posted
New software was released today by MotoSAT for the D-1 controller. It is V 2.0.0.25 and is available at www.motosat.com/downloads Be sure to uninstall the old and reboot before installing the new. I do not currently have any information about what this update may address so if you are not having any problems finding the satellite I would not rush to upgrade. I, or someone, will surely post here once we know a bit more about it.
[ November 19, 2004, 04:23 PM: Message edited by: Bill Adams ]
-------------------- Bill Adams Winegard Company Posts: 15726 | From: Traveling the Western US | Registered: May 2003
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posted
OK, here's the update. V2.0.0.25 is a fix for motor count problems encountered with some systems with the D-1 controller and the new Upper Control Board. The new UCB's came out in June or July I believe so if your antenna is older than that you should down load the software and just keep it in a file for awhile. If you have a D-1 and your antenna is newer than June, you may have the new UCB and you should download and install this software right away.
-------------------- Bill Adams Winegard Company Posts: 15726 | From: Traveling the Western US | Registered: May 2003
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posted
The .25 software supposedly fixes the apparent miscount problem and supports the new Upper Control Board Design Spec on the D1 controller.
Bill, the above link doesn't work due to the period at the end of the sentence. Try Downloads.
-------------------- Michael Day F1|D3|7000 5.8.0.72|Currently no Hughes|1 Laptop: XP Home|1 Desktop:Vista, 1 Win7|Cradlepoint 1400|Verizon MiFi 4GLTE| Newell Coach, PT Cruiser Turbo Find Me Here (Map) Donations Help Support This Site Posts: 2815 | From: Everywhere (home is Austin, TX) | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Just to chime in here, I've been using version 2.0.0.25 for about 3 weeks (got a pre-release copy when pursuing my own miscount issue). It's functionally no different from .23 that I can see; I've encountered no problems with it.
So I agree with Bill, people with new-ish DataStorms should go ahead and install it. Those with older dishes (like mine), feel free to do it if you want to stay current, as it doesn't seem to cause any new issues.
posted
How 'bout a quick description of the "apparent miscount problem"? What is that? My mount was replaced this summer with a refurbished one, but I have no idea what the age of the UCB is. Thanks.
-------------------- BobV DSL, no longer satellite|Win7 Posts: 291 | From: South Carolina | Registered: May 2003
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It's discussed at length in this recent thread. But in a nutshell, it's a problem where the actual movement of the dish doesn't correspond to how much the controller thinks it has moved, resulting in a sporadic inability to find the satellite because the dish is pointing in the wrong direction.
posted
In a nutshell, The motors that move various parts of the dish produce pulses that correspond to the # of rotation of each motor. The electronics counts these pulses in order to tell the total movement of the dish.
-------------------- American Eagle/ Saturn Vue or Jeep Datastorm on IA8/ today on 1410 Dell Latitude D630 or C840 DW 7000/D2 Airlink wireless N etc. Donate to this site http://www.datastormusers.com/donate.cfm
Roaming the USofA. Posts: 576 | From: everywhere | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
This "miscount" problem that is addressed by V2.0.0.25 is only related to customers who have a DataStorm with the "new" upper control board. This would mean that if you bought your antenna in the July/August 2004 time frame AND you have 4000 or 4020 modems, you should upgrade to the new software. Others CAN upgrade, but there is no apparent benefit.
-------------------- Bill Adams Winegard Company Posts: 15726 | From: Traveling the Western US | Registered: May 2003
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posted
I have upgraded to V2.0.0.25 on my system, which has the old upper control board board and 4000 series modems, and have not seen any change in system performance, or any software, or other conflicts. I therefore conclude that the upgrade is probably not necessary, unless the new version of the upper control board is in the DataStorm system. It would be nice if MotoSat would provide information with their release of software indicating not only the fixes, but also who should or should not install the upgrade, and why.
Perhaps Mike at MotoSat can expand on this upgrade, and who should use it and why.
