Promax TV Explorer II+
Contents
1. Website www promax es Email Model promax promax es Promax TV Explorer Il Function Universal Satellite Signal Meter and Analyzer Type of signals processed Analog TV terrestrial cable and satellite DVB S DVB S2 DVB C DVB T DVB H FM Radio TV systems TV standards PAL SECAM NTSC M N B G I D Kand L Tuning range 5 to 1000 MHz terrestrial and 950 to 2150 MHz satellite Measured parameters for DVB S QPSK Power CBER VBER MER C N and Noise Margin Measured parameters for DVB S2 QPSK 8PSK Power CBER LBER MER C N and Wrong Packets Constellation diagram available for DVB T H DVB C DVB S DVB S2 DVB S signal range 44 dBuV to 114 dBuV 2 to 45 Ms sec DVB S2 signal range 44 dBuV to 114 dBuV 2 to 33 Ms sec QPSK and 2 to 30 Ms sec 8PSK Spectrum Analyzer satellite range Input 30 dBuV to 130 dBuVv Span Full 500 200 100 50 32 16 MHz selectable Monitor transflective TFT 6 5 Aspect ratio External units powers supply e g LNB 16 9 4 3 Auto 5 13 15 18 24 V 22 kHz 0 65 0 25 V Internal power supply 7 2V 11 Ah Li ion Battery 4 5 hours of continuous operation Recharging time 3 hours to 80 External power supply 12 V 30 W Operating temperature 5 to 40 C Humidity 80 up to 31 C decreasing linearly to 50 at 40 C Dimensions 230 x 12. is all of these things and is more than capable of handling all of these measurements We ve decided to call it a uni versal signal analyzer because there is no better name for such a multifunctional instrument just yet Our regular readers may remember our test report on the Prolink 4C Premium This meter also came from Promax We were really impressed by its performance and versatility Its successor the TV Explorer II is much smaller and lighter but at the same time even more powerful and ergonomic Sounds impossible Believe us it s true In the TV Explorer II Promax added DVB S2 signal analysis and a USB port The menu structure has been rede signed and is now more intui tive and more dependent on the current measurement mode When you measure one param eter for example C N you can conveniently see all the other important parameters on the same screen channel power MER CBER VBER L band fre quency transponder frequency and channel number Let s highlight the features of the TV Explorer II It can measure TV and radio signals of all kinds satellite terrestrial and cable It is suitable for FM radio mobile TV DVB H and for the return channel in cable networks It works equally well with QPSK 8PSK QAM or COFDM modulation The TV Explorer II is really a multi standard instrument It accepts any TV system PAL SECAM or NTSC and any TV standard M N B G I D K or L The TV Exp
3. TV Explorer II allows you to jump from trans ponder to transponder ordered by frequency while automati cally setting the proper voltage and 22 kHz signal Of course this is possible since the trans ponder lists are stored in the meter s memory Despite the exceptional inter nal complexity of the instrument B m and its wealth of features and functions we only had to refer to the user manual occasionally Naturally if you want to take full advantage of all of its fea tures it would be a good idea to read the user manual from cover to cover It has 85 pages full of pictures and is written in Spanish English and French Its content is easy to follow thanks to its logical layout it is easy MPEG 2 TS a QPSK Constellation 24 TELE satellite amp Broadband O6 07 2008 www TELE satellite com to quickly find the information you need There s also a Quick Reference Guide for those who want to get started right away We used the TV Explorer II for the most obvious task aligning a dish Its large dis play fast response and good measurement resolution make this a simple task First we switched to the antenna align ment mode The display showed the spectrum with a high sweep rate and two vertical bars on the right side The left bar showed the maximum value that was recorded within the last few seconds while the right one showed the current level This is s
4. The meter tries to find a noise level next to the transponder signal and uses it as a refer ence The readings may be too pessimistic BER bit error rate a measure of digital signal quality telling us how often we have a false bit in an incoming data stream Thus 3x10 means that in 10 000 bits we have 3 false bits 0 s instead of 1 s or vice versa The lower the BER the better For example 4x10 is better than 1x10 CBER channel BER Bit error rate before the forward error correction technique is used VBER Viterbi BER Bit error rate after the Viterbi forward error correction technique has been applied VBER is always much better lower than CBER Signals with a VBER 1x104 are regarded as Quasi Error Free QEF It is marked on the bar indicator scale when the TV Explorer II is in VBER meas uring mode LBER BER after Low Density Parity Check This is an equivalent of VBER for DVB S2 signals MER modulation error ratio The relation between the average power of a DVB signal and the average power of noise present in the constellation of a signal It is a digital equiva lent of signal to noise ratio in analog transmissions So the higher the MER the better like C N The TV Explorer II also shows the noise margin in dB when in MER measure ment mode We should have at least a 3 dB noise margin to ensure good reception even in bad weather conditions
