Oh the joys of dreambox!

[Smokin..o0O]

Thanks again guys fro the input.
My mounting pole is 100% plumb.
I'm not really worried now about getting my arc spot on because it is pretty close and very easy to sort out once all the obvious problems are solved.
The dish is an Orbit ( I think) 1 meter.
The motor is a brand new Fortec Star DiSEqC H-H Motor.
"Designed for receivers with DiSEqC 1.2.
Ultra low now.
For dishes upto 1.2 meters.
Goto X function - USALS"
There's no mention of a model number on the box.

It's connected directly to my DM600PVR with brand new sat tuner, by about 18 meters of what was desscribed to me as a premium sat coax by the people I bought it from , recommemnded by digidude.
There are no splitters or anything else in line.
All connections and f connectors have been double checked and are clean and tight making good contact.

The most obvious problem at this time is the motor just has no consistency. It does seem to move east everytime with no trouble at all, but the majority of times, I just dosen't move at all when it should be moving west.
AsI said, even using the east/west buttons on the bottom of the motor, the same problem is present, and when it should be moving west and dosen't, the LED on the motor is lit up red, or orange according to the motor manual.
The next step is to do a motor hardware reset, which unless my arms grow about 10 feet pretty soon, I'm gonna have to wait till I can find some friend/muppet to clmb the ladder and hold both east and west buttons while I power cycle my dreambox
I'll be back.

 

[pinkhelmets]

Well you seem to have gone through all you can and not found the problem. Try the motor reset, then I think I suggest a total factory reset on the dm600 and put original firmware back on. Then set it up with both totally reset to new and see if the receiver moves the motor correctly before any extra steps.
If not I think you are going to need to try a different receiver or take your receiver elsewhere to try on another motor.

 

[digidude]

i think the motor you have is now one of the industry standard ones m8, they just have a different name on them.

where the LED is, just by the edge of the rubber cover, you should see a small hole, drive the motor to 0 then push a paperclip into the hole for a few seconds, the LED will flash a few times

sometimes when swapping from diseqc 1.2 to usals without resetting the motor it seems to stick half way between the 2 setups, not quite using either one properly, this may help you out m8

 

[Smokin..o0O]

i think the motor you have is now one of the industry standard ones m8, they just have a different name on them.

where the LED is, just by the edge of the rubber cover, you should see a small hole, drive the motor to 0 then push a paperclip into the hole for a few seconds, the LED will flash a few times

sometimes when swapping from diseqc 1.2 to usals without resetting the motor it seems to stick half way between the 2 setups, not quite using either one properly, this may help you out m8

Hey there digi.
Well, it's all your fault
Nah seriously, I'm losing faith in this motor rapidly.
I just did a reset on it. powered everything up and pressed the east and west buttons on the underside of the motor and it moved both ways.
Came inside and set it to zero then Thor BBC world.
The channel came up no prob, so selected a channel on Hotbird. The dish moved and up came the channel onscreen
Tried to go to a channel on 19.2 E and the message came up saying motor was moving, the dish did move some but I don't know how much as it's still no too easy to see my dish, butthe message stayed onscreen and no channel came on. I went into the rotor setup again to manually move the dish west, and once again the thing wouldn't move.
What is weird, when it refuses to move manually west, if I "drive to 0" the motor does move west !
After going to zero, I tried manually moving east again till I seen the lock and sync come on, but when I let the button go, the motor kept running east till it hit the limit. No other button presses would stop it.

In my mind, there are 2 possible causes for the problems I'm seeing.
Either the motor is flakey or the control voltage or whatever comes from my dreambox is to blame..butt, while I had the wee sat meter hooked up, the audio from it did indicate that when I pressed the buttons to move the dish, the signal was sent to the motor, but the motor did not respond. Also the fact that the buttons on the bottom of the motor failed to move the motor to the west sort of indicates to me the motor is to blame. But as the current technology is all new to me, and I'm on my own here, I just don't know what to think.
The real annoying thing is even the problems with the motor are inconsistent, and I wouldn't like to try to convince the supplier that the motor is faulty, so maybe I will just need to buy a new motor.
I guess
the motor is sort of "generic". I was billed for a Technomate TM2200 motor but the box states it's Fortec Star with no model number. Looking on ebay I see technomate motors, and although the box is different, the picture of the motor is identical to my motor.

 

[fezzy]

No Problem Pinky

It just shows, we are thinking down the same lines. Maybe if he,s
still having problems, we ought to find out if he,s local to one of us
( any member ) and maybe take a trip round to see what we can do.
If he,s local to me i could try my spare motor on his setup. I still
think its something to do with the power thats going to his rig.

@ Smoking

What part of britain are you situated in ?

Fezzy

 

[earwig999]

Have you got some sort of limit set on your west. You could have set it so it won't go past 1w. This can sometimes be done either on the Dreambox or on some motors.
It's there in case something like a house might be in the way if it turns too far and stops it from damaging the dish.
Worth a look.

