I know he just said that to rile me.well i don't know lol i'm still trying to work out a pickup date for the birdview in LA
so we'll have to see when it arrives
He's probably talking LA=Louisiana, anyhow.
Dual C-band Feedhorns...
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He's probably talking LA=Louisiana, anyhow.
I know he just said that to rile me.
He's probably talking LA=Louisiana, anyhow.
He's talking about the one in Louisiana that is closer to him than it was to Stogie.
Don't worry, we'll find one for you a little closer to home.
naw i wouldn't do that
but it is in Louisianamaybe we can find you one and ship it out to ya via an RVer
what a bunch of friends!
Couldn't ask for nicer guys.
Pat ya on the back with one hand...
... and pick yer pocket with the other. -
I've maybe got a bus ride scheduled for some dishes in-state this month or next.
Never thought about shipment via RVer, but that does sound attractive!
Wish we had more long-haul truckers on the forum.
Couldn't ask for nicer guys.
Pat ya on the back with one hand...
... and pick yer pocket with the other.
- I've maybe got a bus ride scheduled for some dishes in-state this month or next.
Never thought about shipment via RVer, but that does sound attractive!
Wish we had more long-haul truckers on the forum.
Well as bad as I hate to admit it, I can't scan in a TP on 135W yet. Let me emphasize yet!!!
That's part of the reason for the peaking of the Birdview. Today I moved the whole assembly to the East about 1/32 of an inch on the mast, and improved the signal just the tiniest bit. Lost just a smidge off the East side. The other thing I might try is a micro adjustment of the polarity. I don't think further adjustment of the whole assembly will yield anything better. It is tracking the whole arc very well right now.
Moved the dish over to 135W, and the signal was improved just the tiniest bit.
The other part I hate to admit, was about the powered multi-switch. After the micro adjustment, I turned on the switch, and even though the V side is still only getting 13V, the signal locked at 69% SQ on the Diamond. Before it was bouncing badly. Not quite enough to get channels to scan in yet, but enough to make a believer out of me on having the V side at 18V one way or another.
So now, I have to test my converted multi-switch to see if it actually fried the other day. I guess if it still outputs power, the signal should still pass through?
What say you electronic geniuses?
While I am asking, is there a way to test diseqc switches without hooking them up to an LNB? I realize they need to be hooked to a receiver or you wouldn't be able to switch ports. I have a couple of here from days gone by that I would like to know if they are good. :yikes:
So you guys with dual feed-horns using old style LNBs, get prepared to add power to the V side if you want to grab all the signal available.
That's part of the reason for the peaking of the Birdview. Today I moved the whole assembly to the East about 1/32 of an inch on the mast, and improved the signal just the tiniest bit. Lost just a smidge off the East side. The other thing I might try is a micro adjustment of the polarity. I don't think further adjustment of the whole assembly will yield anything better. It is tracking the whole arc very well right now.
Moved the dish over to 135W, and the signal was improved just the tiniest bit.
The other part I hate to admit, was about the powered multi-switch. After the micro adjustment, I turned on the switch, and even though the V side is still only getting 13V, the signal locked at 69% SQ on the Diamond. Before it was bouncing badly. Not quite enough to get channels to scan in yet, but enough to make a believer out of me on having the V side at 18V one way or another.
So now, I have to test my converted multi-switch to see if it actually fried the other day. I guess if it still outputs power, the signal should still pass through?
What say you electronic geniuses?
While I am asking, is there a way to test diseqc switches without hooking them up to an LNB? I realize they need to be hooked to a receiver or you wouldn't be able to switch ports. I have a couple of here from days gone by that I would like to know if they are good. :yikes:
So you guys with dual feed-horns using old style LNBs, get prepared to add power to the V side if you want to grab all the signal available.
Short answer is nope. I spent most of the day testing DiSEqC and 22khz switches I am taking to the hamfest...I seen one example of a switch that passed power but not signal on a single port...the other ports were fine. I threw away 3 switches that were dead on only one port...one was brand new.
Well my converted multi-switch is still passing 18V out of both H and V ports. Just have to put it on something in between the rain drops to see if signal comes through.
Hope it still works, or I will need to buy the power inserter above, or convert my spare and put it into service.
Hope it still works, or I will need to buy the power inserter above, or convert my spare and put it into service.
Well my converted multi-switch is still passing 18V out of both H and V ports. Just have to put it on something in between the rain drops to see if signal comes through.
Hope it still works, or I will need to buy the power inserter above, or convert my spare and put it into service.
I'd ask how you converted it, but since I solder with a rosebud and 1/8 inch welding rods, I don't think I'd be a good canidate to perform the surgery.
I am good at blowing them up, however, in fact right now I have a blown up directv 4X8 Zinwell, my latest victim.
I might get a hammer and cold chisel and take it apart and see what it looks like inside...
