Finally!

[Scott Greczkowski]

Got mine for $24 on clearance from Target.

 

[dougruss]

Dee...I like the idea of mounting the Small Tv to the Tripod !
I have that same Tv and forgot all about the Threaded portion on the bottom of it.
I have several tripods laying around collecting dust,now I can put one to use !
Will make it much easier to see,raising it up closer via the Tripod.

 

[PopcornNMore]

Got mine for $24 on clearance from Target.

I would of purchased at least 4 at that price.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Oh I flipped the tray with the pyramid over so it's upside down now and no longer in front of the screen. Still works great. I aim the remotes for the coolsat or the gbox at the tv just like inside and things happen..

I think I did pretty well on this little setup of mine. The only way it could be any better would be if the pyramid was battery powered.

 

[trinidex]

Oh I flipped the tray with the pyramid over so it's upside down now and no longer in front of the screen. Still works great. I aim the remotes for the coolsat or the gbox at the tv just like inside and things happen..

I think I did pretty well on this little setup of mine. The only way it could be any better would be if the pyramid was battery powered.

Great work Dee, you've got a great setup there for tweaking and peaking.

With the combination of limb & pole cutting I hope your signal improves.

Have you tried the DishPointer app for iPhone? That would show you any obstructions for sats you're trying to pickup.

 

[Dee_Ann]

By the way, this is slightly off topic but how can I update my Coolsat 6000?

Many of the satellites are named incorrectly, several satellites are simply missing and all of them have wrong and missing transponders.

There are also a lot of old satellites that no longer exist, satellites for the other side of the planet that obviously can't be seen from the US and other satellites that are irrelevant and just aren't worth the bother of having to waste time skipping over them..

Also, MeTV comes in great at night. As the sun comes up it gets worse and worse until it is unwatchable. Right now the sky is cool, clear and the wind is dead calm for the first time in weeks. It was doing this before though.

I can't understand why it works good at night and starts messing up as the sun comes up.

 

[Pixl]

Dee,

There is an editor program called "Channel Master" you install on your computer, then download your data off the Coolsat into the program and then customize, re-name etc. as you wish, then re-load to your box. I'll look around for the link and instructions later today unless someone else can post it sooner.
One question I have, with a Coolsat 6K how are you hearing the AC3 audio on MeTv ?

Jim

 

[Dee_Ann]

Dee,

There is an editor program called "Channel Master" you install on your computer, then download your data off the Coolsat into the program and then customize, re-name etc. as you wish, then re-load to your box. I'll look around for the link and instructions later today unless someone else can post it sooner.
One question I have, with a Coolsat 6K how are you hearing the AC3 audio on MeTv ?

Jim

Hi and thank you...

That sounds good, I need to edit, change, add and delete stuff from the Coolsat..

The audio? I don't hear it. I can see the picture just fine though.

I use the Coolsat as a tool to help me align the dish, find satellites, channels, etc.. The blindscan feature is very nice for idiots like me that have no idea what they are doing..

For watching tv I use a home theater pc. It has a satellite tuner card and a local ota tuner card. It gets the S2 channels too.

But, it's really, really limited and stupid. It will not blindscan at all and it runs windows so it has lots of problems, the main one being, it runs windows.

I don't like that the app will not show you any program guides at all with two exceptions, RT (Russia Today) and the Belorussian channel next to it. Those are the only channels at all that a program guide shows up for. Not even for the local ota channels!

I have a 32" Vizio flat screen for and it totally shows the program guide for all the ota local channels and all sorts of other info. But the pc app, doesn't.

I want to replace the pc with a "do it all" box that gets EVERYTHING. And records too. I'm afraid that's gonna be a tall order to fill and expensive if any such critter does exist. I just hate the pc.

But yeah, the Coolsat is a handy tool but I don't use it for tv watching at all..

Thanks!

 

[FaT Air]

Channel Master FTA Editor: SharpC Discussion Forum BTW: could the C band signal fade be caused by temperature? As in, does cooling the LNBF improve the signal? I had an LNB that did this.

 

[gardo403]

SatelliteGuys.US_TheList - Channel Master File Creator <--------- this is a great way to update your tp and sat list on your CS6000... use it with Channel Master and your good to go! I did with my cs 4000 worked great......

 

[Mr Tony]

I can't understand why it works good at night and starts messing up as the sun comes up.

did you tweak the dish to get the best signal on metv?
satellites have "wobble" so you may have good signal at one time and not another

 

[Dee_Ann]

did you tweak the dish to get the best signal on metv?
satellites have "wobble" so you may have good signal at one time and not another

Well, that's generally what I tried to do..

