Lighted Satellite Dish (Glow in the Dark!)

[PSB]

Anyone have one?

These pictures were taken at a recent RV event, its an amazing sight seeing all these large satellite dish glowing blue in the dark.
The systems are by Motosat - Datastorm for Internet/TV and use a DirecPC Dish, some have Dishnetwork, DirecTV, Bell VU and of course FTA! There is a small neon light in the LNB holder pointing at the dish.

Just made me think about doing the same thing with one of my dish. Would help in the winter when trying to see if there is snow on the dish and would be ideal for new motorized FTA users who have to run out every now and then to see what way their dish is pointing!



On a side note I recently removed the LNB and temporally installed a million candle flashlight on my BUD in the main focal position, pointing away from the dish at the sky, talk about pin pointing your line of sight. Pictures to come on the first foggy night

Its a FANTASTIC way to visualise the Clarke Belt by moving the dish rapidly across the arc!

 

[Mr Tony]

that's pretty cool

 

[partyharty]

That is pretty neat. I wonder how good it would look to get 10-20 of the high output white (or red/blue etc) LED's. It would be trivial to run them (heck you could run them off of a small battery or mabey even off the voltage in the line (not sure about this).

Hmmm time to go to the drawing board :>

 

[123tim]

Pete,
Ever see the new glow in the dark paints?
I buy the powder and mix my own. The new pigments glow for hours. The blue lasts for just a little less than the green which glows for over 13 hours. I'll bet you could get the same effect with these.

I painted stars on our ceilings...It's cool to wake up at night and see them.

I buy my powder from Glonation. Their slogan is : "Because we believe you need to see something cool everyday!"

I hope that you don't mind me posting this link:
http://www.glonation.com/glowpowderpurchase2.html

I am in no way affiliated with the company. I just think they do good business.

 

[PSB]

GREAT idea 123Tim! I have some glow in the dark paint (use it on my wall fish....) that I will give a try.

Thanks for the link that may be the way to go, along with partyharty's high powered LED.

I think we are onto something here

 

[chadzx11]

Bah! Glow is so 90's. I'm gonna put a spinner on my dish.

as far as stars on the ceiling....I rented an apartment where some ahole did that. It was damned annoying.

 

[Sassan]

^my dish spins.



What about using LEDs to light up the whole dish? Those are very bright.

 

[global0]

That is pretty neat. I wonder how good it would look to get 10-20 of the high output white (or red/blue etc) LED's. It would be trivial to run them (heck you could run them off of a small battery or mabey even off the voltage in the line (not sure about this).

Hmmm time to go to the drawing board :>

Cool
But I'd do that with a seperate power supply. If you hook up an LED to the signal line from the rcvr, it would look as if there was a short on the line and many rcvr chipsets are designed to shut themseleves off to avoid damage to the rcvr circuit.

 

[Pepper]

http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachment.php?attachmentid=6303&d=1134372325
I used the big light bulbs.

 

[partyharty]

do they recharge during the daylight (like the old dayglo stars used to)? IF so that would be great (esp if it put out more light then the old dayglo stars).

 

[partyharty]

Cool
But I'd do that with a seperate power supply. If you hook up an LED to the signal line from the rcvr, it would look as if there was a short on the line and many rcvr chipsets are designed to shut themseleves off to avoid damage to the rcvr circuit.

Yeah I thought about that, it would be one of those things you would have to test. Regardless there are several ways of powering it. I also have a neon tube that I could use (its from a car neon install). They are less than $10 @ your local walleyworld.

Lots of things that can be done

 

[123tim]

Bah! Glow is so 90's. I'm gonna put a spinner on my dish.

as far as stars on the ceiling....I rented an apartment where some ahole did that. It was damned annoying.

Hey! That was my old apartment!

 

[123tim]

do they recharge during the daylight (like the old dayglo stars used to)? IF so that would be great (esp if it put out more light then the old dayglo stars).

Partyharty,

Yep, it recharges during the day. My stars actually look like real stars... (not like the five pointed plastic variety) I filled a syringe with glow paint and put pinpoint spots in constellation patterns. The brightness has to be three (my guess) times brighter than any other glow in the dark product that I've seen.

The only potential problem with painting a dish with glow paint would be not being able to shut off the glow. With the idea from Pete, you'd be able to shut it down for a while if you got tired of it.
On the other hand - Could you imagine a whole dish farm with each dish painted a different glow color? That would be cool. (I see home owner associations all across the country cringing already. )

 

[Tron]

Knowing how HOAs hate "tacky" decor (or what THEY consider tacky), don't stop with just painting the dish. Do the cables, your mount, and maybe the mailbox if there's still some paint left That ought to make the little nazis happy.

 

[partyharty]

Knowing how HOAs hate "tacky" decor (or what THEY consider tacky), don't stop with just painting the dish. Do the cables, your mount, and maybe the mailbox if there's still some paint left That ought to make the little nazis happy.

and while your at it just paint the house to match
They would love ya after that.

 

[Peter Parker]

Is some useful purpose served by this?

 

[Mr Tony]

obviously you didnt read the first post

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Actually the LNB should be able to power a LED without any issues.

 

[No Strings]

Our motosats have the factory blue LEDs on them.

Neal

 

[PSB]

Finally got round to adding a neon light to my BUD.
Also managed to get a real CLOSE UP to a Datastorm light