Can't get disecq motor to work with new Force 516s receiver

[lobsterboyuk]

Hi,

I've been playing around with some satellite kit for about three years now but all my learning so far has been from the clear as mud manuals and various snippets read on the web so I'm no expert, hopefully somebody could help me out here:

I wanted to play around with a T-REX CAM but it wouldn't work in my trusty Technisat Digit CIVA receiver brought in 2002, so I checked various websites and splashed out on a Force 516S receiver and the CAM works great, however...

This time last year I fitted a motor so that my missus could watch channels on Hotbird 13E and Sirius 5E (its a Metronic brought from Maplins) but despite a gazillion clicks of menu items in all possible combinations, I cannot get the motor to work with the new receiver. I've since read the truly excellent guide to fitting a motorised dish on this forum and obviously my installation is not up to scratch, but as I found last year, November is not an ideal time to be messing about outside (bit cold and windy) so I'm waiting until spring when I splash out on a Stab H-H and T & K brackets etc... In the meantime it would be great to get the current motor working so that I don't have to keep switching receivers around depending on whether the missus wants Sirius or Hotbird (FYI, I've moved the motor and dish to point to Sirius as its zero degree position, then I can plug in the Force receiver and watch Sirius channels with the motor turned off, or plug in the Technisat and get FTA from Hotbird/Astra etc... It works but it's a pain, anybody got any guidance to offer?

[BGonaSTICK]

Hello m8, welcome to the forum

I'm not quite sure I've taken all that in - it's the wrong end of the day for me to do complicated stuff

If I'm with it, you just want a temporary, quick and easy way of positioning the motor without swapping cables furiously?

If so, why not just fit an A-B switch to enable you to swap receivers quickly and easily?

Alternatively, you could try using the LNB loopthrough to connect both receivers.

Have I missed the point?

If you have an electronic manual for the Force, I could have a quick look for you if you like.

[lobsterboyuk]

> Hello m8, welcome to the forum

Cheers, I really appreciate that you guys have put together such a cool resource

> I'm not quite sure I've taken all that in

As the day wears on I do tend to ramble!

My problem is that I had a Technisat receiver plugged in to my 80cm dish and single universal LNB via a diseqc Metronic motor with no problems and I could watch Sirius 5E, Hotbird 13E and Astra 28.2E.

I got a new Force 516S receiver and the motor does not work with this receiver and I'm all out of ideas why! The manuals for the Force and the Metronic motor are not detailed.

Could the motor still have stored settings for the Technisat receiver that stop it working with any other receiver?

> If you have an electronic manual for the Force

Attached.

I looked at the AB switch, it seemed to me that I would need a twin LNB? Mine is a single universal, maybe I misunerstand though? As for the LNB loop, is this the second coax male socket on the receivers, my user manuals say this is for connecting Analogue receivers?

As my workaround, I have put my motor's due south zero (reference position) to point to Sirius 5E (was point to due South before I installed the Force). When I power down the Technisat it returns to the reference position (now pointing at Sirius 5E!) and can now plug the coax to the Force (with the motor turned off and a T-REX CAM in use) and watch sirius 5E

If I want to watch Hotbird or Astra I unplug the coax from the Force receiver and plug it into the Technisat and the motor will now work allow me to switch easily between all three (Sirius, Hotbird, Astra) but without the T-REX CAM becuase the Technisat didn't work with it...

When the weather is nicer I will want to re-install my dish with a new motor and make sure it's vertical etc.. and more accurately pick up other feeds from different satellites! For now if I could easily switch between the two receivers or get the metronic motor working with the Force, I would be happy!

I've tried to be more concise but looking at the size of this post I hope I haven't failed!

[BGonaSTICK]

OK, I'll tackle this in parts if I may, leaving the Force problem itself until a second post.

Now, motor storing stuff from the Technisat?

Yes and no.

DiSEqC is quite cool (though poorly implemented IMO) in that you can command your motor in many ways. The two primary types I'll describe as relative and absolute.

Relative means that the receiver can tell the motor to go somewhere based on where it is now.

An example would be 'go three degrees East from where you are now' or 'go West three steps'.

Absolute positioning does not rely on knowing where the motor is currently positioned.

Examples are 'go to 19.2 degrees East' or 'go to satellite position 3'.

Now, getting back to your question, I want to refer only to the second of these types of command, the absolute positioning command. The 'go to x.x' type command is built on the fly by the receiver based on where it thinks the satellites are (i.e. where the satellite definitions stored in the firmware say they are). The second type just specifies an integer value.

In this second case, the number '3' is translated by the motor into a useable orbital location such as 13.0 degrees East. There is usually a table stored in the motor of twenty or so satellites by orbital location and indexed by a simple number. These can also be overwritten by a command from the receiver.

So (at long last) it is possible to modify your motor settings from a receiver, but most receivers don't use this facility. They use the 'go to x.x' format instead.

Based on that, I don't think that using the Technisat with the motor is causing the Force any problems.

You'll be glad to know that the explanation of the A-B switch is much shorter

I meant that you should use it 'up the other way' if you like. LNB into the single side, and the two outputs to go to the two receivers. That way you have one LNB switchable between the two boxes with no aggravating unplugging etc. A big time-saver.

Now, LNB loopthrough. It works just as well for digital receivers as long as they both power-down fully in standby mode, thereby relinquishing control of the LNB. It's a suck-it-and-see job I'm afraid.

I find it strange that the Technisat returns the motor to it's reference position when powered down! :?

Very odd, but at least now I understand why you've set the reference point to 5E!

It's very late now, so I'll have a look at the manual tomorrow. I'm a bit forgetful though, so please feel free to bump this thread if you have to wait for a reply

HTH

STICK

[lobsterboyuk]

> Now, LNB loopthrough. It works just as well for digital receivers as long as they both power-down fully in standby mode, thereby relinquishing control of the LNB. It's a suck-it-and-see job I'm afraid.

Worked a treat, one small step for a man! Now I can turn the dish using the technisat and switch the force on when I want to use the T-REX

> I find it strange that the Technisat returns the motor to it's reference position when powered down!

Just to confirm that I am a complete idiot, it doesn't do this

Thanks for the overview on Disecq, very interesting and I'll return to all of this with a vengeance when its at least 20 degrees outside and not blowing a gale!

Cheers for the help

[BGonaSTICK]

Hey, nice one m8. I'm pleased we could help.

Drop by again when it either warms up or you've bought some thermals

Then we can take it to the next level :clap:

[BGonaSTICK]

Had a read of the manual, and rather than just regurgitate what it says, make sure you've carried out the steps detailed in section 12.2.

Try setting the motor option to Digipower SG2100 if you have no joy with the non pre-programmed options. There's a rather critical looking 'motor power on' type option here

You must also setup the geographical information in section 12.5, so plug in your lat/long here.

The manual's a bit crap, as I can't read any of the on-screen captions in the screenshots, so maybe you could walk me through what the critical ones are, and what options you have set under the MENU > SETUP > SYSTEM > MOTOR sub-menus.

STICK