Finally getting started in Cband!

[Dee_Ann]

Hi!

Ok, I need some advice..

I just purchased that $70 6' Cband dish from WSI.
I also got the motor for it too. It's the $35 motor that was recommended in the thread announcing the dish sale.

I am using a PC to watch TV. I have an hauppage DVB-S2 tuner card in it.
I currently have 4 little ku dishes on an 8 way switch and will be adding a 5th dish next week.

I need to put the new Cband dish on the 8 way switch as well so that the PC will tune it in too like the other dishes.

For now I suppose I will just aim it at the satellite that has This TV, I think it's the one at 87, and leave it there for now until I can figure out how to make the PC make the motor move the dish when I change channels.

The lnb I have says it changes polarity by voltage the same way the ku ones do.
I assume they used to do it with a little motor. Right? So will this be a problem?

Now, on the ku, when I change channels it's instant when it changes from one satellite to another as there is no motor moving the little dishes. But the cband will have to move around to different satellites when I change channels so somehow the PC has to be able to make the motor move the dish. Right?

I don't mind there being a delay for the dish to move, I can live with that, I won't be doing a lot of that anyway, I plan to keep it mostly on This TV.

I took a picture of the lnb I have. Do I just hook it up the same way as if it were a little ku dish then add the satellite to the PC app and scan the satellite for channels?
Shouldn't it pretty much behave the same way as the ku dishes?

Many, many years ago we had a Cband system but it was always messed up so I never messed with it, it wasn't my responsibility and I had no knowledge of it's operation.

Oh, and I have this OLD tuner box that was left behind by my ex.


Is it possible to use this box to simply move the dish around? I don't want to use it to watch TV, I want the dish going into the PC with the other dishes. Doesn't it use separate wires to move the dish from the wire that the video goes down?

I don't know anything about Cband so I'm making a lot of guesses and assumptions at the point.

Thank you!

 

[coinmaster32]

You can use it to move the dish arround, you will have to program all the satellites in it. It will probably take about 2 hours or less.

I would put that lnb in the trash, I had one like it, part of the feedhorn was steel and the inside of it rusted.

I would invest in a corotor and some decent calamp or norsat lnbs. Or if you dont have the money to get that, a single c band feed horn with a lnb will work.
The Feedhorn, a very good price for that.
C-Band Feed & Polar...
A $13 lnb, perhaps not the greatest but it will do.
C-Band LNB 13 Degree...
Good luck!

 

[Corrado]

THIS TV is also part time on G16C at 99W on WVXF. During the overnight and weekends, during the day it's EFN. The large onscreen orange Caribbean logo banner when it's THIS TV covers too much of the picture.

 

[comfrey]

Ahhh, but 87W 3833H is a much better quality THIS TV. ( you could argue that THIS is as good as it gets

I know a pun is the lowest form of humour.

THIS TV is also part time on G16C at 99W on WVXF. During the overnight and weekends, during the day it's EFN. The large onscreen orange Caribbean logo banner when it's THIS TV covers too much of the picture.

 

[Auric]

Congratulations Dee Ann, You will love it.

A 6' is a little weak for pulling in S2, but it will give you a lot of channels. You will really enjoy your new toy

 

[Anole]

one lizard's opinion:

The lnb I have says it changes polarity by voltage the same way the ku ones do.
I assume they used to do it with a little motor. Right? So will this be a problem?

No, that Pauxis is electrical, just like your Ku LNBfs.

There is no way for your computer nor the SatHawk/OpenBox receiver to control a polarity servo on a traditional Chaparral feed with separate LNB, so I'd avoid that complication (and the extra wiring).

For an LNBF, I'd have suggested the modestly priced GeoSatPro C2, or the WSI DMX242. (both have been well reviewed)
However, your single output LNBF looks like it should get you some signals and integrate into your system easily.


Likewise, it would be reckless of us to encourage you to hook up a 25 year old, rained-on, analog receiver, and rely on it to move your 6' dish.
I'd keep quiet if it had spent 25 years indoors, but the condition I see does not give me a warm fuzzy.
If you elect to use that receiver to move the dish for initial install and testing, just remember it is a short-term solution.

 

[Dee_Ann]

OMG!!!!!!!!!

Woo hoo!!!

I was digging around in the garage a little while ago and guess what I found?

A cardboard box labeled "10 footer parts"...

I opened it up and it was full of ALL the nuts, bolts and screws needed to reassemble that 10' big dish that's been leaning up against the fence for as long as I can remember!!

I also found the mounting thingies for putting the lnb out in the right place!

Ding Dong actually labeled and stored all the parts for that beast!

Now however, there is some minor damage to the thing that needs to be repaired but I think I can handle that. It's the screens, some of them are banged up a little and some are popped out of the track a little but it looks really minor and easy to fix.

The lnb though is in BAD shape and I doubt it can be saved. I'll need to replace it for 100% certain.

There is also no motor for it. I'll need a new motor than can move a 10 foot dish.

Now the question is, can this thing get both cband and ku? How would I determine that?

If the dish can see ku satellites then I for sure want an lnb that will get cband and ku.

Bear in mind that this will be plugged into a PC tuner (dbv-s2 type) and not a set top tuner. The pc needs to be able to control and move this beast.

I have to find a BIG pole to put this thing on. I know I'll have to pay someone to do this, this is just too big for me to handle.

Now with all the parts in hand, I feel that this can be done. Before there was just so much of it missing that I had no hope of fixing it.

I have three months to get this thing repaired and installed. The bad part of it? I have no clue on earth how this thing goes together. I never saw it assembled and I don't even know where Ding Dong got it from or even why he brought it here to the house then never did anything with it. Whatever.. I get to play mystery puzzle with this one, just like the 6 foot dish that I couldn't make any sense of the directions.
I just had to guess from looking at pictures of dishes you guys assembled.

Here's some pics of it I took back last March when I first decided to see if this thing could be saved..

This one has been moved from the impossible/forget about it category to "let's get busy" category.

 

[Anole]

How 'bout this...?
- rig up the little 6' dish to get one bird (whatever you're most anxious for)
- that gets you some immediate C-band gratification, and something to look forward to.
- then using that experience, work on the 10' dish. (lookin' pretty good to me!)
- ALSO, for simplicity sake, I'd really suggest C-band only - it'll save you pulling out all that red hair! -

 

[Dee_Ann]

OK...

So, my dad, having had some part in the loss of that satellite dish I was trying to have moved to my house, has been keeping an eye out for old dishes to replace the one that was stolen. (I'm still very angry about that! )

So Dad calls me last night and tells me he has spotted one and asks if I want it. He said it was about 6 feet around. I tell him sure. He stopped and talked to the owner and they give him the go ahead to take it down, we can have it for free.

So today he came and picked me up and we went to look at it.

Oh boy.. It's not 6 feet, it's much larger. I'm thinking it's about 10 feet.

It's made out of all metal. Dad said it's called "perforated steel".. Um, ok..

It's pretty rusty and a little banged up but Dad says it can be cleaned up and painted and that the bent panels can be straightened out.

The motor looks WEIRD. The lnb looks WEIRD. I told my dad that I doubt that replacements could be found for this fonky old thing.

Dad said "Well didn't you say you wanted to just point a dish at one spot and leave it? Why would you need a motor to do that?" Good point. So maybe the lnb could be replaced and this thing could just sit pointed at one satellite and never move?

Rather than paste a buncha pictures I just made a youtube slide show of the pictures.. (I don't really know what I'm doing yet, I'm a youtube noob)

YouTube - Fonky old satellite dish


Also, I dug out that old lnb I found, it seems to be in far, far better shape than the one that belongs to the 10' dish that I have in pieces out back. That lnb looks totally trashed. So I removed it from the lnb holder thing. I don't know what it's called, the pole that stick out in the middle of the dish to hold the lnb in the middle. That thing.

I took this other one I found in the garage and put it on that holder thing and it fits.

I also took and connected the three little wires coming out of the little blue box and put them on the back of the tuner


and the little thing in the middle of the tube spins around. I believe that's the polarity thing.

Now I don't know how to test the other parts to the lnb to see if they work.
There are two wire connectors on it, one for cband and one for ku. I guess I would run one wire each to two ports on the switch.

YouTube - lnb pictures - HD.mp4

(I figured out how to get better quality pictures but it stretched them out and squished them down so everything looks weird. Told ya I'm a noob.. )

The big mystery, to me, is how to make the little polarity thing change and how to make my PC move the dish.

I will have to buy a motor big enough to move a 10 foot dish but then I don't know what to do after that.

I want all my dishes to go into the PC. I want an "Everything Box".
I see Google TV and Apple TV and Boxee and Bla Bla all make little TV boxes to do all sorts of cool things but I want all that AND satellite. None of those little boxes they sell will tune in satellite or even regular TV from my antenna outside.

I figure sooner or later someone will come up with something to put on your PC that will get everything, everywhere, from the sky, from the air and from the internet.

I don't want 6 different little boxes all doing different things.

I've given up on my fantasy of having just one little satellite dish out back. Heck with it... I'll just plant a satellite dish garden and mow around it. One advantage, they may block view of the neighbors. So the backyard may end up cluttered but I don't want the house cluttered with all those little tuner boxes. One box, one remote. And everything from everywhere available however and whenever I want it.

It appears that this is what I'll end up with.

Four ku dishes that don't move.
One ku dish on a motor that does move.
Two Cband dishes on motors that move, one 10' and one 6'.
One Cband dish that does not move, just aimed and left on a single satellite.

The big mystery is how to get them all into the one PC.

 

[osu1991]

I am sure Anole will fill you in, but that looks like an Ajak Horizon to Horizon motor. Something coveted by some folks.

 

[ACRadio]

A Laux Beta 9...9 foot dish. The feed looks like a Seavey, and with good reason since this is a quite deep dish...pretty touchy to align.

The bent panel would concern me...looks like a ladder or other object was accidentally left under it as it was moved. Ajak H to H...now come on...who would want to keep THIS dish stationary??

It's a project...that's for sure. It could be made into a quite nice dish...but I WOULD be concerned with the bent panel. I would get it anyway, if for nothing more than the mount...

 

[trommy]

Dee Ann,you can get a diplexer to combine your satellite and OTA signals.I'll let more knowledgeable members fill you in.I'm currently setting up my first C band (7 1/2' Unimesh,Star Trak LNB,Polar Axis porolator) dish so I'm a newbie too.I admire your spunkieness diving into the techno aspect ('that thingy' onto the other 'thingy'...)G'luck

 

[Dee_Ann]

Well, I dug out all the rest of the 10' dish parts that I can find and it appears that it's like 99% complete, if not more.

I found all the nuts, bots, screws and washers. I washed them off and they look new. I am pretty sure they are made of stainless steel.

I'm going to get a wire brush thing and put it in a drill and use it to clean the bolts up even better, there's a little crud in the threads and some of them are hard to twist together. Maybe some oil would be good too come to think of it.

The four large quarter panels, those were a little banged up and some of the screen were popped out of the tracks. I sat down with a screw driver and very carefully got every one of the screens back into the tracks as they are meant to be.

A few panels had some light damage, like something ripped a hole in one but I mashed it all back like it is supposed to be and you can barely notice it now. With some paint on it no one will ever notice.

Some of the screens were a little dented up but it's very soft aluminum so it was easy to fix the dents too. I took my time and did it right and now the panels look perfect. They are in almost good as new condition now. With some paint they will look totally new.

The thing that holds the lnb out in the middle. I have no idea what that's called.
The old lnb on it was junk so I removed it and I put another lnb I found in the garage (or was it the shed?) onto that deal and it fit perfectly.

I cleaned that LNB up but it needs some paint. It's a cband and ku type. I hooked the three wires to an old tuner box and the little thing inside the lnb spins around so I assume that's good. I also connected the ku side of it to my meter and the little red light on the lnb lit up so maybe that's a good sign too.

As best that I can tell, by counting the holes for bolts and screws, I am missing one (of eight) bolts that bolt the lnb holder thing to the middle of the dish. It should be easy to find a replacement at Lowes. I think ONE screw is missing that holds the rim strips in place, I think they are supposed to keep the screens from sliding out of the panels.

The biggest problem I see is with the big metal ring. I figured out how it is supposed to go on the back of the dish, similar to how the ring on the little 6 foot dish goes.
But there are supposed to be four channels that the dish sit in and bolts go through the channels and through the dish frame. Two of those channels are rusted away, badly. They will have to be replaced somehow.

This will be something I will have to enlist the help of good old Dad for again.
I'm pretty sure he could repair this part of it.

I measured the big part that connects it all to the pole, I don't know what that part is called either, and it looks like this thing needs a pole 3 1/2 inches to fit right.

I can well imagine it's going to take a BIG, deep hole and a lot of cement to make this giant beast to be hurricane proof.

I see no reason why this dish can't be put up and used. Biggest hold up, having my dad repair that ring part. Everything else I have. Oh, and I would need a motor for it too. And of course a pole and a lot of cement. And someone to do the digging and cementing..

Then I have to figure out a way to hook it all into the PC so the PC can move it and stuff. I've been reading and it appears there are two things that can do this, a g-box and a v-box. Or something like that. I need to do some more reading and try to figure out which one does what and if I need one or the other or both or whatever.

