Paraclipse 3.8 on H to H mount restoration/installation

[martin-f]

I am now the proud owner of the above dish

The dish and H to H is going to be fully restored, the H to H is belt driven (i will be converting this to chain drive) so the dish is from or before 1987, I think this one is from 1985 larger mesh holes,

I'm not concerned about the larger holes the dish will still perform quite well in KU band, after intense testing I will replace mesh with the smaller type for comparison,

The dish is in good shape it wont take me long to get this fully restored, the motor will be most time consuming locating new needed parts,

The installation is going to be something special, basically when its not in use it will tuck away below my fence, when in use it will rise to around 12ft (dish centre) above the ground,

A few pictures of the dish and mount.

 

[Comptech]

I am jealous!

 

[martin-f]

I am jealous!

Don't be jealous be envious its far better to be envious you will go further in life , I've always admired this dish and motor never thought I would get one in the UK it was even free

Is beavs2112 still around ?, if so (Hi mate) when you changed the chain on your motor did you change the cog gear please.

 

[wvman]

I am now the proud owner of the above dish

The dish and H to H is going to be fully restored, the H to H is belt driven (i will be converting this to chain drive) so the dish is from or before 1987, I think this one is from 1985 larger mesh holes,

I'm not concerned about the larger holes the dish will still perform quite well in KU band, after intense testing I will replace mesh with the smaller type for comparison,

The dish is in good shape it wont take me long to get this fully restored, the motor will be most time consuming locating new needed parts,

The installation is going to be something special, basically when its not in use it will tuck away below my fence, when in use it will rise to around 12ft (dish centre) above the ground,

A few pictures of the dish and mount.

My X-father in-law has the same dish with a polar mount. We installed it in the mid 80's and they're not using it. He's a bit indecisive about letting it go, so I am waiting to get the word. May never come, but it's nice to know it's still out there. Nice find.

 

[KE4EST]

Welcome to SatelliteGuys martin-f!!!!

Very Nice find there!!

 

[Jason S]

Nice!

Looks like the car was packed full.

 

[martin-f]

My X-father in-law has the same dish with a polar mount. We installed it in the mid 80's and they're not using it. He's a bit indecisive about letting it go, so I am waiting to get the word. May never come, but it's nice to know it's still out there. Nice find.

I do hope you get this dish one day, many thanks.

Welcome to SatelliteGuys martin-f!!!!

Very Nice find there!!

Many thanks

Nice!

Looks like the car was packed full.

Yes car was full I also had my wife with me so I couldn't put any of the dish in the front, I left two buckets behind no room,

Its all still in the car atm I'm just going to unload it, ive not looked under the bonnet yet the motor should be a Von-Wiese 1/10hp motor + Von-Wiese gearbox ill post a few pictures up when ive unloaded.

 

[wvman]

I do hope you get this dish one day, many thanks.


Many thanks



Yes car was full I also had my wife with me so I couldn't put any of the dish in the front, I left two buckets behind no room,

Its all still in the car atm I'm just going to unload it, ive not looked under the bonnet yet the motor should be a Von-Wiese 1/10hp motor + Von-Wiese gearbox ill post a few pictures up when ive unloaded.

I've been lucky so far. No one has said anything about me hauling the dishes intact. I have a flat bed pickup with a 7 foot wide bed, and I have even trucked them down I79. There's a lot of parts to a Paraclipse and I'd rather keep them assembled than take them apart. I have a couple gear boxes off Von Weise motor arms I think are good. If you need and can use them, let me know and I'll check them out.

If I remember right, I think the entire screw assembly stays hooked to the motor and slips out the end of the tube when you take the screws out. I think there's a small split roll pin that attaches the motor to the lead screw. Haven't had one apart in years. If you don't need the whole motor and gear assembly, I can pull the sensor and trigger wheel and send them to you. Let me know. I won't be using them.

 

[martin-f]

I've been lucky so far. No one has said anything about me hauling the dishes intact. I have a flat bed pickup with a 7 foot wide bed, and I have even trucked them down I79. There's a lot of parts to a Paraclipse and I'd rather keep them assembled than take them apart. I have a couple gear boxes off Von Weise motor arms I think are good. If you need and can use them, let me know and I'll check them out.

If I remember right, I think the entire screw assembly stays hooked to the motor and slips out the end of the tube when you take the screws out. I think there's a small split roll pin that attaches the motor to the lead screw. Haven't had one apart in years. If you don't need the whole motor and gear assembly, I can pull the sensor and trigger wheel and send them to you. Let me know. I won't be using them.

