New hair required, none left.. Installation blues :-(

[I_Just_want_to_know]

Hi Tom..

Well, I'm now beginning to think it is..
I've been looking round a few forums today regarding checking it, and it has everything it should have, the way it should look (except that bottom hologram doesnt shine like I think it should)..
Another forum also suggested looking at the word "tampered" on the silver void if opened label.. and mine is spelt "tamperd" so I'd guess there is a definite sign of it being suspect..

When I asked the original sellers (who now turn out to be from china - there address has changed on their website, while I was waiting for it. I checked their cotact us link out, and it had a uk address.. somewhere a little more north than me.. now it says china on it), anyway, when I asked them for the switch they were advertising with it (unless I misunderstood and it was a soft switch), they repleied with a "we are not technical, sorry, don't know what you mean" kind of response..
I guess alarm bells should have started ringing then...
It was a work colleage who told me where to buy it from, stating that the site sold genuine dream boxes (so I paid a little bit more buying this clone, instead of one off tbay which would have cost me £20 less)
_dvbmonkey in case anyone is wondering_ (and I just goolged it, doesnt look good... paypal claim in progress)

Also, I see there is DM500 clone bomb checker utility, that tells you if you have one.. I can't even get it to run on mine.. I can ping my 500 ok, but when I put those IP settings into the bomb checker utility, i get an "illegal port command" error pop up, and I just cant get it to connect.. if I try again with the utility still open, i just get "error, connect to box"


And finally, this morning I got up on the roof and dragged everything down..
The motor is connected to the DM500 which in now running nabilosat 0.8 as suggested, on a cable thats about half a meter long.. and does it turn the motor... does it hell...



Ok gents... suggestions please..
I was hoping to have this all set up this weekend, but thats not going to happen is it..
My two options I have are.. set it up, pointing at one satellite, or buy a technomate (please don't tell me there are clone versions of those) I have seen patched TM5200, 5300 and 3400 with various cam and CI options for between £65 and £80.. I'm sure they have more features that what I need for starting out.. however, any other suggetions happily recieved..

(I'd rather have a working motorised system than have the box pointing at just one satellite, are there any issues with technomate driving motors like I've discovered with the dreambox??)


A downbeaten Rob :mad:

 

[I_Just_want_to_know]

bugger, my original reply disapperaed.. ok, here goes again, short version..


Dragged the lot down today, connected it on a 0.5m cable in the front room, running nabilosat 0.8 as suggested, and it doesnt move at all..

I started to consider if it was a fake (as it got shipped from china, and after doing a search of the seller, yes, they deal in clones alright 'O'-red
I have emailed them and await a response, and have filed a complaint with paypal.

There are a couple of checks you can do externally (like looking at the way tampered is spelt on the silver void label on the back), as I couldnt even get it to run the clone bomb checker utility, it just would not connect despite being able to ping the 500 easily enough.

So now I'm wondering what to do next..
on ebay I see patched technomate boxes 5200, 5300 & 3400 models with various cam options for between £65 & £80 - (I dont want to be going and spending loads more, as my wallet already feels pretty conned at present)

I think what I will try and do in this bit of time I have (while I still have the dreambox) is to try and get the dish and motor all set up straight on the wall pointing at one of the suggested satellites.. so that if I get a new box, its already set up.

Any other suggestions greatly recieved..


Disgruntled rob O-no

 

[mhku]

Your post went into automatic moderation because of some the words in your post.

There's a lot to read so my couple of questions are:

Is the dish setup correctly e.g. elevation is correct when it points to 1W?

What image are you using? Make sure gotoXX is unticked in motor setup as it doesn't work.

What's the voltage from the back of the Dreambox where the coax connects (to the dish)?

 

[I_Just_want_to_know]

Hi MHKU... I realised that after I sent the second post (I didnt read the fact it needed administrating 1st time round)

I decided.. the box is going.. end of..

I've seen a box on the aforementioned auction site that looks useful, and is HD as well, so will kill an extra bird witht he same stone, its twice as much, but then its advertised as doing 9and screening) the sort of thing I'm after.. I've asked the seller rather a few questions and just await his reply..

