Πεδιόμετρο S20 Review

TEST REPORT

Satellite Meter

DEVISER S20 Satellite Meter

• includes the very useful satellite spectrum view • locks both to very high and very low symbol rates • very easy to operate • very accurate measurement results • usable both for C and Ku band satellites

TELE-satellite Magazine

Business Voucher www.TELE-satellite.info/12/01/deviser-S20 Direct Contact to Sales Manager

■ TELE-satellite Technical

Expert Jacek Pawlowski uses the Deviser S20 to align a satellite dish.

34 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 12-01/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com

www.TELE-satellite.com — 12-01/2012 —

TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine

35

TEST REPORT

Satellite Meter

12-01/2012 Deviser S20 Satellite Meter Ideally suited to fastly install dishes

A Well Performing Meter Which Even Looks Great Someone once said: “We buy with our eyes” and that’s true. The designers of Deviser’s new satellite meter took this advice to their heart and managed to fit their new product into a really great housing. The light blue and gray combination of colors is definitely an eyecatcher.

The plastic case of the meter is gray but it is wrapped around with a light blue rubber envelope. Quite an interesting design, but let’s have a look now into its performance.

The meter sits nicely in your hand. Its backlit LCD is quite large and readable even outside. Seven buttons are clearly labeled and you can operate them with your thumb without touching neighbouring buttons. Signal input connector is located at the bottom of the case while the 12 V DC power socket and mini USB port are located on the right side of the S20 case.

Deviser included two F barrel connectors, so if the first one is torn off, you simply replace it with the second one. The power supply unit and car charger unit are also in the package. But that is not yet all: you get a detailed hard copy user manual as well as a small CD ROM containing PC software for managing satellites and transponders stored in the S20’s memory. And there’s even more: the S20 comes with a vanity case that you can attach to your belt and a light blue strap if you prefer to hang the S20 on your neck or shoulder.

Right after power on, S20 enters the signal search mode. There are two bar graph indicators on the screen for signal strength and signal quality, with percentage values showed next to them. Satellite name,

36 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 12-01/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com

its longitude, transponder name, polarization as well as the battery status are shown. With the left and right arrow buttons you switch the satellite, and with up and down buttons the transponder. Every satellite has exactly 6 transponders stored in the S20’s memory.

Once the meter locks to the transponder, you know that your antenna is aimed at the satellite shown at the top of screen.

In an early stage of the antenna alignment process, you do not receive any signal yet. In such situation, the best idea is to use the angle calculator embedded in the S20. When you enter the geographical coordinates of your antenna location and satellite longitude, it will calculate the azimuth, elevation and LNB tilt angles. You should apply those angles to the dish as accurately as you can and then switch the S20 to spectrum view. Now rotate and tilt your dish gently until you see signal peaks on the spectrum.

When in spectrum view, you can change the span (80, 160, 320 MHz and Full band) and you can also move the cursor to the left and right.

But that’s not all. If you po-

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

38 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 12-01/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com

sition the cursor on a transponder and press OK, S20 will measure this transponder. That’s a great advantage of this meter.

When you managed to set your dish well enough to produce peaks on the spectrum screen, chances are you have found your satellite but how can you be sure?

Well, you simply return to the signal search screen that the S20 shows when powered on. You switch satellites left and right until you find the only one at which S20 locks. Even if this is not the one you wanted to receive, you will know the longitude of the satellite you have just turned your dish at. In this way, you will also know whether to rotate your antenna more to the East or to the West in search of the desired satellite.

Once you are receiving the right satellite, we suggest to switch to the transponder measurement screen, where more parameters are shown.

Now observe the SNR reading when adjusting your dish and LNB tilt. Maximize its value. And that’s it. Tighten the screws carefully to avoid unintentional shift. Your dish is perfectly aligned.

