Diseqc switch setup guide for dummies, please help! (1 Viewer)

[HappySwede]

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Hi
First of all, thank you developers for a great software. I have been using MP since I belive it was version 0.1.2.0.
My problem though has allways been the setup of Diseqc. Over the years I have been trying with both a Twinhan and a FloppyDTV S2 card, currently both are installed. I belive I have tried just about every imaginable combination of settings in TV server and various combination of 2-1 and 4-1 switches with the different cards. Since the Twinhan card had known issues with this I accepted the problem for a long time but as far as I understand the FloppyDTV is supposed to work fully with a switch. Funny thing is that I have one very old switch which allways has been the most relieable, all new switches are causing problems.
The switching is best described as irratic, sometimes working during scan sometimes not, sometimes getting stuck on one lnb then another.
I have a feeling that I am doing something fundamentaly wrong. Is it true that I need to have a Diseqc 1.1 switch? (all tested switches has been 1.0). An "expert" told me that was the case.
Please help me with a guide for dummies on how to setup a system with 4 lnbs on one decoder for both hardware and software. Hopefully Ill find something there which is the obvious cause for my problems.
By the way for the moment with latest MP the Twinhan card doesnt work at all.
//Not so HappySwede

 

[romuz]

MP support only 1.0(2.0) diseqc`s and diseqc 1.2(2.2) motors
Diseqc 1.1 not supported by portal
First you need to check your diseqcs with other software to be sure if its MP problem

 

[HappySwede]

Thank you Romuz. That rules out the 1.1 then, I thought it sounded strange and they seem to be very rare too. I made a quick test with FireDTV Viewer, but just to see if I got any signal which I did.
Anyway since I have tried with four different switches it seems unlikely that they are all broken. I have tried two 4-1 brand new straight out of the box from Maximum Digital Technology, one brand new 2-1 (dont remember the make) and one really old 2-1 with unknown make. Only the old one gives a fairly stable result.
Do you have a suggestion on a software that should be sure to work with a 4 lnb setup?

 

[romuz]

I suggest you try with software recomended by dvb card maker which supports diseqc switching.

 

[HappySwede]

I will try that. But in the meantime isnt there anyone who has a working setup with 4 lnbs on one reciever who can tell me what settings and hardware they are using?

 

[AberDino]

I will try that. But in the meantime isnt there anyone who has a working setup with 4 lnbs on one reciever who can tell me what settings and hardware they are using?

I'm using 2x Technotrend S2-3200 cards, each connected to 4-into-1 diseqc switches, which in turn are connected to 3x twin LNBs. The diseqc switches were as supplied with the multiconnect kit from Inverto. See screenshot for settings. All working great with MP v1.1.0 RC2.

 

[HappySwede]

Thanks alot AberDino. I will try it as soon as I can. Its nice to know that there is a way, maybe I just havent found it. It looks like you have set the Diseqc selection opposite from what I would have expected, though I think I have tried that too. Do you know what the different A/B variations stands for?

 

[AberDino]

Hi HappySwede, the selection of diseqc switch positions took a bit of experimenting. My diseqc switches have inputs marked A, B, C and D. I connected the 19.2°E LNB to input A, 23.°E to input B and 28.2°E to input C. Applying logic, I would have expected input A to be 'Level1AA' in the MP diseqc configuration and input D to be 'Level1BB'. However, as it turned out, input A is 'Level1AB', input B 'Level1BB' and input C 'Level1AA'. By process of elimination, input D would be 'Level1BA', but I'm not using that one. However, in my screenshot you'll see I've set input 1 to 'Level1BA', and there is a reason for this. I performed a fresh install of MP 1.1.0 RC2 and decided to retune my channels rather than restore the channel configuration from backup. When I came to scan 19.2°E I noticed that I got 'no signal' on the transponders. The other two (23.5°E and 28.2°E) worked fine. I decided to change 'Level1AB' to 'Level1BA' and the scan completed successfully. Interestingly, the diseqc configuration is properly recorded in the channel configuration. For example, I scanned the 'ZDF HD' transponder with the 'Level1BA' setting, and then when the channel was found it was stored with the correct diseqc setting 'Level1AB'. I concluded this is a bug and created a bug report, but it got deleted because I didn't include any logs. At least you now know to be aware of this.

