I'm so pleased with myself!

[Dee_Ann]

I'm so excited!

Wheeeeee!!

I figured out how to program the birdog all by myself! Woohoo!!

No, really, I really did!

I have been soooooo frustrated with all this stuff. I am totally serious when I say I was just about ready to toss it all out to the curb.

I have never gotten that birdog meter to work on anything but the pay satellites but it works great on them. Of course I could care less about the pay satellites, I want the free ones.

Last week RTV went bye bye on me and now all I get are those stupid color bars and beeping. It had been working fine for a few weeks until a storm came through. I know the dish wasn't moved by the storm, it's very solid in the ground.

So what the heck?

Then more trouble, White Springs was getting bad too, until it was unwatchable.

About all I had left was a few channels on the 123 satellite. Galaxy something.
I get them confused. !sadroll

Then that little box that all the wires connect into outside went bad. My neighbor helped me figure that out. Lucky for me I found another one in the box of junk my ex left behind. It was easy to change.

So I have a little dish pointed at the nasa satellite, it comes in, I can watch it on my TV, the signal is 100 / 100 according to the info.
So I just took the wire off of the pc and put it on the birdog and then I turned it on. The birdog found the satellite and showed it was tuned and adjusted for the best possible signal.

Then I put the wire from the pc into the birdog and using the editor software the company sent me and by looking at stuff on "thelist" I figured out how to make my own files for the birdog from scratch. Now it took me all darned day and I must have clicked like countless combinations of options and using the TEST option in the software I would upload the file to the meter and it would try it out in real time. After hours and hours, just when I was ready to give up, I hit the right combo of stuff and the meter showed that it had found the satellite, was locked on and that everything was good. WOW! :clap

I really didn't understand what I was doing yet so I changed a few things around and tried again, this time, nothing. So I changed it around a few more times and got it working again. Feeling a little more confident, I decided to try another satellite. I decided to try the next one that's been giving me fits, White Springs.

A few minutes of clicking options, hit the test button and bingo! White Springs is at long last, for the first time ever, my birdog meter was showing that it was seeing White Springs! Yay!

So now I can go outside tomorrow and use the meter to fine tune the dish specifically for White Springs and White Springs only.

I tried a few other satellites and each time I was able to program them in, to fine tune the dish to the specific channels I am interested in now, not some generic channel that may have nothing at all to do with what I want and may not be the best thing to use to adjust the dish when trying to catch a weak signal.

So now I can pinpoint precise, individual channels with surgical precision, and not with the sloppy, generic precision of using "the strongest transponder".
I think it would be best to adjust it to the specific item you wish to view.

So now tomorrow I will go outside and try to find RTV again. I think it's at 83.
I know the dish is more or less pointed at it because it very, very briefly locks on and says FOUND for just a second when I first load the file for that satellite then drops out and goes back to searching mode.

And I KNOW that a few weeks ago I was getting RTV on that very same dish and it was coming in pretty well. That however was beginners dumb luck that I had found it at all. I think, from doing a lot of reading here, that the dish is out of alignment now. That the stupid Video-1 signal is so much stronger than a misaligned dish can pick it up but can not pick up RTV anymore.
I was getting it before, I can get it again. And I am going to use the birdog to find it now, now that I *think* I have figured out how to use it.

Now make no mistake about it, I really do not understand what all those things are when I program it, all I'm doing is typing in numbers so they match what I found in the forum, information other people already figured out.

I'm a loooooong way away from understanding pretty much any of this stuff. I'm just matching things up, that's all. But it's still better than I had going for me a week ago, or even since yesterday!


Now, someone else suggested I buy a "coolsat 6000 premium". Ok. I did it.
I shouldn't have but I had a lapse of sanity and bought one, used.
I'll just have to cut back on other stuff next week.


Question: How can I add more than four satellites to my system? I see other people having gobs of them. But the little gadget outside only lets me put four on it at a time.


Another thing. Building a motor operated dish. I can't afford to do it anytime soon but I really would like to. I really hate all those separate ugly dishes out there and they are such a pain to mess with.

What is the best motor to buy? I have that big grey dish, they one missing a part. I will have to keep looking and if I can't find it I'll have to get someone to make a new one for it.



I know I will have to get someone to help me make modifications to the thing so that it can be adapted to the motor thingie. I have no idea how that will work. Probably I should get the motor first then show the two parts to someone that can make stuff and see what they say about it. It's beyond my ability to do something like that, for sure.

