Posts by Cynic_999

My Deambox HD updated itself about 2 months ago, and since then failed to move my motorised dish. I've just got around to investigating the issue. My GT Media V8 satellite finder meter

is able to move the dish when I disconnect the Dreambox and feed it from the same coax that was connected to the Dreambox, so the dish motor itself and coax run is fine and accepts Diseqc 1.2 commands. The Dreambox used to move the dish OK, so it is not an incorrect setup. I have checked the tuner setup again, and also changed the Diseqc output from tuner 1 to tuner 2 (changing the coax inputs as well of course), and still no joy. So it seems that the firmware update has borked the Diseqc output. I'll try changing to a different firmware, but it looks like developers don't bother to check the operation of a motorised dish. I have reported before that the USALS conversion has always been wrong on the Dreambox since day 1. Setting my real longitude (0.1011° E) drives the dish way off the satellites, while setting a longitude of 0° works fine. The difference is so small that it should make no practical difference to the position of the dish - certainly not enough to be visibly noticeable.

Please could I ask developers to check the Diseqs functionality before issuing an update?

I've just got my Dreambox One UHD. Great box! But something I find puzzling ...

Before my Dreambox was delivered, I set up a motorised dish using a satellite finder that has USALS output. I entered my exact Lat & Long into the satellite finder, and am happy that the dish is tracking well, with the satellite finder being able to lock onto all the satellites available from my location (South of England, UK).

Eager to try the Dreambox as soon as it arrived, I set its tuner USALS positioner with a close approximate Lat & Long as I did not recall the exact figures. In retrospect this was fortunate. The Dreambox worked well, moving the dish to each satellite & allowing me to download the provider lists from each one (which also confirmed they were the correct satellites).

HOWEVER - after playing with the Dreambox for a while, and confirming that it was changing the dish to the satellite selected & receiving solid, error-free channels, I decided for accuracy I would change the latitude & longitude to my exact location rather than the approximate one I used initially. The difference is very small - the approximate location I had used (and which works) is 51.000° N 0.000° E. My more accurate position is 50.774° N 0.101° E But after changing, the Dreambox no longer drove the dish to anywhere near the correct place, and I could no longer receive any satellites. Changing the longitude back to 0.000 made it all work again. Put back the accurate longitude and it doesn't track. There is no way that a longitude difference of 0.1 degrees should alter the dish position so much that satellites can no longer be received ... plus the dish was originally set up using the accurate figures in the satellite finder, so if anything the error should be the other way around.

I'll do some more investigating, but I suspect that there's a bug in the Dreambox USAL calculator.

USB drives used to be relatively slow, but technology has moved on. If you get an external HDD that is genuinely USB3 (or a USB3 to SATA convertor), it will not be slow. USB3 can transfer data much faster than a spinning rust HDD can read or write data, and you will see no difference in speed between a USB3 HDD and a SATA drive.

Quote from nehaxak

So a HD is important for me anyway anyway and USB is too slow, especially for multiple access.

I would've upgraded to it otherwise, oh well.