testing broken dreambox motor setup

[marinheiro]

Hi,

I've had a dreambox 7000 since they were new. Using a fixed 85 dish originally to get portuguese RTPi on hotbird for my missis. It sat there otherwise unused for a couple of years. But I justified the expense promising I'd get round one day to setting it up with a motor to get a range of satellites.

So, I finally bought a stab motor from Maplins. They promised me it would go with any dish, but my old one had a horizontal support so I ended up buying a new dish too. At first, I could still get hotbird, but the first time the motor turned it went out of alignment and I had trouble getting any signal. I put a signal strength tester between the two coax cables to try to make the alignment easier - the result seemed to be random at first (like, medium strong signal almost everywhere). I tried to go about finding the problem systematically: a lot of faffing about with the dish alignment. Then replaced the coax in case it had an internal break. Then replaced the lnb. Now I get absolutely no signal at all, and the motor doesn't turn any more. Put all the original bits back as they were and still nothing. So I've spent a small fortune and got a completely broken setup. I'm guessing I drew too much current from the dreambox and blew something, but don't know how to check that.

So, what next? Anyone fix bodged setups in west london for money? Any ways to test the dreambox? Any simple setup things I might have missed that will miraculously fix it all? What's the cheapest way to recover from this complete f**up?

Cheers
Graham
PS also the stab motors come with a really useless fixing that slips.

[BGonaSTICK]

Hi Graham.

I think it's highly likely we can guide you through getting your box running again just fine. As long as you have plenty of patience and follow the advice given, I have every hope that you'll be sorted pretty soon.

Are you getting anything out of the motor in terms of movement at all? Have you checked the really obvious things, like F connectors on the coax for shorts or water etc? Sometimes, the dish movement can actually rip the coax out of the connector if it gets caught in the dish bracket or U bolts.

If you've already done these checks, please help us by giving us a full run-down of all the hardware associated with your satellite setup - dish make/model/size, LNB, the image you have running on the Dreambox (and version number), if it is connected to the Internet, how you connect to the Internet, what other components you have on your network, some basic details about your ISP and connection type, modems etc.

Then go through the Dreambox menu called 'Satellite Configuration' in the setup menu. If you can take some shots of the on-screen menus that would be great, otherwise describe in detail which options you have set etc on each of those screens.

Also a photo or two of your dish & motor will allow us to give it a once-over for obvious problems.

STICK

[marinheiro]

Hi, thanks for the offer of help :-)

Taking your points one by one:

1. There is now no movement at all from the motor (which at first worked fine). I have checked the connectors and all looks fine.

2. Hardware

• The dish is an 83 cm Technosat (offset). I've tried to set vertical alignment to 37.5 degrees, a bit roughly (there's no degrees marked on the bracket). See photo 1.
• The LNB on it now is a Fortec Star FSKU-V universal single. The original LNB (which is probably still working) is a Blue-Line AP8-T2BL universal single
• The motor is a STABS 'Horizont to Horizont' Diseqc1.2/Hals. It's set to 51.5 degrees, using the degrees marked on it. See photo 2
• The Dreambox is a 7000s. It still has the original image: the_hydra angharad
• It's not normally directly connected to the internet, but the house has an internal lan/wireless network, going through a linux box acting as file server and firewall to an adsl modem, so I can connect it if we need to.

3. The satellite configuration menu: set to 'many satellites via diseqc rotor'. For motor config see photos 3 and 4

4. Problems I already know about:

• The wall mounting bracket is slightly off vertical. I'm hoping it's a small enough angle not to affect the
  satellites I want (it's not the problem at the moment, anyway, cos I'm moving it all by hand while I try to get a signal)
• The dish slips very easily on the motor drive (see photo). I'm hoping I can fix this by putting some rubber pads round the drive for the bracket teeth to bite into.

That's all I can think of for now...

Cheers
Graham

[robbo71]

Just one point about the dish slipping on the motor.

I think you have the U-bolts the wrong way round.

