Rebuilding an Prodelin/Andrew 1.8

[Dee_Ann]

After a very long procrastination put off, I went outside today and fiddled with my 1.8

The arms were bent up like pretzels and for the longest time I figured they were just too far gone so I never did anything about them.
Today it was nice outside so I took them and stuck them in pipes and posts and all sorts of things and slowly bent them back then beat on them with a hammer and got them reasonably straight.
FAR from perfect but it gives me something to work with now.

Personally, I would prefer to replace them with new, factory made arms and an original LNBF mount. But I have spent the past 2 years looking and can not find replacement parts for this dish anywhere.
So I guess I’ll have to work with what I have.

After I got the arms (kinda) straightened out I wanted to see what they would look like in their general configuration.
I was going to bolt a flower pot in place of an LNB to hold the arms up in place but I couldn’t find one sturdy enough so I went rooting around in the junk shed and I found an old pool filter and used it.
I just drilled a few holes in it so I could bolt the arms to it and see if I’m even in the game.

It looks like I might be able to use the arms after all. But I’m at a complete loss, drawing a total blank as to how I can make some sort of LNBF holder to put on this dish.
Everything else on it seems good to go. Everything on the back is in perfect condition, all the mounting stuff on the back is perfect.
My only concern is the arms because they aren’t perfectly straight and of course the lack of an LNBF holder.

The original one was just smashed off of it as there were still pieces of it bolted to the end of each arm. I removed those. The original is looooong gone.

I have no clue what the LNBF holder should even look like, I can not find any pictures of one.

Certainly someone out there has one of these beasts. I could use some advice, links if you have them so vendors and the best thing would be some high resolution photos of an original holder and or holders that you guys have made up from scratch. I’m drawing a blank, I just don’t know how to proceed from here.

I took a few pictures of my monstrosity experiment for your amusement.

(Also included, a few pictures of my two new installation & tweaking assistants.)

Thanks!

 

[FaT Air]

Mount a lnbf holder to a length of aluminum 'C' channel.
The mounting points of the arms and lnb holder will probably have to be 'experimented on' to get the lnbf throat at the focal point and aimed at the center of the dish.
Parabola Calculator 2.0 (use the WIFI tab for offset dishes)
Maybe a multi lnbf holder set up for 2-3-or 4 satellites????

 

[RT-Cat]

Fat Air has a good idea!
And DEE: Good looking dish farm, doggies, and your yard is not full of water!

 

[. Raine]

Good job straightening the arms, in the picture they look really good.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Mount a lnbf holder to a length of aluminum 'C' channel.
The mounting points of the arms and lnb holder will probably have to be 'experimented on' to get the lnbf throat at the focal point and aimed at the center of the dish.
Parabola Calculator 2.0 (use the WIFI tab for offset dishes)
Maybe a multi lnbf holder set up for 2-3-or 4 satellites????

Oh now this is an interesting idea. Perhaps the three LNBF holder would be fun to experiment with!

The price is crazy cheap, I would be crazy to pass up this deal.

As for the aluminum part, I’ll ask my dad, maybe he would have something like that or can get one for me.
I have no clue where you could buy something like that.

Fat Air has a good idea!
And DEE: Good looking dish farm, doggies, and your yard is not full of water!

Thanks...

Amazingly, the yard isn’t underwater, today. But not to worry, rain is on the way soon.

And now that I’ve adopted two more dogs (from my son) it’s even more fun in the mud, more mud in the house and muddy paws everywhere from hell to breakfast..

 

[Dee_Ann]

Good job straightening the arms, in the picture they look really good.

Hmmm, not so much in real life...

I suppose though that if I put a PLL LNB on it it will get by as is. It’s waaaaaaaay big overkill for pretty much anything I point it at in KU..

 

[primestar31]

I've never seen 3 lnb arms such as that on ANY Prodelin 1.8m dish. Can I have some photo's of the mount in back. Including some side shots?

Every mount I've ever seen shows a flat hollow rectangle of metal screwed to the bottom of the mount, and going under the bottom front of the dish, (then there's a little tab that allows a bolt to go through it and the dish itself for support) and angling up to the platform where the lnb and transmitter sits. There's only two side arm pieces holding that heavy arm up. I have also seen a pic on another forum of the same dish, where the person replaced this bottom piece with a wood 2x4 (or 2x3) and made it work nicely.

I do NOT believe your bottom lnb arm is original. No 1.8m Prodelin would ever use such a arm to hold up their lnb. On the contrary, I think you could just about stand on the factory lnb arm without bending it...

 

[Hockeynut]

Take a look at the first post 2nd paragraph primestar!..Perhaps Dee Ann can get some attention here and find the proper arms for that Andrews dish..

 

[primestar31]

Take a look at the first post 2nd paragraph primestar!..Perhaps Dee Ann can get some attention here and find the proper arms for that Andrews dish..

Not sure what you are telling me, but getting a proper BOTTOM arm or making one is the whole idea behind my post. Once she posts side pics of the az/el mount that I can look at, I can advise her better if I see what I'm expecting to see...

p.s. The second to the last photo show that it's a Prodelin dish, (it's embedded in the thermo plastic) NOT and Andrews. Totally different mounts between those two brands

 

[Dee_Ann]

Actually they made two models of the 1.8

One was receive only and one was transmit/receive and it had the very heavy flat tube underneath.

I’ve found the PDF for them. I also, FINALLY, found a brochure for the same dish and there is a really low res photo of the LNBF and holder attached!

Between the following stuff I found, I should be able to find a proper LNBF or at least a proper holder. If nothing else, maybe my dad can brainstorm something up from the pictures..

