advice on getting my orbitron running again

[alians]

I have a 10' orbitron with C and KU lnb's attached to a DSR922, Traxis 3500, and Viewsat Pro which I was using to watch 4DTV and FTA stuff

the winter was particularly brutal, and after 10 years of great service, I lost both C and KU ... a sat finder attached to either LNB is showing either a real weak, or no signal at all, so I'm pretty sure it's the LNB's that are gone ... the KU LNB is a chapparal, and the C band LNB is an echostar ....

I tried looking them up on the NET to see if I could find a replacement, but it looks like they are both pretty much legacy stuff, so it's starting to look like I need to figure out a way to mount a newer kind of technology up there

I was hoping that I might find someone that manufacturers a piece of equipment that I could mount to the four arms coming in from the edges of the dish, and just replace the whole assembly with something newer than the Chapparal assembly that is up there right now

any thoughts???

 

[Anole]

thoughts:

Yes, I'm sure we can come up with many thoughts.
It's unlikely you need to do major surgery, but if so, we can help.
First, take a look at the following possibilities:

- maybe your servo motor on the feedhorn has died
- maybe the wiring to your servo has broken
- is your dish moving? maybe broken reed sensor wire
- maybe you are moving, but just slipped a few counts and are off the birds?
- is it possible your dish has drooped and is no longer tracking the arc?
- oh, here's a good one: wasp nest in the feedhorn - pull the cover and look! -
- rats ate your coax? water in the coax?

Those are just a few things to look at...
I'm sure the friendly members here will post many more! - :up

 

[alians]

the motor is attached to the DSR922, which is what I use to position the dish ... then, if I want to watch FTA, I switch the TVs to the TRaxis or the Viewsat ... the motor has always worked fine, and still does ... in fact, for many weeks, I never even moved the dish ... certainly didn't move it at any time during the time when I lost the signal ...

since a sat finder has to be connected as close to the LNB as possible, obviously, I had to pull the cover off to attach it, but that probably should have been obvious anyway, since how would I know the number and manufacturer of the LNBs if I hadn't taken the cover off????

of course, while I had the finder on it, I swept the dish slowly and it didn't matter where I pointed it, there was no signal .... looking at the way the orbitron is constructed, it looks like it would take a tornado to cause the thing to droop ... but again, it was 47deg below zero here when the signal went out ... I went out, removed the cover, and found one of the coaxes just hanging loose, and the other one was pretty loose too ... that's probably what blew the LNBs out, it took out a Diseq too that was inside the house

as far as the coax is concerned, since the sat finder was connected directly to the lnbs, and I had a receiver out there temporarily connected to the other end of the finder .... I don't think the coax had anything to do with it

again, I really do think that I need to find a replacement for the LNBs ... they are both over 10 years old

 

[Gray1]

It is unlikely that both LNBs died at the same time unless a lightning strike or something like that. I agree with Anole. Maybe in all the cold weather your receiver count is off a few clicks. When your dish stops your not on the satellite so you satfinder registers low readings. Or something might have slipped and your not in the arc at all.

There are some "all in one" units out there. Sadoun carries these. Some memebers here
have not had good results with these though. Many here prefer the "old" technology
with two seperate LNB with the Chappall Corotor II.

I cant find any supporting sponsors that carry the individual LNBs. If you all do I apologize. Here is a link to a company that does.

13 Degree C Band Satellite LNB for 4DTV, MPEG-2 DVB FTA Systems

I am using one on my C-band. There not the best but they wil allow you to troubleshoot without costing you too much.

I had an Orbritron C-10 for years. If can help just let me know.

Good Luck

 

[alians]

they didn't go out at the same time ... actually months apart ... when the KU went out, I had pneumonia, and I wasn't motivated to go out in below zero weather and work on the dish, so I just watched C band for a while ... then the C band went out ... and ...... as I said, when I connected the sat finder to the LNBs one at a time, I had the DRS922 controller out there with me so that I could slowly sweep the dish to see if it was off ... also, the DSR922 has a built in function that will sweep the polarity and dish position to find the best spot ... I use this regularly and it works great to find those weaker SATs ... but in this case, it didn't matter, because there was no signal at all .... agreed ... it is REMOTELY possible that the dish angle has changed, but if that happened I'm up the proverbial creek, because I don't have any way of getting that right .... it's hard enough to find a SAT east and west without having to worry about up and down as well .... for that I would probably need a sophisticated sat finder .... I can't even find a place on the NET anymore that tells me what angle I should be at for my LAT and LONG

thanks for the link though ... THAT is what I was looking for ... looks just like the one that is up there ... hope they can find me a KU lnb as well .... wish there were some other tests that you perform on an LNB to tell if it is blown ... can you check them with a digital multimeter or a scope????

 

[phlatwound]

Here is a great site for getting your setup data by entering your address, or lat/long.

Satellite Look Angles Satellite Heading Calculator Azimuth Elevation Skew Tilt LNBF Latitude and Longitude values

 

[Gray1]

Their is no way to test the LNBs that I know of. Maybe someone else here does. I have always just had a spare one and switched them out. They are usually pretty easy to swap.


Satellite TV TVRO Free To Air FTA MPEG-2 C & Ku Band Equipment

If you scroll down a bit you will find the section for KU LNBs.

 

[Cadsulfide]

A quick not very scientific lnb test is to put your hand over the lnb throat while watching the meter for a change in signal level. Another is if the lnb is off the dish, point it at the sun while watching for a "blip". This will tell you if it is dead dead, but not if it is only partially functional. The best recommended method is substitution with a known good lnb.