New Guy

[AFineMan]

Greetings All


This (obviously) is my first post.


Yesterday I was at a yard sale and came across a CoolSat 5000 for $5 I just couldn't resist (I work in electronics and can't bare to see (what I assume to be newer) electronics sold as junk).


Anyways last night and today I spent searching for what this thing does (I was told it use to get a satellite subscription service for free), I am amazed that I was totally unaware of this Dish network thing. Regardless I have this thing, I'm not looking to reactivate it for the pirating reasons, I want to play with FTA.


I researched the CoolSat 5000 that lead me to Dish Network and FTA , I follower the FTA path, and found a BUNCH of stuff. I found out for under $200 I could actually get true “Free” satellite TV (seeing I found the major cost for $5).


Here is the part I'm not sure about, I did the due diligence (of checking many forums and doing the search), but I never found the hand book for dummies. This web site came up in most of my searches so I figured this is the place to begin my quest :-} .


I have the RX with unknown files loaded to it, should I care about these files, and if I do, what should I do?


Via the due diligence I figured this was a good LNB to start with (SORRY if links aren't permitted (I read part of the TOC but my A.D.D kicked in and didn't finish) [Cant post links as NEW member]
figured this would be an OK motor [Cant post links as NEW member]
[Cant post links as NEW member] and finally for the dish.



I realize there are differing opinions out there, I'm not looking to see a debate of 1 OEM vs. another I'm just looking for a skilled person in FTA to say if I'm heading in the correct direction or am I heading down the path of disappointment.


Thanks for Reading


AFM

 

[willie8605]

I don't really know anything about that model of receiver, but if you want to pick up FTA channels then you will need at least a 31" dish. The FAQ section for FTA stuff will help you out a lot. Read through it and learn as much as you can before you buy any more hardware (unless you find another good deal at a garage sale!)

Coolsat 5000 user manual: http://www.satelliteguys.us/fta-manuals/133419-coolsat-4000-5000-6000-a.html

FAQ: FTA / MPEG2 FAQ's - SatelliteGuys.US

The List (of available Ku band satellites and their channels): SatelliteGuys.US - TheList
Also check out FTAList.com - The easy list of North American free-to-air TV channels you can search through the channels by language here

This website will calculate your dish elevation (up/down direction), azimuth (side-to-side), and skew (dish/lnb rotation) angles based on your location so you can properly align your dish: Satellite Finder / Dish Pointing Calculator with Google Maps | DishPointer.com

Read up and keep asking questions. In this forum you are almost guaranteed a quick reply. Good luck and have fun

 

[sidha]

Greetings All


This (obviously) is my first post.


Yesterday I was at a yard sale and came across a CoolSat 5000 for $5 I just couldn't resist (I work in electronics and can't bare to see (what I assume to be newer) electronics sold as junk).


Anyways last night and today I spent searching for what this thing does (I was told it use to get a satellite subscription service for free), I am amazed that I was totally unaware of this Dish network thing. Regardless I have this thing, I'm not looking to reactivate it for the pirating reasons, I want to play with FTA.

///


AFM

I'm not so sure if that model has hardware or software based blindscan, but my Pansat outperforms on that function. Might want to keep that in mind if you intend to find wild feeds. Don't worry about the BIN it came with. If it works as FTA, fine; it might even work better with the third-party firmware now on it. As it is, there is no way that unit can pirate DN. That game is now officially over in a bigger way. Have fun exploring and building your system; electronics is a good place to work and play. I ran into a couple used Coolsat 5000's, for FREE. I like that word.

-sidha

 

[ghia]

The coolsat 5000 is a fine basic DVB-S receiver with a good hardware blindscan, is easy to use and has good motor control. To get started you need a dish sized at 75cm or better. I would recommend that your start out with at least a 90cm sized dish. Pick up a standard lnb and a motor and you would be in business as far as hardware. I would recomend an Invacom lnb but they are a bit expensive compared to many of the others. If you want to get out as cheap as possible you might be able to source a free or cheap used Primestar dish.

 

[GreatFTA]

Wow, $5 for a Coolsat 5000!
Great find! You ought to go to where you bought that receiver and see if the dish is still there.
If so, ask if they want to get rid of it. You may come out smelling like a rose!
I think I am going to yard sales for now on......

