How to Set up your BB...Guide for Newbies

[haddad287]

Following is a detailed setup procedure which assumes that the satellite dishe(es) is/are aimed correctly and you wish to acquire all the channels for one or more satellites. When you make any coax connections to the Dish/LNB or diseqc (or PANSAT) switch, make sure the receiver is NOT plugged in (AC electrical). It is possible that the problem some people are experiencing with their diseqc switch is due to a short or surge during connection.

1. Flash the Blackbird using an Uploader Program and the fix file, PFF501.bin.
You can use PFFLink, or BEC Uploader, or one of a couple of other programs.
They are all available from the "Downloads" section, as is the PFF5.01.bin file.
Follow the instructions exactly. Disconnect any coax connections. You should only have the power cable and the serial null modem (or straight serial and null modem adapter) cable attached. Using these programs, invoke the "Upgrade Bootloader" capability to flash this .bin file.
Do not unplug the cable or switch the receiver off until the front LED shows 'good'. It takes about 5 minutes and it is a two part process. The front LED on the BB will show a count sequence beginning with "D001" up to "D099". You might think it's finished after the first set because the LED goes blank. WAIT!!! After a few seconds, the receiver begins another count up ("F001" to "F099"). Upon completion of the second count up, the LED will show 'good'. Switch off the receiver at the back and disconnect the serial cable.

To receive Dishnet and/or BEV channels, you will have to flash your BB with another .bin file. The process is ALMOST the same as above.

It is suggested that you use PFF6.01 or PFF7.0 bin files.
Hook everything up as described above.

Note: This is EXTREMELY important.
Using these programs, invoke the "Upgrade Software" capability to flash this .bin file.
Do NOT invoke the "Upgrade Bootloader" capability.
Follow the instructions as described above.
Switch off the receiver at the back and disconnect the serial cable.

2. Attach the coax from the satellite(s) and the coax to the TV. Set the channel switch at the back of the receiver to 3 or 4 and turn the TV on to that channel. Or you may elect to use a composite RCA set of cables (yellow, red, white) to connect the BB to your TV.
Plug the receiver AC cord in. Turn the receiver on at the back.

3. Using the remote, activate the receiver by pressing the red button at the top. Press the MENU button and you will get a panel showing the following options:

Channel Edit > TV Channel/Radio Channel
EPG
Installation
Option
Conditional Access

The ONLY option you need to use are the Channel Edit and Installation options. All the others should be ignored.

Use the 4 keys on the remote surrounding the OK button to move the cursor up, down, left or right.

Move the cursor down to Channel Edit and right to TV Channel. Press OK. If there are no TV Channels, go to step 4. If there are TV channels ( you may have a used receiver or you may have tried scanning previously) press MENU and another panel will appear with various options. Scroll down to Delete and scroll right. Another panel will show additional options. Scroll down to All Channels and press OK. The yellow panel at the top of the screen will show TV Channel, with X Delete All Channels below. Press OK again and all channel numbers will change to X. Press exit. Another panel will appear asking 'Are you sure to delete marked channels? Scroll up to OK and press OK. You will be switched to the menu screen. Scroll left and the message 'Please wait while saving data' will appear. Once completed, repeat this process for Radio Channels.

4. Scroll down to Installation and right to Dish Setup. Press OK. A panel will appear.

The top row is Dish. Some people do this differently but I found it easier to consider each satellite a different dish, even if two satellites are served by one dish. For the first satellite the value should be 1. Use the left or right buttons to change it to 1 if necessary. The second satellite would use a value of 2 etc. Do the first ********** using the following instructions in this section. Then change the dish value to 2 for the second satellite and enter a different value for Satellite. LNB stays at 1 but S/W Type changes to B. Repeat for further satellites.

The next row is Dish Type. This should be Fixed.

The next row is Satellite. To change the value, press OK and a panel will appear with a list of options. Scroll down to the appropriate one. Dish 110 is Echost110 and Dish 119 is Echostar4. Press OK and EXIT. A confirmation panel will appear. Scroll to OK and press OK.

The next row is LNB 1. It should say Normal 11250Mhz 11250 Mhz. These values should not be changed, even if you have multiple satellite dishes.

