VU Duo 4K SE tuner

[thecaretaker]

I've had terrible problems with keeping a steady signal from the dish in all the strong winds we have been having lately. I can physically see the end of my satellite arm vibrating, but no more that it always had.

I've checked and redone all the cable connections and have a really good 100% SNR. But over the Christmas period, every 2-3 minutes the picture would freeze and pixelate. It really messed up recordings I hoped to make/keep over Christmas.

Thinking I never had this problem with the Ultimo4K, I tried an experiment. I took the tuner out from my old Ultimo4K and replaced it with the one in the Duo4K SE. It's been flawless ever since despite some of the really strong gales we have had recently.

Now, I do know that the VU Duo 4K SE comes with a DVB-S2X tuner where the Ultimo4K was just a DVB-S2. Could I have a faulty DVB-S2X tuner or do all DVB-S2X tuners have a much narrower focal range (for want of a better description)?

The Ultimo4K tuner is currently working perfectly, but it is old. I don't want to waste money on buying a replacement DVB-S2X tuner to find I have the same problem.

I've searched to find a supplier of the older DVB-S2 tuner, but nobody seems to sell them anymore.

It's a shame I don't know anybody local to try out another DVB-S2X tuner to see if it is in fact how the tuner works or if mine is faulty.

Just for info, I don't have a motor, my dish is fixed solidly to a scaffold pole (pointing at 28.2E). My dish is a Fracarro Penta 85. I live on the coast so the wind does come straight off the sea.

Any thoughts?

[bmitie]

I got the duo4kse at xmas with 2 fbc tuners and I use it with a fixed on 28east and a motorised dish, I use openvix 6.4 at the moment but I have set it up for multiboot and three images. With the duo there are 2 slots so it might be an idea to try the fbc in the second slot and not that you have removed it and then put it back in ie reseated you may have fixed the problem. Can you say the image you are using and have you two 2 feeds from the dish? can you say a few channels and I'll test signal strength etc.

I did not know you could swop the dvbs2 tuner, I use a 110cm dish with dark motor.
How long have you had the box and is it still under guarantee?

Are you needing an fbc tuner? and are you still using the ultimo box? if under guarantee I dont think you can open box.

[thecaretaker]

No, I don't use the Ultimo anymore. It had seen better days and I kind of messed it up by drilling holes in the lid to add a fan. I had a quirky heat problem where I kept ketting random dots which would clear if I pressed the info bar. Before I threw it, I took the tuner and HD out of it.

Get the same in the second port, so definitely the DVB-S2X tuner.

My signal is 100% on 95% of the channels. Only a few NHK and a few HD news channels are 95% SNR. So it's not a signal strength issue.

Yes, tried replacing the DVB-S2X back and it is the same on windy days.

But if you have never experienced this, it might be a duff tuner then.

[cactikid]

My fixed dish also had break up of picture in high winds and could see it wobble .

Not sure if its the arm flexing in the high wind or the dish needing a stabiliser for high winds.

Duff tuner or F connection on lnb loose? and is it okay with no wind.

[thecaretaker]

Yes, it's fine with no wind cactikid.

[cactikid]

Next i would be checking the F connector is tight as seen many not tight or corroded.

It kinds of rules out a tuner issue when okay with no wind.

[bmitie]

I have had a good think and I would put it dwon to the sensitivity of the tuners and the fbc is not as sensitive as the dvb s2. I use an INVERTO black ultra for motorised and an INVERTO quad, cant remember the version for the fixed on the basis that they are very good. Can you say the make and version of lnb you are using and age. I think fbc tuners are aimed at unicable lnb's and these may be far more sensitive than ordinary ones. When the dish wobbles its inevitable lnb will get less signal but dvb s2 works ie needs less signal, fbc fails needs more signal.

I use 9e a lot and know signal is weak so will be able to do a check when its windy as I have 2 boxes.

I don't think the fbc is faulty.

[bmitie]

Getting old, it just dawned on me, why are you using an 85CM dish in Southern UK for 28east? That's zone 1 ie 45cm dish. Smaller dish, will not move.
I had a look at that Fracarro Penta 85 it looks a bit flimsy. I know near sea with salt can rust sky dishes but I'm 18 from coast, the atalmtic and use a triax 68cm and its up 17 years but in shade. The bigger the dish the more it will wobble.

[thecaretaker]

I'm also using an INVERTO black ultra Quad LNB. I bought it when they first came out as everyone said they were the bees knees at the time. I had the Penta dish when I had a Dark Motor and being south facing could get most satellites from 45E to 45W. The wife kept moaning that she wanted to watch TV when I wanted to play. So when the Dark Motor failed, I didn't replace it, I just fixed the dish to the scaffold pole. I'll fish out an old photo if I can....

sat2.jpg
Original setup

20240116_110515.jpg
The dish today

20240116_110433.jpg

Screenshot 2024-01-16 111910.jpg

[bmitie]

Ah that explains it, looks a good job. With a smaller sky dish you should get no movement. I checked that FBC tuner today against the one in my DUO2. I use 9 east quite a bit so used that and the DUO2 is better by about 7% not a lot but interesting. Other things I noticed I would get a lower AGC reading on the FBC than the DUO2 one, and in signal finder the AGC would fluctuate i.e disappear with the FBC. One final bit when watching AFN on 9east the AGC on the FBC was 2% but DUO2 was 96%. I don't pay much attention to AGC but with your issue it stood out. I tested on 28east and all 100% except that NHK and that was 84% for me on both. No wind here yet but from the bits I posted it would not surprise me if the FBC would not keep the signal as good as the duo2.

You could try stabilisers on the lnb ARM but I bet the whole dish moves a bit.

Its hard to say if your tuner is faulty or not.

[thecaretaker]

...Other things I noticed I would get a lower AGC reading on the FBC than the DUO2.

That's interesting. I recently posted about the AGC on the Duo 4K SE tuner, but didn't get any replies. I didn't mention the picture break up, thought I'd tackle one issue at a time. https://www.world-of-satellite.com/s...&highlight=AGC

The Ultimo tuner always shows around 50-60% AGC on all channels. It never shows anything as high as 99% like the DVB-S2X and never drops to 0% with a 100% SNR.

[bmitie]

I will try it with a different image tomorrow as I have 3 on it and see what happens with AGC!

[bmitie]

Just for info I had a little read up on AGC and ... the best figure is 0 ie zilch as that means box is getting exact amount of signal!! I read this as AGC means nothing and SNR is the one. Just thought you might like to know.