Gekko Test and Review

[Jim S.]

I rarely have the Gekko hang on a scan. (Though when I do, it's always at 81.1% or 81.2%) The majority of the scan failures consist of it flying through it without finding anything, then afterward I have full control of the receiver except for the fact that all subsequent attempts at scanning will fail in exactly the same way until a reboot. (It doesn't take a reboot to get out of the hanging either, just persistent pressing of the exit button. But it still takes a reboot to get normal scanning back after a hang.)

I didn't take pictures, but it happens the same way every time: it'll start out the scan as normal, saying "Single LNB with Vertical Polarity", then all of a sudden the progress bar will rush to the end, the mode will change to "L-Band of Universal LNB with Horizontal Polarity", it'll rush to the end of that, then exits saying 0 transponders and 0 channels found. That's not a typo, it starts the scan thinking I have a standard LNB and then suddenly decides I have a universal one. (When I had the universal LNB on, it would start out with universal, but still jump over bands and polarities.)

And yes, I tried a factory reset tonight. I scanned 4 satellites with no issues, in fact, it seemed a little faster than before (but still slow). Then on the 5th one, it blew through it. But I don't know if the factory reset had anything to do with getting 4 good scans in a row. I've seen it go 4 or 5 scans in a row with no trouble before, but then other times it'll only do 1 or 2 before the problem comes up.

[easily confused]

Had the same issue here, Jim, and when it does it the first time, now, I automatically do a reboot because unless you do, it will not blind scan. Hopefully that is something that will be resolved in the future

[Guest]

Exactly the same on my anaconda. It's usually good for about 4-5 blind scans before I need to reboot it.

[Jim S.]

Here's a question for EB or whoever: does the Raptor have any problem like this, or is it only the Anaconda and Gekko?

[SatelliteGuy]

I didn't take pictures, but it happens the same way every time: it'll start out the scan as normal, saying "Single LNB with Vertical Polarity", then all of a sudden the progress bar will rush to the end, the mode will change to "L-Band of Universal LNB with Horizontal Polarity", it'll rush to the end of that, then exits saying 0 transponders and 0 channels found. That's not a typo, it starts the scan thinking I have a standard LNB and then suddenly decides I have a universal one. (When I had the universal LNB on, it would start out with universal, but still jump over bands and polarities.)

.

Exact same problem with my Anaconda.

[eastof111]

Regarding the Raptor...

The only problem I have encountered with blind scanning was when I had to manually enter the info for KFTL at 72W KU and the fact that it takes a few minutes or sometimes seconds to lock in (assume it's because of low SR 1666). But then again, I scanned EquaVisa from Quito on Cband with a SR 1599 on 45W with absolutely no problems. Could be a C or Ku discrepancy?

When I first received the Raptor, I had problems with a couple of lockups and freezes. I changed my 8x1 switch from Centauri to Digiwave and deleted all info from my sat file and started from scratch and my problems went away, other than the above mentioned. If anyone wants to look at my sat file I can post it.

[el bandido]

The Raptor does not have the type of blind scan issues described here. If it did, I would not be asking you guys a bunch of questions.

The .fdu satellite files that I have posted here were originally made on my Raptor. Some things that Jim S. has posted makes me think that the Gekko is getting information form another tuner that does not exist. Universal is the standard satellite setting for Europe.

I have sent an email today asking when we might see some sort of solution for these blind scan issues. EB

[Jim S.]

The .fdu satellite files that I have posted here were originally made on my Raptor. Some things that Jim S. has posted makes me think that the Gekko is getting information form another tuner that does not exist. Universal is the standard satellite setting for Europe.

I was thinking about a corrupted satellite file after reading about your problem with the one in the Raptor after you set up the second tuner, but I'm still having the problems after doing a factory default. Or was the default satellite list in this Gekko overwritten at some point? I thought someone said that it didn't come with a North American list, but after I did the factory default, it had only North American satellites. Maybe we need to wipe the satellite list entirely and start fresh?

Also, I have the problem even when I use a universal LNB. It still jumps to the end of the scan at random.

The part about the bug being related to a second tuner does make some sense though, because the firmware seems to be the same in all these receivers. In some of my channel lists, and on the channel info banner, there's a "T1" icon, obviously for tuner #1.

[el bandido]

You are running a NTSC boot firmware that has a North American sat file installed in it. Fortis installed these two items for us. Let's see if I get an answer to my email before we make any other changes. EB

[SatelliteGuy]

Eastof111 gave me an idea! I have an Ecoda 22KHz switch within my current system that I'm using the Anaconda receiver on. I'm going to try removing the Ecoda 22KHz switch from the system tonight and perform a few blind scans using only my 4' motorized dish to see if the problems still occur. I'll then report the results.