Electrical wiring for dish

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Sammughal

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Feb 7, 2020
68
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Toronto Ontario Canada
As we know ribbon cable is no longer sold and the existing stock is probably 15 + years old. I’m having a difficulty to figure which kinds of cables I will need and how many.

Wiring for the actuator and polarizer and servo and sensor etc. How many cables what kind and where to buy? Home Depot ? Also wanting to know what kind of tools do I need to put the screw ons on the end of the coaxial cables ?

Not putting up my system till I move to rural Ontario but doing install at my friends place and he’s good with poles and tools so he’s doing that part and I got him a 8 foot dish and echostar receiver ird and he ordered a gt box as well and I have to find him a view diseq switches. As the gt media has only one input so gotta put c and ku signal together. He’s gutted whole house and wants to wire everything in because he’s redoing the whole house and backyard so he’s gonna run wiring and we are going to try pointing the dish and if we fail we will ask a member to come help us. Hope this will be a good learning experience and I can know more when I install my own 10 foot wineguard.
 
ok so obviously you need good coax. RG6, preferably quad-shield, preferably with solid copper core (as opposed to copper-clad steel). Get some compression connectors that match the cable type, a compression tool, and a wire stripper for coax. You can find those at Home Depot or online. I got mine at Harbor Freight and they work well. For the connectors, you can get bags of 50 for about 10 USD on Amazon etc. Money well spent. Stay away from the older screw-on or crimp-on connectors.

for the actuator motor: 14 gauge landscape cables work fine. Speaker wires work well too as long as you stay away from the aluminum wires (unfortunately very common for speaker wires)
for the sensor wires or the servo wires, shielded security cable works well. you need separate runs for the sensor and the servo. for the sensor, the shield must be grounded on the receiver side and left disconnected on the actuator end. this will minimize any interference from ambient RF noise as well as noise from the motor and servo wires (which would cause miscounts). those security wires typically come in 22 or 18 gauge. I'm using 22 and regret not getting the 18-gauge. while the 22 ga is working fine, it's a bit too thin for reliable connections.

btw, since you mention the servo... you might want to consider getting a C-Band LNBF instead of messing around with a servo. MUCH more convenient especially since it sounds like you'll be using a separate, non-automated positionner (for digital reception). Don't get a C/Ku combo LNBF.

one more thing. You mention diseqc switches. ALWAYS power everything down before connecting/disconnecting anything that involves diseqc switches. They are very sensitive little things.

Good luck, and more importantly, work safely and have fun! Getting your first signal on a dish is always a moment of happiness :)
 
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Just to add to what Brct203 said, there is a type of underground wire that is used with underground sprinkling systems to control the electric valves that may be placed at various points along the main water feed in the yard (as opposed to systems where all such valves are placed right next to the house). I'm not sure how many wires are in those but it should be plenty to run your motor unless it is quite some distance from the house. Basically three of the wires are for the polorotor, but if I were you I'd follow Brct203's advice and get one of the newer LNBF's that are switched by the voltage level on the coaxial cable line, in fact those are the only type that will work with most newer digital receivers. Then for the positioner arm two of the wires are only sensor contacts and they don't have to be a very large gauge at all, even something like #24 or #22 would probably work well unless it's a very long run, main thing is it just has to be stranded wire (not solid) so it doesn't break from metal fatigue as the arm moves.

Then there are only two other wires for the positioner motor and those probably need to be a bit larger (and also stranded wire), you could use heavy gauge speaker wire or if you want something actually rated for underground use, the aforementioned sprinkler system wire would probably work (if it comes in a stranded variety, which I am not certain of) but another possibility would be plain old electric lamp/appliance wire sold off a spool - what I mean is the wire were the two conductors can be pulled apart, like the type used on a table lamp. Although, a lot of that stuff is only 18 gauge which is probably fine if the dish is relatively close to the house but personally if the run were rather long I'd try to find some 16 gauge, or even 14 gauge in extreme cases. You do want pure copper wire, though. Using undersized wire could conceivably cause it to heat up and even possibly melt the insulation over time, but the more likely issue is that there will be too much of a voltage drop and the motor will barely get enough power to move the dish, especially if the dish is full of snow or there is a very strong wind. And making the motor work too hard can cause it to overheat and in an extreme case can lead to premature failure.

Once you have everything wired up you could put a voltmeter across the dish motor connections and have someone inside the house move the dish. If you are still getting within a volt or two of what the dish mover or satellite receiver outputs you are probably okay, but if (for example) the dish mover is putting out 36 volts but you are only seeing 18 to 20 volts under load then you probably need larger wire (either that or the dish mover power supply is very weak).

For the coaxial cable always use at least RG-6, never RG-59. For very long runs RG-11 would be a better choice but that uses different ends and probably a different tool to crimp them, because the wire is thicker than RG-6. And always make sure it is true solid copper, not the aluminum crap that is coated with a thin layer of copper to try to fool you into thinking it is copper wire.
 
