AMIKO Mini HD RE bugs

[Jim S.]

1) I finally got around to trying timer recordings. (Previously, I had just hit the record button while watching a channel.) I've found that whenever a recording completes, it apparently shuts off the LNB power! When turning the box back on after recording, there is no signal on any transponder. The power setting in the satellite installation menu still shows On, but toggling it from on to off and back to on fixes it, until the next time. This happens whether or not I set it to go to standby after the recording. And yes, I'm using a powered hard drive. (When I got the box, I tried it with an unpowered drive only to find that it shut off the LNB power whenever I tried to move the motor with the drive connected. But, I'm not even moving the motor now, I'm leaving it parked on the satellite I"m recording from.)

2) I'm using a universal LNB, setting it to a LOF of 10600 with 22kHz on for everything except Atlantic satellites. If I go into the USALS menu and then back out with the Menu key (which I do quite a bit by forgetting that I have to use the left/right keys to switch to DiSEqC instead of pushing the select button), it shuts off the 22kHz signal. (This time, it actually does show up as off in the menu -- but it was really puzzing me until I noticed that!)

3) If I edit the satellite list on the computer, upon loading it back to the receiver the first and last entries disappear.

 

[KE4EST]

I hate to hear these issues. In bed at the moment, but will look into this over the weekend.
Thanks for taking the time to report.

 

[Brct203]

I use the timer regularly and have not had any problem with the LNB power - but i don't drive any motor from the receiver (I use two old school positionners with linear actuators, independently of the receiver)

However I am also seeing issue #3, with the satellite list. Easy workaround is to pad the list with dummy entries at each end. But that also means that the usable number of satellite entries might be limited to 54. I think I also had that problem when adding a satellite manually in the receiver but maybe i was just hitting the limit of number of satellites

 

[Jim S.]

Well, I'm really perplexed as to what's going on with the timers!

I noticed tonight when it was supposed to be executing a timer recording that the power light wasn't on and the hard drive light wasn't blinking. I turned the receiver on and the channel was playing OK, it just wasn't recording. I went into the timer menu and the timer was still set correctly.

So I decided while I was playing with the receiver I would see if I could re-create the power-off bug. I set a timer for just a few minutes and powered down the receiver. When the time came, it started up, executed the recording, and shut down. When I powered it on again, the LNB power was still good. Wonderful, an unreproducible bug, I thought, even though it was 100% reproducible two days ago. So I set another short timer, powered down the receiver leaving the TV on, and this time when the time came for the recording to start, the receiver came on but there was no signal! So the signal loss is apparently happening at the BEGINNING of a timer event rather than the end. What?! And why doesn't it happen every time?

 

[Brct203]

I don't usually power mine off... so there might be something about the power mode. If I remember correctly there are 2 different standby modes to select from in the settings menu. I don't remember the specifics but might be worth looking into.

 

[primestar31]

Well, I'm really perplexed as to what's going on with the timers!

I noticed tonight when it was supposed to be executing a timer recording that the power light wasn't on and the hard drive light wasn't blinking. I turned the receiver on and the channel was playing OK, it just wasn't recording. I went into the timer menu and the timer was still set correctly.

So I decided while I was playing with the receiver I would see if I could re-create the power-off bug. I set a timer for just a few minutes and powered down the receiver. When the time came, it started up, executed the recording, and shut down. When I powered it on again, the LNB power was still good. Wonderful, an unreproducible bug, I thought, even though it was 100% reproducible two days ago. So I set another short timer, powered down the receiver leaving the TV on, and this time when the time came for the recording to start, the receiver came on but there was no signal! So the signal loss is apparently happening at the BEGINNING of a timer event rather than the end. What?! And why doesn't it happen every time?

I did extensive daily recording with my MicroHD receiver, however I NEVER shut it off. It stayed on 24/7, and it was flawless, but ONLY if left on.

Try that for a few days with that receiver, and see what happens. There's really not that much power savings in letting it turn off and on all the time.