Oh, also, I read about big dishes and ku. Something about a pencil not fitting through the screen. The screens on this thing, It would be difficult to put a pencil lead through the screen, the holes are pretty small. If you were to take an old fashioned wire coat hanger and try to put the end of one through the screen, it would be a snug fit. Will that be good enough to get ku satellite?

Next step is getting that ring repaired and order a motor. After that, find a pole and get it put in the ground. Once that's done I can put the dish together and get the thing up in the air.

I'm feeling pretty positive about this now that I found all the missing parts.
I can do this. At least I want to think that I can.

 

[DK_Sat]

That dish is made by SAMI i got one from Skyvision about 24 years a go .
The dish was good on receiving C-KU satellites i do not have the dish any longer i trade it for H-H 7.1/2 Unimesh

 

[putney]

Sadoun has an open box GBox for $50, or buy one new for $69.

Double the count of a Vbox.

Sadoun Bargain Bin and Clearance items

 

[Anole]

The SAMI looks pretty good in your pictures.
It's probably kinda light weight and relatively easy to handle.

The Laux Beta 9 dish may be heavier...?
( If you don't use it, the Seavey feed might make good trading material ...? )
I know that AJAK H-H motor is in the 65 lbs range!
But, if you don't haul it home, at least find a SatGuy/Gal member who'll appreciate the motor!
Those are not so plentiful in the wild, that I'd want even one to be wasted! -

A Laux Beta 9...9 foot dish. The feed looks like a Seavey, ...
... Ajak H to H...now come on...who would want to keep THIS dish stationary??
...I would get it anyway, if for nothing more than the mount...

 

[Dee_Ann]

Question...

I got the little 6' dish from WSI and it came with a motor, PMA24.

Would that motor be adequate to use on this 10 foot dish I am wanting to put up?

The actual dish itself is very light, I can pick up all four panels at once and each panel alone weighs maybe 5lbs I would guess.

I'm trying to get the rest of the things together I need to finish this "project"..

Still waiting on a pole and for Dad to repair the ring thing.

Thanks!

 

[Dee_Ann]

Ok, never mind. I talked my Dad into giving me a little help until I get paid so he helped me buy a Gbox and a motor for the 10 foot dish.

Now my problem is, how do I hook it all up?

I made a little paint picture of what I have and what I am trying to put up.

I would like to be able to have the Gbox move each of the Cband dishes independent of the other. Like one dish moves and the other stays still or if I want, it reverses and moves the other one while the first one stays still. If that makes any sense.

I have 5 ku dishes into a switch. One of those small dishes, I want to put on a motor so I can move it around like the big ones.

In the PC there are two tuner cards, one for the OTA anntenna and one for the little dishes. It's a new Hauppage s2 tuner and works great, I don't want to change it again!

Can I put the cbands on the switch with the ku's and is there a way to make one Gbox move two big dishes?

I want ALL the dishes going into the PC tuner. In the end I would like to have three of them on motors.

Thanks!

Oh yes, I almost forgot, the 10 foot dish will be a C/ku s I guess there will be two wires coming out of it, one for C and one for ku. Gaaaaaah!!!!

 

[uvbnhd]

Hey does any one now what to set the dmx242 to on your reciever is it single or legacy quad.

 

[hd fan]

dmx 242 is a dual output C band LNBF therefore is single with LO 5150 Mhz.

Dee-Ann , to move 2 BUD you need 2 controllers (V/G boxes), they could be conected in series like (was it crackt?) did very cleverly. 1 Vbox for say 10' BUD with odd numbered positions saved for up to 30 or 50 positions (some vboxes save 60 some 99 max positions). and then the other vbox for the 6 footer with up to 30 or 49 even numbered positions.

the small motor for 97W has to be before the switch , I mean between the switch and the receiver so the electrical current (ampere) demanded by the motor when moving wont damage the switch. Since you are using the Vbox as well I think the motor would have to be in USALS mode only (unless you use just a few DiseqC positions for the Vboxes therefore having a lot of positions to spare for the motor) .

like this, from pc card to first vbox then to second vbox then to motor on 97 west then to switch . then from every dish LNB 1 cable ( 8 cables total ) going to each input on the 8x1 switch. I have no idea if there is going to be conflict if you use an 8x1 DiseqC switch, I would imagine that the 8x1 commands are different than the Vboxes diseqC commands and that the vboxes will let them go through. I have never tried such setup.