posted
We have a almost brand new Motosat Executive with a Nomad D3 controller. Haven't had any problems until last night. We are currently in Penn. Worked great in Ohio. It goes up and looks but doesn't find the sats. Folks on both sides of us are locked on. I called our installer and was informed that Dish had done something that affected DirecTV customers also. They say I have to get a module from them and reflash the controller and then send back their module. All on my dollar. Does any of this sound right? I noticed that all the other dishes around me are pointed in one direction but when mine tries to locate the sat it is looking about 90 degrees off from where they are pointing. Help, my wife is going nuts without her dual tuner DVR. Ray
Posts: 14 | From: Orange County, Ca. | Registered: Jan 2007
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Ray, Do you really have a single LNB Executive or one of the newer dishes that have multiple LNB's? I assume you mean you have a Nomad 2 (or maybe even 3) but the D3 is the internet controller. The first thing that I would try is doing a new Test Dish. Your owners manual will give you the correct information for performing the operation. Once complete you can try a new search. If that still doesn't work and you are absolutely sure that you are not blocked then you are likely going to need to update your firmware. You can do this with your own computer and a software download available here: http://www.motosat.com/downloads/tv/software/nomad2_software.zip You need a special cable (which may have come with your dish) and a computer with a serial port or a Serial/USB adapter. If you don't want to go that route then you will need the update module from MotoSAT. Yes, you have to pay shipping charges, but that's all. So many people have requested the update modules it is my understanding that there is a waiting list for these being sent out. If you are anywhere near a MotoSAT dealer, they should be able to update your Nomad as well but you will have to pay the dealers labor charges.
-------------------- Bill Adams Winegard Company Posts: 15677 | From: Traveling the Western US | Registered: May 2003
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Hi Bill, thanks for the quick reply. Yes it is a Nomad 2 and it is a single LNB that is wired for a dual tuner receiver. At least I think it is only a single. It only has one arm and one white thingey. Everything was great until we got into Penn. I don't think that has anything to do with the problem though. I did a Test Dish according to the manual. No Go. We are not blocked in any way. There are other folks in the same line as us. Some have ground mount dishes that they aimed themselves. Others have Motosat/Datastorm dishes that are locked on. All are aimed in the same direction. Ours comes up out of the mount aiming in the same general direction as theirs but it goes 90 degrees in a different direction. I checked the flashing LED's and the only ones flashing are the stow and peak. The lock never lites up. I contacted the folks that installed our antenna and they had one more module. It will arrive here in Gettysburg on Saturday. I hope that is the fix.
Posts: 14 | From: Orange County, Ca. | Registered: Jan 2007
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Ray, what happens in problems like this is that something changes on one of the satellites up there.
The Nomad2 has to know something about a whole bunch of satellites, not just 101, because it never knows what it will "see."
In this case the problem is satellite 110, which happens to be a Dish satellite, although that doesn't matter.
What happens is your dish goes up and starts looking. If, by chance, the first satellite it runs into is 110 it thinks that it is something else, and goes off and looks in the wrong part of the sky for 101.
If you get lucky and it finds 101 before hitting 110, all is well. It will vary with each and every location. The firmware update has the new information for 110, so that fixes it until the next time somebody changes a satellite!
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Be sure that they are sending you a module loading with 33.8 and not 33.6a. That's the firmware version that you need. If it's already been sent and you get 33.6a, it should work but you will still want to get your hands on 33.8 (the final version).
-------------------- Bill Adams Winegard Company Posts: 15677 | From: Traveling the Western US | Registered: May 2003
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Thanks Don and Bill. I will call in the morning and check the version. This is frustrating. I hate it when I am ignorant about something that I should know about. I never thought that after buying this equipment I would have any problems other than mechanical failure. If I had known that this could happen and possibly continue to happen I might have opted for the tried and proven tripod mounted dish from DirecTV. I hate it when I can't fix a problem myself. I don't like being dependent on someone else. But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate both of your help in this. I guess all I can do now is wait until Saturday. I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks again, Ray
Posts: 14 | From: Orange County, Ca. | Registered: Jan 2007
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Ok, I said I would report back. I received the module today and installed it. The Motosat now finds the sat and locks in. All is well in the house now. Mama is happy. The version is 33.8 so I assume that is the latest update. I hope this doesn't happen often. This is the first time since we got our Motosat in March. Thanks for the help guys. Ray
Posts: 14 | From: Orange County, Ca. | Registered: Jan 2007
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I think changes are happening more often/faster than at any time in the past. I just updated the posted table for the Datastorm D3 with three new changes today. The reason this is happening so often is that satellite operators are steadily changing transponders to DVB-S2 instead of the old DVB-S. Neither the Datastorm D3 nor the Nomad 2 can read DVB-S2.
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Is this effecting DirectTV as well? We just stowed our dish this morning for the first time in about 10 days, and it won't lock on when I try to deploy it now. We're in the exact same spot as we were before (rig went into the service barn and back out again).
I've tried the search 4 times now, and it scans around for a long time, then stows itself again.
Nomad 2 with HD-SL5 mount, DirecTV service.
joe
-------------------- Cradlepoint MBR95, Sierra USB-250U (Sprint WiMax) 2008 Newmar King Aire 4562, 2012 Jeep Liberty Limited Jet We're here! Posts: 683 | Registered: Nov 2007
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Well, it finally locked on the 5th attempt. That was after I confirmed the controller was set properly for the dish, and did a test sequence on it.
joe
-------------------- Cradlepoint MBR95, Sierra USB-250U (Sprint WiMax) 2008 Newmar King Aire 4562, 2012 Jeep Liberty Limited Jet We're here! Posts: 683 | Registered: Nov 2007
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If you have older firmware it can affect any TV dish.
The HD-SL5 uses two satellites for all of its pointing, 101 and 119. At the moment there are no issues with either of those if you have relatively recent firmware.
The problem happens if you happen to hit, before hitting those two, satellites 91, 110, or 148. All are misidentified by any firmware prior to the latest. That sends the dish into totally the wrong direction in its attempt to find 101.
I had a location where it was finding 61 OK, then 91, but it thought 91 was 148, so it went way off into an ever-widening spiral until it found 61 again, then repeated ad-infinitum. I knew this from looking at it in a telnet session.
Next location, no problem. Next one, problems again until new firmware.
Dish, which needs to see 110, is dead without new firmware. DirecTV will depend on the specifics of location and luck. Bottom-line: best to always upgrade when a new firmware edition is because of satellite mis-identification.
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The dish was installed new in June, but I guess it could be out of date.
I've got a call into a local installed (the one who installed the dish for Newmar, I think). If he's got an update module, I'll try and run it up to him to get it updated.
I assume you need the custom serial cable to do the telnet session. Might be worth getting one of those. Buy direct from Motosat?
joe
-------------------- Cradlepoint MBR95, Sierra USB-250U (Sprint WiMax) 2008 Newmar King Aire 4562, 2012 Jeep Liberty Limited Jet We're here! Posts: 683 | Registered: Nov 2007
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Yes, June is out-of-date. The 110 issue is about 3 weeks old, and the 91 and 148 issues were learned last week.
Because I think these problems are only going to increase I certainly would advise the purchase of a cable by anyone who feels comfortable doing telnet. It is not often recommended for the general TV public because many/most are not savvy about things like telnet, and USB/Serial cables, etc.
The cable used is the same one used with a Datastorm D1 controller, so many who have been around here a long time have one in our junk box.
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