“Well there’s your problem!”
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And today, it’s all out of whack.... I wonder if they heat is making things expand/contract and thus move on and off target? I had it working reasonably well yesterday, in the heat of the day.
Last night at 3am, nothing. Almost the whole arc was weak except for the center which was also a bit weak. But the east and west were just gone.
This thing is driving me insane.
Last night at 3am, nothing. Almost the whole arc was weak except for the center which was also a bit weak. But the east and west were just gone.
This thing is driving me insane.
Ok, so what about a TV that you can see in direct sunlight?
The display on my new meter works better in bright sunlight. (I do need polarized sunglasses or a polarized filter over it through because of glare/reflections)
There is a Kindle tablet thingie from Amazon that you can read in direct sunlight.
Certainly the technology exists. Why can’t they make a small TV that you can see outdoors? I need to bring my MicroHD outside and I have a little 7” TV but you can not see it in daylight.
Even if it’s just greyscale I wouldn’t care, if I can see the bloody thing and read the menus and operate the STB with the remote control, I would buy it!
Can these Kindle things be adapted to use as a TV set?
Someone found a way to SORT OF use one as a PC screen but that won’t help me, I want to plug one into one of the video output ports of my STB.
http://www.techhive.com/article/259582/how_to_use_a_kindle_dx_as_a_pc_display.html
The display on my new meter works better in bright sunlight. (I do need polarized sunglasses or a polarized filter over it through because of glare/reflections)
There is a Kindle tablet thingie from Amazon that you can read in direct sunlight.
Certainly the technology exists. Why can’t they make a small TV that you can see outdoors? I need to bring my MicroHD outside and I have a little 7” TV but you can not see it in daylight.
Even if it’s just greyscale I wouldn’t care, if I can see the bloody thing and read the menus and operate the STB with the remote control, I would buy it!
Can these Kindle things be adapted to use as a TV set?
Someone found a way to SORT OF use one as a PC screen but that won’t help me, I want to plug one into one of the video output ports of my STB.
http://www.techhive.com/article/259582/how_to_use_a_kindle_dx_as_a_pc_display.html
NOW I have figured it out !!
The motor bracket is warping when I tighten it in place! A LOT!
You can see that the bracket is twisted, a lot..
When I loosen the dish to adjust the azimuth it “droops” which is to be expected. But when I tighten it back up, it comes back up again but as I tighten the four bolts the whole dish will move all over the place!
It can move pretty radically in any direction and when it’s pointed at 125 and I tighten just one bolt it can appear to twist or rotate a bit.
My dad came over and looked at it and he agreed that the bracket is flimsy and gives too much, that it’s design is just rubbish.
I put a couple of different angle meters on the pole and the bracket to demonstrate how much the bracket is out of whack from the pole.
The pole is 0.4 from being in perfect plumb. Looking at a level with a bubble in it and looking at the other angle meter with the little needle that moves by gravity, the pole appears to be perfectly plumb.
It’s only with the digital meter that I was able to see that it’s not.
I can not figure out now how I will ever be able to get this thing working right since the flippin bracket is flimsy and tightening it up warps and twists it all over the place..
The motor bracket is warping when I tighten it in place! A LOT!
You can see that the bracket is twisted, a lot..
When I loosen the dish to adjust the azimuth it “droops” which is to be expected. But when I tighten it back up, it comes back up again but as I tighten the four bolts the whole dish will move all over the place!
It can move pretty radically in any direction and when it’s pointed at 125 and I tighten just one bolt it can appear to twist or rotate a bit.
My dad came over and looked at it and he agreed that the bracket is flimsy and gives too much, that it’s design is just rubbish.
I put a couple of different angle meters on the pole and the bracket to demonstrate how much the bracket is out of whack from the pole.
The pole is 0.4 from being in perfect plumb. Looking at a level with a bubble in it and looking at the other angle meter with the little needle that moves by gravity, the pole appears to be perfectly plumb.
It’s only with the digital meter that I was able to see that it’s not.