 

[GreatFTA]

Start looking around for Primestar dishes. You should find one for almost nothing! You'll need RG-6 cable (one cable all you need), cheap satellite finder (meter), a good location to place your dish with a clear line of sight (south), a ku LNB, and lots of patience!
Keep doing researching about this great hobby. I have been in FTA for nearly 4 years and still learning! SatelliteGuys is the best all around forum on FTA.
Good luck!

 

[AFineMan]

Hi All

This post is nothing, I'm making this post so I've reached the 3 post requirement in order to include links.

AFM

 

[AFineMan]

Went to post with links and was denied, said 3 or MORE, so sorry for the useless wasted of space.

AFM

 

[AFineMan]

Thanks for the quick reply

Morning All

I spent time reading FAQs and had a hard time finding info for the Coolsat 5000 use out side of the dish hack, but I read a few older revues and it appears this was an OK find

With all the reading I have done (including the input here) I'm about to place an order yet still searching for low price, I plan on getting this kind of dish

HOTDISH 90 36" Inch(90CM) FTA Dish

This kind of Motorized mount
"SG6000 Heavy Duty DiSEqC Dish Motor" both can be seen here Satellite Dish Motors-FTA

And as recommended this head Hypermegasat.com, Dish LNBs

In the end this should be a cool toy to play with (and feed my OCD) I do have 1 question to start with.

The head (I must teach myself to learn the lingo), Sorry the LNB I posted has 4 outputs, I'm assuming there are 2 pairs of circular and linear, is this the correct assumption, and I'll only have to connect to 2 of them.

I ask this because for the same $5 a 4 input DiSEqC Switch came with it and I'm assuming 1 port is for the motorized mount, then the 2nd will be for the circuler LNB and the 3rd will be for the linear LNB, OR does this DiSEqC Switch
go after the moterized mount?

As stated, Thanks for the quick reply and (not to start a debate) but who are the better suppliers out there (anybody can put up a flasy web site, but not everyone has good customer service).

Thanks for the help All:up

AFM

 

[WSInternational]

WS9036

Check out this satellite dish: The WS9036 90cm satellite dish. It's the largest 90cm dish and measures 90cm by 99cm. It's only $49.99.


If you want a high quality motor that will move the dish with no problems, get the DG280 from Sadoun. It's a very good quality motor and if you do some research on it on this forum, you'll see people realy like it.

​

​

 

[ghia]

The Invacom QPH-031 is a nice lnb, albeit a bit on the heavy side. If the dish has side supports like the hotdish, WS9036 from WSI or Geosatpro 90cm, you should be fine. As far as the switch goes. You connect the receiver to motor, the motor to the switch and then one port to the circular side and one port to the linear side. Then in the receiver you set the switch port settings accordingly. You can also use a 22khz switch for this setup. I've not tried that particular motor before, but it looks like it would be fine for a 90cm dish. I sent in a question about the sg 6000 at the sg6000 site asking them how much weight it would handle a while back. The reply was 20 kgs, with the added statement that the dish weight should be evenly distributed. No clue if that is the case or not.

Anole made a fine diagram of the motor, switch, mutliple lnb setup have a look here. http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachment.php?attachmentid=24275&d=1209447555
It in the FAQ section

 

[AFineMan]

Parts are on order

WSIATLANTA, thanks for pointing me in that direction, I actually got everything there

Dish Motor Package: 90cm Dish FTA Ku band Motor DSS/DBS Circular and FSS Linear Satellite Package Motorized Dish Antenna Ku FTA Sat Dish

I threw this in as well

SATELLITE INSTALLATION EQUIPMENT SF95 Suunto Clinometer COMPASS SELF INSTALLATION KIT SATELLITE SYSTEM SURVEING EQUIPMENT ELEVATION METER DEGREE METER TANDEM SUUNTO TANDEM IN ONE


ghia, thank for your input, reaffirming what I thought and my selections

Well I have the week before the 4th off, now I have something to do, it's amazing how rescuing a $5 receiver from it's proverbial trip to the trash cost me another $240 (includes shipping), is this how this hobby starts?"


Thank for the info:up

AFM

 

[ghia]

"It's amazing how rescuing a $5 receiver from it's proverbial trip to the trash cost me another $240 (includes shipping), is this how this hobby starts?"

