Satellite Internet Forum

[tozovac]

Can someone explain this in the config page:
"inclined orbit tracking"

[bnOd]

Can someone explain this in the config page:
"inclined orbit tracking"

A satellite in inclined orbit is one that "wobbles" back and forth north and south from the equator. Satellite companies take old, end-of-life satellites and place them in orbits over the Eastern Hemisphere, and quit trying to keep them steady on the equator. Cheap bandwidth, but the dish has to move up and down in the North/South plane, one circuit per day.

Motosat's new Mesa dish is specifically for this, but a Datastorm can do it also. There are no satellites currently in service (so far as I know) for North America that are in inclined orbits, but that could change in the future.

[cuks]

Hi to all users from a cold and snowy UK. We have a few inclined orbit satellites in the eastern sky and I have been trialling the set up on Telecom 2D at 7.8W. Having spoken with Ron at Motosat he advises to also enable the manual sat ID. The search works OK as it makes a definite move to the orbital slot, no further az movement, after an initial sat id on another bird. It then scans in elevation only. The only problem that I have had is what figure to put in the degree of inclination. Telecom 2D is 2.6 inclined but at this figure it doesn't find, double it and it gets close. One other issue is there are no permanent DVB carriers which makes it even more interesting. Satellites that are less inclined with DVB carriers e.g Thor 2 5 East it works a treat. If there are any European users out there who want help with sat tables etc feel free to contact.

[bnOd]

Thanks for the info on inclined! I know it only on theory, so user feedback is good to hear.

Are you using it with a Datastorm, or with a pole-mount?

[cuks]

Are you using it with a Datastorm, or with a pole-mount?

Using it with a high power XF3 mount which we modify for SNG use, we have several out in the market, UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa. We use a standard D3 controller but I have altered the sat table with updated Eastern sky parameters as you guys don't have anything really in that arc. Running 3.395 firmware, have you tried out the 3.396 beta yet, wondered what the differences were.

[bnOd]

I have uploaded D3 firmware version 3.9.4 for any that want it, as it is a "known-good" version for the F1. Those with a G74 or XF series probably should keep upgrading, but for the F1 there is no advantage once you get to the point where you can update satellite tables.

Note that you DO need to update the satellite table after loading 3.9.4, since it will take you back to an old one with lots of wrong entries for today.

d3.394.zip

Datastorm D3 firmware version 3.9.4

(462.78 KiB) Downloaded 77 times

[DATASTORM OF FLORIDA]

Interest to find out after the Rally. Royal told me that the D3 Firmware version 3.9.4 was the last version that he recommends for the DataStorm F1's. At the Rally, we had several problems with the 3.9.5 beta versions, and had to revert back to 3.9.4 for the systems to work porperly. Upon checking MotoSat's web site, I noticed the following written about the 3.9.4 Firmware.

The following was posted on Motosat web site during the Rally:
"This older release of DataStorm software can be used with all DataStorm products: G, F and XF systems. If you are a Datastorm F1 user, and are having problems with v3.9.5, please use this version instead. Revision History included."

Additionally, on the same date and since, there are versions 3.9.5 and two 3.9.6 beta versions have been included on MotoSat's site, and all versions posted include the statement, "software is compatable with all DataStorm products: G, F and XF system users."

The problems we had were more than random, so Maurice and I had to change many F1 users back to 3.9.4 Firmware.

My suggestion would be for anyone that is using Version 3.9.4 and their DataStorm is operiting satisfactorily, DON'T UPGRADE!

--------------------
DATASTORM OF FLORIDA, INC.

[Trekker]

My D3 is running on 3.9.5, successfully. Has not been a single glitch since the rally. I have 3.9.4 on my computer, should it become necessary to back up one version, but have not found a need.

[smada]

It appears to be fairly random problems. I recently worked with a customer with 3.9.4 and the F1 would lock on one minute but not the next. No matter what I tried I could not find a solution. I "updated" the firmware to 3.9.5 and it has worked perfectly ever since.
Obviously MotoSAT doesn't know what's going on or they wouldn't have 2 versions of firmware plus 2 versions of beta firmware on their site.

[tofy]

My experience was with two different F1s (new style UCB) and two different D3s. I could not even get any communication to the mount with 3.9.6. After several hours of swapping UCBs, D3s, cables, and a some head-scratching, I called Motosat and was told that 3.9.4 was now the only version considered to be "release" for F1 series. Ugh... Back to 3.9.4 and both systems worked fine. It was news to me.

So as I see it now the firmware is divided into three versions for Datastorms (not counting old D1 controllers):
D2/F1 - 3.7.6
D3/F1 - 3.9.4
D3/G/XF - 3.9.6 (beta or whatever is current)

[smada]

So as I see it now the firmware is divided into three versions for Datastorms (not counting old D1 controllers):
D2/F1 - 3.7.6
D3/F1 - 3.9.4
D3/G/XF - 3.9.6 (beta or whatever is current)

Unless one of those don't work and then try something else!
I believe that the G74 is working OK with 3.9.5 as well.

[tofy]

Unless one of those don't work and then try something else!

Yeah, that gets a little tough to explain when you are charging customers by the hour for labor....

[bnOd]

Yeah, that gets a little tough to explain when you are charging customers by the hour for labor....

I went through that yesterday. The system was a F3/D3-394/iDirect. MotoSat told him he needed to upgrade to 395. I doubted that so read the update log and found nothing after 394 that should affect either iDirect or the F3. Later, MotoSat said they were sorry but it should have been in the log. I updated and found no improvement.

[Biker1959]

My F1/D3 is still finding 117 with the old 3.8.9 with no problems.

[CRon]

Not trusting myself to have everything come out right if I was doing it, I asked Maurice to update my ‘good’ D3 and my ‘spare’ D3 to the latest software (one was 3.8.9 and the other was 3.9.2) while at the Rally.

He tried to update them to the current 3.9.6a Beta version, but they BOTH locked-up on him. He did manage to get one to partially communcate with him but the other one was completely unresponsive, and said he’d have to take them back to SLC and work on them there.

I ended up with 2 different D3’s, both of them with the 3.9.6a software, but they seem to be doing OK for now.

Ron