[ November 29, 2004, 01:11 PM: Message edited by: Rob Payne ]
-------------------- Rob Payne G16, 99*W, 1110 MHz. XP PRO, SP2. DataStorm F1, 4000 series "Legacy" modems and D1 controller. Posts: 325 | From: Usk, Washington | Registered: Aug 2003
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quote: Bill Adams This "miscount" problem that is addressed by V2.0.0.25 is only related to customers who have a DataStorm with the "new" upper control board. This would mean that if you bought your antenna in the July/August 2004 time frame AND you have 4000 or 4020 modems, you should upgrade to the new software.
That would be me... I just stumbled on this upgrade to this "known" problem... which when I was battling with this issue last month or so, nobody at MotoSat or Ground Control told me there was some work going on here that was going to be fixed with a patch. I just happened to call MotoSat this past week out of frustration with Ground Control and my negotiations for the refund (another long story). Turns out Ben tells me about this new DSsetup version that came out last week... I just installed it a minute ago and it seems to be helping. The dish can now stow itself successfully. After a dish config it at least is centering its search in an area near the right azimuth spot (5 degrees off) , though it is still failing to find the satellite because the elevation seems to be off. I will perform a new tilt cal this weekend when I have an extra set of hands here operate my airbag controls on the coach.
I haven't been using the dish for internet since the end of Oct., though for some reason Ground Control says I was using it nearly non-stop this month. This was an issue they brought up even though it had no real bearing on my real problem and why I was seeking the refund. Then when I actually did try to fire up the internet on the dish (after manually pointing it) earlier this week I find out that GC had actually discontinued service to my account on Nov. 11, the very same day they charged me for my next month's ISP charges. They finally got my account reinitialized this morning which enabled me to download the upgrade.
That's only the tip of the iceberg with these guys... I could tell you so much more, but I am just too tired of the entire thing. Believe me if I find that I can actually depend on using this system again and finish up my contract with Ground Control I will be looking for ANY other ISP than them (and most likely an upgrade to a non legacy system).
Thanks to the boys at MotoSat for coming up with something that SEEMS to be helping, even though I was just lucky to have heard about it.
Unfortunately I noticed this morning that the skew motor sounds really weak and like it might stall out at any moment, but in the meantime it appears that I MAY be limping back into the fold.
posted
Originally posted by 1973 GMC online: Turns out Ben tells me about this new DSsetup version that came out last week... I just installed it a minute ago and it seems to be helping.
I thought the GC NAP required special versions of the Motosat software. Has that changed? Did Ben know you had a NAP when you talked to him?
quote: I thought the GC NAP required special versions of the Motosat software. Has that changed? Did Ben know you had a NAP when you talked to him?
I don't think it needs anything special as far as this upgrade is concerned. There is some windows-specific stuff in regards to the embedded flash system in the One Touch that a standard D1/4000 user wouldn't need. Both Ben and Maurice, who I both talked to today regarding this fix, had been informed by me this was a one-touch. After installing this upgrade, saving the changes to the systems flash memory, and restarting the system then the upgrade proceeded to flash the dish hardware.
quote: then the upgrade proceeded to flash the dish hardware
Or maybe it flashed the controller... I don't know. All I do know is that there seemed to be a subsequent improvement. I hope it isn't a passing concidence.
posted
All the rest of the 4000 users were using V2.0.0.23 and the one touch NAP users had a special V2.0.0.24 version. It has not been discussed by MotoSAT or anyone else if the V2.0.0.25 is compatible with both systems. Compared to a One Touch system, I think you be correct to be thinking about upgrading to the D-2/6000 and get that host PC out of the loop.
-------------------- Bill Adams Winegard Company Posts: 15726 | From: Traveling the Western US | Registered: May 2003
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posted
I'll call MotoSat Monday to double-check the compatability. But since it still is an improvement over the previous version I can't say I would go back even if it weren't technically compatible. If it only had a little problem like making the "find satellite" button inoperable on the front of the one-touch I could care less, since I am so used to using the remote desktop to manually find the satellite anyway. That's a small price to pay to get the correct counts back on my azimuth and the ability to stow the dish correctly.
Oh I realized about mistake of the one-touch a few weeks back, but I need to milk a bit of usage out of it since it cost a pretty penny and trying to get a refund agreement from... argggh, don't get me started!
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