766H 27500
01.0W 11.189V 2142
04.0W 10726H, 3750, 3/4
05.0W 12.543H 27500
07.0W 11747V, 27500, 3/4
08.0W 11.556H 27500
11.0W 11464V, 4340, 1/2
12.5W 11.132H 3255
15.0W 11.494V 17464
18.0W 11.661H 5632
22.0W 11.613H 1655
27.5W 11.665V 12223
30.0W 12.012V 27500
37.5W 12522H, 5425, 1/2
43.0W 12584V, 27500, 3/4
45.0W 11510H, 26694, 5/6
58.0W 11612H, 3670, 3/4
 

longstockings

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A quick update

I got it working and the adjustment needed so very very minimal
I have been watching Astra 19.2 and Hotbird and have started to decrypt some stuff such as multivision.

Problem is though that true south is not where I thought it was.

My satellite turns straight into my wall and as such I am unable to pick up 30w or further.

I'm gonna take it all down and fix it above my roof as I'm damned if this is going to get in my way.

All this time and money would be wasted if it was not 100% perfect

On a different note

Mrs keeps asking me for films preferably with English audio with or without subtitles.

Where should I pointing my dish baring in mind I can't get 30w or further at this present time.

It was great to watch a bit of Sky last night and the Mrs said " this is crap what else is on " I lept up and put the Dreambox on and watched that until the early hours of this morning.

Are the parental controls on the Dreambox any good as I have to find a way of blocking all the adult content from young eyes. ?
 

Lancelot

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Me again....:)


Kiosk 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 on 1W (conax)
mostly English and fairly current.


L
 

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Are the parental controls on the Dreambox any good as I have to find a way of blocking all the adult content from young eyes. ?
i know what you mean, what i did was put a password on all service apart from my favourites, problem was i had kiosk and multivision on my favourites.

When i was putting my list of favourites together they was showing films like matrix 3 etc, BUT!!! what i didnt realise was that they also show mature content too..... not good...... i have 3 kids, all lads. And although i think they might like to view this stuff im afraid i have to spoil their fun :rolleyes: .

so in short the answer is no... if you want a perental lock that will kick in, as a channel that usually shows PG stuff suddenly shows 18+ material

if there is a way, id love to know too
 

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RedDevil_UK said:
So in short the answer is no...

This is a big problem for me also, I want the family to have access, when I'm not around, but have to stop them. This is due to the number of unsuitable channels that it decodes (day and night).

I know you can lock these channels out but they don't always show this content. It's bad enough flicking through hundreds of channels without having the enter a code for each movie channel. They seem to pop up everywhere!

I was wondering if you could put their favourite channels in a bouquet and lock the rest out?

My advice on a good all round sat is 1 deg West (better than Astra/Hotbird IMHO).
 

longstockings

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As mentioned in a previous post my dish's current position will not allow me to pick up hispasat or anything that far west so my thought was to move it higher so that it can get the signal.

Not having a long ladder and not experienced in working high up I opted to enlist the help of a sat installer.

What a mistake

The guy has been pissing me about for a few weeks now.

He has moved the dish to it's new location but I was at work when he installed it.

What should be a vertical pole is leaning quite noticeably towards the side of the house and I am unable to receive channels to the west so presumably the dish doesn't even face true south.

While I was having a play and sweeping the sky for sats the signal died.
When trying to move the dish I can hear the motor try to turn but no movement.

Hoping it's just a cable that needs changing and not the motor itself.

When I phoned the installer he told me that he thought when he left that the pole was not 100% vertical. He promised to come back on Saturday morning and put everything right but didn't show up and couldn't be bothered to phone to let me know. £80 down the drain and apparently I owe him a bit more. I thought this fact would have encouraged him to come back but no. All he will get from me now is a swift kick in the bollocks and the door slammed in his face.

I have to get this working b4 the weather is too bad so armed with Gameboy's excellent setup instructions and a signal strength meter that I've got to get hold of I'm gonna give it a go again.

I don't think I'm scared of heights

Wish me luck
 

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Good luck!

You've heard it all before I know but my top tips for getting it right :-

Get the pole vertical. Exactly vertical. Get the pole really rigid, and did I mention vertical? In both planes vertical. Use a good spirit level, or better still, and inclinometer.

Make sure that you have line of sight to all the satellites that you want. Remember, the beam comes out of the sky much higher than you might expect. Sometimes it's a compromise. I can't get 30W or anything further east than 19.2E, but I knew that when I installed it. It's a trade off. I still get more stuff than I can watch. If you can get 19.2E 13E and 1W, then it was worth going for the motor (hope it's OK BTW).

Set up on 1W, not 19.2E or anything else. That way, you help reduce any minor errors you will inevitably introduce. Line up the dish exactly in the middle of the motor output tube. It should have a seam down it.

STICK
 

longstockings

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I have just bought a Digisat Pro meter which should make my life 100 times easier and just need to borrow someone's ladder now.

I just hope that by the time I've finished setting my system up someone will ask me to setup a similar system for them. This way I can try and claw back some of the money I have wasted on shite satellite installers and mounts and brackets.

I've learnt so much about satellites in general and the Dreambox that failure is not an option.

I'm to embarassed to post photos of my existing setup but when I'm happy with it you can all take a look at my labour of love.

Please God help me set it up b4 xmas, I can't stand to watch more xmas repeats.
 

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Good man.

I wouldn't say I'm an old hand at this, but nearly all sat-beginners I've seen come through this forum have had a similar experience to you, and only one or two didn't make it to the Promised Land.

Neither of them were as determined as you!

BTW, we've all spent far too much money on sh!te we no longer use.
If you didn't have a cupboard full of expensive junk, then you didn't do it yourself!
 

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longstockings said:
I have just bought a Digisat Pro meter which should make my life 100 times easier and just need to borrow someone's ladder now.

I just hope that by the time I've finished setting my system up someone will ask me to setup a similar system for them. This way I can try and claw back some of the money I have wasted on shite satellite installers and mounts and brackets.

I've learnt so much about satellites in general and the Dreambox that failure is not an option.

I'm to embarassed to post photos of my existing setup but when I'm happy with it you can all take a look at my labour of love.

Please God help me set it up b4 xmas, I can't stand to watch more xmas repeats.


Keep my fingers xed for you mate, I am sure you'll get it up and running. As a matter of fact, I bought my own motor just about a year ago in preperation for the christmas time football, and it was worth it. Sitting on the roof with my arse almost freezing solid to the roof tiles was a price I was (and am glad to pay, well worth it!) My tip: When going on the roof in the winter take a piece of thick cardboard to sit on ({}) )

And by the way: After so many tries I have for the first time managed to get aan image with an go to XX to really work!! Keep us updated!
 

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T_G said:
My tip: When going on the roof in the winter take a piece of thick cardboard to sit on ({}) )
!

My tip when going on the roof in winter is to think about it, think again and don't go. Or pay someone else. Unles you're a roofer or goatlike.
 
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