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How many wires of electrical would I need in total and which types of gauge of wiring ? Other than the two coaxial cables (RG6) what kind of LNBFs should I get ? He wants to use diseq to move the dish. Also the vbox sometimes (manually)
 
Are you going to use servo or not? There are likely 4 terminals on you actuator and 4 on the vbox so you need 4 conductors. you can do it anyway you want but as suggested 14awg will be fine for actuator motor and even smaller is fine for sensor, some suggest shielded twisted pair. But I have used a single 4 conductor 14 gauge trailer cable on my 1.2 without issue and my 10ft has shielded direct burial and overhead 19awg 6 conductor telecommunication with motor conductors doubled up also never any issue. If you intend to use a servo for polarization vbox will not run servo and you need more conductors.Both my wire choices were because they were free and 100ft runs
 
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iccoldbeer said:
Are you going to use servo or not? There are likely 4 terminals on you actuator and 4 on the vbox so you need 4 conductors. you can do it anyway you want but as suggested 14awg will be fine for actuator motor and even smaller is fine for sensor, some suggest shielded twisted pair. But I have used a single 4 conductor 14 gauge trailer cable on my 1.2 without issue and my 10ft has shielded direct burial and overhead 19awg 6 conductor telecommunication with motor conductors doubled up also never any issue. If you intend to use a servo for polarization vbox will not run servo and you need more conductors.Both my wire choices were because they were free and 100ft runs
Click to expand...

So in total if using VBOX 4 conductor wire 14awg should be fine ? Along with 2 RG6 coax?
 
Sammughal said:
So in total if using VBOX 4 conductor wire 14awg should be fine ? Along with 2 RG6 coax?
Click to expand...

A pair of 14 AWG wire for the motor for runs less than 100 ft should be fine. I prefer 12 AWG even on 50 foot runs. You can use another pair of 14 AWG for the sensor wires but that's over kill. A pair of 18 AWG would be fine for the sensor wires but you should use a shielded pair for the sensor run and keep it as far apart from the motor wires even though the runs will be close together at the actuator and the Vbox/Gbox. And, of course, quad shielded RG6 with compression F connectors (the "waterproof" type) is recommended for the LNBF. You only need one run of RG6 if you're using only one single output LNBF. A second run of RG6 is OK if you want a backup or if you are going to use a dual output LNBF or a C/Ku LNBF. If you're going to bury the wire you'll need to use buriable wire or put it in conduit.
 
johnnynobody said:
A pair of 14 AWG wire for the motor for runs less than 100 ft should be fine. I prefer 12 AWG even on 50 foot runs. You can use another pair of 14 AWG for the sensor wires but that's over kill. A pair of 18 AWG would be fine for the sensor wires but you should use a shielded pair for the sensor run and keep it as far apart from the motor wires even though the runs will be close together at the actuator and the Vbox/Gbox. And, of course, quad shielded RG6 with compression F connectors (the "waterproof" type) is recommended for the LNBF. You only need one run of RG6 if you're using only one single output LNBF. A second run of RG6 is OK if you want a backup or if you are going to use a dual output LNBF or a C/Ku LNBF. If you're going to bury the wire you'll need to use buriable wire or put it in conduit.
Click to expand...


Any anybody recommend a good place to get the wiring from? I have to get it for my friend and drop it off to his house. I’m thinking Home Depot will probably carry it.
 
Think that DXE cable should be ok as long as the three servo wires are shielded from the motor lines. Looks like it in the image.
 
Do you require a sensor AND polarotor (servo) as well as the motor lines? This cable should work fine if you are using an LNBF without a skew servo, otherwise you need three more lines (1 shield/gnd and two shielded lines). In the first post you mentioned a polarizer-servo. Maybe Brian discussed this for you already. :)
 
Titanium said:
Several years ago this DX Engineering product was discussed with some member looking for a cabling solution, but I do not recall the specifics. I seem to recall that it was with a member living in Latin America.
Click to expand...
I believe this is the post about the DX Engineering product from a few years ago. Specific product mentioned was DX Engineering CW1812OR Heavy-Duty Spec Rotator Cable DXE-CW1812OR and OP was from Monterrey, Mexico.

www.satelliteguys.us

Installing my first motorized C Band Satellite Dish (w/pictures)

Gin Pole is the way to go. If you don't have one, you can cobble one with a spare aluminum ladder, a come-along, and some clamps made with muffler u-bolts. Or you can spend some money to make a proper one, if you are going to mount more large dishes.
www.satelliteguys.us www.satelliteguys.us
 
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FTA4PA said:
I believe this is the post about the DX Engineering product from a few years ago. Specific product mentioned was DX Engineering CW1812OR Heavy-Duty Spec Rotator Cable DXE-CW1812OR and OP was from Monterrey, Mexico.

www.satelliteguys.us

Installing my first motorized C Band Satellite Dish (w/pictures)

Gin Pole is the way to go. If you don't have one, you can cobble one with a spare aluminum ladder, a come-along, and some clamps made with muffler u-bolts. Or you can spend some money to make a proper one, if you are going to mount more large dishes.
www.satelliteguys.us www.satelliteguys.us
Click to expand...

That was a great thread here, and lots of good info. Too bad the OP took some flack from the other forum, and decided to stop posting.
 
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