5. To do that we switched to C N measurement mode We adjusted all three settings in small steps to get a maximum reading This can also be done using MER measurement mode If you prefer to tune for mini as Showing channel video mum rather than maximum you can use CBER mode VBER is not that useful for alignment because of its very sharp reac tion We especially liked the C N readings when adjusting the skew of the LNB in its holder Even a slight turn was immedi ately noticeable by a change in the C N thanks to its high meas urement resolution of 0 1 dB The perfect antenna alignment it doesn t get easier than this Thanks to its large display you can even put the TV Explorer II on the floor ground and still be able to see the results and perform an antenna adjust ment The reason is that the display is made in transflective TFT technology Thanks to this the display brightness is really high and it is easy readable even outdoors Actually the Explorer aa DISEqC commands II is the only meter on market using this highly user friendly technology The meter also worked well in more complex antenna systems that involved DiSEgC switches and motors However for effi cient operation the user must be familiar with DiSEqC com mands which command does what After tuning to the satel lite signal in spectrum analyzer mode only one button push was needed in order to watch the video of the first channel in
6. 61 x 76 mm Weight 2 2kg 26 TELE satellite amp Broadband O6 07 2008 wwwTELE salellite com What do all these acronyms mean QPSK phase modulation used in DVB S and DVB S2 transmissions 4 phase angles are used 8PSK phase modulation used in DVB S2 transmissions 8 phase angles are used If used instead of QPSK more data can be sent in the same bandwidth QAM phase amplitude modulation used in DVB C trans mission Different number of phase angles and amplitude levels are used depending on the mode 16QAM 32QAM 64QAM 128QAM or 256QAM COFDM complex modulation used in DVB T optimized to be insensitive to the interference typical for terrestrial TV L Band frequency range 950 2150 MHz to which all sat ellite signals are converted to by an LNB Ku C or S band This frequency range is used to transmit satellite signals via a cable from an LNB to a satellite meter and or satellite receiver MPEG 2 the older compression method used for digital video in DVB Still widely used for standard definition chan nels MPEG 4 the newer more efficient compression method for digital video in DVB S2 and DVB T H C N carrier to noise ratio expressed in dB One of the basic terms used to assess signal quality The higher the C N the better the signal In practice it is difficult to measure it correctly because it is not possible to switch the transponder off and measure only the noise
7. Satellite Meter and Analyzer al Promax TV Explorer Il gear Ly DE yp EE mb No F 7 WAR 06 07 2 av State of the Art Universal lt a Signal Analyzer universally usable with sun proof display 4 5 wS D i NA 2 oe een a DRAIN gees WAY ra Some people can align their satellite dishes without any extra equipment Sometimes they even do it without a signal finder using only a standard satellite receiver Of course this method takes much more time and the alignment may not be as perfect as it could be Things are not as easy when the antenna is on the roof In this case you should at least have a simple signal finder although this will not be good enough if you are planning to set up and maintain an SMATV network When you have to precisely align several satellite and ter restrial TV and radio antennas then mix all the incoming sig nals and distribute them among many different apartments in a building you need some thing much more sophisticated That s where the TV Explorer II from Promax comes into play This instrument is so ver satile that it s difficult to find a proper name for it Is it a field strength meter a spectrum analyzer a satellite finder a test receiver or a constellation diagram meter Is it for analog or digital TV signals Is it for satellite cable or terrestrial transmissions Is it for TV or radio signals The TV Explorer II
8. enter of the next transponder Unfortunately the _ 4 L MODULATION DVB 52 PSK E E F 1922 00MHz 12522 0 1 cee i DL Ku marker did not jump to the cent ers of the transponders so we switched to continuous tuning smooth frequency changing and moved the marker to the center of a digital transponder After pushing the satellite iden tification button we discovered the dish was pointing to 13 E As it turns out we managed to find the Hotbird satellite instead of Astra Because our goal was to align the dish to Astra 19 2 E we knew that we needed to move the antenna to the east We started moving and after a moment noticed another peak in the signal level It must have been Eutelsat W2 16 E We continued moving and arrived at a stronger signal a bit further to the east After switching to transponder zap ping mode we could see that ae TV Channel analysis the marker was now always in the middle of the transponder spectra We confirmed that it was Astra by identifying the satellite again This time we switched to channel watch ing mode In 2 3 seconds we were watching the channel video We played for a while tuning between transponders and channels within a trans ponder Everything was work ing we were watching the Astra 1 satellite at 19 2 E But we were not finished yet Next we wanted to pre cisely adjust azimuth elevation and LNB position in the holder skew
