Aston Simba HD and motor control.

[vfastbear]

Hello all, I`m jumping in to this totally boots first... I have put my dish mount up on the roof installed a dish ( a 950mm ) and then decided to add a motor unit as well, a Powertech 240, ( All before receiving even a single station reception from any satellite ). I have an Aston Simba HD receiver and ( for Intelsat 18 which is the sat for New Caledonia TV ) an incorrect LNB as I`ve been advised on this forum. I have connected everything up, and was not expecting to receive any signals from anywhere, and I didn`t !!. The whole exercise was more to see the options on the receiver`s menus and examine how the dish motor works. The receivers on board menu is in English and French but the manual is only in French.... , so the first question is to anyone who has one of these receivers is does it actually work with a motor device, as no matter what I do within the menus on the receiver I cant get it to move at all. ( The buttons on the Motor do actually move the dish ).
The second question is ( maybe this should be a second post ) is I can`t seem to add any other Sats to the receivers list, they have most Asian sats, but not the Optus ones for some reason. Any info would be most helpful.
Thanks,
Vfast.

[vfastbear]

OK, a reply to myself and others. I have been up and down on the roof and back to the receiver checking cables etc and in the end did a reset on the Powertech DG240, by pressing the two direction buttons together for 5 seconds . For good measure I unhooked the coax from the receiver and pressed the two direction buttons again for 5+seconds and reconnected the coax. I did a shutdown and restart on the receiver and voila.. I have movement. I do notice that the receiver is locked in area but it has settings for pacific and asian satellites The motor settings are reversed - moving the dish to the west actually moves it to the east and and the reverse for the east. This receiver does have have some form of Diseqc ( 1.2? ).( The manuals in French ) .
Vfast

[LeroyPatrol]

I'd be surprised if the provider box supports any motor or the ability to add other sats. A number of people here are using UltraPlus receivers for that service.

Leroy

[beer4life]

OK, a reply to myself and others. I have been up and down on the roof and back to the receiver checking cables etc and in the end did a reset on the Powertech DG240, by pressing the two direction buttons together for 5 seconds . For good measure I unhooked the coax from the receiver and pressed the two direction buttons again for 5+seconds and reconnected the coax. I did a shutdown and restart on the receiver and voila.. I have movement. I do notice that the receiver is locked in area but it has settings for pacific and asian satellites The motor settings are reversed - moving the dish to the west actually moves it to the east and and the reverse for the east. This receiver does have have some form of Diseqc ( 1.2? ).( The manuals in French ) .
Vfast

You need to set it for the N or S Hemisphere to get direction correct.
I can't find an English Manual.

Not recommended unless you're a Froggie.

[vfastbear]

There is a region select on the receivers menu, but its locked so I can`t select N or S Hemisphere . The receiver has some other limited options as well, I`ve noticed that it has a choice of Universal, C Band, Off Line or FiFi ( what ever that is ) but no ability to change the parameters of the LNB. The dish can be moved by remote by pushing buttons to move the dish, that is east and west, and then appears able to be fine tuned and then its position allocated to a named satellite in the menu. These units are intended as a "plug and play" setup, and are pre set up to do just that. I`m pretty sure in Europe this is being sold as the Aston Simba HD Fransat model.

[beer4life]

Item Description

FRANSAT HD TELEVISION NUMERIQUE - OFFICIAL HIGH DEFINITION SUBSCRIPTION FREE FRENCH TV DECODER AND CARD
With FRANSAT HD TV you can be up and running with French national television programming in just minutes, including five superb HD channels. Connect this easy to use high definition decoder to your dish pointed at Atlantic Bird at 5 degress West and you're ready to go. Fransat HD consists of 23 superb French subscription free channels including TF1, France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5, M6 and Canalplus to name a few. Every programming genre including movies, sport, lifestyle, general entertainment, the arts, music, drama is covered with this package of channels.
The Aston Simba and WISI HD Fransat HD Set Top Box is a PVR Ready unit, just add a USB device to record your favourite programmes.
Full Channel Line-Up:
Standard definition:

TF1
France 2
France 3
France 4
France 5
M6
Arte
France O
Direct 8
W9
CANAL+ (Unencrypted Programmes)
TMC
NT1
NRJ
LCP
BFM TV
iTELE
Virgin 17
Gulli
High definition:
TF1 HD
France 2 HD
M6 HD
CANAL+ HD (Unencrypted Programmes)
ARTE HD
Technical Information:

• Official Fransat Aston Simba or WISI HD PVR Ready Set Top Box
• Fransat Viaccess Viewing Card (no time limit)
• Satellite: Atlantic Bird 3 at 5 degrees West
• Frequencies: 11.096 V, 11512 V, 11555 V, SR 29950, FEC 7/8
• Minimum 60cm Dish Required

12 Month Warranty With This One

[beer4life]

I'm not clear whether you have this or not.

[beer4life]

US$ 12.00

[vfastbear]

Thanks, I`ve just downloaded the first above link - manual, and its very similar to mine, but does not have quite the same technical detail. Certainly this receiver can operate with the Powertech DG240, so its DisEqc 1.2 compatable, its just my manual contradicts itself on this, between the operating instructions and its specs at the end of the same manual. I can operate the dish motor from inside, using the east and west reversed, and it has a fine tune and auto function too, although until my LNB turns up I cant use it ( the dish hits the roof at extreme settings ) and I`m not yet sure how to set the limits. ( The receiver has these too, but I cant understand the instructions in French, and the meanings do get lost in translation... ).

[Tommy_1]

hi vfastbear, did you get it to work?

[vfastbear]

Hi there, No, not yet, but yesterday I got one of those SF 500 meters in the mail from from Hong Kong. I`m entering the settings for Intelsat 18 "as we speak" and might ( if its dry ) get up on the roof and plug it in this afternoon. In just doing a bit of a search to make sure I`m entering the right settings........
( The meter looks not bad, and the text etc is very clear ).