Dreamcatcher 3.03 Feedback Thread

Still nothing on Status. Looking at LED 6. No flash ever.
Log Viewer shows all 5 OK’s.
Using Laptop, I connect no problem, get main screen. No errors. I think maybe not orienting old DirectTV dish probably. It is ground mounted. the curved short mast is 90 degrees plumb as always recomended. Elevation for here 38 degrees, azimuth (true) 132.6 degrees, magnetic is 120.5. Maybe using dish too sharp. Thought it would be no brainer with all the gain it has. Not so. Any voltage I could measure on board? I put a satellite finder gadget just before the board. I do see a few signals. Maybe remove dish and setup without? I see 3 icons at top right of screen like they are sending packets.

@donde Those point angles look good assuming you are located just north of Los Angeles. I find with my dish that small movements (1/2" at a time) are necessary to acquire the signal.
I don’t get tuner status until I have packets being received/decoded for a couple of minutes.

Correct QTH. I’m not concerned with azimuth I can use a compass. I think I have elevation wrong. I have an inclinometer. Could I put it square and flat on the top of the LNBF and bend bracket slightly for 38 degrees. Did it still nothing. Maybe tomorrow I’ll come up with answer.

I hope you mean moving the mounting bracket, not the lnb bracket.

The dish is very touchy. You have to be pretty spot on the get it to play right. I used a compass to get the azimuth, laying some rods on the ground for a visual. Used a carpentry triangle for the elevation and turned the skew until I got the highest numbers. Figured I would do it while it’s overcast out. Curious to see how high the number gets. I’m hoping for 5db when the clouds clear.

It works! Elevation was way off. What I did was place the magnetic base inclinometer right on the center of the dish and adjusted angle till I saw 38 degrees. Using Elevation scale on dish doesn’t work right. I’ll do touch up tomorrow. I’m getting -16.25 SNR, but no lock yet. Not sure why.

Interesting, that shouldn’t have worked, the Dish/Direct-TV dish is an “offset” angle for the lnb, not a prime focus points. But “what ever it takes !”

What are the readings in Status that are important to get 100% good packets and their values?

@WA4OSH
31m31 minutes ago
More
DreamCatcher Status for WA4OSH-7 CN87wn
Stream= files
SNR (dBm)= -15
Lock= no
RSSI (dBm)= -79

Mine may have lost signal and lock due to the heat. I’m thinking there may be a thermal compensation issue at least on my unit.

I know my next application. Send APRS message to my system and get it to report to me via twitter a signal report. (AFTER I get @Abhishek to give me a time stamp in the JSON record so that I will know that I’ve seen a message already) :wink:

–Konrad, WA4OSH

Konrad,
Big problems. Yesterday I was finally able to get Status screen filled with data. The elevation I believe was the problem. It was late afternoon so decided to quit and touch up dish alignment next day. Well, plug to AC was just about coming out, so plugged in all way. Should have removed entirely and start again. Rest of day, Blank Status never to return. Worked on this AM, no joy. Board seems OK. Dish is in same place. Replaced LNB, 5’ RG6 cable, connectors. Log Viewer shows 5 OK’s. Running out of options. Any place on board to check a voltage to tell me something wrong?
We should have a schematic. I can understand keeping firmware/software closed. The DC looks like a winner, but can’t troubleshoot it.
Don

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I would quickly check the dish alignment, but if you have not touched it, it’s probably fine. The other thing I check is the frequency error on the status page. If the oscillator is not running on the money, it might need a frequency correction on the custom page (instead of Americas). You might want to tell me how far-off your frequency is.

if your LNB is properly aligned and the frequency is correct, and you have good SNR, your receiver should lock.

–Konrad, WA4OSH

I checked my dish this way, It is at 80 degrees (almost vertical) and lnb at end of the arm is about 20 degrees pointed into the center of the dish. The dish is little asymmetric so somehow the math means it is pointed at the satellite at 39 degrees elevation.

Your dish is most likely an offset dish. Read this:

–Konrad, WA4OSH

OK,

under Satellite
Region Americas
Beam 228

under Custom
Frequency 11.9024
Beam Type 247

under Status
Blank screen

Forgot to mention.
Re-formatted and re- burned image of SD

@Konrad_Roeder, @donde

Don, have you checked the LNB voltage at the center pin on the DC board? I had trouble with this early on, and found my power supply was not quite up to powering the upconverter, although everything else looked fine. You can look this up on the Log Viewer, last item is LNB Status. It will normally read 14.2 if there is sufficient power.

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I didn’t physically check voltage at pin, but did check Log Viewer and it is 14.2 volts. I’ll go to check with DVM at pin now.

Don, these DC 3.03 lights may help

board

Ken

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I see 14.17 volts right on SMA center pin on board and about 14.11 with LNB connected. About the same at end of 5’ RG6 to the LNB. But, at least 4 times I saw the voltage disappear and not come back until reboot. And of course I could’t make it fail later. Still no packets with or without voltage. :upside_down_face: :disappointed:

Yes, it’s the 2nd picture. All I did was remove triple LNB’s and replaced with the common bracket for an LNBF. Had to drill a center hole at end of arm. 2 holes are a either end of arm. So it’s looks better to have bracket centered.

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Thanks Ken,
Just want LED #6 to flash. It did, but not anymore.
Don