But the question is, what is the best motor to buy, one that's strong enough to hold up that big beastie and also survive hurricanes. We have had a lot of them lately.

They other question is, what is the best LNB to buy to put on that thing?
One that will get whatever you point it at? I would prefer a good quality one vs a cheap one, of course.

I can't afford the motor and LNB for now but I would like to know what I should plan on so I can work them into my budget. And I still have to have someone make a part for the dish, modify it for the motor and put a big heavy pole in the ground for it.

So this is my project for the future. It will be some time yet.

For now I'm wondering how to add more dishes than four?
And how can I put the pc and the coolsat on at the same time?
Like can I use them both at once and how do you do that?

Sorry for the rambling, I'm a bit dingy from the heat today and just plain tired.
I don't know if any of that even makes any sense to anyone. It sort of does to me. But I'm, like, in my own little world today. I really should have given all this up and give it all away but I'm too stubborn to give up.

Thank you!

Oh yes, one other thing. Those pesky trees. Hehehehehe... I found a very large bag of rock salt left over from making ice cream. I went out and dumped about 10lbs of salt around the base of each of them. The ones that are messing with White Springs and the one that drips nasty, sticky sap on my cars. I'm hoping that soon I won't have those "problems" much longer. Ya know?

 

[Anole]

partial answer:

More than Four LNBs:

Here is an easy way get to eight LNBs (or dishes).

There is also a trick not published in that thread, using less common 8x1 diseqc switches and a 22khz Ecoda, to get you to 16 LNBs. -

HOWEVER, now you are talking about running two receivers.
So, we need you to scroll down that page, and find:
Real-World Multiswitch Example - 8 LNBs, 4 Receivers
Multiple receivers need LNBs with two outputs.
You probably don't have any such LNBs, so you'd need to decide whether to go that way or continue your experiments on existing LNBs for free.
(you've got some fine stuff, there)

AND, consider this: you can run different dishes on each of your two receivers for a while.
Nothing says -all- the birds must be on -both- receivers. -


edit:
Oh, motor suggestion. One of these three that Sadoun sells.
You would need to make a new bracket for the back of the dish, and that would lighten the load on the motor.
That might let ya get by with one of his smaller of the three...??
If you really have big winds, I'd be more comfortable with the DG380, the biggest.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Oh cool! Thank you Anole!

I'm on my iPhone in bed so I'll have to check it out tomorrow better.
The motor you suggest looks very affordable. I've noted it.
The other stuff looks scary complicated. I predict more headaches ahead.

I was thinking of adding more dishes for now since I will have to put off the motor stuff a few months. That and there's more pipes on the ground and goddess knows I have more than a few of the little jewels I could put up.

I'll be glad to be done with this mess once and for all, it's really hard work and not even a little bit fun. If I only spent half as much time watching tv as I work at trying to watch tv. LOL.

Nite nite all.

 

[zamar23]

Dee, instead of adding more dishes, you can try adding more LNBs to some of your existing dishes. Some call it Multifeed, and you can find how to mount and aim the LNBs in Multifeed in many forum threads. You'll still need to re-design your Switch matrix though. As to connecting 2 receivers, one possible approach is to slave (connect by coax) your PC Sat Card Coax IN port to Coolsat 6000 Pass-through Coax Out port. That way you can use Coolsat to Blind Scan and turn the motor, and use your PC Card Software to add (if needed) and tune in (switch between) found by Coolsat channels and analyze the sat signal mux, aiming to correct channel params when needed for fine tuning. You need to connect both Coolsat and your PC to separate ports of your A/V Home Theater Receiver, and switch btw the A/V Receiver IN ports to play sound and show pic on your TV screen from a selected sat receiver. To connect Coolsat, use Composite, RCA Stereo, and RCA Digital Audio Cables - all 3 cables. You need RCA Stereo cable for an older A/V Receover, also in case you have a second pair of speakers in another room, or want to record a show to a DVD via your A/V receiver.

As to the BirDog, when you go outside, try connecting it after your DiSEqC switch, if it doesn't work again. Otherwise you MAY need to adjust BirDog file settings, as the switch(es) won't be there anymore, if you hook the BirDog directly to LNB. Hope, it will work anyway. Keep in mind however, you may still need to adjust RTV channel params in your PC Sat Card software to receive RTV stably. So, your next step will be to learn, how to do that...