9. lorer II covers a frequency range that is con tinuous from 5 MHz to 2150 MHz This covers all terrestrial cable and satellite ranges Of course in the case of satellite transmissions we are not refer ring to the downlink frequency from the satellite but rather the output frequency from the LNB L band We can either tune the frequency continuously or jump from transponder to transponder It comes prepro grammed with the transpond ers of many satellites and of course this data can be repro grammed It measures signals from 44 45 dBuV to 100 114 dBuV depending on the modula tion type The measured param eters depending on modulation mode include power BER VBER LBER MER C N noise margin and number of wrong packets Of course the analyzer can measure both DVB S and DVB S2 signals All the different FEC Transport suitcase takes it all the meter and all accessories www TELE satellita com O6 07 2008 TELE salellite amp Broadband 21 code rates are supported For DVB S2 this would be 1 4 1 3 2 5 1 2 3 5 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 8 9 9 10 and Auto for QPSK sig nals and 3 5 2 3 3 4 5 6 8 9 9 10 and Auto for 8PSK signals If you also deal with analog sig nals you ll be happy to know that you haven t been left in the dark with the TV Explorer II It can measure signal level C N video audio ratio FM devia tion and demodulation the last two are for classical terrestrial cable signal
10. losed in protective grey rubber to help protect the meter should it bump into a sat ellite mast or some other hard surface As we mentioned before MPEG 2 TSe sin RA a Carrier to Noise ratio measurement we ve already had some experi ence with the excellent Prolink 4C Premium meter Because of this we didn t really expect too many surprises with the TV Explorer II But we were wrong It not only includes all the functions of its older brother but comes with a few more We mentioned the DVB S2 measurements but there are also the I Q constellation diagrams for DVB T H DVB C DVB S and DVB S2 and spe cial test functions for measur ing distribution networks with the help of RP 250 and RP 080 e signal simulators However the most striking difference between these two meters except other than the size and weight is the ease of use While the Prolink 4C Pre mium was quite ergonomic the TV Explorer II could probably be used as a reference design for all other similar instru ments We found the opera tion of all of its controls to be FREQ 1314 00 MHz 356 kHz DL Ku 11914 60 MHz POWER MER BER LBER MPEG 2 TS H l W Measuring MER 1 3 9 dB T9 9 dBW 12 5 dB 1 0E 6 z1 0E 8 intuitive In order to see the selected polarization and sub band in many other instru ments you have to enter the L Band frequency and set the LNB voltage and 22 kHz signal presence The
11. omewhat similar to the volume level meters found in good quality audio equipment Additionally there is an audible signal with a pitch that rises when the signal level goes up After arbitrarily setting the elevation of the antenna we moved it steadily from left to right and back again trying to locate some spikes on the spec trum analyzer graph and peaks on the bars This proved to be unsuccessful so we changed DVB S2 QPSK WE F 1314 00MHz 11914 0 MPE W PSK Constellation the elevation and repeated the left right movement Once we observed a signal presence we stopped Next we wanted to find a maximum level By delicately pushing and pulling the top bottom left and right edges of the dish we discovered how much of a fine adjustment was still needed After correct ing azimuth and elevation we achieved an almost maximum signal level reading But what was the satellite we had just aligned to To find out we switched to normal spec trum and adjusted the marker to one of the digital transpond ers Digital transponders are more squared in that they have flat tops Analog trans ponders have more of a bell Shape We had two possibili ties Because we had preset the channel frequency plan to the desired satellite Astra 19 2 E and switched the tuning to transponder zapping mode we could use the tuning knob and see if the marker is jumping from the center of one trans ponder to the c
