Another stuck newbie! Please help

[badgb21]

Hi
I have been reading the forums a while and recently introduced myself on the other board as a newbie raring to go!
Well on Sunday afternoon it started. I got the wall bracket mounted really firmly and vertical. ( I did manage to drill a couple of extra holes but we won’t go into that! – The house is still standing, though resembling a swiss cheese in places!)

The kit I have bought is; Darkbox REV2008 HD, 80cm orbital dish,Moteck SG2100a diseqc motor and .2 ICE LNB
My Lat 52.03 Long -0.67 Clear view to sky.

Tonight I mounted the dish, having previously assembled everything in the garage and doubled checked angles from table supplied with the motor and fitted lead from LNB to motor.
I connected the cable to the receiver, pointed the dish approx true south and proudly turned on the receiver.

Now this is where it’s not going so well……….
I have power to the motor, but I can’t seem to find a satellite (Thor or any other) for love nor money!
Not entirely sure what I’m doing in the set up screen on the darkman. It seems immensely complicated e.g. LNB type ??? can anyone advise please?

Anyway I did my best and selected Thor. The best signal on the OSD showed 61% but was blinking slowly – nothing shown on quality scale.
I adjusted azimuth and elevation on motor, with very little success.
I put a sat finder in line also and whilst some change in sound and signal was shown it was only a little, even with some big movements with the dish.

I tried to scan for satellites, but not really sure what I’m doing with the OSD set up – just educated guesses really!
Couldn’t find a thing!

Fortunately I ran out of time and light, because I was getting frustrated and started to look for the hammer…..grrrrrrr!!!!!!

Having read other sagas, I am keen to isolate the various components to check they are ok. Or is what I have normal? And I just need the touch of a midwife…..

Any ideas? And does anyone have experiences of the darkman box? I’d be happy to call someone and go through the Darkman set up stage by stage if anyone’s willing.

Thanks

Kev

[Robbo]

Hi, you need to follow the correct procedure for setting up a motorised dish.

Make sure the pole is perfectly vertical and set the motor latitude to your latitude.

You should initially start with the motor at zero and the dish on the motor shaft pointing roughly at due south.

Then send the dish to Thor 0.8W ( or 1W) using USALS (lat and long must be entered into receiver for this to work), then swivel the motor around the pole and adjust the dish declination (swivel it up/down) for max qaulity signal on 11325H.

In the stickies, in the FAQs section, there are a couple of motor setup guides, one with photos, have a read of those for the full procedure.

What wall mount are you using?

Robbo

[badgb21]

Thanks Robbo. I thought I'd memorised all of the set up guides, but it's amazing what you miss on a re-read.
I think I need to adjust the dish declination, whareas I was faffing with the elevation........... lets see what tomorrow evening brings.
I have just been crusing the Darkbox menus and it all seems less daunting now.
I am using the bracket supplied with the system - U shaped wall mount thing -from a very reputable supplier and therefore I have to assume it is up to the job - fit for purpose.
It sure feels ok, but it I lose signal in wind it'll have to go.
I'll let you know if I find anything resembling a satellite tomorrow - fingers crossed.
Thanks
Kev

[Robbo]

Yes, with the Diseqc HH motors,you just fix its elevation/latitude, and only adjust it at a later stage if it is necessary for arc tuning.

The U-shaped mount is probably going to be very difficult to get absolutely vertical, and not really recommended for a motorised dish. Good luck to you though if you persue it.

The easiest mount is the T&K brackets with a 2 inch diameter pole (eg scaffold pole), as this facilitates adjustments to get the pole vertical, which is a must.

The U-mount would be OK for a fixed dish though.

[badgb21]

Hi
I have just spent another evening positioning the satellite in every possible position with absolutely nothing more happening. I've gone throu' all the details in the guides. I'm now convinced something isn't right.
I changed the azimuth, elevation and declination. The OSD shows a slow blinking strength of around 58% and nothing on the quality scale, I only get a very small variance on a sat finder when I move the dish. I feel there just isn't enough signal...............
Not quite sure what to do now?

[Robbo]

All I can suggest is that you check that you have made the cables up correctly. Maybe try it without the motor in the circuit.

Do you have a Sky mini-dish handy that you could connect the receiver up to?

Could you post a photo of the dish in situ, there may be something obvious wrong.

Also what are your LNB settings, you said you were not too sure what to set them to. It should be set to universal. Maybe a screen shot of that would help too.

[badgb21]

Hi
Have just been reading over on the other board about an error message on the front of the receiver........It never occured to me as the same meassage has always been there.
There's nothing in my Darkbox manual about error messages, but do I assume I have an error from the attached picture?
This might explain a few things.......

Thanks

[Robbo]

Well, the settings on the TV screen look fine, I have not got the foggiest what the InIt means though, you think that is an error message?

Also on the screen you appear to have no signal or quality,or is that just camera over exposure?

[badgb21]

I don't know if its an error message or not?
There was no signal registering when I took the pic. It does slowly blink anything from 46% to 61% but I've never had anything showing on the quality scale at all!
I'll call my supplier tomorrow and see what he says.
Thanks
Kev

[radtv]

Init means initiating there is nothing wrong with the receiver, this is normal.