cold c-band actuator

[truckracer]

Hey guys,
I have noticed when it gets cold outside my dish moves very slow.
I am assuming this is because the lube on the screw gear in the arm is cold and viscous slowing down the motor and putting a more stressful load on it.

My old arm just died and I put a new one on about a month ago.

So I got this crazy hillbilly idea (imagine that-LOL).

I wrapped a 6 foot heat tape that is supposed to be used to heat water pipes and keep them from freezing. It has an internal thermostat that turns it on when the temp gets to 34 degrees F.

I have an outdoor electrical ground fault outlet about 15 feet from my dish so I plugged it in.

After wrappint the heat tape careful not to overlap it (according to directions on the tape) I black taped it in place. Don't put any insulation over the tape according to directions.

Now my dish moves with ease when it is cold.

thought some of you may want to try this one. It could save your motor.

 

[Inno]

I'd call that a good idea! Could certainly save someone a motor/gear. Cold lube puts extra strain on the motor and all the gears etc. not to mention the time you save when switching between satellites! That in itself makes it worthwhile.
And with a power cord already there you can save some time when you want to go out and do some tweaking.

 

[Sadoun]

I wonder if there is a heat tape like the above that would get its power from the coaxial cable (13/18V preferred) or from the actuator power (24/36V)? That way, no external power source required.

 

[Inno]

Not likely, a heat tape would require a lot more current than a receiver is capable of outputting. If you were to add an inline power supply (like Dish does with their SW44) it could certainly work. It wouldn't work with the actuator lines because it's only getting 24/36V when the actuator is actuated.

 

[truckracer]

I think this heat tape consumes around 100 watts @ 120 Volts AC. At 12 volts it would consume 1200 watts to produce the same amount of BTU's.

That gives you some idea what the load would be. The watts could be less if there was a heating strip built into the inside of the actuator housing IMO.

 

[i4tas]

Yea mine got cold and would not move... so I went outside and warmed it up with my hands and giggled it and went inside and it worked. It was very cold, below zero, so I concluded it is best to just wait and not push it in the cold.

 

[Inno]

I think this heat tape consumes around 100 watts @ 120 Volts AC. At 12 volts it would consume 1200 watts to produce the same amount of BTU's.

That gives you some idea what the load would be. The watts could be less if there was a heating strip built into the inside of the actuator housing IMO.

I think you have the formula wrong.........power equals current times voltage.
As such you want it to be a 100watt heater, therefore for a 120v system you'd be using 0.83 amps. Bring it down to 12V and you'd need 8.3 amps to make 100Watts.
Load is measured in amps, output is measured in watts.
Just to clarify, 8.3 amps isn't all that much but over a long run of wire, at 12V you'd be losing a lot of your power due to resistance.