BirdView Motor & Mount

[gabshere]

BirdView Motor & Mount

ok i did get a little bit of time to remove the motor & mount from my front porch to the work area. I'm very limited on time as i live in Arkansas and work in Maryland, so maybe a weekend a month this is just one of my projects that i will start and have to finish over time but would like some input from others who are experienced in this are. like the magnet wheel and the lil blue counter

here are some pictures

 

[richyrich]

Wow, looks heavy as it used to be! Takes a special, Heavy duty mount post! Takes one person to erect it if you put it on the post one piece at a time. And more people to put it on the pole, if you assemble it elsewhere!

I have installed many, worked on many. But there is no better quality dish! Except a 10-12 footer, bigger is always better!

Worth $10,000 new; the old Birdview will come back to life, even after 30 years! Refurbished, it will be worth whatever you put into it; for instance: 200 channels x 50.00 month = $1,000 year! In 10 years; you'll have received the value! great is it working, here in this thread!

The kit for reed sw counting has:
(1) one magnet wheel, which will assemble on a turning mechanism located next to the motor. The magnet wheel looks like a "top"; with one end of it fitting into a metal "holder" which is cogged for a pressure fit. You must remove the other unit that is there, a 10k POT and gear assembly, where it turns a "post with worm gearing" that turns a worm drive unit on the 10k pot. Where the post enters is where this wheel with the magnets goes.
(1) reed sw assembly; The reed sw; goes within 1/4 inch of the turning wheel of magnets. This finalizes the changeover.

 

[Lone Cloud]

First of all, you can get the one quarter inch magnets from Harbor Freight tools. Guys have used 24 to 32. Ten to a package. Inexpensive. In one of the threads here there is a template for the disk and the quarter inch holes. I would drill the shaft hole in the disk, if it isn't there already. You print out the template, glue it to whatever you are using for a disk, and then drill snug holes for the magnets in the places indicated on the template. A variety of things have been used for the plastic disk. I used a 4'' end cap for a black pvc pipe. Some guys used those small cd disks.

You have to alternate the polarity of the magnets. I personally think the best way to do that is to get a flat piece of steel or iron, clamp the drilled disk onto it, but put a piece of saran wrap in between the disk and the steel. Then you carefully alternate the polarity and make sure the magnets are against the saran wrap. Once they are all in, drop in a few drops of super glue in each hole. After that dries and you unclamp and peel away the saran wrap, the magnets should all be flush with that side.

After that, you need to get collars that are attached with set screws. If I remember correctly, the screw shaft is one half inch. If the disk is too thick, you might have to drill out the disk, leaving enough thickness for the collars to grab it.

I got my reed switch from Radio Shack. I used nylon parts to hold it. Whatever you use, you should make it so you can position the reed switch every which way so as to keep the number of clicks stable.

But maybe the first thing to do is to spray that whole thing down with PB Blaster

 

[gabshere]

great comments , i will be working on cleaning the motor mount as time permits.

I did see the discussions on the wheels and i do like them i'm also looking into magnet wheels (magnet target wheels) they seem to be not so expensive and are sold in a number of varieties 8, 16, 30 pole at a cost of $6 - $10 ( the 16 pole version is $8, 30 pole version is $10 ) i don't think i can make one that cheap.

I will keep looking back through old discussions and see what folks have done

 

[Lone Cloud]

No dish? That would be a shame. Even so, one would have a hard time finding a better dish mover. If you just can't find a BV solid, try to find a spun aluminum solid dish of good quality.

Shouldn't be too hard to adapt if you just can't find the true article

 

[gabshere]

i have all the pieces so it will one day return to its rightful place of sucking down signals yeah the dish is another project but needs only to be cleaned and some bolts that shim themselves as the motor mount is connected to the dish. plus i will have to check into some extensions for the lnbf scaler holder.

 

[phlatwound]

There is tons of BV mod info here on the C-Band forum. These 2 threads have most of the mods I have done to my mounts, and dishes.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/c-band-satellite-discussion/154646-phlats-birdview-install.html

http://www.satelliteguys.us/c-band-satellite-discussion/166422-phlats-birdview-2-a.html

 

[Lone Cloud]

It's always nice to get a part ready made, but the site I went to on magnet wheels had what looked like thick wheels. If you install the wheel on the shaft where most of us did it, the space there is limited. Getting two set screw collars and a thick wheel won't work on mine.

Maybe there is another way to secure the wheel though. Please keep us informed of your progress

 

[gabshere]

yes i notice the collar ( spacer ) and figured what was happening which is a very good ideal . so far its a tried and proven method so i will keep it in mind.

but i was thinking outside the box a little. there is a small gear on the other side of the shaft thats already in place to turn the old potentiometer wheel. I thought the new magnet target wheel would mount up to that lil plastic gear. see photo below of current wheel & gears. of course this is just in the thinking stages.

 

[Lone Cloud]

Yes that gear was for the potentiometer setup that was the original way the Birdview found satellites. I looked at mine in the way you did - to attach the magnet wheel to it. I remember considering it, but I don't remember why I went the other way.

 

[Lone Cloud]

If you have the BV dish, the scalar needs to be drilled out to accommodate modern lnbs. I would leave the scalar attached to the struts, and use a good hole saw of the right size on it. The best way, I think, is to drill a hole in a piece of wood with the hole saw, and then clamp the wood on dead centered on the scalar. This will hold the hole saw in the right position - otherwise it will "walk" all over the place. Go slow and with a lot of oil, you will get the scalar to the right size in just a few minutes.

I have gone a few different ways with the clamp to hold the lnb. I started with little L brackets screwed into the holes in the scalar. Worked OK. Now I have an old Chapparal scalar that I cut the fins off. I also ground down the nubs on the back of the BV scalar and just bolted the Chapparal to the BV scalar.

If you are looking to increase the focal length an inch, like some guys recommend, the best thing to remember is that the struts are aluminum and the nuts on them are steel. This means there is oxidation and electrolysis. This means no nut will come off easily and you can easily twist the threads right off. The best way is to grind the nuts off at least halfway, trying your best to preserve the aluminum threads on the struts.After thatyou should be able to get the nuts off without damage to the struts. Then buy six coupler nuts from like Home Depot. Screwing them on will give you just about an inch more focal length and since you attach that to the scalar with steel bolts, you won't get the electrolysis problem if you have to disassemble. Sure, it will still be there where the coupler nut is threaded onto the aluminum strut, but you just basically leave that alone after tightening it the first time. Using an anti seize goo on them could be done.