Antenna alignment with

10

11

12

13

14

1. Fast Search window 2. Transponder Measurement window 3. Spectrum View 4. Measuring a transponder selected from the spectrum 5. Setting up the Dish Angle Calculator 6. Angle Calculator helps in dish and LNB alignment 7. Setup menu 8. Battery charge status 9. Satellite list contains up to 16 satellites 10. Satellite and transponder lists are editable 11. Editing satellite parameters 12. Selecting a transponder to select its parameters 13. Transponder parameter edition - screen 1 14. Transponder parameter edition -screen 2

the S20 from Deviser is really an easy task. But how accurate is the meter? We decided to compare it with two signal analyzers of different brands. The S20 measurement results where quite close to the readings of its competitors. The meter had a problem in locking to one DVB-S2 transponder (TP2 in our graphs) but at the same time the other meters where completely unable to lock to the signals the S20 processed without any trouble!

These were the transponders of lower symbol rates (around 10 Ms/sec and 2.5 Ms/sec). So, in real life, almost every meter can have a problem with locking to this or that signal. The S20 was quite at par with much more complex and much more expensive meters if we compare the ability to lock and measure different transponders.

Of course, everybody is aware that the S20 can not play the video in full color or audio of a TV channel or take more advanced measurements. But the S20 offers everything you need to to set up a dish in a fast and easy way. It is usable both in Ku-Band and C-band as you can freely define values for single and dual frequency local oscillators (LOFs).

When installing the PC software we encountered an error. The Deviser installer informed us that one DLL file was missing in our Windows XP system. To successfully finish the installation, we had

to look for the missing file on the Internet, download it and save it in the Windows\system32 folder.

In our test sample, the satellite list along with the corresponding transponder

What’s more, during our tests Deviser released a new software version (1.06B) which now even includes DiSEqC settings. First of all, DiSEqc 1.0 and 1.1 were added in a separate menu item.

The content of this menu item is very simple. The first line lets you choose which DiSEqC protocol you need: 1.0 or 1.1. The second line is for choosing the input of a DiSEqC switch. For DiSEqC 1.0 the possibilities are from 1 through 4 and for DiSEqC 1.1 from 1 through 16. The third line lets you send the command to the switch. You could not invent it any simpler. For the majority of reception systems that use a single DiSEqC 1.0 switch or DiSEqC 1.1 switch, the features of Deviser’s S20 will be absolutely sufficient.

The software included in the package is a rather basic transponder editor. It allows you to change satellite name and position and to define 6 transponders for every satellite. The number of satellites is limited to 16 what should be sufficient for most installers. If you prefer, you can also edit the parameters directly in the setup menu using the S20 buttons.

But of course it is faster and more convenient to do that on your PC. www.TELE-satellite.com — 12-01/2012 —

TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine

39

More on This Manufacturer Read TELE-satellite’s Company Report:

DEVISER

Signal Analyzer Manufacturer, China

www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1107/eng/deviser.pdf

40 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 12-01/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com

www.devisertek.com

parameters was suitable for Asia rather than Europe. For the purpose of the test, we changed two satellites to European ones. To do that, we needed to refer to a transponder list (www.satbeams. com).

Not every transponder of a given satellite is receivable in your location due to various footprints, so be sure to only put into the S20 transponder list the ones receivable in your area. Actually, Deviser will of course customize the satellite/transponder list once the S20 is sold in different parts of the world.

The S20 is a great little meter ideally suited to fastly install dishes. Once all satellite and transponders are set in its memory, the builtin spectrum greatly helps to identify the satellite. The calculator makes it easy to pre-install the dish into the approximate direction. It’s great design makes the S20 a valuable assistant to the dish installer.

■ Satellite Channel Editor

TECHNICAL DATA

Manufacturer

Tianjin Deviser Electronics Instrument Co., Ltd.

Fax +86-22-27645002 E-mail overseasbiz@deviser.com.cn Web page www.devisertek.com Model S20 Function

Satellite antenna meter

Input Frequency

950~2150 MHz

Input Signal Level

30~110 dBµV

Symbol Rate

1~45 Ms/sec

LCD

128 x 64 pixels

LNB max current

400 mA

Power Supply

12 V DC 1.2 A

Operating Time

4 hours when fully charged

Charging Time

5 hours

Expert Opinion Very easy operation Quite fast and accurate

+

Good measurement resolution (0.1 dB for SNR) Locks without any problem to high and low symbol rate transponders Many accessories

–

The meter shows BER, instead of VBER

42 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 12-01/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com

Jacek Pawlowski TELE-satellite Test Center Poland