 

[turbosat]

Good going Dee - I knew you could do it!
Was beginning to wonder if you had gotten a faulty meter, but I guess those things are quite complicated, esp for a beginner. You'll prob become an installer now, lol.

 

[Anole]

simplification:

There is an alternative to the multiswitch wiring nightmare I posted above.
If you are sure you just want to go with two receivers, then use two-output LNBs.
One LNB output goes to each receiver.

Later, if you decide to go with three to eight receivers, -then- the multiswitch ideas above will be an easy upgrade.
(because the switches need two-output LNBs to work)

If you want to get two birds on one dish which are orbiting very close to each other, the SL2 LNBs from SatelliteAV may be the better choice.
Those devices are very small in diameter.
If you pursue this course, we have a number of threads showing trails blazed by other members!

For less challenging tasks, reasonably spaced satellites, or single LNB per dish, Sadoun offers some two-output models.
I think Iceberg has used a lot of these, so it'll be easy to search for his (positive) comments.

 

[zamar23]

To add more dishes or LNBFs on a limited budget, having a PC Sat Card slaved to Coolsat 6000 receiver, I think what she might need at the moment is a two 4x1 ports DiSEqC Chieta & one 22 kHz 2x1 Ecoda low cost switch combo.

As to what LNBF is good with a Motorized Offset Dish, Dee - consider Invacom QPH-031 Quad Linear & Circular.

 

[Dee_Ann]

You'll prob become an installer now, lol.

Oh gosh no! Hours and hours in the hot sun, the mosquitoes, and who knows what else. And that stuff is heavy too, too rough on my back. And the part I hate the most, it's destroyed my nails and my fingers are ruined, they are all cut up, rough and raw. It's going to take months for my nails to recover and my hands to get soft and smooth again. I really hate that the most.

My dad wants me to help him put up a satellite now. I've got to find a way out of it. Maybe if he waits until winter. But now? No way.

You guys that do this for a living, you've got to be pretty tough to be out in the sun all day doing this. I don't see how y'all can take it.

Thanks, but no thanks!

 

[Anole]

cotton gardening gloves:

Yes, I find that working in cotton gardening gloves (most of the time) helps save my hands.
Sure, you have to take 'em off for little screws and nuts, but 95% of the time you can wear them.
Don't get such a large size that they are floppy.
I have large hands and the regular size in my 99¢ store fit snugly enough.
I got several spare pair to hand out to my helpers who assisted me in removing two BUDs a while back.

And, I'll agree with 95% of what Zamar23 posted just above.
Not a big proponent of looping out of one receiver to another. But that's personal opinion.
All his suggestions do apply, and should be considered! - :up

 

[Dee_Ann]

OMG, reading the responses, I think I may be moving too fast into this now.

Why does this stuff have to get so complicated? I thought the more you learned about it the easier it would get but that's not true at all, it just gets deeper and more complicated!

And to think that a few months ago I just thought you pointed those little dishes to the sky then sat down to watch TV. Ha! Boy was I ever wrong!

Ok, I see I have lots more reading to do. It's a good thing I'm broke right now, at least I won't jump up and foolishly buy some doo-dad for this stuff that I don't know anything about then end up with buyers remorse.

I'm forced to take time out to read more, ask questions (usually stupid ones) and hopefully learn before I buy anymore stuff.

Wow.. My head is about to go all splodey and stuff.

Thanks guys!

 

[Dee_Ann]

Yes, I find that working in cotton gardening gloves (most of the time) helps save my hands.
Sure, you have to take 'em off for little screws and nuts, but 95% of the time you can wear them.
Don't get such a large size that they are floppy.
I have large hands and the regular size in my 99¢ store fit snugly enough.
I got several spare pair to hand out to my helpers who assisted me in removing two BUDs a while back.

And, I'll agree with 95% of what Zamar23 posted just above.
Not a big proponent of looping out of one receiver to another. But that's personal opinion.
All his suggestions do apply, and should be considered! - :up

I have little hands, I wish I could find gloves that fit me properly. They all end up like floppy dog ears on my hands making it difficult to do anything. Maybe I can find some at a nursery, walmart and home depot just sell the "one size fits all" stuff which is fine, if you have BIG GIANT hands. LOL..

 

[Dee_Ann]

Hey guys, what is this thing for? It says you can put four tuners on it, right?
But only two dishes? Or is this just another white elephant I found lurking the the dark recesses of the tool shed?

