Guide to Creating a Technomate Channel List from Scratch

[digicon]

I decided to post this due to the recent increase in posts about Scanning Satellite channels on Technomate Receivers and the obvious problems that can occur when Blind Scanning the full satellite ARC which is not a Good idea as you will almost certainly end up with duplicate Channels/Transponders which is not what you want in the first place.

Ok then first off the spreadsheet program that does all the hard work for you was created by jetsetw from Digital Worldz forum so all Credit for this work including Guides on how to use it belong solely to him.

Please read all the Guides enclosed written by the author of the program and you must have microsoft Excel for this spreadsheet to work.

Guide to Creating a Technomate Channel List from Scratch

For Technomate 5400 Super and 5402HD models with USALS. (May work with other series.)

Note: this guide and the attached spreadsheet are for creating a brand new channel list.
They will not help you modify an existing channel list.

Warning: always back up your own channel list before loading another one!

Many channel lists are available online, but the best list is always the one you make yourself.
This "Transponder Updater" spreadsheet will grab transponder details from the website of your
choice (Lyngsat, King of Sat, Flysat), for the satellites and beams you would like to scan. It then
saves an "empty" channel list to your PC with satellite and transponder information. (No channels
are stored at this stage.) This empty list can then be loaded into your receiver via USB stick, and
is ready for auto navigation to pull in the channels.

Features:

* You can enter your own satellite names and positions (up to 64).
* Choice of Lyngsat, King of Sat, or Flysat for acquiring transponders.
* You can specify exactly which beams from which to take transponders.
* Each website has its own columns for URLs and beams to scan, so you can switch from one to
another easily and compare results.
* Some good beams for the UK are already entered in the spreadsheet - easy to customise.
* A dummy transponder can be inserted for each satellite to prevent the Technomate from
scanning too early when auto-navigating. This ensures the dish has moved away from the
previous satellite before scanning the next one, thus preventing incorrect channel info on the
first transponder.
* After the spreadsheet has finished (could take a minute or two) you can see exactly which
transponders have been saved to the new list.

Full instructions in spreadsheet. Tested on Technomate 5400 Super and 5402 HD receivers.

Jetset

Couple of tips on using the spreadsheet:

1) If you want to see what the various beams are called from a particular satellite, an easier way than
visiting the Lyngsat/KoS/Flysat website is to type "all" in the beams column. After running the macro,
you'll see precisely what all beams are called; the names are often a very good indication of whether
they're worth including! For the less obvious beams, see Lyngsat and Flysat for links to footprints.

2) If you do insert the dummy TPs (*), they can be removed later using Clark Tech Editor Studio.
The latest version is 3.17, and it is great for tidying up channel lists generally. Although it claims
lists from the 5402HD are "5000-HDS format", I don't believe this is quite the case, and would save
them as "Clark Tech Plus" format for both 5400 Super and 5402HD receivers.

Jetset

Guide to Creating a Technomate Channel List from Scratch

For Technomate 5400 Super and 5402HD models with USALS.
(May work with other TM series, or with Clarke Tech clones.)

Note: this guide and the attached spreadsheet are for creating a brand new channel list.
They will not help you modify an existing channel list.

Warning: always back up your own channel list before loading another one!

Many channel lists are available online, but the best list is always the one you make yourself.
This "Transponder Updater" spreadsheet will grab transponder details from the website of your
choice (Lyngsat, King of Sat, Flysat), for the satellites and beams you would like to scan. It then
saves an "empty" channel list to your PC with satellite and transponder information. (No channels
are stored at this stage.) This empty list can then be loaded into your receiver via USB stick, and
is ready for auto navigation to pull in the channels.

Features:

* You can enter your own satellite names and positions (up to 64).
* Choice of Lyngsat, King of Sat, or Flysat for acquiring transponders.
* You can specify exactly the beams from which to take transponders.
* Each website has its own columns for URLs and beams to scan, so you can switch from one to
another easily and compare results.
* Some good beams for the UK are already entered in the spreadsheet - easy to customise.
* A dummy transponder can be inserted for each satellite to prevent the Technomate from
scanning too early when auto-navigating. This ensures the dish has moved away from the
previous satellite before scanning the next one, thus preventing incorrect channel info on the
first transponder.
* After the spreadsheet has finished (could take a minute or two) you can see exactly which
transponders have been saved to the new list.

Full instructions in spreadsheet. Tested on Technomate 5400 Super and 5402 HD receivers.
If the attached "rar" file does not open, try changing extension to "zip".