I can not figure out now how I will ever be able to get this thing working right since the flippin bracket is flimsy and tightening it up warps and twists it all over the place..
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Man...I had to boycott that place after 2 bad purchases....Don't want to slander them, but I refuse to do business with them ever again. I will go to Wal-Mart before I go to Harbor Freight....
Never had a problem with HF but I also don't have grandiose expectations for some of the stuff I get there.
That being said you should be able to find those angle meters at Lowes/Home Depot/local hardware/lumberyard,Amazon,Ebay etc.
I think I paid about 30 bucks for mine a couple of years ago.
That being said you should be able to find those angle meters at Lowes/Home Depot/local hardware/lumberyard,Amazon,Ebay etc.
I think I paid about 30 bucks for mine a couple of years ago.
My dad bought this one at Harbor Freight. I just looked on Amazon and found all sorts of odd things.
Dee_Ann
Just a thought from a lurker on this thread. Have you watched your meter as you tighten everything? You might be able to adjust your tightening pattern to keep everything very close to your peak settings.
I have a bit of a Mickey Mouse set up on my Ku band and had a somewhat similar situation. But, I discovered that by tightening on one side It pulled back into alignment. The other thing is, that if you are warping it, you are probably over tightening it. It needs to be tight, but not over tight.
Hope it helps.
Just a thought from a lurker on this thread. Have you watched your meter as you tighten everything? You might be able to adjust your tightening pattern to keep everything very close to your peak settings.
I have a bit of a Mickey Mouse set up on my Ku band and had a somewhat similar situation. But, I discovered that by tightening on one side It pulled back into alignment. The other thing is, that if you are warping it, you are probably over tightening it. It needs to be tight, but not over tight.
Hope it helps.
Good idea and good points. I am about to go back out into the heat again for ~another~ try at this.
Thanks!
Dee Ann,
A few tricks that I use on post clamps is to put a strip of the gritty "no slip" adhesive backed strips inside the clamp. These are used for stair treads. When the hardware is tightened, the grit grabs the surface with much less torque needed! Once you get everything set and secured, drive a tapper screw through the mount and post!
Had a customer on the Oregon coast that repeatedly lost reception after winter storms. Tapper screws solved the problem, until a tree fell through the house and crushed the dishes. BTW... The tappers held!
A few tricks that I use on post clamps is to put a strip of the gritty "no slip" adhesive backed strips inside the clamp. These are used for stair treads. When the hardware is tightened, the grit grabs the surface with much less torque needed! Once you get everything set and secured, drive a tapper screw through the mount and post!
Had a customer on the Oregon coast that repeatedly lost reception after winter storms. Tapper screws solved the problem, until a tree fell through the house and crushed the dishes. BTW... The tappers held!
Another day in the sun. And VICTORY!
This dish install holds the world record for the longest, slowest, most troublesome dish install EVER !!
Only the wars in the middle east took longer than the battle I fought trying to make this Frankendish work right !!
TIP: DO NOT MAKE YOUR OWN DISH FROM SCRATCH!! Just buy a proper one already made !!
I double checked again with the square and I found that the dish was still not square with the motor. So I fixed that.
The after I moved the dish to ZERO I found that the entire dish was skewed.
My dad looked at it yesterday and suggested to put some metal bars in between the clamps and the brackets to give it more strength and make it harder for it to warp when I tighten it up.
I had already put an old gate hinge on the pole for the motor bracket to ride on so it won’t slide down when I loosen it. That alone made my life infinitely easier.
I took an old metal bar out of an old chain link fence and cut off two chunks and put them between the brackets and the clamps.
I moved the dish to 95 and got a signal, tweaked it a little then moved it to 125 and tweaked it there with the meter set on a PBS transponder.
I tuned the meter to the transponder with Montana PBS and there was nothing.
So I began to tighten the motor bolts evenly until the motor was unable to turn on the pole and as I did so, the transponder with Montana began to come in.
A little tweaking and I was getting ~everything~...
But the big question was would I now be able to get 72? So I moved the dish to 72 and there it was.
I found LPBS on 87. The Chinese stuff on 95.
103 has some interesting stuff too. But, the other day I had 103 pulling in COZI, however today I can’t find it. ???
123 comes in but has nothing of interest to me, I can’t find FSTV on it but I don’t care because it’s included with my Dish subscription. Meh..
And then 125... ALL the PBS stuff is coming in there! Some of it a bit weak so I may play with editing the frequencies or the symbol rates rather than mess with the physical dish.
I also suppose I could try to make very minute changes to the LNBF skew but that’s a last resort. It’s working so well that I’m afraid to touch it now!
This dish install holds the world record for the longest, slowest, most troublesome dish install EVER !!
Only the wars in the middle east took longer than the battle I fought trying to make this Frankendish work right !!
TIP: DO NOT MAKE YOUR OWN DISH FROM SCRATCH!! Just buy a proper one already made !!
I double checked again with the square and I found that the dish was still not square with the motor. So I fixed that.
The after I moved the dish to ZERO I found that the entire dish was skewed.
My dad looked at it yesterday and suggested to put some metal bars in between the clamps and the brackets to give it more strength and make it harder for it to warp when I tighten it up.
I had already put an old gate hinge on the pole for the motor bracket to ride on so it won’t slide down when I loosen it. That alone made my life infinitely easier.
I took an old metal bar out of an old chain link fence and cut off two chunks and put them between the brackets and the clamps.
I moved the dish to 95 and got a signal, tweaked it a little then moved it to 125 and tweaked it there with the meter set on a PBS transponder.
I tuned the meter to the transponder with Montana PBS and there was nothing.
So I began to tighten the motor bolts evenly until the motor was unable to turn on the pole and as I did so, the transponder with Montana began to come in.
A little tweaking and I was getting ~everything~...
But the big question was would I now be able to get 72? So I moved the dish to 72 and there it was.
I found LPBS on 87. The Chinese stuff on 95.
103 has some interesting stuff too. But, the other day I had 103 pulling in COZI, however today I can’t find it. ???
123 comes in but has nothing of interest to me, I can’t find FSTV on it but I don’t care because it’s included with my Dish subscription. Meh..
And then 125... ALL the PBS stuff is coming in there! Some of it a bit weak so I may play with editing the frequencies or the symbol rates rather than mess with the physical dish.
I also suppose I could try to make very minute changes to the LNBF skew but that’s a last resort. It’s working so well that I’m afraid to touch it now!
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DeeAnn,
If you are using USALS then for 125W try setting the sat position to 124.5 or go in the other direction and try 125.5. Its amazing what a tiny change can make in the Q. I found that tweaking each sat's orbital position number was far easier than trying to weak the dish to magically track the arc perfectly. USALS seems to loose some of its accuracy as you reach the extreme limits of its travel.
If you are using USALS then for 125W try setting the sat position to 124.5 or go in the other direction and try 125.5. Its amazing what a tiny change can make in the Q. I found that tweaking each sat's orbital position number was far easier than trying to weak the dish to magically track the arc perfectly. USALS seems to loose some of its accuracy as you reach the extreme limits of its travel.
That’s a good idea Jorgek, I shall give it a whirl !!
Honestly, I do not want to touch the thing now because ~everything~ works on it ! First time ever, since I began this project in 2009, this is the first time it gets everything!
What a nightmare trip this has been !!
But, the good thing is, I’ve been forced to learn several things, the number one being, slow down and be precise in what I do.
I get anxious and try to slap stuff up and it doesn’t work, I freak out and throw fits and kick things and it gets me nowhere.
One last question here but I think I may have figured it out anyway.
The other day, when it was ~sort of working~, I was getting COZI on 103. And several NBC channels as well.
Now they are gone.
Is that because at that point in time I probably had my skew cranked over enough to get them?
I know they are replacing the satellite very soon. I was thinking they had changed the skew a little bit in favor of normality in advance of the total switch over but it’s still off somewhat.
There was a video floating around about changing the skew to like half of what it has been.
Are they still transmitting it strictly at the old -20 degree skew only ?
Did I just happen to pick it up because my dish was so badly misaligned at that moment?
Being that it’s still over two months from the official switch over, wouldn’t I do better for now to just point a fixed dish at 103 (I have a few to spare) ??
Another thought that just occurred to me is that I could attached another LNB to the dish (I have LOTS of spares) and set it on a switch so that the STB looks for 103 on like port 2 of a Diseque switch?
I was thinking that I could play games with the system so that the motor parks at the 97w position but the STB will look for it on a switch rather than the LNBF on the dish. Somehow.
Or something like that. I’m pretty sure I can find a way to make that happen.
Anyway, I’m not exceptionally worried about rigging up some more Frankendish monster mash stuff just to get 103 when it would be far easier just to point a spare dish at it instead.
My main boggle is why/how I was picking it up the other day but not anymore.
Thanks!
Honestly, I do not want to touch the thing now because ~everything~ works on it ! First time ever, since I began this project in 2009, this is the first time it gets everything!
What a nightmare trip this has been !!
But, the good thing is, I’ve been forced to learn several things, the number one being, slow down and be precise in what I do.
I get anxious and try to slap stuff up and it doesn’t work, I freak out and throw fits and kick things and it gets me nowhere.
One last question here but I think I may have figured it out anyway.
The other day, when it was ~sort of working~, I was getting COZI on 103. And several NBC channels as well.
Now they are gone.
Is that because at that point in time I probably had my skew cranked over enough to get them?
I know they are replacing the satellite very soon. I was thinking they had changed the skew a little bit in favor of normality in advance of the total switch over but it’s still off somewhat.
There was a video floating around about changing the skew to like half of what it has been.
Are they still transmitting it strictly at the old -20 degree skew only ?
Did I just happen to pick it up because my dish was so badly misaligned at that moment?
Being that it’s still over two months from the official switch over, wouldn’t I do better for now to just point a fixed dish at 103 (I have a few to spare) ??
Another thought that just occurred to me is that I could attached another LNB to the dish (I have LOTS of spares) and set it on a switch so that the STB looks for 103 on like port 2 of a Diseque switch?
I was thinking that I could play games with the system so that the motor parks at the 97w position but the STB will look for it on a switch rather than the LNBF on the dish. Somehow.
Or something like that. I’m pretty sure I can find a way to make that happen.
Anyway, I’m not exceptionally worried about rigging up some more Frankendish monster mash stuff just to get 103 when it would be far easier just to point a spare dish at it instead.
My main boggle is why/how I was picking it up the other day but not anymore.
Thanks!
The 20 something degree 'odd' skew 'modification' is on Ku band only. Not on C band.
Sure can use a switch and an offset LNBF, if you can tolerate the associated losses.
*The 'digital cliff'.
yes.
Yep, that's right. So at the switchover, it will still be 'off' the same as was before the switch. They, the networks use dishes with more 'overhead' (excess gain) than the FTA community. Use this with that in mind.
AFAIK, there is no 'official' date mentioned by SES or FCC.
Sure can use a switch and an offset LNBF, if you can tolerate the associated losses.
Maybe it was close to, but not quite, borderline* then, today it's something to cause it to go below borderline. movement, weather?
*The 'digital cliff'.
Regarding the skew on 103w COZI TV, I have had similar experiences where for some unknown reason COZI pops in without changing to the odd ball skew on the LNB. Then the next day nothing. This seems to be "normal" behaviour for dishes under 36". Mine is 33". Apparently the larger dishes have more gain and overcome the skew issue. 125w behave also somewhat strange. If I tweak the 33" dish for max Q on Montana then all the other TPs are low Q and if I tweak for the other PBS channels then Montana drops in Q. So I try for a happy medium somewhere in between. Again a larger dish should overcome this drawback.
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