Not sure how knowledgeable you are or what you've tried to date, but what I would do in your case is remove the diseqc switch, install FastSatfinder, configure it for your device, and tune in to a known transponder. If you get a signal you know the setup works without a diseqc switch. Then add the diseqc switch back in and configure the diseqc option in FastSatfinder until you have a signal. If it doesn't work on any of the positions it will never work in MP. If it does, then you've found the correct diseqc position for that input on your diseqc switch, and it should be possible to derive/test the positions for the other inputs. Remember to remove power from your PC when you make changes to your sat cabling, or you could damage your card. You also need to stop the tvservice before using FastSatfinder.

 

[HappySwede]

Thanks for good advice AberDino. Ive been testing for the last four hours and it seems that the rather unlogical setings of LNBs gives a better scan result, so thats really good progres. Finaly I found that the following settings "worked"
#1 1BA
#2 1BB
#3 1AA
#4 1AB
I am saying "worked" because it scanned all satelites but with a very low channel count of only a bit over 1000 channels in total, there is normally around 1300 only on Hotbird. Even on Hotbird where there is normally something found on just about every transponder there where a large amount of transponders without signal. And to add to the mystery, as I am writing this I changed the setting for Astra (#1) to 1AA to do a scan just to check. Belive it or not but the scan came back more or less the same as with the previous settings. I am getting really confused about this. I have also noticed that from time to time it seems like its just skiping a large numer of transponders or simply quiting in the middle of a scan without any error reported.
Since I managed to get signal on the different satelites I still didnt test FastSatfinder just yet. Two things Ive been thinking about is if its really scanning the satelite that it should or scanning another LNB and just happens to find something. The other thing is, as I remember the list of transponders are made up of txt documents with transponder info in them (remember editing them a few years back). Could it be using the wrong txt document?
Any ideas?
You write that the channel is stored with LNB setting info. Does this mean that even if I would climb up on the roof to change the cables to scan each LNB seperately in order to get a good channel list I wouldnt be able to use it?
Thanks for your support

 

[AberDino]

Hi "slightly happier" HappySwede, nice to read you are making progress.

Two things Ive been thinking about is if its really scanning the satelite that it should or scanning another LNB and just happens to find something. The other thing is, as I remember the list of transponders are made up of txt documents with transponder info in them (remember editing them a few years back). Could it be using the wrong txt document?
Any ideas?

Do you know for sure that your dish and LNBs are aligned correctly for the respective satellites? As I said in my previous post, I would check/scan each LNB individually so I know those bits are OK (you can use FastSatfinder for aligning your dish/LNBs for maximum signal quality and signal strength). All connectors and switches will introduce signal loss, and of course cable quality is important too, especially for longer runs, so make sure that's all as good as can be.

It could well be that the same or similar frequencies are used on the various satellites. A handy application for scanning transponders and finding out what's 'inside' the stream is TransEdit, which conveniently also supports diseqc switching. You can use it to find out which satellite is received on each LNB/switch position.

In terms of the satellite 'ini' files, MP does use those and yes, before scanning I would update them (see screenshot). It looks like the 'ini' files are actually downloaded from the FastSatfinder site.

You write that the channel is stored with LNB setting info. Does this mean that even if I would climb up on the roof to change the cables to scan each LNB seperately in order to get a good channel list I wouldnt be able to use it?

You can always set/remove the diseqc setting on the channel config (see screenshots). So, if you scan the LNBs separately without the diseqc switch, you could then manually configure the diseqc setting later. Not great obviously if you have a large channel list, and it shouldn't be required because you shouldn't loose too much signal with the diseqc switch. The weather will have a bigger impact on signal strength! Also, you might want to try scanning without DVB-S2 features first (set on card config), and then do another scan with DVB-S2 features enabled. In the past this was required to get a full channel list, not sure if that is still the case with the latest MP 1.1.0 RC2.