ET9000 In Multi Satellite Mode -- External Box As Dish Positioner ?

[The Bishop]

Hi,

After a quick hello in the Introduction section I am eager to get my new ET9000 bought from the forum sponsor up and running.

The setup I hope to achieve is to use the ET9000 as a multi satellite receiver on a motorised dish but with control of the dish carried out by an external positioner that is not connected directly or indirectly to the ET9000. If anyone could please assist me in the setup or tuner configuration for this I would be really grateful.

The connectivity is as below:

1. Motorised dish controlled by a 36 volt positioner unit directly connected to the dish motor without the use of a v-box and without the use of Diseqc.

2. From the dish there is a direct LNB feed into tuner 1 of the ET9000.


What I would like to do is to have the option to choose a satellite from a list a satellites in the ET9000, get a list of channels for the selected satellite, then select a channel for viewing. The dish will have been moved to the satellite manually and independently by the external 36 volt positioner unit.

Any advice on tuner, LNB or other relevant configurations would be very welcome.



Praying for help !!
The Bishop

[Sicilian]

This is a good thread to start with http://www.world-of-satellite.com/showthread.php?561-Setting-up-your-VU-with-Motorised-Dish-amp-Seperate-Positioner Hopefully basilyoung will be around at somepoint, he's very good with these sorts of setups.

[basilyoung]

Really, a V Box is the best option,

I think your best bet would be to set up what ever tuner you intend to use, as DiSEqC mode none and set all sats to LNB 1

I hav,nt tested here, but can do if you run into problems

as I have a 36v setup ( with V box ) but the dish has a Quad lnb so I can set up a test unit

[The Bishop]

Really, a V Box is the best option,

I think your best bet would be to set up what ever tuner you intend to use, as DiSEqC mode none and set all sats to LNB 1



Basil,

Thank you for the reply.

Does a v-box have an auto focus / auto peak option when moving the dish to another satellite or does it just move to a specific pulse count and stop as soon as it gets to that pulse count? The positioner I use at the moment offers auto focus which scans either side of the stored position detecting the signal strength as it does this. It then auto positions the dish to the position of maximum signal strength for the satellite and this can be useful for tracking any azimuth movement of inclined orbit satellites. The elevation tracking of the inclined orbit satellites is a separate issue.

In connection with setting all satellites to LNB 1 with DiseqC mode set to none, I found this option in the advanced menu of the tuner configuration and wondered if it would be appropriate so I will test it out today. When scrolling through the satellite list in the same menu there are 4 options listed as "All Satellites1", "All Satellites2", "All Satellites3" and "All Satellites4" each of these defaults to LNB 33, LNB 34, LNB 35 and LNB 36 respectively. I wondered if selection one of these options might be a global way of setting all the satellites to the same LNB rather than set them all individually ? Again, I will have to test it out later today.


The Bishop

[silverfox0786]

Basil,

Thank you for the reply.

Does a v-box have an auto focus / auto peak option when moving the dish to another satellite or does it just move to a specific pulse count and stop as soon as it gets to that pulse count? The positioner I use at the moment offers auto focus which scans either side of the stored position detecting the signal strength as it does this. It then auto positions the dish to the position of maximum signal strength for the satellite and this can be useful for tracking any azimuth movement of inclined orbit satellites. The elevation tracking of the inclined orbit satellites is a separate issue.

In connection with setting all satellites to LNB 1 with DiseqC mode set to none, I found this option in the advanced menu of the tuner configuration and wondered if it would be appropriate so I will test it out today. When scrolling through the satellite list in the same menu there are 4 options listed as "All Satellites1", "All Satellites2", "All Satellites3" and "All Satellites4" each of these defaults to LNB 33, LNB 34, LNB 35 and LNB 36 respectively. I wondered if selection one of these options might be a global way of setting all the satellites to the same LNB rather than set them all individually ? Again, I will have to test it out later today.


The Bishop

the vbox is basically a external positioner and needs to be set for its sats u can tweek it manually as precise as u want it then store the potition

once done the poition number is added to the sat xml so when going to that sat the vbox knows its potion and goes to it

eg

28.2e is postion 1
13e position 2
19.2 position 3

so selecting a channel on 19.2e it will be set on sat xml as position 3 so it will trigger the diseque of receiver to send signal to vbox and in turn vbox will go to position 3

and that position 1, 2, 3, 4, etc you can fine tune via the vbox as fine and precise as you want it to be

[basilyoung]

the V box would not be selective, as far as "best position" goes, sat positions, I tend to save them as 28 ( pos 1 ) would be set to 28 east

ie, pos 28 = 28 east
pos 19 = 19 east
and so on

as far as a global setting useing "all sats" goes, I dont know, as I hav,nt tried it

but in advanced settings once the base configeration has been set, go back to sat name.. ie 28 east ...set it to lnb one then move to the next required sat...and set it to lnb 1
continue untill all sats you require are set to lnb 1 press ok,..and the config will be saved

this method would also applie to a V box, except the saved position would be whatever sat position has been set on the V Box, ie; 28 east on the V Box position 1 or as I surgested 28

the reasn for my method is, simplicity, sat position relates to the sat i want to watch, ( and yes, I no there are a few conflicts ie 7 east/west )

[The Bishop]

....you can fine tune via the vbox as fine and precise as you want it to be


Sure, you can fine tune the v-box manually by small incremental manual adjustments. However, I prefer the auto peak option where the 36 volt positioner goes to the stored postion then automatically scans east and west of that to determine the best position of maximum signal then parks the dish at that point all without the user having to make manual adjustments for fine tuning.



The Bishop

[basilyoung]

Auto Focus would not be controlled by the unit, but by the positioner, the unit would only send a request to the positioner to give signal

the positioner would then go to the required saterllite, if the V box or positioner is caperble to fine tune, it would do so, but I do not no of a V box that will do this

the dish would also have to have two actuators, one to move the dish east west, the other, up/down

I dont know the dish size that you are using, but really, a correctly aligned dish, and a good size ( 1mtr fairly good 1.2 better, and so on ) should be good enough with out the need for auto focus

[Sicilian]

I had a look at this last night. Think the easiest option is to set to advanved. Then turn on the required satellites by using left and right buttons and setting them all to LNB1.

[The Bishop]

Auto Focus would not be controlled by the unit, but by the positioner, the unit would only send a request to the positioner to give signal

the positioner would then go to the required saterllite, if the V box or positioner is caperble to fine tune, it would do so, but I do not no of a V box that will do this

the dish would also have to have two actuators, one to move the dish east west, the other, up/down

I dont know the dish size that you are using, but really, a correctly aligned dish, and a good size ( 1mtr fairly good 1.2 better, and so on ) should be good enough with out the need for auto focus


Basil,

I am using a 1.5m prime focus dish with 2 actuators and the dish has a rather narrow beam width of 1.2 degrees hence my use of automated focus equipment.


The Bishop

[The Bishop]

I had a look at this last night. Think the easiest option is to set to advanved. Then turn on the required satellites by using left and right buttons and setting them all to LNB1.


Sicilian,

Yes, that is the option I used in the end and it works OK. Also, the other option of using "All Satellites 1" from the satellite selection and using the default LNB 33 works OK.



The Bishop