Newbie Dish Alignment help

[Bullwinkle Moose]

Hey Mike, Thanks for the quick response thru Ebay.

You can use satellite forums to look or ask. For C-Band 99W -- 4000 H 26400 is a very strong one to start with.Use that to tune your dish until you get a good reading on the quality bar. Then you can blind scan. eBay does not allow links, but you can find me on a forum and message or search Google.

I attached a battery to the dish motor and ran a full sweep but did not see any signal indication on the quality bar. I did notice a signal reading of 99% on one of the TPs. My site area has trees to the E and W but a rather clear path around the 99W. I used the android satellite pointer app on my phone and it looks clear and seems in alignment. I performed a blindscan at 99W and the satellites surounding (97,101) but never was able to obtain any reading on the quality bar. I do not have another receiver but did try scanning with the original lnb with a feedhorn and had simular results so I don't suspect an lnb issue, it just baffles me that I never receive a signal on the Q bar. As I mentioned before, I'm a nube with satellite setup but this is looking like a receiver issue. The dish is an old setup but I believe it was a pro job when installed. The alignment was performed and then spot welded in-place to eliminate movement. Thanks again. Brian.

 

[KE4EST]

Bullwinkle Moose I broke your post off of an old thread.
Welcome to SatelliteGuys.

 

[KE4EST]

I suggest going through the process of making sure your dish is on the arc. Here is a good reference:

BUD manual

Submitted for a possible sticky to help all those just getting a BUD. on a polar mount :) Page 01 thru 03 also apply to an Az-El mounted BUD. PDF for ease of printing. Any errors or possible clarifications welcome, can edit. Page01 - Why the feed must be centered Page02 - Check for warp Page03...

www.satelliteguys.us

 

[Bullwinkle Moose]

Hey Mike this the setup that I'm dealing with. There is some tree coverage, but clear around G25. I am seeing a strong signal but absolutely no deflection of the Q bar. I set the Titanium lnb to the same value as the lnbf at around 32.5 on scale. Cabling is fine, connectors replaced and I do see strong signal deflection. Thanks.

 

[KE4EST]

Your LNBF is most likely not adjusted correctly in the holder. If you are sure you are still on the Arc you will need to take a TV and receiver out to the dish. Make sure your LNBF is set with "0" at 12 'oClock position at its zenith. Then move dish to where 99W should be. Make sure you have 4000 H 26400 set in receiver, with a straight piece of coax, no switches, etc. Move dish back and forth looking at Q meter. Nothing on Q? adjust skew a bit on LNBF one way, repeat, the other way ever so slightly...repeat the moving back and forth really slowly. Still nothing? Change the depth of the LNBF in the holder in a little and repeat above, out a little and repeat above. Use a good compass or www.dishpointer.com to ensure you are close to the direction of 99W. Without a satellite meter, this will take some patience, especially never having done this before. Once you find it though....well you never forget your first time. You will be very happy. Read through the manual above make sure everything is kosher. Don't give up too easily! Patience is something that has been lost in this world of instant gratification.
You'll never hit it, just sitting in the house, not at the dish, just guessing at it. This is not the same as pointing an OTA antenna, this thing has to be spot on to light up that Q meter. Remember what I said in my eBay reply about the signal meter. Just because it keeps jumping up really means nothing, unless the Quality shows something.

 

[Bullwinkle Moose]

The lnbf is aligned with the 0 at 12:00 and dish at or near zenith and using the satellite pannel seam as guide. The only tv's that I have are large format hdmi. The smaller ones that I still have use component input but the Mirax box only has the micro input, and I do not have the cable for it. I been running the coax cable right thru the window and viewing with the tv turned around from a ladder. Not the best setup, getting a little old . I don't think the bar on the reciever is giving me the sensitivity but I have not been moving the lnbf in/out either and I do not know how close to zenith I may be at by eye. I was thinking of purchasing the GTMEDIA V8 finder if you think it would be a wise purchase or know of it's reliability. At this point, I want attack this systematically but economically if possible.

 

[KE4EST]

I have never had the meter, but some of the guys here have and seem to like it.

 

[FTA4PA]

The only tv's that I have are large format hdmi. The smaller ones that I still have use component input but the Mirax box only has the micro input, and I do not have the cable for it.

Is it possible that your smaller televisions with component only support a shared input? In that case the green (Y) component jack will usually be marked with either the word video or some type of yellow indication along with the green. This means it supports composite video input as well as component video. You could then use the a/v breakout cable that should have come with the Mirax and take it and the small tv right out to the dish.

 

[Bullwinkle Moose]

Thanks for the input. The tv is not the issue that I am having. The problem is the satellite box (Amiko Mirax HiS2000} has a mini video input jack, no composite RCA inputs. The box did not come with any cables to interface with the composite video. I thought that I may have had a cable that I got with my hdmi tv but either I was mistaken or I just misplaced it.

