My C-Band Odyssey

[stogie5150]

Okay fellas, all the work is done. Grass is cut, pole is concreted in, time to aim the dish. Tomorrow morning.
Here's what I have:

7.5 foot Perfect 10 dish on a Polar Mount.
Co-rotor (I guess it is because there are two coax cables coming from it, plus the polarotor wires)

The actuator is a four wire, I understand two are power and two are sensor. First question, I don't have a receiver yet that will move the dish, however I DO have a standalone dish positioner box, a MTI 2800a. I have posted a picture of the back of it below...how do I hook it to the actuator?

Second. I ASSUME ( we all know about that) that the dish was pointed at SOMETHING when I took it down. Should I hook it up to an analog receiver and twist it on the pole and see if it catches a satelllite? Or should I drive it to center and start with the due south sat? I did not move any adjustment bolts from the time I took it down to now.

All help,ideas, and wild assed guesses, even, are very welcome and appreciated.

 

[dfergie]

Second. I ASSUME ( we all know about that) that the dish was pointed at SOMETHING when I took it down. Should I hook it up to an analog receiver and twist it on the pole and see if it catches a satelllite?

I would try this first...

 

[gabshere]

did you happen to take notice of the direction it was pointed before you took it down, mine was pointed at g10 by the direction it was pointed when i took it down. thats one way

you don't have to have a mover set up to just aim it like it is just hook up the coolsat to it and search for a digital c band channel .... try g10r 4180H 29270SR or 3954V 6620 SR
one is vertical one is horizontal you might get lucky several sats you can try .....

some IRD's are hard to work with and looks like that positioner is older
most are marked m1 and m2 for the main power wires red & white these are the only wires to roughly move the dish the smaller wires ( some are green orange black brown) are for the sensor

 

[stogie5150]

did you happen to take notice of the direction it was pointed before you took it down, mine was pointed at g10 by the direction it was pointed when i took it down. thats one way

you don't have to have a mover set up to just aim it like it is just hook up the coolsat to it and search for a digital c band channel .... try g10r 4180H 29270SR or 3954V 6620 SR
one is vertical one is horizontal you might get lucky several sats you can try .....

some IRD's are hard to work with and looks like that positioner is older
most are marked m1 and m2 for the main power wires red & white these are the only wires to roughly move the dish the smaller wires ( some are green orange black brown) are for the sensor

I have a rough idea from my experience with the KU stuff, and it does indeed look like maybe G10. I have the Toshiba TRX-1520 I got with the dish still but no remote so I cannot use it. I have a new ( used) Toshiba TRX-1820 coming VIA ebay ( it ships tomorrow, has the original box it came in with it.)
I have an old analog Uniden UST-5000 that I can hook up to change polarities if need be, also.
I went and dug around in my deceased Dad's shed and he saved all the polarotor wire from our old 10' dish ( thanks Dad!)
So I think the plan of attack is to change the coaxes to the lnb's first, hook up the feedhorn to the uniden, and make sure the servo works, and if it does then I'll hook the Sonicview 4000 up to it, the Sonicview has the Cband satellites still in it, I took all the cband stuff off the Coolsat. Then I'll put those TP's in there you gave me and see if I can get anything.

Sound like a plan?

 

[voomvoom]

If it was pointing at a satellite ,where you got it from, then all you should have to do is point the Polar Mount straight South and it should be pointing at the satellite it may have been pointing at. Either way, if you point the Polar Mount true South it shouldn't matter, you should be on the Arc if you haven't changed anything else?

Al

 

[stogie5150]

Man, that was quick. Its on G-15. I hooked the old Uniden UST-5000 up to the dish, turned it on, turned the dish on the pole, and very quickly found the satellite. Watching NBC shop at home right now...LOL..it did bring back a flood of memories from the old days, the receiver has a skew knob on the front that has to be adjusted for most all the channels....LOL...AND an audio tune knob...

I guess I'll see if I can get the actuator to move. I am going to try and get it to my due south satellite and try to tweak the signal. I haven't hooked the FTA receiver to it yet...

STAY TUNED!

 

[stogie5150]

Actuator works! I hooked up the old MTI box, pressed up button, and off it went! I didn't try to figure out the sensor wires, just ran the motor. The Chaparral has an Eagle aspen 25 dgeree LNB on it. Its C-band only, too. The extra coax was just cut off. Having an analog box on it is gonna be a pain because i am going to have to run a new conduit for the polarotor and the actuator. Although it wouldn't be a bad idea to have analog available, would it?

 

[voomvoom]

Congratulations Stogie! As the adventure continues..........
I love a good story, especially when it's made to look so easy.