Your truck sounds ideal for moving large satellite dishes I could have done with it yesterday, but we did ok we had a 90 mile round trip left my home at 10.45 AM fully dismantled the dish loaded car and we was back home for 4.30 PM,

Many thanks for your kind offer if I am in need I will let you know thanks again,

Ive not had a good look at the motor on how it connects but I did read split pin needs putting in the motor first, I used to be a mechanic in my younger years hopefully I wont have any issues fingers crossed,

Car unloaded,

The button hook wont be used, I will be fabricating new arms and a adjustable feed holder,

Lifted the bonnet and the motor and gearbox look in good shape, I will be stripping the motor and gearbox down and refurbishing it, check brushes and armature replace anything if necessary,

New bushes will be pressed in the mount,

Boy this is some unit WOW, added bonus was the 1224 it was moving a small 1.5, ive got to call back for the dish at some point,

I've just had a few minuets with angle grinder and flap disc, 2/3 hours and it will all look like new again.

 

[wvman]

Your truck sounds ideal for moving large satellite dishes I could have done with it yesterday, but we did ok we had a 90 mile round trip left my home at 10.45 AM fully dismantled the dish loaded car and we was back home for 4.30 PM,

Many thanks for your kind offer if I am in need I will let you know thanks again,

Ive not had a good look at the motor on how it connects but I did read split pin needs putting in the motor first, I used to be a mechanic in my younger years hopefully I wont have any issues fingers crossed,

Car unloaded,
View attachment 128730

The button hook wont be used, I will be fabricating new arms and a adjustable feed holder,
View attachment 128731

Lifted the bonnet and the motor and gearbox look in good shape, I will be stripping the motor and gearbox down and refurbishing it, check brushes and armature replace anything if necessary,
View attachment 128732

New bushes will be pressed in the mount,
View attachment 128733
Boy this is some unit WOW, added bonus was the 1224 it was moving a small 1.5, ive got to call back for the dish at some point,

I've just had a few minuets with angle grinder and flap disc, 2/3 hours and it will all look like new again.
View attachment 128734
View attachment 128735

After looking at the gear motor, and it being a Fasco, there's a possibility that Grainger might have a replacement if needed. If not, they may have the parts you need to repair it. It is designed much different than the standard VW motors, but the sensor and trigger wheel may be identical. I needed a fan motor for a Coca Cola water filled pop cooler and Grainger had a replacement for it. Those go back to my grade school days and beyond, and I'm 62 years old.

You did make good time going after it, especially since you disassembled it. It's actually in good shape considering its age. You're welcome to anything you can use. Cheers

 

[martin-f]

After looking at the gear motor, and it being a Fasco, there's a possibility that Grainger might have a replacement if needed. If not, they may have the parts you need to repair it. It is designed much different than the standard VW motors, but the sensor and trigger wheel may be identical. I needed a fan motor for a Coca Cola water filled pop cooler and Grainger had a replacement for it. Those go back to my grade school days and beyond, and I'm 62 years old.

You did make good time going after it, especially since you disassembled it. It's actually in good shape considering its age. You're welcome to anything you can use. Cheers

Thank you that's good information to know I will have a look what's available on there site, hopefully it will be ok it was working last time it was used the chap just fell out with the hobby,

I did have help with dismantling it thankfully, out of all the bolts that holds the dish together only four bolts survived all the others snapped, I have a nut and bolt shop near to me no problems replacing them,

Many thanks for your kind offer hopefully I don't have to put you out but its nice to know some spares are available if needed ,

I checked through the mesh today its in good shape one little rip but ive decided to put new on from the start, ive located new mesh with smaller holes as I progress with the refurbishment I will order a roll, I have a PDF file with the size needed I will check through it nearer the time,

Another fabrication job will be replacing the dish plates with steel ones,

I will be adding inclined orbit tracking on her and wanting bearings on the pivot, drilling holes and bolting things to the aluminium plate will weaken it so new ones required.

 

[Titanium]

Have always loved the beauty of a Paraclipse. Before you invest too much time and effort into making the reflector more KU friendly, be aware that these dishes do not provide the best performance on KU. They are well built, have very good C-band performance and look awesome, but have significant sidelobes for KU reception. I have owned and serviced many Paraclipse systems throughout the years and KU performance was at best, mediocre. You might fair better by shaping the panels to provide a truer parabola with higher efficiency and attenuate the sidelobes. Good luck with the project, you have something very unique for your side of the pond!

Just my two cents...

 

[martin-f]

Have always loved the beauty of a Paraclipse. Before you invest too much time and effort into making the reflector more KU friendly, be aware that these dishes do not provide the best performance on KU. They are well built, have very good C-band performance and look awesome, but have significant sidelobes for KU reception. I have owned and serviced many Paraclipse systems throughout the years and KU performance was at best, mediocre. You might fair better by shaping the panels to provide a truer parabola with higher efficiency and attenuate the sidelobes. Good luck with the project, you have something very unique for your side of the pond!

Just my two cents...

Thank you Brian, I know I'm not going to make it as good as a 3.8 DH in KU band but every little helps , from my reading this dish was designed with C/KU band wavelength in mind and will perform quite well in KU if time and effort is made on the installation,

Care will be taken when installing new mesh as it will be with alignment .

 

[martin-f]

Here's a modification I did on my DH for fine tuning in KU band, its movable in every direction very important to have this on larger dishes when tuning into KU band, this installation will have something much the same.

 

[beavs2112]

I've always admired this dish and motor never thought I would get one in the UK it was even free Is beavs2112 still around ?, if so (Hi mate) when you changed the chain on your motor did you change the cog gear please.

Hi mate Welcome to our forum martin-f . Ya I still lurk around here sometimes. Congrats on your new toys I guess RimaNTSS is right that if you wish hard enough eventually sat dish stuff comes to you
I didn't change anything really on the motor except the chain itself. Its just simple motorcycle motor chain. I ordered it from a local shop. The manufacturer was Yaban. Yaban Chain Industrial Co., Ltd. but any equivalent will do. I think their spec sheet was this one 14_file_1.pdf
The part #on the receipt is 530X110.
The gear drive was made by Von-Wiese along with the motor. If you want you could replace the von-Wiese gear drive with a right angled gear drive as long as the output shaft diameter matches. In fact that's what I think Paraclipse ended up doing during the model run.
As far as the electric motor goes...... I wanted to upgrade the Von-Wiese magnet and reed switch assembly from a 4-magnet assembly to an 8-magnet assembly to get more counts per degree of motor travel. Apparently some of the parts in the Paraclypse motor are a lot different from the parts in the regular old Von-Wiese satellite actuator so that's a bust. It makes sense because this motor is about twice as big as the regular Von-wise motor. I enquired Von-Wiese by e-mail and received this reply from Scott (he certainly took some time to research the old motors part numbers etc so kudos to him) at Von-Wiese:

"Hi Kevin, The V04169AF33 motor you have used the P12230-0003 reed switch and the H00106-0015 output gear. We do not have either of those in stock. The E12549-0002 is essentially our P12230-0001 reed switch. This has the same body size, the leads are only 1.5" long and it is different electrically from what you have. I cannot send you the drawings, but I could put together a comparison of the specs if necessary. The output gears are not close to the same. The H10059-0002 is about 2.5" od, 57 teeth, spur gear and doubles as the magnet wheel. The H00106-0015 is about 2" od, helical gear and 30 teeth.The reed switch might work for you, but the gear would not. If you need to purchase anything, we can ship to Canada, but would need your complete shipping address to calculate shipping and any duties.
Thanks,
Scott"

Nice to hear from you again martin-f

 

[beavs2112]

Oh and hopefully martin-f the lower thingy on yours isn't seized like mine was. It was a bear to get unstuck without breaking it. Since it is aluminum and the shaft it rotates on is steel mine had a lot of rust between them.

 

[martin-f]

Hi Kevin nice to here from hope all is well many thanks for the information, I do have a pdf file with cog upgrade kit information I will have a look through it,

Did you not consider re gearing the gearbox for smaller movement, if correctly fitting cogs are available it very easy to get the small steps,

When I was making the DH chain driven mount (not finished yet) I installed a 80/1 gear from memory, on testing small steps you could really fine tune,

Thank you Kevin its had some bodge at this point and more than likely stuck, Ive come across things like this in the past on cars I do have ways of dealing with them,

Nice to here from you again .

 

[martin-f]

Slightly bigger gearbox on my diy DH mount, I had to fabricate a connector to get the motor to fit, if worst come to the worst I will do something similar on this install.

 

[zack]

I checked through the mesh today its in good shape one little rip but ive decided to put new on from the start, ive located new mesh with smaller holes as I progress with the refurbishment I will order a roll, I have a PDF file with the size needed I will check through it nearer the time

A lot of people here and on other forums would love to see you post a link to this new mesh so they can order a roll for themselves!

 

[martin-f]

I checked through the mesh today its in good shape one little rip but ive decided to put new on from the start, ive located new mesh with smaller holes as I progress with the refurbishment I will order a roll, I have a PDF file with the size needed I will check through it nearer the time

A lot of people here and on other forums would love to see you post a link to this new mesh so they can order a roll for themselves!

Hi its nothing special my bird feeders made from the same stuff, find the size hole you want and order a roll, in UK the cost for doing my dish is around £250.
aluminium mesh roll - Google Search