Thank you!

 

[turbosat]

Thats a 3x4 multiswitch. You can combine 2 sep lnbf (or 2 sep dishes) into that, and output to 4 diff sat receivers, so all 4 could have channels on both lnbfs or both dishes. You can even mix in your outdoor over-the-air tv antenna signal to it, if you want, and using a splitter indoors, separate that signal out to your tv for the local channels. They are also handy for those older primestar lnbfs that have a sep H and V output port--lets you combine both into one cable coming indoors.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Thats a 3x4 multiswitch. You can combine 2 sep lnbf (or 2 sep dishes) into that, and output to 4 diff sat receivers, so all 4 could have channels on both lnbfs or both dishes. You can even mix in your outdoor over-the-air tv antenna signal to it, if you want, and using a splitter indoors, separate that signal out to your tv for the local channels. They are also handy for those older primestar lnbfs that have a sep H and V output port--lets you combine both into one cable coming indoors.

Hmmm... Ok.. So I guess I should hang on to it for some future use then.
I don't have local TV at all. I don't have new TV sets and I didn't buy those boxes.
I signed up and they sent me the discount cards but I didn't use them in time and they expired. I never really had any interest in local goings-on anyway. My heart is not in my community, not even a little bit. The only time I ever watched TV before this was during hurricanes. But now I can't even do that any more.
I guess I need to buy one of those little boxes just in case as it is hurricane season and we've been hit by a lot of them the past few years.

Really the only TV besides hurricane weather reports I ever watched for like the longest time was the Fashion TV and that was not very often.
I don't know what the ex was watching before as we pretty much lived separate lives, traveling a lot. When I decided to mess with the stuff I couldn't find anything on it but foreign stuff so I started taking it all down. Then for some unknown reason I decided to give it a try myself. Now I wonder if that was a good idea or not. I guess I get a little satisfaction from it when I get some little thing to work on it. But the frustration level in this pursuit is very, very high.

Ooops. There I go again. Rattling on.

Thank you for the info on that thing.

 

[turbosat]

You're welcome! I always find something to watch on my fta dish, I wouldn't be without one now. Even if it's nothing but fuzzy ancient Betty Boop cartoons on WhiteSprings, lol.

 

[Dee_Ann]

You're welcome! I always find something to watch on my fta dish, I wouldn't be without one now. Even if it's nothing but fuzzy ancient Betty Boop cartoons on WhiteSprings, lol.

I love Betty Boop! And I discovered something I never knew, she was a red head!
I saw a rare BB cartoon on White Springs that was in color and she had very red hair! I always thought she had black hair, I even have a little BB doll and she has black hair on the doll but the only color cartoon I ever saw of her she was a red..

Red is my favorite color. LOL!

 

[melgarga]

Judging from the exuberance in your opening post, I'd say you are getting some sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, ie: fun out of this after all.
Glad to see you got it going your way.

I havent seen anyone warn you about connecting and disconnecting the "wire" aka coax, when there is power on it. Doing this can zap electronic components inside of the DiSEqC switch ( that is the lil box with 4 'input conectors'. It is called a Digital Satellite Equipment Control switch) It is possible that is what caused your original unit to fail.

Using a DVB card may be difficult to power down since it will require a restart of the entire system every time you alter your coax and switch configuration. It would probably be best to use the 6000 to do your initial setups and input your final configuration to the DVB proggy on the PC when you finalize it. It is much easier (and faster) to use the rear panel switch to turn off and on at will.

Depending on what you intend to set up for multi sats, feeds, polarities, and receivers laying it all out can get overwhelming. Using the if/loop out of the 6000 is one option and eliminates the 4x3 switch, but the PC card may be dependant on whatever satelite the 6000 has selected. I dont know what you would run into there, I've never tried it.

The main thing is get a game plan of what satellites, how many receivers, what polarities H/V/both? you need to access, then layout and build up your equipment accordingly. Once you have decided on a count of what you want, present it on the board, I'll bet you will get numerous suggestions and solutions. Always plan for adding that "new discovery" into your system, that way you wont have to re-invent it when the time comes. (Dont forget, I'm still trying to drag you, kicking and screaming as it were, into a C band setup too....lol)

Get a convertor box. Local TV is minimum 'saftey equipment' here on the coast. You should know that. I read that they are allowing those that let coupons expire re-apply for them. I dont know if you have HEB Grocery chains out that far east, but they have a zero cost box that works well. Give them the coupon, they give you the box, no add'l expense. I paid $10 + tax (on the $10 only) for my other one from the local Target.