 

[Smokin..o0O]

Have you got some sort of limit set on your west. You could have set it so it won't go past 1w. This can sometimes be done either on the Dreambox or on some motors.
It's there in case something like a house might be in the way if it turns too far and stops it from damaging the dish.
Worth a look.

Hi earwig999.
There are no software limits set for the motor, and the hardware limits are factory default.
The motor not only dosen't move west sometimes, later last night I was messing with softcams and stuff on the most popular packages and noticed that sometimes, when selecting to go east from Thor or Hotbird, the motor wouldn't move, and the "moving motor" message would stay onscreen. Selecting drive to zero is the only way I can get things going again.
It's just not regular and I find myself looking at the motor now everytime I try to move it.

I'm in Scotland, west of glasgow.
I really wouldn't allow anyone to go out of their way to help, even if they were close enough or willing. This is all new kit, and if something is underperforming, then I need to work out exactly what it is.
I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think I did see the LED on the motor light up red when I first tested it connected to my dreambox sitting here on the floor, but maybe I just dreamt that as this motor stuff is in my head 24/7
I think maybe i need to take the dish and motor down and bring the motor inside where I can connect it to my dreambox for extensive east west tests.:Cry:

 

[earwig999]

you do have the f-plug connected to thecorrect output from thedreambox m8 and not loop?

 

[Smokin..o0O]

you do have the f-plug connected to thecorrect output from thedreambox m8 and not loop?

earwig999
Yes mate connected to 13 / 18V = LNB in.

 

[fezzy]

@ Smokin

Lets try again, you,ve done the basics.
I have a idea that may find the problem !
What image do you have installed ??
Try installing Gemini 4.2, not 4.3 as its got some sats missing.
When you,ve done that and found some sats, come back to us.

Fezzy

 

[Smokin..o0O]

@ Smokin

Lets try again, you,ve done the basics.
I have a idea that may find the problem !
What image do you have installed ??
Try installing Gemini 4.2, not 4.3 as its got some sats missing.
When you,ve done that and found some sats, come back to us.

Fezzy

Fezzy.
I have used :
Gemini 4.1
Gemini 4.1
Pli helenite
and pli iolite images.
I am currently running Pli helenite for the third time.
I have the motor sitting at my feet.
When I brought it indoors and connected it up, it did all the same stuff as it was doing outside. Not moving west, not moving east much, and the LED lighting red.
I did a reset of the motor and for 10 minutes now, it has obeyed every command I have thrown at it.
When I move it manually using the motor control page, it move when it's suppsoed to and stops when it's supposed to.
Could the earlier problems be memory related? As in the controller inside the motor.
Just to throw another idea into the mix, I have connected the motor to my dreambox using an 8 meter legnth of NTL co-axial cable with the crimped F connectors. I will try and mounthe the dish and motor again, and if possible, will use the NTL cable to hook it all up, it's gotta be worth a try.

 

[Smokin..o0O]

Just another quick point.
Just watching the motor sit idle at my feet. Every 10 seconds the LED which is normall green when idle, flashes red 3 times in about 1 second.

 

[fezzy]

@ Smokin

Now you have done a reset it could well be memory.
When you reconnect. and its still playing up, read below.
While connected up, go into Motor setup. Go into first screen and
look at the top left, have you a power setting ?

Fezzy

 

[digidude]

I did a reset of the motor and for 10 minutes now, it has obeyed every command I have thrown at it.
When I move it manually using the motor control page, it move when it's suppsoed to and stops when it's supposed to.

the red flashes are normally to do with receiving commands, this could be the usals way of trying to get the best lock on the satellite, but as its not recieving a signal itll keep checking where the dish is compared to signal readings the box is receiving, now youve reset the motor and its moving east-west as expected this is normal when there is no actual signal m8

Could the earlier problems be memory related? As in the controller inside the motor.

as mentioned earlier, changing from usals to diseqc can have very strange effects if the motor isnt reset as well, it wont quite work properly with either setting, so now its been zeroe'd and reset you should be ok to refit it m8 (toes crossed )

 

[Smokin..o0O]

I'm back
I got pretty annoyed with the dish and motor, so I waited until yesterday to install it again.
I did a reset of the motor again before taking it outside.
Got everything lined up like before and powered it up.
Selected a couple of satellites and it located them spot on. Tried a few more and it still managed to find them without a problem.
The only thing that is not 100% is going into motor control sometimes no matter what direction the dish is pointing, if I hit "move to satellite", the thing just moves to zero and sits there. It's no big problem but after all the stuff that’s gone before, it will bug me for a while.
Anyway, things have certainly improved. I just can't say with any certainty what has resolved the main issue with the motor mis behaving, but I get I have a hunch that it was communication between the motor and the dreambox. It felt like the controller on the motor was getting very confused, just like I do, and I guess we both needed a rest.
Thanks for all the support guys, when your mind is going round in circles; it's good to have people with a clear head to throw ideas at you.
:Cheers: