Skystar 2 PCI and Coolsat 5000 on Dish LNB?

[goodwill_dish]

I am hoping to find a little technical information regarding wiring in an older Dish LNB to my existing setup.
Currently, my system contains a Coolsat 5000 Platinum receiver with a Winegard DS-2076, Moteck SG2100 motor and a Smart Titanium .2dB Universal LNB. I would like to "share" an additional zip-tied Dish LNB between a SkyStar 2 PCI DVB card and the Coolsat receiver but am afaid that they will fry if I plug them in together. Through the mistake of taking the coax from a charged SkyStar card I've seen the infamous "blue arc", and luckily not fried it then. So I guess that I am wondering if the Dual LNB can be used with and am curious as to how the seperate power sources are handled.
Thanks,
Mike

 

[Anole]

electrocute thyself

Some times, in some stats, in the infamous old days....
...they brought in 220 (two wires) and a neutral wire.
Between the neutral and either side of the 220 line, you had 110 vac.
My old house is wired this way.

Often, houses aren't wired with proper ground connections at each outlet.
Didn't used to be required.
My old house is this way.

All but highly tested medical equipment has small electrical leakage.
That ground wire on the wall socket should keep the computer case -grounded- and the potential between any two cases should be zero volts.

If you had an extension cord from one side of the house, and ran a piece of equipment on it in a room wired from the other side of the line, there was a chance you could find an even higher potential than the 110 vac you'd expect.
You'll see this when the pieces aren't properly grounded.

There are at least three answers to your problem (maybe other members will have more):
1). plug the computer and the FTA box in to the same side of the 110 line (same room is a good start).
2). make sure all your equipment is properly grounded. (if it was, you wouldn't have this problem)
3). use an isolation transformer on one or the other equipment.
That is, 110 vac in, and 110 vac output. Also called a 1:1 (one to one) transformer.
Needs to handle the power of the equipment plugged into it.

I'm sure I've left out a number of better ideas, and other members will fill 'em in.
In the mean time, follow the prime rule when working dangerous electrical potential: keep one hand in your pocket.
(doesn't work if you have one foot on a metal ladder, though)

 

[goodwill_dish]

Thanks for the reply. I should have made my question a little clearer. I assumed that both sides of the older Dish LNB would be electrically independent circuits. I just wasn't sure how safe it would be for non-Dish components. The bottom line is that if i have a good LNB, it should work fine.
Since you mentioned it, it's quite possible that there could the difference in potential between two components that are grounded "differently " in the same area. For example, the room that I'm in now was once someone's home office. They somehow combined two 110 lines in a way that when one breaker is turned off current still gets into the room circuit. My breaker tester acted funny when I discovered this but I didn't think much of it and let it be. We usually get someone who knows the business to do our major repairs.
Anyway, it's back up to the roof again. I love the features of the Coolsat but haven't been able to listen to any music that was FTA since having progdvb and a ss2 card. I hope that after all of this there is something still up there!

 

[grusome]

You are correct, each port on the dish lnb is independent of the other. You can run a coax line from one to your Coolsat and the other to your pci card. Just be sure your computer is powered off before connecting(same for your Coolsat) or disconnecting cables. I have a 31" Fortec Dish on a SG2100 motor and a Universal LNB and an old dtv lnb zip-tied to the side to get NASA and the music channels.
grusome

 

[goodwill_dish]

Well, I have a second LNB now. As it was turning dusk I was just finishing up wiring into the Coolsat and it seems to be working fine. I found Nasa on 119W and a PBS channel on 121W but no music. It was great to see the view of Houston from the Space station as it was passing over.

I ran short on cable so the SkyStar2 will have to wait.
Again,
thanks for the input. I'll try to post pictures at a later date.

 

[goodwill_dish]

Found some music

Attached are the pictures of the added LNB. Being able to edit .ini transponder files for the SkyStar from a Coolsat Blindscan made this project simple. I have tried exporting this list to .ini and other formats using Channel Master but without much success. The symbol rate is also automatic in the Coolsat so I ended up using these from Lyngsat.com