 

[Dee_Ann]

I must be totally out of my mind.

I've been chatting with my neighbor. He knows a whole lot more than he's telling me. As it turns out, he has just been feeding me just enough tips here and there to keep me going forward on this while he sits back snickering at me dying in the heat messing with these stupid things. Gee thanks..

He said he's not going to come over and do this stuff for me nor is he going to tell me precisely how to do it. He says it's better if I learn how to do it all by myself, the hard way. Well, that's for sure happening, the hard way.

I see his point, that if he just came over and did everything for me, I would learn nothing at all. He is right. He knows that I like to be an independent person as I've made mention of that many times. Ok.. So I got myself into this mess..

Anyway....

So he reveals this info to me when I was asking him if he could help me put more than four satellites on at once. We had a pretty long chat about satellite stuff. Mostly me asking stupid questions.

So long story short, he said yes, he could help me add more satellites. So he helped me find the right thing online, it's an 8 connector type. So I can put 8 satellites on it. :shocked OMG... I must be nuts.

Well, the little thing is pretty cheap so I went ahead and ordered one.

I have been looking at "the list" here and decided that I would like to maybe have the PBS satellite too. It seems to be right next door to the "this" satellite, soon to be the church satellite, I guess.

So I showed my neighbor some pictures from here where you guys are adding extra lnbs to dishes so that one dish gets more satellites and he says that's easy and that he'll help me do ONE like that and from that point on I'll be on my own. Mainly because I don't have any real tools. He said "duck tape is your friend." LOL.. That's sooooo guyish. But I get his meaning. I think I can use duck tape temporarily and once I know it works I can get someone to help me make a permanent holder thingie for it. I don't know what the proper name is of those things.

There are other poles still sticking up that I could put other dishes on.
I really do not want to have a bunch of these ugly little things sticking up out there, I still want a single one on a motor so I can watch whatever I want no matter where it is. Now for that I will have to get some help, first off, I know nothing at all about how to do it and second, I am not physically able to do that heavy stuff.

I'm guessing that it may be a few months before I can be in the position to buy all the stuff I need to put up the dish motor, I think there are a few things I have to buy first and I have to get someone to make a new part for the missing piece of that big dish. I think someone will also have to make something to attach the beast to the motor. I have no clue on earth how to do that.

So for now I guess I'll have to put up with that nasty looking mess of ugly grey things a few more months. Oh well, I put up with them for years. More like ignored that they were out there. I really do look forward to getting just the one on a motor though, I think it's silly to have so many of those things up for so few channels. Everyone else just has one dish on their house and they get waaaay more stuff on one satellite than I get on four.

I do have to confess that it is slightly satisfying when I finally get the stupid things working. But then again, if I didn't mess with it, I wouldn't have the frustration in the first place. And there's been far more frustration that satisfaction out of this stuff. Plus I see it becoming a money hole as well.

Well, that was more of a ramble than anything else.

Oh, and I want to mention that for some crazy reason, ALL channels are coming in almost perfectly now. Well, as perfect as low rent channels can come in. I'm really shocked, after having had so much trouble with it all.

I think it must just be some freaky accident to lull me into a state of complacency, to trick me into thinking I've got this stuff all figured out and as soon as I start getting smug about it, boom, it will all go to poop again. Mark my words.

But I see the biggest problem is going to be those church people buying up everything then turning everything off except church stuff. And that's why I think the motor would be good so I can look around for other stuff when that happens. I mean happens more than it already has.

Yes, I'm losing my mind. Ask my neighbors, I'm the crazy lady that listens to Martians with all her crazy satellite stuff.

 

[Anole]

perspective:

Everyone else just has one dish on their house and they get waaaay more stuff on one satellite than I get on four.

Everyone else with one dish, pays $40 - $100 per month for the privilege.
Remind me again... how much a month do you pay? -

 

[turbosat]

Dee says "I see it becoming a money hole as well." LOL
It IS a little like Tom Hanks in 'The Money Pit', isn't it? Or, it can be,
Its funny in a way, we work and sweat and we swear, and when we finally get all the satellites up there, we find other things to adjust, re-aim, tweak. {the point is-THAT'S the point, the working on it all}
Admit it, you're hooked. All that great video for free, except the cost of electricity.