Below that is S/W type. If you're just using one ********** you do not need to use the diseqc switch and this value should be None. For more than one ********** the switch must be used. If the first satellite being set up is Dish 110, the LNB from that dish must be connected to 1 on the diseqc switch and the value here should be A. For the second satellite use 2 on the diseqc and a value here of B etc.

If you're happy with the values, EXIT.

5. Scroll to Transponder Setup. Press OK.

The value of Dish corresponds to the satellite defined in the previous section.

The value of Satellite should be the one assigned to the dish in the previous section.

Motor should be Not Used.

LNB should be 1.

Transponder shows one of the various transponders on the satellite. It may not be TP1 the first time in. However it is best to be methodical in this section so use the scroll keys to scroll down to Transponder and change the value to TP1.

You will ignore the values of Frequency, Symbol Rate, Skew and 22Khz. The frequency value will be the same as that shown in the Lyngsat listing or very close. If necessary, it can be fine-tuned later.

The values you will be concerned with are Dish, Transponder, Polarization, Strength and Quality.

So, starting with Dish 1, we'll set up all the transponders one at a time. Then we'll do Dish 2. It would greatly assist the setup process if the corresponding Lyngsat transponder listing was available for reference. You will need to refer to the Freq. Tp, Channel Name, SID and Beam columns. Let's say we're starting with Dish 110. You will see that the Frequency is 12224 (or close) and the Beam is Conus (meaning Continental US). Everyone should be able to receive this transponder. Depending on where you live, other spot beam transponders will not provide a strong enough signal for reception. Live with it because you're probably out of range and you probably wouldn't want the locals from another part of the country anyway. The Strength and Quality indicators at the bottom will either be white or yellow. If they're yellow you're in good shape. It means your dish is aligned OK. I get a value of 94 for Strength and 98 for Quality which are pretty high but I spent quite some time getting my dish aligned for the strongest signal. If your values are lower, you may need to tweek the dish a little. If the values are white, try scrolling to the Polarization value and change it. It's either Horizontal or Vertical. If changing the value doesn't work, it's either a spot beam (so you can't get a better value no matter what you try) or you need to check the dish alignment. Once you have a yellow reading for one transponder, you should have yellow on all the Conus ones and the spot beam ones in your area of the country.

Once you get a high yellow reading on TP1, change Transponder to TP2, TP3, etc and go through all the transponders, changing Polarization if necessary until you have as may in the yellow as possible. When you're done, scroll to the bottom right of the screen to Scan Sat and press OK. A panel will appear as the receiver scans through the transponders one at a time. Values will appear in the TV and Radio boxes as it proceeds. You will get some TV channels appearing in the Radio box but those will be dealt with later. Once it's reached 100%, press EXIT. Repeat for each Dish value. Once you've completed scanning all dishes, press EXIT until the 'saving new values' screen appears. You should end up with over 500 TV channel defined for Dish 110 and 119, many with No Name for locals etc. You can edit the names with the Channel Manager if you wish to keep them. For instance, The Golf Channel is a No Name so I changed it to GOLF.

If you're having a problem getting channels to scan into the TV side, e.g. HBO-E, delete all the channels for that transponder then edit the transponder frequency up or down a few ticks. On 119 TP2, try 12239 instead of 12237 for instance. After editing the transponder frequency, immediately do a TP Scan (not a Sat Scan). Do not exit to save the value first. The missing channels should scan in.

6. You're done. At this point, you can see the list of TV channels available by scrolling to Channel Edit in the MENU and then to TV Channel. Press enter to see what you have. The number corresponds to the receiver channel number which you enter on the remote. You can use the Channel Manager to change everything around. I haven't done that yet so that's as far as this goes.

Good luck.

[peps54]

Thanks ,,good work haddad

[haddad287]

Originally Posted by peps54

Thanks ,,good work haddad

Can you please infrom the mods to make this a sticky thread

[arboristman]

Originally Posted by haddad287

Can you please infrom the mods to make this a sticky thread

no need,i already saw it and stuck it awhile ago.
thanx.

[haddad287]

Originally Posted by arboristman

no need,i already saw it and stuck it awhile ago.
thanx.

K thank you
And I found out that there is hardly any information for the blackbird Ill try to get more information on it to have more sticky threads

Ohh and one more thing
Can you Close this thread and delete all the replies please