When is a Technomate TM5400 Blind Search Rx, not a Blind Search Rx...!!!???

[JohnC]

When is a Technomate TM5400 Blind Search Rx, not a Blind Search Rx...!!!???

Can someone shed light on my dilemma with my Brand New Technomate TM5400 ??

I bought this receiver for its Blind Search ability and help me find channels for my existing TM5500 dap ci.
However there are some transponders it simply will not detect when doing a Blind Search and I have to input the transponder information manually.

For example when aimed at Express AM22 at 53 east, and doing a blind search on my TM5400 it does not pick up transponder freq. 11044 symbol rate 44951....

When I manually put these settings into Advanced Search Mode I get a steady signal (no variations at all) ..... Strength of 85 with a Quality of 56.

On doing a a scan on this transponder (with the red button in Advanced Search mode) the receiver does not find any channels and the Quality setting suddenly drops to 20 (while Sig Strength remains at 85).

If I keep persevering, I do eventually get all the channels on this transponder and it saves them!!

However, once I achieve that and when I now change channels, the channel I've changed to shows a blank screen saying "Bad or no signal"..... and now shows a quality reading of just 20 (like before)..

If I wait half a minute, or several minutes sometimes, picture & sound will suddenly appear with a Sig Strength reading of 85/56 again.

The picture/sound stays on all the time until I once again change channels, when it reverts back to a quality of only 20.... I wait a few minutes & picture/sound come on again with a quality reading of 56.

If I remove the transponder and do a blind search,,,,, Again it does not find the transponder and I have to go through the whole process all over again "Manually."

I know my dish isn't spot on for this satellite, but my TM5500 picks up channels with a good steady signal off this transponder,,,, (off the same dish no problem what so ever.)

I've also had this problem on other Satellites.
The feeling I get is the receiver is running very slow or is unstable at these settings (Software/Hardware ?) or there's a problem with the tuner/polarization.
""Its as if running the software kills the signal for certain transponders..!!""

I phoned Technomate and explained this but they say "Send us an e-mail and we will show it to our engineers!!!"

I've done this but they don't seem to want to respond to any e-mails.... my TM5400 has the very latest software update so it isn't that!

I actually bought my TM5400 to compliment my TM5500 and add transponders to it, but its actually working the other way round my 5500 is helping my 5400 to find transponders.

Any thoughts anyone please??
Best Regards
JC

 

[hoppo1]

It doesn´t answer your question (sorry) but a Vantage 200 series has a fantastic blind scan facility & a better tuner, i think. If nothing else it gives you a different receiver to choose if you get your money back on the Technomate.

Also check that the channel list is full or the transponder list is full (100) and delete those you don´t need/don´t work.

 

[JohnC]

Thanks hoppo1
No,,,,, channel list is no where full..!!!
But your proposal of another make is beginning to appeal to me as Im not 100% happy with Technomate.
I really thought being a British company I was going to get better service than Ive had.

There motto,,,, "Your Digital Partner for life" is beginning to grate on me to be honest.
JC

 

[hoppo1]

The Technomate is a clone of Clark Tech, receivers which are German but it is built using cheaper components (apparently?) The Vantage is German also and the build quality is fantastic, a well built, heavy receiver, that can read Sky cards as well.
The bonus with the TM´s is that the support for codes and patches is very good indeed.
Of the 2 i have (TM1500 and the Vantage X221TS) the Vantage seems much better built and the Vantage actually has settings for the blind scan that allows you to choose how many MHz it jumps in the blind scan ie, 1,2 ,3 or 4 MHz. But the TM1500 is better supported for patches/firmware. If you have the TM5500 already though, you don´t need great support for the other receiver, i´d say.

Hope this helps

 

[JohnC]

Thanks hippo1
That's usefull information to know
I must say the 5500 seems far more stable than the 5400.. and Ive been generaly pleased with the TM5500!!

I think the problem with the 5400 could even be a power supply problem.... dropping out when the software runs...
I also experience a lot of crashing and freezing when I try to record to memory stick

Thanks again
John C

 

[JohnC]

Many thanks for your usefull info Hoppo1
I sent my receiver back and got a brand new one in return...!!
and its fine......
Much faster, dosnt crash, records ok, no probs!!
Best Regards
JohnC