 

[FTA4PA]

Thanks for the input. The tv is not the issue that I am having. The problem is the satellite box (Amiko Mirax HiS2000} has a mini video input jack, no composite RCA inputs. The box did not come with any cables to interface with the composite video. I thought that I may have had a cable that I got with my hdmi tv but either I was mistaken or I just misplaced it.

I'm aware the tv is not the issue. I was offering you an option to bring your receiver and the small tv that you have out to the dish for easier setup. That jack pictured below on the Mirax is for composite output. Strange that it did not come with a breakout cable as all my receivers that have that jack also came with a cable. If you purchase a breakout cable you will have composite video from the Mirax that you can connect to your small tv, if it has shared component/composite input, and watch for signal changes right at the dish.

You can purchase a cable here: A/V Breakout Cable.

 

[Bullwinkle Moose]

Thanks for the link, that is what I need. I did not have the nomenclature correct so it did not come up in my amazon search. Been spending half the morning here looking to see if I had it here among all my assorted cables.

 

[FTA4PA]

Thanks for the link, that is what I need. I did not have the nomenclature correct so it did not come up in my amazon search. Been spending half the morning here looking to see if I had it here among all my assorted cables.

You're welcome. Hope this helps you get things working. Good luck!

 

[Bullwinkle Moose]

Pulled up several other listed cables, and noticed it being called out as a camcorder cable. That got me thinking I think I remember seeing one in my camcorder case. Who even uses one of them any more with the advent of phone video . Thanks again, if the cable is there you really saved me. The thought of taking a 46" tv outside, even tho smaller than the crt days was not what I wanted to have to do.

 

[FTA4PA]

Pulled up several other listed cables, and noticed it being called out as a camcorder cable. That got me thinking I think I remember seeing one in my camcorder case. Who even uses one of them any more with the advent of phone video . Thanks again, if the cable is there you really saved me. The thought of taking a 46" tv outside, even tho smaller than the crt days was not what I wanted to have to do.

Yes, my Canon Mini-DV and EOS T3I both had one so if you have anything like that around you may already have what you need.

 

[Bullwinkle Moose]

BINGO! Thanks again. Got the dish @ 99W (using an android app which I find not to be the most reliable. Got to use what you got) and once I dust of the old 12" crt and get it set up, if I got signal, I should be in business

 

[FTA4PA]

BINGO! Thanks again. Got the dish @ 99W (using an android app which I find not to be the most reliable. Got to use what you got) and once I dust of the old 12" crt and get it set up, if I got signal, I should be in business

Never been a fan of phone compasses and apps. I'm old school - regular compass and angle finder along with dishpointer.com to check for objects I can line up the azimuth with in the distance.

 

[Bullwinkle Moose]

Becoming convinced more and more that there may be some issues with this receiver or it may require a propritary av cable that I am unfamiliar with. I tried with two tv's and the two different av cables that I had shown below but could not get any video out from the receiver. As a check to ensure I was on the correct av port and to verify cable functionality, I attached a portable dvd player which worked fine.

 

[FTA4PA]

Becoming convinced more and more that there may be some issues with this receiver or it may require a propritary av cable that I am unfamiliar with. I tried with two tv's and the two different av cables that I had shown below but could not get any video out from the receiver. As a check to ensure I was on the correct av port and to verify cable functionality, I attached a portable dvd player which worked fine.

I have an Amiko Mini HD SE here. Breakout cable that works with it has video with stereo audio and four sections on the 1/8" plug. Assuming that Amiko uses the same pinouts on the breakout cable for all their receivers. I will check the cable I have to see which (yellow video, white audio and red audio) are connected to which pins on the 1/8 inch jack and you can maybe compare that with the cables you have. Give me a bit...

 

[a33]

I have such cables with 3 connectors (video, L, R) where the color coding is not right for my receiver. You might have to check/test which plug gives video, and which gives audio.

Other than that, there are normal stereo jack-size plugs (is that 3.5 mm?), and there are also longer (edit: jack-) plugs.
My receiver needed the longer jack plug, or I wouldn't have stereo sound.

So the standardizing hasn't been applied in this area, I'm afraid.

Greetz,
A33

 

[FTA4PA]

Becoming convinced more and more that there may be some issues with this receiver or it may require a propritary av cable that I am unfamiliar with. I tried with two tv's and the two different av cables that I had shown below but could not get any video out from the receiver. As a check to ensure I was on the correct av port and to verify cable functionality, I attached a portable dvd player which worked fine.

I have an Amiko Mini HD SE here. Breakout cable that works with it has video with stereo audio and four sections on the 1/8" plug. Assuming that Amiko uses the same pinouts on the breakout cable for all their receivers. I will check the cable I have to see which (yellow video, white audio and red audio) are connected to which pins on the 1/8 inch jack and you can maybe compare that with the cables you have. Give me a bit...

OK. Here are the pinouts for the cable.