I have today had the lot down, made sure everything was straight as I could possibly get it, set the dish to the motor at ground level and made everything perfectly straight..
(I ghad previously been moving the dish on the motor arm, which wasnt good... watching that youtube vid last night showed me to move the motor on the wall fram, rather than the dish on the motor arm.

I now have 4 LNB's all connected and pointed in the direction of Thor 1

I picked atlanticbird 2 & 3, thor 1 and hotbird as my 4 targets, and all but hotbird 3 got me some channels (although on thor 1, i selected free only, and got 1 data channel - does this mean i'm slightly off, or that thors channels arent free)

I've not measured the output voltage, Is it a multimeter from center of cable to center of socket, and something else to join the shields?

Its running nabilo v.08, but as I say, I pretty much think I'll be getting something else.. I wasnt aware at the time of buying the 500 that is was dire at running motors.. (its not something you think to search when looking at buying one)
I tried every kind of goto function.. on, off, with cherrys on top... could get nothing out of it..

Rob

 

[Topper]

I now have 4 LNB's all connected and pointed in the direction of Thor 1

Please explain what it is you mean as what you have said is not physically possible as four separate lnb's cannot be in the same place at the same time

 

[I_Just_want_to_know]

I know what the problem is.. have just been speaking to the seller of the box I was intending to buy, and he came up with something that I havent seen as a solution on any forum yet..

My dreambox is probably kicking out a tiny bit of power that my motor and LNB both require a feed off..

The motor is getting some (as the manual movement suggests)
The LNB is taking too much power (I'm using a triax quad LNB, and when on the phone, he asked why? told me to disconnect the LNB and see if it moved, and hey presto it did..

So.. my LNB is being power hungry, at a later point I need to try just one conncection to it (although I think I might have tried this already)..
And if not, maybe a cheaper LNB which is less power hungry..

Rob (starting to smile again)


(I must say.. the guy was a top fella... he could of just answered my questions and taken my money for a new box, but instead, he has been helpful... Take my hat off to yer)

 

[I_Just_want_to_know]

I have a quad LNB sorry..

Triax quad LNB, four feeds coming off now going to a Disceq switch, and then one cable from that going to my dreambox.

In the dreambox, setup as four seperate sats.. (which i think are close together, as I can get channels off 3 of them)

Rob

 

[Topper]

I have a quad LNB sorry..

Triax quad LNB, four feeds coming off now going to a Disceq switch, and then one cable from that going to my dreambox.

In the dreambox, setup as four seperate sats.. (which i think are close together, as I can get channels off 3 of them)

Rob

Oooops no that is wrong..... the separate outputs a quad lnb do not all feed into a disecq switch, a quattro lnb 4 outputs which feed into a multiswitch. A quad lnb supplies 4 identical feeds to four separate receivers or two stb's with double tuners. You can only pick up one satellite with a quad lnb not multiple, the same for a quattro come to that without moving the dish.

I think you need to sit down and learn to walk before trying to run. Get the unit operating with one lnb and one output to the stb with the dish in a fixed position and build up from there

 

[howc]

I decided.. the box is going.. end of..

I've seen a box on the aforementioned auction site that looks useful, and is HD as well, so will kill an extra bird witht he same stone,


Rob

Wow slow down Im exhausted just trying to catch up on whats been going on.

Be careful with the Auction sites theres lots of kit that looks too good to be true and probably is. If you tell us what this receiver is and how much its on for, is it new or used etc we can help you find a bargain or avoid a turkey (like your clone DM500). To be safe buy from a reputable dealer rather than ebay, have a look at the site sponsors and give some of them a call. OK you might pay more but you know itl be the genuine product with the manufacturers warranty.

If its any help (and I know its not) I think I have just got my new dish/motor installed properly. Horray! I wouldnt say that I was a newbie but I started the install last Christmas so youve got a bit of a way to go before you catch up with me . Just like you Ive been up and down the ladder more often than i can count .......Who needs Wii Fit thats all I will say! Stick with it though, its really satisfying when it starts to come together.

 

[Analoguesat]

The motor is getting some (as the manual movement suggests)
The LNB is taking too much power (I'm using a triax quad LNB, and when on the phone, he asked why? told me to disconnect the LNB and see if it moved, and hey presto it did..