I'd ask how you converted it, but since I solder with a rosebud and 1/8 inch welding rods, I don't think I'd be a good canidate to perform the surgery.
I am good at blowing them up, however, in fact right now I have a blown up directv 4X8 Zinwell, my latest victim.
I might get a hammer and cold chisel and take it apart and see what it looks like inside...
You can't be any worse at soldering than I am. I used to sell welding supplies, and I can do pretty good with a mig using the spray arc, (I like it hot and fast
) but was never any good at stick, tig, or oxy/acet/braizing type welding.I don't remember off hand what thread it was in, and I can't find it right now, but I took an ordinary powered multi-switch and cut the 13v from the output, and jumped the 18v over to it, and it works fine.
The bad news is, that even though now getting a full 18V on the V side of AMC10, I still can't lock the channels on that TP. The signal did not improve any, so I guess the next step is a little skew adjustment.
where would you place this inserter ? at the dish ? i don't have power out at the dish
couldn't tell how weather proof the casing was either
Hey George,
I put one of those little green boxes at every dish I have up. I put an extra box at the Perfed Birdview dish for those two powered multi-switches. I used the 3 polarotor wires for power from the house to the dish. The two wall warts have a shared ground and are plugged in at the TV and power the switch at the dish.
At least that's how I did it because I didn't have power at the dish either. It is pretty convenient, because I can shut the power off when a big storm comes up by flipping a switch at the TV.
Thank God!!!
I finally got the sucker. :yikes:
I had to tweak the skew within a gnats backside, and even then I didn't have the channels locked. As a last resort I put on my treasured Norsat 5515 LNB which won out over the Cal-Amp mini-mag 25K that was on there.
If a bird flies by, I'll lose them, but they are locked and scanned in right now.
Now to other things.
I am intrigued by the Primestar/BSC621 thread in the FTA section. Since the toy is going on the roof soon for my son, this might be just the ticket to take it's place on the parking lot, and maybe a good spot for the CK-1 LNBF. I just might have to run with this experiment.
I finally got the sucker. :yikes:
I had to tweak the skew within a gnats backside, and even then I didn't have the channels locked. As a last resort I put on my treasured Norsat 5515 LNB which won out over the Cal-Amp mini-mag 25K that was on there.
If a bird flies by, I'll lose them, but they are locked and scanned in right now.
Now to other things.
I am intrigued by the Primestar/BSC621 thread in the FTA section. Since the toy is going on the roof soon for my son, this might be just the ticket to take it's place on the parking lot, and maybe a good spot for the CK-1 LNBF. I just might have to run with this experiment.
Congratulations Fred, you must really like Mav HD & World Fishing Network HD...? You've got to, the way you've fought tooth & nail to get them. I hope you're Happy with it? I know I am! All joking aside, I've enjoyed your efforts on this, as I always do. You have become my favorite teacher, I've learned and continue to learn a lot from you. Keep it coming, I looking forward to your upcoming Mini-Bud project...!!!!
Thanks Al!!!
You have always been my greatest encourager, and I appreciate that!
To tell you the truth, I probably won't ever watch them much, but it just bugs me if I know something is there, and I can't get it. That one is a bear for me because it is way out at the end of the arc on the West. The dish is fine, and well tuned, but using the orthomode feed, you just can't change the skew a little like you can with a Co-Rotor without screwing up the rest of the arc. Fortunately I manged to get the channels without damaging everything else.
I may have to start looking for a 10 foot Birdview. That would certainly make life easier.
can't you test a diseqc switch that is connected to a receiver by using a coax jumper with one end split with a digital VOM set to dc volts. Having the antenna setup menu scrolling through the diseqc ports and watch the volts jump up when you hit the proper port.
I am thinking you could use a an LED connected to an F connector to verify voltage at a port. It should not harm the diseqc switch since its Milliamp draw would be much less than an lnb.
Just a thought
I am thinking you could use a an LED connected to an F connector to verify voltage at a port. It should not harm the diseqc switch since its Milliamp draw would be much less than an lnb.
Just a thought
The receiver method you outlined above and the VOM is the way I plan to them for voltage output, but what ACRadio was referring to was signal getting back through. They can pass voltage, but still not allow signal back through and would still be bad.
4-way test
I discussed a diseqc test procedure with a buddy, earlier this year.
Unfortunately, he got all sidetracked with some mechanical mod to make it small and flat enough to send it in an envelope in the mail.
Of course, in today's troubled times, I don't want to be sending anything with wires and LEDs in an envelope.
The paranoid paramilitary may come after ya.
Anyway, there are four tests:
A - select port 1, is there power on port 1?
B - select port 1, is there power on any other port than port 1?
C - select port 1, is the RF input on port 1 passed to the output?
D - select port 1, is the RF input on any other port passed to the output?