Maybe they would be better on the inside of the dish bracket, so you can get to the nuts easier and get them tight.

I have the same motor and it grips perfectly.

Have you tried using the Goto XX function?
Robbo

[marinheiro]

Doh. Ok, will try turning the U-bolts the right way round ops:

Re goto-xx: yes, when I first set it up the motor turned, and it would do it with either the goto function or current sensing. I don't know how accurate it was with either, because I never got a satellite signal. Now I still get no signal and the motor doesn't turn with either goto or current sensing.

Cheers
Graham

[robbo71]

I also notice that there is no water proofing boot or tape on one of the connectors, maybe some water has got in there.
The connectors on the motor are quite difficult to get a spanner on, are they done up properly?


One way to test out if the motor actually works still is to get a mini diseqc positioner MP01, they're a bit pricey though at around £20 from Hisat, maybe they can be got cheaper though.

[BGonaSTICK]

Robbo is spot-on with the brackets

I only noticed when he mentioned it!

The dish looks to me like it's pointing too high, but that could be an optical illusion.

Next, your mount being out of alignment vertically (even slightly) could have a major impact on overall arc-tracking and therefore dish alignment - you need to get it sorted.

I'd also like to comment on the mount itself. I really don't mean to offend, but I think it's possibly the worst looking motorised dish mount I have ever seen. No adjustment, no support, too long... OMG - I can't believe someone would even sell you that for a motorised dish. That would be my first port of call - new T&K brackets. I hope you take this comment in the constructive way it's intended

Now, finally, you need to get some of this stuff tested.

Is that your Sky dish in the background? If so, connect it to your Dreambox and make sure it receives FTA signals from 28.2E correctly. Assuming that works you should test the motor as best you can by running a new length of coaxial cable to it.

Alternatively, you could check the electrical properties of your existing cable by testing for continuity of the core and isolation between core and screen. Also, are you sure that there is enough core sticking out of each 'F' connector? There should be 2 or 3mm protruding to make good contact with the socket at each end.

HTH

[robbo71]

Originally Posted by BGonaSTICK

I'd also like to comment on the mount itself. I really don't mean to offend, but I think it's possibly the worst looking motorised dish mount I have ever seen. No adjustment, no support, too long... OMG - I can't believe someone would even sell you that for a motorised dish. That would be my first port of call - new T&K brackets. I hope you take this comment in the constructive way it's intended

:roflmao:
That's Maplins for you!
Although it's really self service. But it looks like it's going to either break or fall of the wall any minute. I wouldn't want that lot dishing me one, it would hurt.
I almost bought one of those when I bought my motor from Maplins, but chickened out at the last minute.

[marinheiro]

Yup, the guy in Maplins claimed to be a satellite expert. He even ordered it for me as they didn't have any in stock. It won't come off the wall in a hurry, though I guess the weld might break.

The problem for me know is between you you're recommending I spend another £60 or so (new bracket+motor drive tester), when my feeling is I've blown up the dreambox or the motor. If the dreambox is dead I can't afford a new one for now, and my wife is a bit impatient about the amount of money I've already poured down this. Plus the fact she can no longer watch Portuguese TV.

The other dish in the picture is my neighbour's.

I suspected the coax. Both sections are visually ok. I checked for continuity; no problems. I suspected it might be an intermittent break in the core, so replaced the coax from motor to lnb, which made no difference to the snr (a constant 45dB with the motor in line, or 25dB bypassing the motor, wherever I point the dish to manually).

To be honest I wouldn't mind ditching the motor if I could get my original fixed reception back.

[robbo71]

One way or another it would be nice to find out whether the motor's broken, the dreambox is broken, or the settings are just wrong.

Maybe maplins could test the motor out for you, get the satellite 'expert' to do it.

And yep, weld breaking, If I remember correctly one of the other members on here had that happen to his.

I think The T&K brackets are relatively cheap, and a decent pole from a scaffolding shouldn't be too much.

What I do with my wife is, don't tell her! :roflmao: