No Signal- Tearing my hair out- (Solved- Incompatible LNB)

branko · 2015-12-12T00:04:29.503Z

So, it’s perfectly possible that you get a screen like that on a wrong bird, and eternally wait for data. I’ve had that situation when my dish was pointed to IS20 and tuner set to HB13. As long as the wrong bird has a transponder with the same parameters, you will get a lock on that transponder. At the moment, there doesn’t seem to be a way to detect this condition, so we can’t report that in the UI.

Eric_William_MKme_Te · 2015-12-12T01:07:10.404Z

Thanks Branko. Got back from supper and moved the dish and tried re-aiming. This time I got a bit higher bitrate with a bit of fiddling- no idea why higher this time but…

outernetworking%202.JPG885×715 49.4 KB

Appears that once the birate came up for whatever reason, it started yanking files like hungry-hippo’s!

The signal was a smidge higher too now so maybe it was just a bit below the limits before. Anyhoo- this LNB does work even though it is a mile off where it should be IMO (need to 3D print a new bracket now to get it back where the original was)

The other dual LNB- yeah it is a no-go for sure.

Looks like I’m in business. Thanks!

branko · 2015-12-12T01:59:17.497Z

Eric_William_MKme_Te:

Looks like I’m in business. Thanks!

Good to hear that! Quality looks way too low, so maybe that’s causing the bitrate to raise slowly. Bitrate normally ‘revs up’ within a minute or so.

Eric_William_MKme_Te · 2015-12-12T02:05:49.332Z

Thanks again for all your help.It was tough not knowing what to expect never having seen signal on the screen.

Yeah I got the quality up to 0.5 now with a bit of fiddling but I am a bit surprised it works even this well without the LNB being moved closer to the original spot. Now that I have a baseline I can tune easily and considering the size of the dish and my location, it’s doing just fine I think.

I’m gonna let it download for tonight then maybe fab a new LNB mount. After that I’m full steam ahead with this. Portable dish + multiple raspberry pis + solar panels+ batteries + old android cell phones + more goodies = full connected workstation anywhere in the world

branko · 2015-12-12T02:14:26.094Z

There’s error correction and all that. However, with low quality, there will be dropped bits here and there, so some files may fail to complete (usually reflected as 404 and broken links), or you may get ‘waiting for data…’ from time to time. Also, if you are still using 2.0.000 image, please note that we have confirmed some rather annoying bugs. Hotfix will be released early next week, so bear with us.

Eric_William_MKme_Te · 2015-12-12T02:27:33.416Z

Thanks again! Great info. I can vouch for the 404’s on all links for now but the Twitter feed looks good and files are still coming down.

Will await the FW and install for sure. If it wasn’t reported already- this FW has a bit of funny business when changing the LNB type. Doesn’t wan’t to switch to KU without selecting a manual sat config and refreshing the page. Didn’t notice until tonight but wasn’t a huge deal as I just fiddled around until it “stuck”. Should be rare for someone to have to run into that tho.

Cheers

Syed · 2015-12-12T06:54:53.115Z

You are receiving data on that tiny folding dish? No wonder it was so hard for you to get lock! We also have one of those, but I never invested any real time in pointing it because it really shouldn’t work. I’m glad I’m wrong about that, because this is such a cool little package. It’s much easier to ship and move around than either a 76cm dish or a 90cm dish.

Where are you located? I wonder if adding an LNA would help things at all. Time to try out that folding dish again.

Thanks for all of your patience on this. This is incredibly valuable information.

Eric_William_MKme_Te · 2015-12-12T07:06:59.818Z

“You are receiving data on that tiny folding dish?” - Tiny? Really?

“but I never invested any real time in pointing it because it really shouldn’t work” - Well that would be the difference between you and me I suppose. I see no reason it shouldn’t work.

“It’s much easier to ship and move around than either a 76cm dish or a 90cm dish.” - Well it is 63.5 x 55.8 cm but indeed the folding aspect makes it versatile. Hence me using it.

“Where are you located?” - Refer to post #1

Cheers.

Syed · 2015-12-12T07:13:17.994Z

If you email your previous order number, I’ll send you an LNA to test with your folding dish. There are no guarantees it will work better, but there’s no reason not to try. Again, thanks for sticking with it. The satellite charts show that an 80cm dish is required at your location. If it works for you, then it will work in a lot of other places.

Eric_William_MKme_Te · 2015-12-12T07:33:17.220Z

Sure I can give it a go but as I mentioned previously I think I can get it to work better with the native hardware too. The LNB is indeed not in the optimal position currently as this unit is quite “stubby” and is mounted further out as a result; but I wanted to verify what was possible with zero modifications to the dish other than the LNB swap. This would prove important for others downrange who don’t have fabrication skills etc. After this I will add my own mount to re-position the LNB (if needed)

Also of note- I had to move the dish location for tonight’s tests and it looks like I may be catching the tops of a tree with this spot- again something I want to rule out and see how solid I can get the signal. With a laser pointer it does indeed look like this spot has some potentially interfering branches.

In this spot with no mods other than the new KU band LNB the best I can do tonight (current values) is Signal:60 Quality 0.53 and Bitrate:90K

Most pages from the library are 404 but I will see what it has after some more time.

Indeed I saw potential for it to work many places, hence the project with the portable dish. Will see how far it can be taken. The size should be ample if the transfer is using even the most basic of FEC but I have no clue what your systems are using. For basic files (not streaming video signals) I couldn’t see any reason this setup shouldn’t work. I guess it depends on how disruptions are handled with files etc.

Let me know where to email and once I tune this as far as it can go- I’ll add the LNA and see where that goes. Should be a good project in the end.

Cheers

Syed · 2015-12-12T07:36:55.104Z

I agree that the ideal is for the stock setup to work with minimal modifications–and no additional parts, if possible. But I have two of these LNAs and it does seem like you would know how to put it to good use. You can email us: hello@outernet.is

How much did you buy this dish for?

pradeeka · 2015-12-12T07:44:30.581Z

Eric_William_MKme_Te:

Most pages from the library are 404 but I will see what it has after some more time.

Yes, this is because of the partially downloaded files/bundle. Some times it will take about 12 hours to complete the bundle.

kenbarbi · 2015-12-12T12:35:01.899Z

Eric, I see you’re on Galaxy 19 - - so…I had great luck re pointing my dish with a Radio Shack satellite signal strength meter I bought for $17 here in one of their last Maryland stores last week. It goes in the line between the LNB and you receiver, and is very responsive. A small tweek gives a big signal lift right away.

I was quite surprised how much more signal I started getting for my Lighthouse even though my system was working great before the re point. My receiver (in the house now connected thru my router) is 100 meters away from my 80 cm disk. Ken

Eric_William_MKme_Te · 2015-12-12T19:28:47.114Z

Will email. I paid $109.95 USD on eBay. They are on Amazon too seemingly cheaper there:

http://store.mkme.org/product/directv-folding-portable-satellite-dish-rv-tripod-kit/

Cheers

Eric_William_MKme_Te · 2015-12-30T21:10:20.885Z

Well so far so good. I got the LNA from Syed but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to function with the receiver and just kills the signal. But…

The portable dish with the Lighthouse on Galaxy 19 in SW Ontario is still working great! I don’t get the highest quality but it works just fine. Files are downloaded at 90K without issue. Working on a full YT video review now which should be posted Friday.

Loving this project!
Cheers
Eric

branko · 2015-12-31T00:15:37.498Z

Eric_William_MKme_Te:

Working on a full YT video review now which should be posted Friday.

Looking forward to it!

pradeeka · 2015-12-31T03:09:34.152Z

You are correct. LNA kills the signal. See my thread about LNA testing with ORxPi

https://discuss.outernet.is/t/testing-lighthouse-orx-with-lna/1716/7

Eric_William_MKme_Te · 2016-01-01T20:59:33.121Z

Forgot to mention in the video that I still don’t have the LNB in the perfect position. I’ll need to 3D print a new mount when I get some time to draw one up in CAD but for now- it works just fine. Pretty sure I can get the signal better once I do a new mount.

All systems go

Cheers

Syed · 2016-01-01T22:57:45.725Z

This was an outstanding video. I’m still kind of shocked that you got the 60cm dish working, but hat tip to you for your perseverance. I think we may start carrying that folding dish. The only downside to doing so is that there will likely be many parts of the country (and world) where it does not work, so I don’t know how to handle return requests in those cases. But that’s are problem to deal with.

Again, exceptional job. I’m going to tab this to the top of the forum.

Eric_William_MKme_Te · 2016-01-01T23:37:22.607Z

No worries. I figured I should be able to get it to work- and the LNB still needs moved closer to the dish by a significant amount I think.

As for carrying it, yeah it will definitely need to be noted about the LNB retrofit and the fact it is not guaranteed to work everywhere but as others experiment you may get some better numbers to make some “educated guesses” on signal strength.

Glad you liked the video. Sent you a mail to the inbox as well. Looking forward to using this setup in a bunch more videos in the upcoming months.

Cheers