12. power adapter a USB cable a 10 dB signal atten uator connector adapters anda USB memory stick with PC soft ware to control the instrument and store the results The largest component on the front panel is the 16 9 LCD A Meter with accessories display Underneath there are twelve control buttons From left to right in the top row the buttons show the video of the channel set the power for the LNB show measurement results show the frequency spectrum switch between satel lite terrestrial mode and switch ae Antenna alignment 22 TELE satellite amp Broadband O6 07 2008 wwwJELe satellite com 1314 00 MHZ between digital analog mode In the bottom row from the left the buttons access image and sound properties DiSEqC com mands utilities setup antenna alignment mode transponder or frequency tuning and trans ponder identification If you had any doubts yes the TV Explorer II can send any DiSEqC com mand 1 0 1 1 or 1 2 The iden tification of a satellite is based on the information transmitted from a transponder in the NIT table If only this information is transmitted and this depends on the configuration of the pro vider s headend there should be an orbital position and net DL Ku work provider name So for example the Explorer may show us 13E ABSat Four arrows are used in spec trum mode to conveniently set the frequency span and the reference level moving the
13. s We can t emphasize enough the importance of the spec trum analyzer in this meter Not only can you examine a signal without knowing any channel frequencies but you can also detect all the unwanted sig nals that may be present in a network because of interfer ence The frequency span is selectable from 16 MHz to full band and the vertical range is adjustable in steps Except for measurements the meter can display the video of a TV signal regardless if it is analog or digital For digital signals you can view all free to air MPEG 2 channels It is also possible to receive scrambled channels as long as the proper CAM with smartcard is inserted into the CI slot located on the rear panel of the meter This is a really unique feature not many other meters can say they have this Please note that the meter can not process MPEG 4 streams In order to view MPEG 4 FTA channels a suitable MPEG 4 to MPEG 2 conversion module needs to be inserted However the meter can measure all DVB S2 signals even if they carry MPEG 4 streams The additional module is only required to see the video of a channel Everyday Use The meter was delivered from Promax ina very large package We were surprised to discover that so many accessories were included The box included a very practical carrying bag a protective suitcase both with a Spectrum analyzer the shoulder straps an exter nal power supply with a power cord a car
14. spectrum up or down They can also be used when in the menu to travel among differ ent items and options The tuning knob is used for moving the marker when in spectrum mode moving the highlight in the menu or changing the transponder channel number Lastly there are three status LEDs and a luminosity sensor on the front panel The LED s indicate that external video supplied by the Scart connec tor is playing on the screen that an external device LNB is powered and that the battery is being charged The sensor adjusts the brightness and con trast of the display and helps to conserve battery power The battery can power the instru ment for about 4 5 hours con tinuously But only 3 hours are needed to charge it to 80 The F connector is situated on the top side panel Included in the package are suitable con nector adapters F to BNC and F to DIN The power supply socket is located on the right side panel there s also a small hole used to reset the unit We did not have to use the reset feature the software func tioned properly throughout the entire test On the reverse side is the Scart connector It can be used to send the LCD video and audio to an external moni tor or TV set or it can accept an incoming video audio signal for display on the LCD The rear panel sports the CI slot for use with a CA module plus there s also a USB port so that the meter can com municate with a PC The whole case is enc
15. the multiplex We could also switch to all the other chan nels in the multiplex and at the same time get information on the video audio PID s and the actual resolution and bit rate We also tested the meter with analog cable TV cable signals and managed to do that without any problems DISEQC COMMANDS POSITION A B SWITCH 1 SWITCH 2 SWITCH 3 SWITCH 4 www TELE satelliile com 06 07 2008 TELE s telite amp Broadband 25 The TV Explorer il is an amazingly versatile and ergonomic instrument for a professional installer It is excellent for setting up and maintaining satel lite terrestrial antennas and their signal distribution networks The instrument is also a full featured tool for examining analog or digital cable networks con nected to headends It can even be used to check FM radio or DVB H signals It s TFT display is readable also in bright sunlight Manufacturer Tel nS A r languages from the Internet ELE satellite com TELE satellite 0807 ara promax pdf E satellite com TELE satellite 0807 bid promax pdf ite com TELE satellite 0807 bul promax pdf com TELE satellite 0807 ces promax pdf gt om TELE satellite 0807 deu promax pdf atellite 0807 esp promax pdf llite 0807 far promax pdf Jacek Pawlowski TELE satellite Test Center Poland TECHNIC DATA PROMAX Electronica S A C Francesc Moragas 71 08907 LHospitalet de Llobregat SPAIN 34 932 602 000
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