Major Datastorm Problems Forums

gromett

I had some problems with my datastorm back in February and decided to leave it until I had it fitted on the new van and get it sorted then. Sofware update after the NOC had moved caused it.

It took 3 attempts to get it working back in the Uk but finally was up and running. New modem required.

got down to a site near Dover on Thursday night and it wouldn't lock on to the satelite. I was advised to watch the status window and stop it when the receive light came on until a permanent fix could be found. On saturday i said I didn't trust it to work in france. They provided a software downgrade to take me back to an old version. This worked ok.

I got to france on Monday night, tuesday morning I tried to put the dish up and there was a groan sound as though the motor was overloaded and it wouldn't lock on.

to cut a long story short I was about to head back to the UK after having spent 2 hours trying to sort it when I had a thought. I asked the company if i dissasembled the head unit (LNB and driver motors) would I ruin the warranty. They said no and advised me on taping up the motor so it didn't fall apart when unscrewed.

After an hour of messing I had the motor off and the drive chains disconnected and found the LNB jammed half way round. I disassembled it all and cleaned the bearing and applied some WD40 as I don't have any proper grease on me. I put it all back together and it moves nice and smoothly.

I ran the Calibrate dish routine and it locked solid. The dish wouldn't even stow. Time to panic me thinks. I can't even get the dish down so I can drive back to the uk to get it fixed. Ok, nothing to lose so up the ladders again for the 50th+ time. Disassembled it all again and thought. Ah, if I put the LNB skew motor, chain and into the stowed position. i did this and half an hour later it was all back together.

With fingers crossed and holding my breath I ran the Calibrate dish routine again and YIPEEE. It worked.

Unfortunately after an hour of scanning the heavens it wouldn't recognise any satelites Sad

This was at 10pm last night. I had to stow the dish so I didn't disturb any of the other MHers on this aire.

This morning I phoned the tech guys up and told them I was getting a Error:-25. Ah he said did you reload the software last night and do an NVRAM clear? I said yes you told me to do that before I stripped the head unit down. Ah ok you need to reset the password in the controler so it knows how to access the modem. Telneted in and did this and I am working again.

My advise regarding the datastorm after a year of using it.
You can't rely on it 100%. It is brilliant when it works but the regular updates do mess things up now and again. I may have been incredibly unlucky with this one. Last bit of advise carry a full toolkit with you and be prepared to fix it unless you can afford to go without.

If you desperately rely on it I would carry a set of spare motors as they are not that expensive. Initially we thought the skew motor was broken and would have to come back to the UK to repair. This would have been a nightmare on a £10K piece of kit having to travel 500+ miles to get a £30 motor replaced. I will be getting a set of spares of all moving parts when I get back to the UK.

In total I spent almost 5 hours trying to get this working again and the frustration and stress was unbelievable.

Still I do love it when it works Smile

And Musa at MW Electrical is an absolute star Very Happy

Karl

nukeadmin · Site Admin

nightmare Karl

I had the older version of datastorm as you know, and i learned all its little idiosyncrancies and finally after a settling in period i felt confident in it and it worked well all over Europe with hardly any issues (Other than an issue at the NOC once) and when Transleisure told the NOC to disconnect me mistakenly Wink

Like you say an excellent piece of kit WHEN its working, but its not a consumer product IMHO, you and I are very technical both electronics / engineering and computer wise and even we have encountered issues along the way, god forbid those others out there who aren't of the same technical background like others on MHF who encountered many issues.

Its about time someone bought out a system that works easily, if they can get sat tv systems which can track on the move i.e. Camos etc then why cant they get a simple and easy system for satellite broadband !!

MandyandDave · Moderator

Sounds to me like a lot of messing about Karl, bet you're glad it was'nt raining! Very Happy

Glad to hear you got good service from MW electrical, best of luck with it!!

MnD Smile

gromett

I am going to speak to Musa regarding getting a full days training in the maintenance, installation and configuration of the system. I have no interest whatsover in going into business doing these systems (too much like hard work) but the knowledge is essential for me to regain any confidence in the system.

Having said that. Stripping down the head unit yesterday was a good learning experience and I understand a lot more about the whole system now.
I was suprised that the LNB Skew motor rotates the LNB via a chain I was expecting a direct drive stepper motor. The size of the LNB unit itself and the feed horn are huge Smile

The cabling is not as tidy as I would have expected for such an expensive system and the terminations are feeble to say the least.

However it has been working ok for 2 days now and the speed is much better than prior to the NOC move. The Datastorm is essential to me as this location and a few others I visit has absolutely no cell phone coverage at all and to be honest even on a 3G network the speed leaves a lot to be desired Sad

Anyway, back to work. Just got back from the Restaraunt and am looking out of my window at a beatiful river with surounding trees while I do my work. Much better than sitting in a stuffy office.

Karl

nukeadmin · Site Admin

so where are you then Karl, cant see you on the map ?

Snelly · Eastern Rally Co-ordinator

gromett

I am here but not showing up on the map Rolling Eyes

Karl

Geo

Told you to get the bigger dish Laughing

Geo

GPDJP

Hello Everyone,
I am taking delivery of a motorhome in October. We plan to tour extensively in Europe and UK and need Internet access on a regular basis. Whilst very expensive in initial set up the Datastorm option seems to be the only practical solution if you need to have access anywhere in Europe at any time. The option to use mobile phone roaming would be very slow and very high call costs. I find it very difficult to accurately predict what the call charges would amount to