Assistance requested

General Othernet Discussions
1

All
Some time ago I realized that my othernet system was not receiving data. Due to higher priority’s I ignored it for some time. When I came back to it I discovered a frequency change had occurred so I followed the directions on the forum but did not have any success. Once again I did not have enough time to give to the project so it sat for some time. Now I have as much time as I need I again am trying to resolve this issue.

When I noticed the new OS changes the frequency for me I figured that would fix my problem since the adjustments I attempted did not work. Flashed the new OS and still no data. So we have a functioning Dreamcatcher. I now move to LNB position as the issue. I go outside and everything seems to be in place according to my measurements. To eliminate one more point of failure I remove the coax and connect the dreamcatcher direct to the LNB. Same results no signal. I removed the LNB from the mount and freehand the position, still nothing. I know I had great success the day I opened the box and stuck my hand out the back door and pointed the LNB. Now I believe my LNB is bad (ALREADY?).

Can anyone here think of something I am missing or have any advice? What LNB do you suggest that I get?

The hardware is a Dreamcatcher V3.05, I found the new OS and it was updated to “Skylark v5.8 / dc (765ca8b) built at 2020-03-04 11:29:15+00:00”. The LNB is Maverick MK1-PLL Dual Polarization.

My diagnostics log shows:

============================================
Skylark v5.8 / dc (765ca8b)
built at 2020-03-04 11:29:15+00:00

Copyright 2019 Othernet Inc
Some rights reserved.

Tue Jan 1 00:31:04 UTC 2019 up 31 min, load average: 0.44, 0.39, 0.30

total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 250864 101072 149792 216 15912 55288
-/+ buffers/cache: 29872 220992
Swap: 251324 0 251324

/dev/mmcblk0p4 13.9G 101.6M 13.1G 1% /mnt/downloads

4: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq qlen 1000
inet 10.0.0.1/24 brd 10.0.0.255 scope global wlan0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

[ OK ] Tuner is running
[ OK ] Audio service is running
[ OK ] Local audio is running
[ OK ] File service is running

Last few updates from file service:

Jan 1 00:00:06 othernet user.info ondd[478]: [main] v3.0.0
Jan 1 00:00:06 othernet user.info ondd[466]: [main] v3.0.0

[ OK ] Bias-T is configured on: 0xbb
[ OK ] Bias-T voltage is set to 14.2V
[ OK ] LNB power is configured on
[ OK ] LNB detected, normal current flow: 0x23
[ OK ] Bias-T Voltage normal

2

Hi Robert, welcome to the forums. I am just another user, but have some experience and will try to offer a few good suggestions. If it were me, I would put the LNB back as you had it measured out and where it had been receiving previously, just as a start. We have noticed that there is some difficulty with the new frequency in some places. I am using a Maverick I. I found that my older Maverick (had been in use for two years continuously) was a bit weak, and when I replaced it, the snr/rssi improved some. I also put a small line amplifier in that boosted my rssi by +20. However, in spite of both these, I continued to have reception problems and found (by advice of another user) that if you vary the frequency (in tuner, the satellite tab set to custom, and beam type 164) moving a small amount at a time, you may find the place it receives slightly off the 12.1032. Mine works very well at 12.10296. You may view my unit at http://136.36.137.45, login/password othernet/j7m*2 or @kenbarbi Ken’s at http://72.206.20.63, login/password othernet/8428842884. Ken’s unit is operating on frequency, mine is slightly lower. JERRY

3

Jerry,
Thanks for the thoughtful reply! If you would not have suggested to remount my LNB and adjust the frequency I may not have found this fix.

I believe the old OS had the option for Maverick and Dual LO as drop down options in the LNB tab. Now it is single LO and dual LO don’t know why I thought the Maverick was dual LO or if it defaulted to Dual LO and I over looked it. Either way it is now working.

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4

Good job, Robert! The Maverick is dual polarization, and the voltage provided by the Dreamcatcher sets it to vertical. Glad to hear you have it up and running! Credit to @ac8dg Jim for the frequency suggestion! JERRY

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