Al

 

[lumpkin666]

Actuator works! I hooked up the old MTI box, pressed up button, and off it went! I didn't try to figure out the sensor wires, just ran the motor. The Chaparral has an Eagle aspen 25 dgeree LNB on it. Its C-band only, too. The extra coax was just cut off. Having an analog box on it is gonna be a pain because i am going to have to run a new conduit for the polarotor and the actuator. Although it wouldn't be a bad idea to have analog available, would it?

Congrats! It's nice when it turns into a few hours work instead of a few days/weeks

As far as the analog wiring, you'd still need all those wires anyhow, unless you could find a large enough diseqc controlled mover, and convert over to a non-polarotor lnb. Depending on your analog receiver, you may be able to switch over to a non-polarotor lnb and still use it anyhow (my ancient receiver supports this).

I'm not sure how much "fun" is still out there with analog. I have my analog receiver with my install supplies. I use it only as a means for aiming new BUDS (because it's so darn simple to see sparklies turn into video as you get close to the spot).

 

[chefwan]

glad it works!

:upGlad You Got It Working stogie...i remember when i put my first one back up, it was over next to me on a old lot that i sold. i cut the pole at the bottom put it back up and mounted it i was ready for it to work asap. i was outside in the cold at 2am with a flood light messing with it untill i got it to move. thanks to this site i got it up in no time. you will love it and u'll learn alot of stuff from these guys... its fun to get into great hobby others may think ur weird but forget them

 

[gabshere]

I'm not sure how much "fun" is still out there with analog. I have my analog receiver with my install supplies. I use it only as a means for aiming new BUDS (because it's so darn simple to see sparklies turn into video as you get close to the spot).

Keep it ready you will need it figure out what you need weather it slave a dvb receiver to it (work best if you have a seperat system setup for ku)

the way i'm working mine is..... right now the analog receiver is moving the dish and i have the coolsat slaved to it ... when i get the motor to count correctly i'm hooking the coolsat up to the v-box III and that will move the dish via diseqc commands and slave the analog receiver to it.

glad you got it working
join the yahoo group about backhauls and they will e-mail you things that show up backhaul group

 

[linuxman]

Great Stogie!!

Keep that analog box operational. There is still a good bit of stuff analog, you just never know where you will find it.

Fred

 

[stogie5150]

I was ready to tune Tokyo, fellas, check it out.

I am getting ready to go back out and try to figure out what wires I want to put in the conduit, I am thinking two coaxes, actuator wire, and polarotor wire. I have all of it might as well put it in there...

Chances are that eventually I am going to swap the feed out to a BSC621 ( that I already have here right next to me ) So I will not need the polarotor wires but I am going to put them in there anyway. I will need to split the coax out of the LNB to send it to my FTA disecq switch too, have to make sure I have a 2ghz splitter for that...am I missing anything?

 

[linuxman]

I don't know why, but I never thought about an umbrella. Might have to give that a try, though usually I am sitting on a bucket directly under the dish and get a little shade from the dish.

Fred

 

[Likvid]

That's a great looking dish, looks brand new.

 

[stogie5150]

I don't know why, but I never thought about an umbrella. Might have to give that a try, though usually I am sitting on a bucket directly under the dish and get a little shade from the dish.

Fred

Fred, if you lived in South Louisiana in August, believe me, you would think of anything to help with the heat. I had to shut it down and go inside about 12, just too hot.

I've been in my shed all afternoon taping wires together to pull in the conduit early tomorrow morning.

 

[linuxman]

if you lived in South Louisiana in August, believe me, you would think of anything to help with the heat. I had to shut it down and go inside about 12, just too hot.

If it is hotter than 150F like on my black tar roof with the humidity we normally get around here, it must be hot!!

Fred

 

[stogie5150]

If it is hotter than 150F like on my black tar roof with the humidity we normally get around here, it must be hot!!

Fred

You got me there brother, 95 degrees doesn't seem so hot when I think of a hot tar roof...I've spent some time on roofs in my time, not fun.
But you have a great place to put dishes, I'll give you that. :up

 

[linuxman]

The long range forecast here has next Friday and Saturday with lows of 58 and highs of 82.

I am so looking forward to a couple of mornings on the roof.

Right now, if I have anything to do, I have to get up there about 6:00 AM when it is light enough to see, and down by 8:00 or it gets too hot.

Fred

 

[voomvoom]

Nice pictures Stogie. Nice equipment in your control room too. Only thing I can think of right now that you might need, is an Air Conditioner. Then you would have most of what you need?

Al