Loop back to test A, and do next port.
We decided to do tests A & B, since tests C & D would be quite difficult without a lot of equipment.
Since each switch input will have 12..18 volts when selected, an LED and current limiting resistor were to be pugged into each connector.
The resistor value would be determined by the current required to see the LED.
Using high-brightness LEDs, ya might be happy with 2 to 5 milliamps.
With regular LEDs, you might want 20 milliamps.
And of course, if you insisted in using this outside, then more brightness might be in order. -
While test A & B would be better than nothing, as ACradio pointed out above, the RF tests would be needed for a proper evaluation.
I thought about building up four F connectors with resistor and LED, but just never got around to it.
I discussed a diseqc test procedure with a buddy, earlier this year.
Unfortunately, he got all sidetracked with some mechanical mod to make it small and flat enough to send it in an envelope in the mail.
Of course, in today's troubled times, I don't want to be sending anything with wires and LEDs in an envelope.
The paranoid paramilitary may come after ya.
Anyway, there are four tests:
A - select port 1, is there power on port 1?
B - select port 1, is there power on any other port than port 1?
C - select port 1, is the RF input on port 1 passed to the output?
D - select port 1, is the RF input on any other port passed to the output?
Loop back to test A, and do next port.
We decided to do tests A & B, since tests C & D would be quite difficult without a lot of equipment.
Since each switch input will have 12..18 volts when selected, an LED and current limiting resistor were to be pugged into each connector.
The resistor value would be determined by the current required to see the LED.
Using high-brightness LEDs, ya might be happy with 2 to 5 milliamps.
With regular LEDs, you might want 20 milliamps.
And of course, if you insisted in using this outside, then more brightness might be in order. -
While test A & B would be better than nothing, as ACradio pointed out above, the RF tests would be needed for a proper evaluation.
I thought about building up four F connectors with resistor and LED, but just never got around to it.
I discussed a diseqc test procedure with a buddy, earlier this year.
Unfortunately, he got all sidetracked with some mechanical mod to make it small and flat enough to send it in an envelope in the mail.
Of course, in today's troubled times, I don't want to be sending anything with wires and LEDs in an envelope.
The paranoid paramilitary may come after ya.
Anyway, there are four tests:
A - select port 1, is there power on port 1?
B - select port 1, is there power on any other port than port 1?
C - select port 1, is the RF input on port 1 passed to the output?
D - select port 1, is the RF input on any other port passed to the output?
Loop back to test A, and do next port.
We decided to do tests A & B, since tests C & D would be quite difficult without a lot of equipment.
Since each switch input will have 12..18 volts when selected, an LED and current limiting resistor were to be pugged into each connector.
The resistor value would be determined by the current required to see the LED.
Using high-brightness LEDs, ya might be happy with 2 to 5 milliamps.
With regular LEDs, you might want 20 milliamps.
And of course, if you insisted in using this outside, then more brightness might be in order. -
While test A & B would be better than nothing, as ACradio pointed out above, the RF tests would be needed for a proper evaluation.
I thought about building up four F connectors with resistor and LED, but just never got around to it.
Now that is a test procedure.
Unfortunately without the RF tests, you still wouldn't know if you had a bad one.
I saw a lot of 10 DMSI disceq switches for $20.00 on fleabay the other day with about ten bucks shipping. That's about 3 bucks each. It is almost not worth the time and trouble to test them properly.
even with good switches . . .
I remember someone reporting this problem, a year or so ago...
His Ku was fine, . . . unless his C-band dish was pointed at some hot C-bird.
Of course, it seemed an intermittent problem, at first.
It took a long time to come to the above conclusion.
The problem was that his C-band LNB was putting out a big signal, and even when deselected, his diseqc switch didn't suppress it enough to keep it from interfering with a weak Ku signal on another switch channel.
All LNBs put out signals in the same range (~950...~2150mhz) regardless of band.
In the normal use of diseqc switches, only the selected LNB is powered, so such suppression isn't normally a design concern.
I bring up the matter here, just to give a reminder of a possible problem ya might run into, and hopefully you'll remember this warning.
That was the point for Test D, above.
I remember someone reporting this problem, a year or so ago...
His Ku was fine, . . . unless his C-band dish was pointed at some hot C-bird.
Of course, it seemed an intermittent problem, at first.
It took a long time to come to the above conclusion.
The problem was that his C-band LNB was putting out a big signal, and even when deselected, his diseqc switch didn't suppress it enough to keep it from interfering with a weak Ku signal on another switch channel.
All LNBs put out signals in the same range (~950...~2150mhz) regardless of band.
In the normal use of diseqc switches, only the selected LNB is powered, so such suppression isn't normally a design concern.
I bring up the matter here, just to give a reminder of a possible problem ya might run into, and hopefully you'll remember this warning.
That was the point for Test D, above.
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