[VU+ Ultimo] Motor Problem

[StuBFrost]

I have a satellite dish on a dark motor set up as USALs with the correct lat/longs. Over a period of a few days as I move the dish around, the alignment seems to lose SNR so that eventually the dish will not receive a signal. I have to use "GOTO 0" to reset the dish and then it will be fine again for another few days.

I am current using Vix 3 but I also had the issue with 2.4. I previously had the dish on a Spiderbox which never had this problem.

Does anyone have a similar problem or know what the issue may be ?

Thanks

Stu

 

[basilyoung]

is this the case on all sats?? or just a few, I note that it was previously ok on your spider unit, but it could be due to a number of things

motor leg has play so as it moves away from 1 west, the slack would cause the dish to drop left or right

loose connection, ie, coax cable being pulled or stretched by the dish clamps

 

[StuBFrost]

It happens on all satellites eventually.

I looked at the dark motor manual and decided to try a hard reset to see if that helps.

One thing I have always noticed is that when the dish is being moved a distance of more than a few degrees, the countdown timer is way off and even goes negative. I have even had a scenario where when moving from say 28.2E to 30W that after a short time Vix thinks it has finished moving and gives me a tune failed message when the dish is actually still moving.

 

[tomthebomb1968]

Dunno if it is relevant but did you change any turning speed values or the tuning step size from defaults when configuring your tuner?

 

[StuBFrost]

Dunno if it is relevant but did you change any turning speed values or the tuning step size from defaults when configuring your tuner?

No I didn't change any of the values but I wondered if it might be the problem that these do need adjusting.

 

[Huevos]

The countdown timer gets no feedback from the motor. It is just an estimate of the time it will take to move the dish from one satellite to another. If it goes over time it just means the motor is slower than the motor speed in your tuner specs.

To me it sounds like the hall effect sensor in the motor is on the way out.

 

[StuBFrost]

I noticed last night something odd about the problem I'm having. I had the motorised dish (on tuner C) positioned on a satellite and was getting 70% SNR on most channels as I expected. I was flicking between a channel on this satellite and another channel on my fixed dish (on tuner A).

After a time, the motorised dish channel would not lock and was showing 0% SNR. Other channels on the satellite were showing 30% and breaking up. The fixed dish appeared to be fine. Once I did a "GOTO 0", the motorised was fine again.

Why would a non moving motorised dish do this ?

 

[Huevos]

Why would a non moving motorised dish do this ?

Because it is pointing in the wrong direction.

 

[basilyoung]

sounds to me, like your tuner configs are incorrect, try disabling ( set to not configged ) and leave just the motorized dish enabled, and set it to simple/motorized, input your USALs

then test it on all sats, if ok, do the same test with the fixed dish, set to single a sat

 

[StuBFrost]

Because it is pointing in the wrong direction.

That doesn't sound right. Why would a dish picking up channels fine one moment not pick them up the next when all I did was change channel. The dish shouldn't have moved.

 

[StuBFrost]

sounds to me, like your tuner configs are incorrect, try disabling ( set to not configged ) and leave just the motorized dish enabled, and set it to simple/motorized, input your USALs

then test it on all sats, if ok, do the same test with the fixed dish, set to single a sat

I was sure I had the tuners set up correctly. I have 2 fixed feeds on Tuner A and Tuner B and then simple/motorized with USALs on Tuner C.

I still don't get how the dish can be pointing at a satellite and picking up channels and all I did was flick to a channel on the fixed dish and then back to the channel I was watching on the motorised and it suddenly it can't pick up the same channel and needs a "GOTO 0" to reset it.

 

[basilyoung]

your answer to my post, in part, has made things a little clearer, in that its the motorized dish that losses signal, after you have switched from one of your orther fixed dishes, bac to the motorized dish

in this case, I would make either tuner A or B motorized, and switch the fixed dish to C

Then see if the tuner C has a problem, or the motor

ie, use the motor, then switch to tuner C, then back to motor

 

[StuBFrost]

your answer to my post, in part, has made things a little clearer, in that its the motorized dish that losses signal, after you have switched from one of your orther fixed dishes, bac to the motorized dish

in this case, I would make either tuner A or B motorized, and switch the fixed dish to C

Then see if the tuner C has a problem, or the motor

ie, use the motor, then switch to tuner C, then back to motor

Correct, that is what I was saying. I will try your suggestion of swapping the tuners around.

 

[Larry-G]

just a stab in the dark but have you updated the FPGA recently or at all ?.

 

[StuBFrost]

just a stab in the dark but have you updated the FPGA recently or at all ?.

Yes I did recently when I saw it mentioned that it had been updated on another thread and it was recommended to do the update. Should I not have updated it ?

 

[basilyoung]

yes you should of, so no worries there

 

[Larry-G]

Yes I did recently when I saw it mentioned that it had been updated on another thread and it was recommended to do the update. Should I not have updated it ?

yes it is a recommended update, i was just checking that you had done it.

 

[StuBFrost]

OK, I am still having problems with this.

I have moved the motor to input A and found I could make the problem not take as long to happen by reducing the number of decimals in the lat/long entries (ie I had 53.5343 so just made it 53.5).

Given that I am sure the dish is fine (it was professionally installed and recently re-checked) it must be either the Ultimo itself or the Vix software or an incompatibility with the motor. As I mentioned on an earlier post I never had this problem with a Spiderbox.

I guess I will have to try alternative software to see if the box may be the problem.

 

[Huevos]

Do the latitude and longitude correspond with your location? After doing a go-to-zero does the dish go to the correct place? If you leave the dish parked on one satellite and then use the fixed dish and then go back to the original does it work fine?

To be honest there's not much that could be wrong with the receiver or its software. All the receiver does is send an angular position up to the motor (based on the coordinates you entered) and the motor does the rest. If it works after a go-to-zero the box is sending the correct info to the motor. If you keep having to do a go-to-zero to make it work that means the motor is losing its position, that is most likely a fault with the install (voltage drop in the cable run) or a fault with the motor (possibly the hall effect sensor), or the motor drawing too much power due to being overloaded with a dish that is over size. The only time these problems are down to the receiver is when they are configured wrong or the receiver power supply is too small, which is certainly not the case with the Ultimo.