Most likely though, I suspect I’ll end up cobbling together some horrendous frankenjunk.

I did go ahead and order one of those 3 position LNBF brackets for $15. That was just too good a deal to pass up.


At least I’ve made a LOT of progress on this thing, it’s been languishing around the back yard for almost 2 years, or maybe more than 2 years..

Now that I have three dogs I have to stay outside with them so I get bored and start working on things.

 

[Dee_Ann]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!

HERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!


http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/185286-LNB-holder-for-Channelmaster-1-0m-dish/page6

 

[primestar31]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!

HERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!


http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/185286-LNB-holder-for-Channelmaster-1-0m-dish/page6

Not that I want to stop your excitement, but YOUR dish is clearly stamped a Prodelin, and the dish in that link is clearly a Channel Master. They may look a lot alike, but they aren't the same. It is possible that the lnb holder could be adapted though, if you can find one.

 

[primestar31]

Actually they made two models of the 1.8

One was receive only and one was transmit/receive and it had the very heavy flat tube underneath.

I’ve found the PDF for them. I also, FINALLY, found a brochure for the same dish and there is a really low res photo of the LNBF and holder attached!

Between the following stuff I found, I should be able to find a proper LNBF or at least a proper holder. If nothing else, maybe my dad can brainstorm something up from the pictures..

Most likely though, I suspect I’ll end up cobbling together some horrendous frankenjunk.

I did go ahead and order one of those 3 position LNBF brackets for $15. That was just too good a deal to pass up.


At least I’ve made a LOT of progress on this thing, it’s been languishing around the back yard for almost 2 years, or maybe more than 2 years..

Now that I have three dogs I have to stay outside with them so I get bored and start working on things.

My "cobble-sense" tells me that the full size page engineers line drawing in picture 4 could likely be to scale, and if you simply scale it up large enough, (or extrapolate it) it'll give you the exact angles and lengths needed to duplicate the lnb arms enough to get you there. You do that by measuring against known sizes on your dish, and scaling the drawing up until something on that (such as a back mount piece) matches that same size. Kinda hard to explain, but hopefully you understand what I'm saying.

 

[catamount]

Not that I want to stop your excitement, but YOUR dish is clearly stamped a Prodelin, and the dish in that link is clearly a Channel Master. They may look a lot alike, but they aren't the same. It is possible that the lnb holder could be adapted though, if you can find one.

The dish isn't prodelin, but the part numbers and pics of the feed assembly are.

 

[catamount]

Dee,

If you choose to fabricate something, like Fatair suggested, here is a chart that may help.

Catamount

 

[gabshere]

It wouldn't be pretty or perfect. But I suspect you could get it into testing stage by just using hose clamp from your local hardware store. Since your arms are close it would do at least to test cband I did some searching a while back for parts and did locate some. But it's buried up here and searching by phone is slow for me

 

[Dee_Ann]

In regards to the other (very old) thread I found, the parts they show, I am certain they are the parts that my dish is missing.

(I stole and reposted the photos from that old thread)

The one in the picture is stamped “4080-059” which matches exactly the part number in the manual for the dish. The photo matches the drawings in the manual.

The remaining parts that I have are ears that were snapped off of the original mount, some idiot just broke the whole LNB and mount off the arms.
It left behind the little ears and those are identical matches to the mount shown in the photos. The bolts are also identical, two short bolts on the side arms and a long bolt on the bottom arm.

I am 100% certain that this is a photo of my missing LNBF mount.

One thing that I know beyond any shadow of a doubt, there is a 40mm hole in the mount. Given that, and that I have the tabs/ears that were broken off from the original, and the drawings,
I’m pretty sure that I can make SOMETHING that would work.

What I’m thinking about is a block of aluminum of the width of the original bracket. A half circle of 40mm in the top so an LNBF can be placed and then a metal strap of some type to lock it down.

Metal ears could be bolted to the side of the block to which the arms could attach. By using bolt on ears (or tabs or whatever you call them) this would allow for adjustments to be made easily and would greatly simply the whole thing, this way nothing weird has to be made. My dad is good at making simple things from metal but anything complicated he always tells me “No way, too much work!”...

I think I should be able to make something work, with my dad’s help. I think things are looking much, much better..

 

[Dee_Ann]

Ok, I just found some more photos of someone else displaying a kit for a Prodelin dish. I can clearly see that on the manual. The date on the manual is 2002 but of course that doesn’t mean much of anything, I checked the EXIF of the photos and they were created in September of 2009.

I can tell from the other parts displayed that this kit is for a much, much smaller dish than mine BUT the LNBF holder is the same as what I am seeking.. I can see the part number stamped on it is right, 4080-059 so that gives me hope that they use that part on several models of dish and that there’s a chance I can find one somewhere for sale.

I’m going to go ahead and try to make something up because I can’t be sure I’ll find one for sale but if I do, so much the better.

In the photos I’ve found and attached on this post, the only thing I’m interested in is the bracket.

 

[catamount]

You can still buy the kit new, but it's about $100 bucks. I'd fabricate something. The pdf I uploaded gives you measurements.

Catamount

 

[gabshere]

hunting through my old junk box i found a feedhorn that would probably work for your dish .... it would be for ku only though ( .... EDIT ok uploaded a pic its a c120 flange type lnb or one of the older lnb it has a norsat 1208HA ku lnb on it now )


the part listed by mikelib i think he sent to another user who needed it ( Dee Ann already found the post that list it ) here's another.


prodelin 1.8 manual