Feature request, dish align mode.

lord tricky

Is there any way at present, or planned for the future to have a dish alignment mode???

Currently i am really struggling to align a motorised dish for 16E in the UK using a 1.1 meter dish and hauppauge HVR4000, i can get 28.2E, 19.2E, 13E, 9E, 5E and 1W but i just cant get 16E.

The problem i'm having is that trying to lock a transponder only tries twice then gives up, i'm sure if there was a mode where it did not give up i could align my dish.

Any suggestions welcomed.

Ron L

If you have a supported device then this

https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/UpdateDVB

works very well for finding satellites and programming your diseqc motor positioner.

I use it to align my 10 foot dish to track the full arc across North America. With a supported device you can put the spectrum scanner into loop mode and bump the mover one click at a time until you start to see spectrum. Once you have spectrum you can click on a lobe and it will show an accurate dB level to tweak the alignment of the dish for peak signal.

TVH works well with diseqc motors once you have it all aligned and the positions stored. There was some change to the timing a while back that causes one issue if the timing sets the tuning delay too long, ie on a long dish move across the arc that might take 30 seconds or a minute. If the tuning delay ends up being too long TVH will never attempt to tune so you have to stop the channel and then restart. Set your timing lower. TVH will attempt to tune once or twice along the way but this generally doesn't cause a problem just an error message on your Kodi screen if you are using Kodi.

Edit: I looked up your HVR4000 and it shows that it is a Conexant CX24116 chip. You won't be able to generate a spectrum scan with that chip, however updateDVB should be able to control your motor, tune the card and show a dB signal level to help tweak the dish for maximum signal.

lord tricky

Thank you very much for your reply, i will have a play with it but i don't hold much hope as i have tried and failed to compile the v4l-updatelee multiple times when trying to setup my HVR4000 previously (i ended up using the hauppauge b-rad ppa), and i'm guessing i will need to put a gui on my (currently headless) server to use it?

I have since found that i have an even bigger problem. I cant work out if the problem is with the motor or tvh though.

Using USALS i can point my dish at 0.84 west (-0.84) and the motor goes to expected position, scanning the predefined muxes for thor and intelsat at that position i get 929 and 155 services which is as expected.
Pointing at 5 east (astra 4A 4.8) the motor goes to where is expected and a scan finds only 298 services, when i believe i should be finding in the region of 580.
9 east (eutelsat 9b 9.02) the motor goes to where is expected and a scan results in 22 services, when i should be getting around 460.
13 east (hotbird 13) the motor goes where is expected and the services i already had mapped from my previous fixed dish all work with strong signal.
16 east (16.02) the motor goes to correct position and a scan only results in 61 services, however 20 services are duplicated over 3 muxes.
19.2 east (19.2) motor goes to correct position and scan results in 1380 services which is as expected.
23.5 (23.49) motor goes to correct position and scan results in 343 services when i should be getting around 644.

28.2 motor goes to correct position and existing mapped services all work with strong signal.

This part tells me the dish is slightly off its arc which i understand and can deal with, however when i point the dish at 5 west (-4.98) the motor actually lands at around 7.5 west, when i point at 15 west the motor actually lands at around 20 west, when i point at 40 east, 42 east, 45 east and 52 east the motor also goes past where i have told it to.

This is the part i cant understand, as if it is the motor at fault why do i have 8 working locations, if it is tvh at fault why can i not find anybody else with a similar issue.

Motor is a cryptic diseqc (bought 2nd hand) i cant find any useful info online about it, set to 400 millisecond per degree.
Dish is solid 97 x 107cm (also 2nd hand).
LNB appears to be an old sky dual, label unreadable.
Tuner Hauppauge HVR4000 in a pci to pci-e adaptor.
Ubuntu server 18.04 kernel 5.4.1.

tvh 4.2.9~pre+201911151752-0~built201911152017~git5bdcfd8~ubuntu18.04.1.

other than correcting my dish alignment for the 8 working positions, im at a loss as to how i can get any other satellites. If i can get updateDVB working will this tell me what USALS positions to enter for which satellites? for example 5 west seems to be around -2.48?

Ron L

I don't think you'll need to install updatelee kernel, just install the updateDVB deb and it should work. No spectrum scan and I expect you'll have to enter tuning params manually. Select your modcod then enter the SR, System and modulation. To enter the frequency just move the cross hair across the chart and click when you reach the desired frequency. Without the spectrum scan you'll be stuck bumping the dish along manually and trying to tune a known frequency. First step of course is going into file --> settings and configuring your LNB and diseqc.

I don't know much about USALS, but if it's not landing on the correct satellites then you likely don't have the dish installed correctly on the motor. I think it's supposed to calculate the motor position based on your location.

I use GOTOX. I move the dish manually with the diseqc buttons and watch the spectrum scan generated by my stv0900 device. When I find a satellite I can see the frequencies display. Once I have the dish aligned and tracking the arc perfectly then I go back and use updateDVB to store a GOTOX position for each satellite. These position numbers get entered into TVH config under GOTOX.

lord tricky

ok so i tried and failed to get updateDVB working (seems i need a gui, keyboard, mouse and monitor for it. I did however find https://github.com/AdamLaurie/satmap which i have had working and had a good play with, i can confirm that using diseqc (GOTOX) works as it should, the motor turns to the expected positions and i can store positions in the motor memory (not yet attempted this), so for USALS i think my location lat/long are not correct.

Now in tvh using GOTOX if i store 15 West as position 1 in the motor, can you confirm or correct me that GOTOX position: would be 1, and Satellite longitude: would be -15 for 15 west please?

Thanks again for your help.

Ron L

Sorry, I didn't realize you were running headless.

Yes set rotor type to GOTOX then GOTOX position: 1 and Satellite longitude: -15

Not sure if the Satellite longitude setting does anything in GOTOX mode. It might have been used to calculate tuning delay while the motor is turning.

lord tricky

No worries, and that brilliant thank you very much.

Should i be storing motor positions in order from the farthest west to the farthest east (or vice versa), or does it really not matter?

Its my first ever motorised dish and really don't want to screw it up.

Ron L

I don't think it matters. My diseqc positioner has 99 available program spots. I programmed them in from east to west however I used spot numbers to try and match the satellite longitude to help me remember. So 55W gets 55, 58W gets 58 etc. then when I got to 101W I used 01, 103W 03 etc. up to 39 for 139W.

USALS should theoretically work with tvheadend as long as everything is installed exactly right. There is no such thing as a USALS motor for a 10 foot dish so I don't have any experience with it.

lord tricky

ok i went with positions 1-28 for the satellites i should be able to get from west to east (saved in a spreadsheet), i have no idea how many positions i can store in my motor. Unfortunately i can still only pick up signals between 1 west and 28.2 east, i'm 99% sure it is now tracking the arc correctly so my dish must need to go higher up (means sourcing a longer pole).

10 foot dish, wow thats huge, i wish i had the space for such a massive dish.