Help with rotor setup (previously working installation)

Meeko Kittika

Hello

Im looking for some insight into how the gotox protocol is working.

A little background:

I have a linux box as a bckend with centos and a tbs6931 card and originally had an 80cm offset dish aiming 19.2E with 3 twin lnbs (prime to 19.2E, offset to 28.2E and 13.0E respectively) via a pair of diseqc quad switches. Front end is various kodi boxes.

All was good, older version (unknown version number) tvheadend, all working.

Forward to today, I attempt to install a technomate tm2300 rotor with diseqc 1.2 gotox function and just the original centre lnb. Initially aimed at 1*w with no results. So cheated and moved motor via linux scan-s2 -R 18 command and aligned dish "temporally" to 28.2*E.

I then also grabbed 4.2.8 and compiled and installed. All looking good.

TLDR;

Now I have something working, if I setup 2nd dish position as 19.2E I dont expect to have perfect elevation/azimuth/declination due to cheating and aligning on 28 to 0, however I sometimes get a lock on 19E, but I'm still unsure of the correct configuration of the gotox settings for each position. There's no real help or guidance. For instance can you explain the need for lat/long in the main setup and long in each dish position, if gotox is just sending a preset dish position number ? I'd just like to understand it all a bit better before I pursue a proper alignment.

Many thanks in advance!

Meeko Kittika

Just an update :- made some tweaks to latitude/longitude of installation (realised I'd entered degrees&minutes not decimal degrees) and longitude to each sat gotox setting. I have a couple of sats working intermittently so I know I need to tweak the alignment, but I also found the motor is a diseqc 1.3 compatible so in theory it's usals compatible. Could someone discuss this a little? I gleaned some from a thread about setting up a usals positioner but I'd like to understand better.

Any help?

Ron L

USALS calculates the position to rotate the dish to based on your Site lat and long. Your enter Site lat and long in the Advanced config for your adapter and specify the number or orbital positions (satellites) you want to configure then save. The page will reload and you can begin configuring the orbital positions. Select USALS for rotor and enter the longitude where the satellite is parked.

GOTOX uses positions stored in the rotor memory. Using a diseqc compatible STB receiver or software like updateDVB you use the buttons to manually instruct the rotor to move until you find the satellite you want and obtain the peak signal. You then chose a position number (generally 01-99) and save that position number. TVHeadend doesn't have the software controls to do this, however once they are saved by some other means you select GOTOX for rotor config and then enter the position number that you had previously saved for that orbital position. All the lat and long settings when used with GOTOX are simply to calculate a delay time before tuning so the rotor can move and park at the orbital position before TVH attempts to tune.

Meeko Kittika

Many thanks for the reply!

I'm just digesting that and will have a play. I get what you mean about gotox and programming steps. Thank you!

Ron L

In theory USALS should be simpler to setup. I've never used a diseqc USALS rotor but I believe TVHeadend will work it fine. Getting the dish and motor aligned initially is the critical part. Alignment is critical with any dish rotor setup though in order for it to track perfectly across the satellite arc.

I use GOTOX to control a V-Box that operates a linear actuator jack on a 10 foot C-Band dish. I used updateDVB spectrum analyzer program to find the satellite locations and save the GOTOX position to the V-Box. TVHeadend has worked perfectly with this setup.