How to update USALS on new receiver

[E2Royal]

For a few years I used my VU+ Ultimo 4K connected to a 1 metre Gilbertini dish driven by a STAB 120. The motor tracked the arc perfectly and I could view satellites between 45 West to 62 East.
I used VIX software and moved the dish using USALS.
I had problems with the Ultimo 4K so simply replaced it with a VU+ Duo 4K SE. Installed the latest VIX software reset the dish position to zero and connected the dish to the new receiver.
The settings of the 4K SE were identical to the Ultimo 4K but the dish would not drive to the correct requested position. The 4K SE did not seem to know where the dish was pointing.
I have some other satellite receivers with the latest VIX software and none of them could successfully position the dish.
Where have I gone wrong?
Is there a trick of how to tell the receiver where the dish is currently pointing?

-Eric-

[bmitie]

I cant figure why you set dish to 0 but with USALS it should not matter... Can you say if you put in usals in new box as per normal, and have you a motorised channel list.

Does the dish move?

Are you on latest VIX image? Are the tuners FBC not that is should matter.

[Huevos]

reset the dish position to zero

What does that mean?

Which image version do you have loaded?

[bmitie]

with USALS you can go to positioner and send dish to 0 on motor, can be useful if dish gets stuck.

[Huevos]

with USALS you can go to positioner and send dish to 0 on motor, can be useful if dish gets stuck.

I know what send to zero means. I'm asking the OP what he did.

[E2Royal]

I have a Stab Rotor Control unit that sits between the Sat receiver and the Rotor. There are three buttons. You can drive East or West or choose Zero which drives the dish to the theoretical due South. I set the dish to Zero hoping the receivber would have a known starting point.

-Eric-

[E2Royal]

Casn anyone help?

[Huevos]

Do you still have the Ultimo4k? Can you recheck with that?

The 4K SE did not seem to know where the dish was pointing.

In DiSEqC 1.2 (USALS) the receiver doesn't know where the dish is pointing, it tells the dish where to point.

[Joe_90]

I have a Stab Rotor Control unit that sits between the Sat receiver and the Rotor. There are three buttons. You can drive East or West or choose Zero which drives the dish to the theoretical due South. I set the dish to Zero hoping the receivber would have a known starting point.

-Eric-

This unit seems to be quite superfluous when used with a USALS motor and a modern receiver. The receiver can generate move East and West and GoTo zero commands and will also calculate the GoTo X commands which will point the rotor to the correct azimuth angle to receive a particular satellite (assuming the the rotor and dish are aligned properly to begin with). Have you input your location correctly into the motor/rotor settings in the VU receiver menu? With the correct location in the receiver, the receiver just sends a Disecq GOTO X command to the HH120 motor and it should turn east or west to point at the correct satellite. The receiver does not know where the motor is pointing to currently - it just tells the motor to turn to absolute angle X either east or west, depending on the satellite you've selected to tune.

Here's a screenshot of my USALS config for my dish:USALS_setup.jpg


Here's a screenshot showing manual move and goto facilities:USALS_move.jpg

[bmitie]

Well spotted joe but the OP does say they " I used VIX software and moved the dish using USALS." So the question that needs to be asked why the heck was that stab rotor control added?? I did a google and it is more useful when using Diseq but that is old hat.

With dish at 0 they can disconnect the stab rotor and with the correct USALS info in box under the correct tuner all should work.

In the setting above I would leave mode as POSITIONER FOR NOW.

[Joe_90]

I did say the Stab Rotor Control unit was superfluous. I couldn't understand why the OP was using it if the motor had USALS goto X capability and his receiver was USALS compatible also.

[Huevos]

it is more useful when using Diseq but that is old hat.

??? USALS is DiSEqC.

[bmitie]

Dont confuse him Huevos, with Diseq you drive dish to SAT position and then store it, With USALS the software drives dish to a calculated position where sat is located on the arc.
But if you treat it as the same I dont mind.

All I want is the OP to come back and say they are sorted and why they used that stab control.

And by the way Diseq is more accurate.

[Huevos]

Dont confuse him Huevos, with Diseq you drive dish to SAT position and then store it, With USALS the software drives dish to a calculated position where sat is located on the arc.
But if you treat it as the same I dont mind.

Don't confuse him by stating the facts? GoToX is part of DiSEqC 1.2.

[LraiZer]

Are lat/long settings input setting correct inc. East/West?

I use google maps, zoom in to my location and right mouse click on my dish to select "What's here?" to obtain a dish's location Latitude and Longitude. As we all know, Greenwich London is the centre of the world, so make sure you are using correct East or West setting for plus or minus.



GotoX/Usals is really just a bit of math to work out what command to send to a motor so that it moves to a certain sat position based on lat/long location.

You can SEE HERE for example reference we add gotoXX to our dbox2 Neutrino during past fun times.