So.. my LNB is being power hungry, at a later point I need to try just one conncection to it (although I think I might have tried this already)..
And if not, maybe a cheaper LNB which is less power hungry..

Rob (starting to smile again)


(I must say.. the guy was a top fella... he could of just answered my questions and taken my money for a new box, but instead, he has been helpful... Take my hat off to yer)

Doesnt work like that - an lnb is an lnb. They will all take the same power requirements from the receiver. Theres no such thing as a power hungry lnb.

An lnb is an electrical switch that runs at one state at 13V and at the other state when supplied with 18V by the receiver.

The motor and the lnb power requirements are fixed therefore the only way to supply more power into the system is with a beefier psu in the receiver itself, or by changing the receiver

 

[rolfw]

I know what the problem is.. have just been speaking to the seller of the box I was intending to buy, and he came up with something that I havent seen as a solution on any forum yet..

My dreambox is probably kicking out a tiny bit of power that my motor and LNB both require a feed off..

The motor is getting some (as the manual movement suggests)
The LNB is taking too much power (I'm using a triax quad LNB, and when on the phone, he asked why? told me to disconnect the LNB and see if it moved, and hey presto it did..

So.. my LNB is being power hungry, at a later point I need to try just one conncection to it (although I think I might have tried this already)..
And if not, maybe a cheaper LNB which is less power hungry..

Rob (starting to smile again)


(I must say.. the guy was a top fella... he could of just answered my questions and taken my money for a new box, but instead, he has been helpful... Take my hat off to yer)

It's already been mentioned in this thread, the DM500s is unable to power many motor/LNB combinations.

 

[I_Just_want_to_know]

OK.. seems I am a bit confused, its a triax quattro LNB (I though quad/quattro were the same).. I set the dreambox as LNB feed 1 thor, feed 2 eurobird and so on, so i thought I had four different signals being fed in.. (it certainly seems like that as the dream box did a multisat scan and one by one went through the 4 requested sats.. and as I said previously, got channels from 3.
When I pick one channel it says 13E and another says 7W so my understanding of it was that the the lnb is acting like 4 seperate feeds.. (as isaid, today I fed the four LNB outputs to 4inputs on a disqec switch, and the output of this to the DB, and thats how it seems to be working)

Ok, the other point - regarding power.. could it be that a quad/quattro/multi output LNB could draw more power than a single output LNB. I am a bit confused by the 13v 18v thing, mine does have markings on it that says HV & HH (I'd seen something similir in one of the motor setup menu's)

Box I was looking at is an M-Vision HD200 (can get the one with freeview tuner in as well for £179 and its setup to recieve all the good stuuff on thor1w) Looks like a seller/dealer and is being sold as new..

Rob

 

[rolfw]

Junk the Quattro LNB, or return it to wherever it came from it is useless for your setup, get a single and use that. As said earlier, a single LNB or quad LNB will only see the single satellite you are pointing at.

 

[I_Just_want_to_know]

ok, I found that my quattro LNB can pull 140ma..

I found a single that uses 110ma max... do you think this will help the grand scheme of things?

Rob

 

[Huevos]

I doubt there is anything wrong with that receiver. If it didn't have enough power to turn the motor the motor wouldn't turn when you pressed the buttons on it.

 

[I_Just_want_to_know]

well, got up on the roof today, before it rained..

Disconnected all but one of the LNB outputs, and went back to the front room to move the motor..
No Joy.. Disconnected it all again and tried to move the motor, and it did, It moves when not connected to the LNB..

I can only assume my LNB is drawing a little too much power (the specs say 140mA) so I have ordered a single LNB (which states upto 110mA max) so fingers crossed..
If this doesnt work, I really will give up on that box :-(

Somone else suggested trying to up the voltage to 18v on one of the screens on the motor setup page (when selecting multi sat via rotor)
I tried it, but it made no difference..

Rob

Thanks for everyones help

 

[satelliteman]

MTI supreme line 0.2dB single draws only 90mA.

 

[I_Just_want_to_know]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their help and advice regarding my problem... Some of my hair has now grown back after pulling it out so hard, and I'm now safe to been seen outdoors again...

I have installed a single LNB as stated earlier, and can now move the dish (albeit only on the move east/west commands at present).. I have a pt2 question which I shall post seperatley..

Thanks again everyone