A couple of tips on using the spreadsheet:

1) If you want to see what the various beams are called from a particular satellite, an easier way than
visiting the Lyngsat/KoS/Flysat website is to type "all" in the beams column. After running the macro,
you'll see precisely what all beams are called; the names are often a very good indication of whether
they're worth including! For the less obvious beams, see Lyngsat and Flysat for links to footprints.

2) If you do insert the dummy TPs (*), they can be removed later using Clark Tech Editor Studio.
The latest version is 3.17, and it is great for tidying up channel lists generally. Although it claims
lists from the 5402HD are "5000-HDS format", I don't believe this is quite the case, and would save
them as "Clark Tech Plus" format for both 5400 Super and 5402HD receivers.

* recommended - before I added this option, my receiver would start scanning Astra 19 again while
the dish was on the move between 19E and 23.5E...

Best wishes for 2012,
Jetset

I'll talk you through an example. Suppose you want 30W and 4W in addition to the ones I've selected, but don't want 4.8E.

1) Choose "Lyngsat" from the website options box.

2) Click on the "Satellites" tab.

3) Type "yes" in cell D6. This means that Hispasat (30W) will be used.
The Lyngsat beams go in cell G6 for this satellite, but you don't need to type in anything here as I've already entered *Europe*,
which is the name Lyngsat uses for the European beams. Note that the * signs are needed around the beam names.

4) Type "yes" in cell D17. This means that Amos (4W) will be used.

5) Notice that cell G17 is blank. This is because I don't know which beams are any good on this satellite - my dish is too small.
You'll need to type something in cell G17. You could type "All" to get every single beam available, or you could look up the
beam names on Lyngsat and type the ones you want e.g. *Europe*Europe V* will pick up the "Europe" and "Europe V" beams,
while ignoring everything else, such as "Middle East" which is almost certainly impossible to get in the UK.
(Look at this webpage to see where the beam names are found: Amos 2/3 at 4.0?W - LyngSat)

6) Type "no" in cell D20. This means that the Astra 4A (4.8E) satellite will not be looked up later when the macro is run.
The beam names in cell G20 are now irrelevant and will be ignored, because you've said "no" to this satellite.

7) Go back to the "Options and Instructions" tab and click the Go! button to run the macro.

If at a later stage you want to get transponders that are used for feeds as well, you'll need to type "yes" in column F next to the
relevant satellites, and re-run the macro.

If you want a satellite that is not mentioned in my spreadsheet, you can simply type in the name, position etc. underneath in a
spare row. I would reorder the rows afterwards so that the satellites are in order across the arc for convenience.

Does this make a bit more sense?

Jetset

Just to add i have personally tested the output TP.ndf file on a TM5402HD, Blade 7000 & DR.HD F15

[happy_highlander]

Can I just add to this post that for fixed dish single sat channel lists. Clarke tech studio editor will download a full channel list for the sat of your choice i.e. 28.2 by choosing input from web. List is from king of sats and you can then edit the list and favourites to your liking and stick them on a usb. Job done and very simple to use.

[idrisdragon]

Technomate Blind Scan

thanks for this I will try to give it a go,

We recently lost all out settings after a holiday. Please can you advise the settings on Technomate to run a blind scan, should this not work for us.

[Nutsandbolts]

thanks for this I will try to give it a go,

We recently lost all out settings after a holiday. Please can you advise the settings on Technomate to run a blind scan, should this not work for us.

Hi. To do blind scan on a TM5400 and similar do the following:

a) Make sure you are on correct satelllite ie HOTBIRD .Check signal for satellite is strong.
b) Delete all current TP's for Hotbird. This will get rid of out of date TP's as well as valid ones.
c) Then enter MENU - INSTALLATION - BLIND SEARCH. From satellite list select correct satellite you are on ie HOTBIRD . Press enter to select HOTBIRD . Leave defaults for TP, SR, POL, and MODE as they are. Move cursor to PRESS OK option and press OK to start scan.
d) On the following screen it should say TP SEARCHING in left corner along with the satellite name ie HOTBIRD. As it is scanning you will see the TP's coming up. It will scan for vertical TP's first and horizontal TP's second. When all available TP's have been found it will scan the channels in. You should see a list of channels being tuned in. You should now have an updated TP/channel list.

e) When completed you can then edit the channels to your liking.

Hope this makes sense.

Regards.