This sounds about right. After a while you will want a HD receiver, PVR, second box bigger and or more dishes, etc....

 

[gremlin411]

Yes this is how this hobby starts off and it will drag you in deeper. You will enjoy...

 

[Dhave_Malloc]

"It's amazing how rescuing a $5 receiver from it's proverbial trip to the trash cost me another $240 (includes shipping), is this how this hobby starts?"

Hobby? It's an addiction.
A legal addiction.

 

[willie8605]

It really is an addiction. I have yet to meet anyone who is just 'kind of' into FTA. You are either all in or don't care at all. I have a really bad problem about starting projects and then getting bored or distracted a few weeks later and never finishing them. I haven't gotten bored with FTA yet. In fact, it seems like everyday I learn something new and get pulled further into the world of FTA

Now I've got to go crawl in the attic and get covered in insulation trying to run some coax

Everyone have a good Father's Day!

 

[AFineMan]

Parts arived



Hey All

The parts I ordered came today, I set it up scanned a satellite and got 1 channel (constant news feed) regardless, I have a few questions.

The motor I bought does East-West and it's design automatically does the skew (see more reading) BUT the question I have is about elevation.

Lyngsat gives various elevations for differing satellites vs. my location does this mean I have to adjust the elevation for each satellite or does the motor/satellite position ark across the sky in a perfect angle.

The satellite I got and scanned said "Unknown network", according to the Coolsat 5000, so if the satellites are in a perfict ark across the sky what satelight did I get?

OOHH trust me this NUBE will have LOTS of questions

Thanks (in advance for the help)

AFM

 

[turbosat]

Have you set up the motor properly? It's best to start with adjusting the motor bracket's angle to your latitude, then aim the whole thing by hand as close to south as you can then tighten up the bracket enough to hold it. Adjust the DISH's angle, according to whatever info you got from dishpointer, or other aiming site. Then start to look for your true south satellite, whichever is closest to your Longitude.

edit: Without the freq it would be guessing to tell which sat you hit , newsfeeds come and go on just about all of them. Once you set the motor/dish angles correctly, you'll be able to track all the satellites visible to you without doing anything but pushing a button on ur rec.

 

[zamar23]

I'm kind of amazed, how did you get from "Just get the parts" to "Set it up" to "Get 1 channel" on the same day, while being a FTA newbie? It ain't happen like this to most people who posted 5K+ posts here. May be you can share, how did you get that news feed, and what your receiver says about this channel?

Regarding your elevation question for each sat, the motor will do all the hard work for you, if you install the dish correctly on the Arc where sats are positioned. You may want to read Aiming a Motorized Dish Tutorial, which is written to serve as brief introduction to general FTA subject for dummies, and detail motorized dish installation and positioning guide. It covers all typical newbie's questions directly or by referring to some of the best narrow links. Don't overlook its pictures, they're very informative and some hard to find.

 

[AFineMan]

I tend to be lucky

Hey All

Well over night I seem to have lost that satellite, it had about 5 Baltimore channels and 1 constant feed and as said earlier it was identified as an unknown network. Freq was not noted.


zamar23

I read what ever I could find on setting this up, I read the OEM's manuals online before the parts arrived, I searched the various forums for the parts I was getting.
But with today's results (so far) I appear to be at the stage you expected.

I use Lyngsat a compass and a protractor (straw and plumb string attached ) and surveyed where I planed on placing the dish.

But the above only covers the theoretical part of this new hobby, putting that into a functioning system seems to be a bit of an art where as I can't find anything so far.

I suspect I was a little lax in how I mounted the dish last night and just got lucky with that 1 satellite, I'll spend some time today double checking things.

1: the tube the motor mounts to must be plumb in all axises correct
2: dish must face due south and skew set at 0 and motor @ it's 0 degree mark
3: set the latitude (in my case 49, I'm actually @ 41 but the manual say 41=49 on the dish)

And from what I've read that seems to be it of course making sure I'm on a linear LNB and the Coolsat is set up correctly helps too.

There is 1 thing I'm confused about, this dish I bought, it to has the ability to adjust for elevation, it does not have a gradient scale on it so I have no idea where I should set it (I tried to make sure it was 0 and adjusted my elevation at the motor).

This is feeding my OCD quit nicely

Thanks for the input, I'll let you know how I make out

AFM