Not sure what Satellite I'm pointing at !

[ChippyJoe]

Well, a mixed day, with 'some' progress - a day taken off work for a few things to be delivered that didn't arrive, and a courier meant to collect something who didn't come as well but got a few diy jobs done anyway !
The new link worked fine for downloading the files so many thanks Mickha for taking the trouble to do this - I had some trouble unzipping the UAD files to start with but got them onto another USB stick - unfortunately the Spiderbox still wouldn't recognise anything plugged into either of the 2 USB ports either directly or via the extension cable. The Spiderbox manual is not very clear on any of this but also mentions a RS232 port for connecting to a PC. I may have one of these leads somewhere and will have to search ! The Spiderbox manual doesn't give me much clue on connecting direct to the internet either. Googling these patches it seems there may of been several updates since I first obtained the box last October.
Anyway, I then started probing the rest of the system and managed to get the motor moving except I hadn't positioned the cables too well around the motor and one dragged itself out after fouling with a clamp bolt - trimmed the bolt off and ensured better slack before reconnecting. Managed to control the motor. via the Spiderbox, back to it's zero position ! Where I have the 19.2E set-up at the moment, this is with the motor set at zero rather than 19.2E. Guess if I work off this position I won't then be inputting actual angles of other satellites but 'degrees' minus 19.2 if I use this as my nominal zero point so maybe should correct this alignment.
I guess that there should be no issues of elevation for different satellites as the motor sweeps around ? I think the next step is to reset the 19.2 properly on the motor as well or go for the suggested way of finding a satellite near zero to start with whilst still investigating the USB problem. It is nice to now the motor is responding though !
I'm not sure or clear on the USALS capability (googled it ...is this part of the motor functionality or a feature of the Spiderbox?) but a GAAPS facility is mentioned in the motor info sheet.
On flicking through some of the set up menus I see 'frequencies' needing to be set and don't know the answers to this. I assume also that I will be setting several satellite positions to memory and saving preferred channels as I go as there will be so many out there.
I think from the excellent dishpointer site that from where the dish is positioned I can probably sweep from about 40E to 70W without any obstruction.
Hope I don't sound too much a lost cause on this !
Cheers, Joe

[Mickha]

You will not be able to track the arc setting the motor, as I've read it.
You need to zero the motor, enter your latitude, and longitude, into the motor setup menu, on the Spiderbox, then send the motor to 19.2E and align the dish.

Secondly you cannot connect your Spiderbox, to the PC, and load a patch, this has to be done using a USB stick.

Try connecting your other USB stick, to the spiderbox, then go into the USB menu and see if it will format, try both USB ports, although USB 1 is the main one.

If still no luck try anoither brand, even a cheap one, borrow of any friends, family or work mates you can, just to see if one works.

Once done load the patch, and keys, then post back.

To connect the spiderbox, to the internet, is the same as your PC, just connect an Ethernet cable, from the spiderbox, to your router, but this all comes after loading the patch and getting everything else set up.