Winegard Trav'ler EL Motor Home Failure

[RustyJC]

For anyone who uses the roof-mounted Winegard Trav'ler roof-mounted satellite dish, we had a "failure to stow" situation today as we were preparing to leave a campsite. The error message was EL Motor Home Failure. With this being Sunday, Winegard technical support was closed, but the manual said that a recalibration would probably be required if there were no obstacles preventing the dish from moving to its home position. A Google search came up with the recalibration procedure (which isn't in the manual). It worked for us, so I'm posting it here for reference if anyone else finds himself with this problem.

Calibrate the Elevation Motor:

1. Press [POWER] and hold for 2 seconds to turn “ON” the TRAV’LER Interface Box. Wait until the Interface Box finishes “connecting to antenna”.

2. Press [ENTER] and hold for 2 seconds or until the unit displays “Enter User Menu”. Press [SELECT] to move the asterisk to “Yes”. Press [ENTER].

3. Press [SELECT] to move the asterisk to INSTALLATION.

4. Press [ENTER]. You will be asked to provide a code to enter the Installation Menu.

5. Press [ENTER] 4 times to enter code 0000.

6. From the Installation Menu,

7. Press [SELECT] to move “ * ” to “Calibrate EL” and Press [ENTER].

8. Press [SELECT] to move “ * ” to YES.

9. Press [ENTER] to start the elevation calibration procedure. The LCD should now display “ Calibrate EL In Progress ...”.

10. After a few moments the IDU LCD will display “On EL Hard Stop? Yes *No”. Visually examine the antenna to verify that the antenna is against the Hard Stop. The antenna will be pointing as far up as it can go, this is the Hard Stop.

11. Press [SELECT] once to move asterisk to “Yes” if antenna is on the Hard Stop.

12. Press [ENTER] and the LCD will display “Calibrate EL Success”.

13. Press and Hold [POWER] for 2 seconds to to stow the antenna.

Rusty

[brianh442]

Haven't heard of that yet, I snapped a screen shot and stored it in my info file, thank you in advance!!!

Brian

[dapperdan]

Been there, done that. Earlier this year we had that happen as we were about to depart, called Winegard Tech Support and got the re-calibrate sequence.

Only happened to us once, I believe it was caused by a faulty pedestal when we first arrived. We had "issues" with the 50 amp connection. My thought is as we were deploying the dish I was switching the power cord from the 50 amp socket to the 30 amp socket, causing the "glitch".

Dan

[Cummins12V98]

I have it taped to the inside of my door for controls. In LasVegas with no answer from Winegard I got on the roof and manually lowered mine. Call from them on the road and the lade sent me the procedure in an email.

[davydee]

Thanks for the heads-up. We, too, saved a copy for future reference. David

[oldbird]

Called Winegard yesterday morning and still no call back. They used to have good customer service! Thanks for this info!

[Cummins12V98]

You can lower the unit manually if needed. It takes a 5/15" 6 point socket deep or with an extension and a 1/4" ratchet wrench.

[NC Hauler]

Originally Posted by Cummins12V98

You can lower the unit manually if needed. It takes a 5/15" 6 point socket deep or with an extension and a 1/4" ratchet wrench.

A 5/15" socket, (or did you mean 5/16")?? You sure it's not metric? That's an odd size and if 6 point needed, it may be compensating for a 6mm or 7mm, ( just guessing without digging out my metric wrenches and measuring.


Jim

[oldbird]

I haven't looked at mine yet, where is this manual adjustment?

[RustyJC]

Originally Posted by oldbird

I haven't looked at mine yet, where is this manual adjustment?

It's not an adjustment - it's a manual override to force the dish into the stowed position if the motor or controls goes Tango Uniform.

Rusty

[oldbird]

I understand that. On my internet satellites you can use a drill battery and find the correct wires and lower it. If the winegard traveler can be lowered by turning a nut I was just wondering where it is.

[Cummins12V98]

Originally Posted by NC Hauler

A 5/15" socket, (or did you mean 5/16")?? You sure it's not metric? That's an odd size and if 6 point needed, it may be compensating for a 6mm or 7mm, ( just guessing without digging out my metric wrenches and measuring.


Jim

Hey NC nice to see you on here!!!

I did mean 5/16", thanks for pointing out my mistake.

I can't specifically say where the 5/16" bolt type head is located but I don't remember it being hard to find.

I think it's a good idea to physically look to see where it is "just in case".

[NC Hauler]

Thanks Ron... All good info to know if one has a stowing issue with this satellite.

Jim

[Cummins12V98]

Originally Posted by oldbird

I understand that. On my internet satellites you can use a drill battery and find the correct wires and lower it. If the winegard traveler can be lowered by turning a nut I was just wondering where it is.

It's very low geared. I would be very careful if using a cordless drill. After lowering ours with a socket and ratchet wrench I would stick with that method for sure. It does not take long to lower it.

[oldbird]

Cummins, been busy but thought I would explain further. I had a Motosat internet satellite for years before buying a new intra-sat 840 internet satellite. The motosat was old and once in awhile it would not stow. You would remove the two coded color wires from the controller and using the battery, not the drill, put one on the positive post and the other on the negative post to lower the sat. Same procedure for skew and azimuth which of course need to be done before lowering the elevation to stow.