[digicon]

Hi. To do blind scan on a TM5400 and similar do the following:

a) Make sure you are on correct satelllite ie HOTBIRD .Check signal for satellite is strong.
b) Delete all current TP's for Hotbird. This will get rid of out of date TP's as well as valid ones.
c) Then enter MENU - INSTALLATION - BLIND SEARCH. From satellite list select correct satellite you are on ie HOTBIRD . Press enter to select HOTBIRD . Leave defaults for TP, SR, POL, and MODE as they are. Move cursor to PRESS OK option and press OK to start scan.
d) On the following screen it should say TP SEARCHING in left corner along with the satellite name ie HOTBIRD. As it is scanning you will see the TP's coming up. It will scan for vertical TP's first and horizontal TP's second. When all available TP's have been found it will scan the channels in. You should see a list of channels being tuned in. You should now have an updated TP/channel list.

e) When completed you can then edit the channels to your liking.

Hope this makes sense.

Regards.

This program was written by the author to negate the use of blindscan as it is not needed.

[Nutsandbolts]

This program was written by the author to negate the use of blindscan as it is not needed.

Hi. If you read the post correctly the member wanted to know how to do a blind scan in case program dont work.


Take care.

[badman56]

thank you for this

can i ask a few questions - i (think) i have successfully created the list and understand that these are just transponders

i plan to try this on a 5420hd but wonder will it give the same "insufficent tp memory" problem at some stage again?

"EDIT" I think ive answered this - in the Data it creates it gives a list of 801 - would i be right in thinking that is the total number of transponders? if so my TM5420 gives the "insufficient tp memory" and i have 2345 tps so i am just wondering why this newly created list of tps is much smaller?

[digicon]

If you typed 'ALL' in each individual satellite then the program will scan all TP's for all beams on that particular satellite, When i do mine i check with one of the sites to see which beams i can pick up and change it on the spreadsheet accordingly.

I also only scan TV Only channels in as i know the memory is only 10,000 so i skip Radio completely, Last one i did brought me just over 9300 TV channels from 57? east to 45? west.

Everyones will be different due to dish size used and what satellites are scanned.

[badman56]

thanks for this - in the end i spent a few hours with clarke tech plus and used the list of satellites that were already named on the box then imported from the Web (king of sat) an updated list for each satellite

took a minute but transferred well to the 5420 (after deleting a lot of unwanted channels to reach the 10000 limit) the only thing i had to do then was enable each satellite in the menu on the 5420 but ive now got a lot more than i had and no insufficient tp memory issues

[badman56]

could this method be used to feed hunt? im currently just learning about another side to all this which isnt just finding TV channels but those daily feeds that pop up - seems interesting but im not sure how to do it with the tm5420 blind scan so thinking possibly this spreadsheet could provide a way of doing it assuming i backed up my current channel list and deleted it form the 5420 first/restored it after a search about ?

in fact id assumed that i would be able to use this 5420 like you would a radio scanner and have all your active channels stored but easily search the bands for more but at the moment given the limits im not sure thats possible?

[digicon]

could this method be used to feed hunt? im currently just learning about another side to all this which isnt just finding TV channels but those daily feeds that pop up - seems interesting but im not sure how to do it with the tm5420 blind scan so thinking possibly this spreadsheet could provide a way of doing it assuming i backed up my current channel list and deleted it form the 5420 first/restored it after a search about ?

in fact id assumed that i would be able to use this 5420 like you would a radio scanner and have all your active channels stored but easily search the bands for more but at the moment given the limits im not sure thats possible?

This is a great source for Live feeds if your ever interested in seeing whats on a daily basis.

http://www.satelliweb.com/index.php?section=livef&langue=en

[Manic01]

Another good one.

http://www.sat-benelux.nl

[badman56]

nice one ill check out these sites tonight - I was on that one last night digicon having a read through and trying to figure out how i could scan to find feeds

would the best way of scanning for feeds on the 5420 be to blind scan for TV free to air only ? i did some more reading and everyone seems to say thats what blind scan is made for (feed hunting) but on the other hand many are saying the blind scan on the 5420 doesnt work properly

[badman56]

ive run the full scan with this excel program - but cant work out where the ndf file is? ive saved it but as a excel file with a diff name? i cant see in the instructions where the ndf file is located or saved?

EDIT - found it in C:/Channels

[digicon]

As your probably aware as well by now as it relates to your post on the 'Feeds' then you can tick each sat to search for known feeds on each satellite if you so wish.