Hello Everyone from Jefferson/New Orleans!!

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KevinAPB

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Nov 12, 2007
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I am a proud Bud owner since Katrina, my friends ACTIVE dish was knocked over - the pole bent and ripped lose from the house so he asked me if I wanted to the dish and equipment. I said SURE!! I always wanted a big dish since I was a kid, searching the skies for open signals is tons of fun and can keep me occupied for hours on end.

So Tron is and has been a long time very close friend and is more like family then a friend but he came over the other night after I had this dish sitting on the ground for 2 some odd years trying to figure out how the heck I am going to get it up on top that 15 foot tall pole I cemented 6 foot into the ground!!! Whoops.. Few days ago five of my Son's friends came over and insisted them can pick it up and raise it onto the pole so I said YEAH LETS SEE THAT LOL!! They proved me wrong, all the physics told me never lol.. Anyway I immediately get on the Phone with Jimmy (Tron) and begged hios answering machine many o times to get over here and help me point this sucker, I have no clue what so ever!! Well we got it pointed, we got tons of stuff and I moved it the other night and found even more cool stuff.

Now to get to the point... I have a dish mover that is going on the blink, the motor works great, the gear that hits the limit switches slipped and fell off, the board with the switches had several broken solder joints, being a Technician I am, I went up the ladder and repaired the board but the problems still plague me. If I hook up my dish mover PROSAT 210 correctly, the dish wont move, if I hook the little brown wire up and leave the ground and blue lose and use the red and black, I can drive the motor using the east button but to move it west I have to physically reverse the polarity of the red and black wire. Any ideas???



8 Foot Bud C/Ku
DirecTV Subscriber - 5 LNB dish for HD
two small single LNB DBS dishes
Fortec Ultra, Buzz, General Instruments VCII 2400R
PROSAT 210 mover
Kevin - Metairie, Louisiana

PS: THANKS TRON!! You are always there brother!!:up
 
Welcome aboard!
Any friend of Tron is a friend of ours!
Heck, any friend of BUD is a friend of ours, too!
 
:welcome: to Satelliteguys.us!

Another addicted sky scanning FTA user an hour down the road from you. There's a few LA folks around here.
 
Welcome aboard!
Any friend of Tron is a friend of ours!
Heck, any friend of BUD is a friend of ours, too!

Wow thanks! Tron and I have been friends since grade school! he is a closet Genius to be honest lol.. I dont know much about what you know of him on here but he sure has his act together with this stuff and so much more. Now if I could just get him to wake up at any daylight hour before noon and we will be on a roll..

Tron and myself have to go and remove a Ku dish from a post office drowned in Lakeview by Katrina, my friend now owns the building and he gave me the dish so there is another coming soon :)

I didn't mention this but I work on SEATEL Systems on Yachts and big boats, talk about cool, watch this tiny 8 inch dish track 101 in rough waters!! Very cool..


I am still not quite understanding a lot of the simple basics of this bud yet and I am scared to move it with out Tron over here because I have no clue where its pointed, I found AMC1C the other night by complete mistake but it was worth the mistake, lots of FTA stuff. I am mainly interested in Middle East news, Europe news and such. remember when I move thte Bud I am bumping the east button quickly moving in tiny increments and I have yet to install a video camera on the dish to get a reference on where or what dorection its moving since I have mover problems. Any clues??? The mover has a black rubber boot over the motor and has some gold writing on it. Tron named it but I forget. I think it is the entire problem. I need some sort of mover with an encoder in it so I can store locations on a box with memory, this one is completely manual albeit it has numerical LEDs, I dont trust mechanical and rather digital encoder with memory..

Ideas???? I am also broke lol.. I cant afford to pay attention these days so I cant just go spending on dish equipment..

Kevin APB
 
Most actuators that I have dealt with over the years, will only move the dish a few clicks at a time when no feed back pulse is present. Usually stopping where you didn't want it. I would never bypass the limits. It's much better to get it working correctly, not only for convenience but safety. As to not damage itself coming into contact with something or over extending it.
 
Photos!!

My setup..

A couple pics for reference.. My DirecTV dish is on the front of my house on the ROOF not pictured here lol..
 

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Most actuators that I have dealt with over the years, will only move the dish a few clicks at a time when no feed back pulse is present. Usually stopping where you didn't want it. I would never bypass the limits. It's much better to get it working correctly, not only for convenience but safety. As to not damage itself coming into contact with something or over extending it.


Tron mentioned that actually and I am aware, I cant go too far east as it will hit my roof, west yeah, I might flop it over but I have gone completely west with out any troubles at all, should I have not done that???

I am going to have to build my own encoder system is what you seem to be telling me?? I dont mind, its another project thats all.. I love a challenge like this too!

My edit: I do have angry neighbors behind me thinking that I am some sort of Spy or something, I have video cameras all over the house and dishes everywhere--I know the sale old story but I am a bit unique in that I am a major electronics freak and always have strange antennas and dishes up on the house, a tiny machine shop in my garage and electronics shop to boot. Consider I never leave the house and they wonder.. Jerks but there is always that one neighbor lol.. I have yet to LED out my Dish and put the solar charging system up for the dish LED yet. I plan on lighting the dish with LEDs haha..
 
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I wouldn't freak out just yet.

The encoder will be little more than a multi-pole magnet and a reed switch.
(or possibly a hall-effect device)
That should give you several contact closures for each revolution of your motor (or shaft).
If you'll look at the docs on those dish movers, you'll see some with 24, 36, or even maybe 48 pulses per inch of travel.

In a lot of cases, whatever parts fell off, or fell apart, can be replaced with something nearly identical to the original.
 
I wouldn't freak out just yet.

The encoder will be little more than a multi-pole magnet and a reed switch.
(or possibly a hall-effect device)
That should give you several contact closures for each revolution of your motor (or shaft).
If you'll look at the docs on those dish movers, you'll see some with 24, 36, or even maybe 48 pulses per inch of travel.

In a lot of cases, whatever parts fell off, or fell apart, can be replaced with something nearly identical to the original.

I need to figure out what is missing if anything and what the positions of those switch gears with the lobes - that is what fell out the back as there is no back cover thanks to Katrina and someone dragging it across the ground with a bull dozer..
 
Get the name and model off the motor.
I think the guys here know some places to get replacement parts, but you need to know what brand it's supposed to fit.

edit:
Ya know, if you don't already have a few reference sites, take a look at the four long pages here.
The site may look like a throwback to the 50's, but it does contain pretty much everything you need to know to run a BUD.
I would scan through it first, and if you find anything of interest, then read just that.
Later when you have the time, it would be wise to read that site from one end to the other.
It'll give you a good foundation.
 
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Thanks so much!!

I am having a heck of a time here, I figured out if I scan the arc with the right transponder, I can find anything looking at my signal meter simply. I am pointed at 58W IntelSat9/PanAmSat 9 where there is everything a guy with my interests can be found. Lots of neat FTA stuff there. Blind scanning dont find much at all, I have to scan sat and scan ALL to find everything. My receiver is one of those Buzz FTA jobs. I pulled the gears out the mover, they are ruined inside the metal cover because they dont even turn but I can feel something in there spinning like a shaft broke on the encoder thingy.

I think this is about the coolest toy i have had thus far and i have lots of neat toys :)

There is really a ton of stuff out there, its amazing at the fun we have with this, the Wife even digs the international news channels!! Way cool!! 22 years with her has not geeked her out yet but it may happen soon lol..

Thanks every body for all the welcomes and advice thus far, I appreciate it.

Kevin
 
If you have a buzz receiver, scan as detail or slow (I forget the name). Quick scan is useless and wont find much but the detail one should (I havent had my Buzz receiver in a while so my mind is foggy)
 
If you have a buzz receiver, scan as detail or slow (I forget the name). Quick scan is useless and wont find much but the detail one should (I havent had my Buzz receiver in a while so my mind is foggy)

That is what Tron keeps telling me but believe it or not, in Detail mode it finds a few things, in Scan All and Scan TP it finds TONS of stuff. It seems to be specific with this sat but I am not one to say for sure since I am a noob with the Bud but I can say this - I LOVE THIS THING!

I have intentions of getting another one at this point plus that Ku dish I am going to pick up in a couple days.

What really blows me away is the quality, the picture is 10 TIMES better then DirecTV and I pay them good money for their pixelated compressed trash. I am seriously considering a subscription service using the bud, its a quarter the cost of DBS Companies and ten times the quality.

I hope my Bud dont get blown away literally... I need to secure it better still.. I am not sure what to do in the event of another hurricane to be honest, maybe tie it down with steel cables? Ideas?

After all this is how I came to have this dish, it blew off my friends house during katrina and landed gently on its side then got dragged by a bulldozer across his lot during demolition. its in great shape considering and works fine.

Kev
 
Ya really gotta tell us the dish brand/model/size, and the LNB name/etc...


... it blew off my friends house during katrina..
... then got dragged by a bulldozer across his lot during demolition..
... works fine.
Ya hear that Linuxman?
Here's a guy with a beat up dish and he's havin' the time of his life! :rolleyes:
No more bitchin' about the 10' dish and how ya can't get it aligned to the last gnats hair ! - :cool:
 
Wow thanks! Tron and I have been friends since grade school! he is a closet Genius to be honest lol..

Greetings from high ground, here in Slidell! :D


Man does he have YOU fooled...:) Closet genius? :haha I don't think I'd be saying that...you didn't help him roll that Paraclipse down the street at 2 in the morning, did you?

That's all we need here is another yat from the South Shore. :rolleyes:;):)

Oh, BTW...

:welcome

Glad to have ya.:up
 
Greetings from high ground, here in Slidell! :D


Man does he have YOU fooled...:) Closet genius? :haha I don't think I'd be saying that...you didn't help him roll that Paraclipse down the street at 2 in the morning, did you?

That's all we need here is another yat from the South Shore. :rolleyes:;):)

Oh, BTW...

:welcome

Glad to have ya.:up


ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He actually said that in a public forum??!! I use flat bed tow trucks, pickup or my Expedition and I am NOT rolling anything anywhere lol.. I thought he was nuts to do that. He could have called me for help but thats Jim..

Try this one, get him on the phone before 4PM

In all seriousness though, the man has a masters degree, intelligent people are really strange people.. He frustrates me sometimes but he is my pal..
 
Ya really gotta tell us the dish brand/model/size, and the LNB name/etc...



Ya hear that Linuxman?
Here's a guy with a beat up dish and he's havin' the time of his life! :rolleyes:
No more bitchin' about the 10' dish and how ya can't get it aligned to the last gnats hair ! - :cool:

Yer gonna make me go up there and pull that thing apart again huh... How about some pictures of the setup, LNBs and such??
 
Welcome to Satelliteguys KevinAPB!!

We like Tron, Stogie, and Gabshere. They are all from down your way, though Gabshere is just a few miles north of you. Edit: I forgot Swampman. He's from down your way too. See him about a Birdview dish. But not unless you want to be spoiled forever. He know where a ton are. :D

And as for you my lizard loving friend, :)
Ya hear that Linuxman?
Here's a guy with a beat up dish and he's havin' the time of his life!
No more bitchin' about the 10' dish and how ya can't get it aligned to the last gnats hair !
What's wrong with a gnats hair?

My readers here expect a little more! :cool:

Fred
 
I don't know that we've got gnats in my area, will a mosquito do?
Good to have you here Kevin.

I started my search for a BUD a couple of weeks ago with an ad in a local paper, perhaps I'll post my findings in a new thread. After the ad ran the 2nd week I got 4 calls all sounding very promising!
 
New Orleans is prime Bud hunting ground. Personally I have no problem going knocking on doors, its easier to rent a Cesna and do a few fly-overs to spot those buds then go ground knocking. This I told Tron but he just took his first commercial plane ride so I dont think he wants to fly with me lol..:cool:

For those that do not fly, go to a flight school and ask about a introduction flight, they are usually 25 bucks or so and you can ask the pilot to request photo flight clearance for the city.:up

As for the Bud I have, its awesome, banged up as it may be, its perfect and works great. It came off my friends house who was subscribed to a service thus its all new stuff really. I am going to drop my DirecTV when the contract is over thats for sure..:D


I don't know that we've got gnats in my area, will a mosquito do?
Good to have you here Kevin.

I started my search for a BUD a couple of weeks ago with an ad in a local paper, perhaps I'll post my findings in a new thread. After the ad ran the 2nd week I got 4 calls all sounding very promising!
 
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