And here's the weird thing. I'm getting MeTV in like super duper awesomely perfect now!
The other night I messed with it then the sun came up and it started messing up.
So I would move the dish off a few inches then recall it back to the exact spot I programmed a few hours earlier when it was working perfectly.
It would get a little better for a few minutes then mess up again. So I played that game for a few hours and it seemed like I was going to have to go back out and mess with it again.

Then my dad came over. He was going to help me (more like DO while I watch) cut down the poles because they are waaaay taller than I had thought/expected/planned for.

He started out by drilling new holes in the 6' dish pole then he used a tool called a tap and put bolt threads in the holes. The bolts make the adapter he made stay locked in place.

He got that much done but before he could get the saw (he has a hand held pipe saw) out of the van, my mom called and he had to go home for something she had going on. Oh well. Not a big deal.

So dad will be back sometime this weekend, hopefully, to cut the poles down and bring the dish(es) down to a height where I can work on them without having to be way up on a ladder like I was.

Anyway, after dad left I went back inside and watched my daytime shows on local OTA channels (courtroom and talk shows) while I sat there and tried to use that channelmaster program to fix my coolsat. That was a great big FAIL. I spent hours on that and it just does not work.
I ended up putting a file on the coolsat called "CS_6000_fixed.NDF". After I messed it totally up I uploaded the factory default file to it, then I put an updated one that has a beeper on the manual scan screen. But the channels and satellites are all wrong on that one. So then I put the "fixed" file into it and that was better but still wrong.

I loaded the "fixed" file into channelmaster and edited the satellite names and left everything else alone. I exported that file then uploaded it into the coolsat. BINGO! Proper satellite names. The transponder & channels are still outdated but I can work around that. I figured out how to delete and add transponders within the coolsat itself. It's clumsy and unfriendly but it can be done.

I'm hoping to eventually have the coolsat 100% up to date with all the proper satellites, transponders and channels so that I can use it as a tool to help me fine tune my dishes and find new stuff like unlisted channels, of which I've already found a few. Nothing of any real interest mind you but they are unlisted on any site I've looked at.


Anyway, after spending all that time trying to get the coolsat updated I checked to see what I could find on it, I had to rescan everything because all that uploading wiped it clean, it forgot everything from before.

And when I scanned in 87 AMC 3, MeTV was coming in perfectly! HUH?? How did that happen??

So I figured that meant all the other satellites would be hosed since this one was working good. I moved it over to 99 Galaxy 16 and WVXF was coming in perfectly too. DOUBLE HUH???

So I moved it back to 87 and still it was working great! So I went back and forth between the two satellites a few times just for fun and it worked perfectly every time!

TADA!!!!!! I'm still mystified as to what I did right or how this happened!

But I'm not complaining!

What I'm worried about though is when my dad cuts the pole down I'll have to go through all this all over again..

But for now I'm totally diggin it! I watch Hawaii 5.0 at 4pm which was sort of a nice change from Adam-12/Dragnet (seen em all many times).
I fell asleep during Hawaii 5.0 and when I woke up later I was pleased to see that all evening the pc had been picking it up all that time just perfect as can be. So I hit the rewind button and went back to the Honeymooners. Twilight Zone, Perry Mason, Untouchables, it's all there and I'm watching it all right now, delayed several hours, thanks to the pc. I love that it lets me rewind shows and then I can fast forward through commercials.

I watched my shows from earlier until 3 or 4 am when other good stuff comes on thisTV (WVXF)..

This is awesomely awesome! Who needs pay TV? All the stuff I like can be found up there. Yes, it's hard work to get it but it's well worth it!

Good thing I'm too hard headed to quit. I may admit defeat but even then I'm too hard headed to quit. I may take some time off to chill out but eventually my hard headed self will get back to it.

Well, I'm far from done though. I'll be having more fun in a few days when Dad cuts the pole down and then again when I get the BIG dish put up.

My neighbor should be getting back with me soon about cutting those limbs down. I saw he called my cell phone while I was asleep earlier (I have really messed up hours), when I got up it was way too late to call back. I reckon I'll see him in the morning, I'm sorta sleeping half days now, each day my bedtime shifts later by 30 minutes to an hour.

I think that in general, I'm getting a lot closer to having an actual, working system that I can depend upon. And like it or not, kicking and screaming, I'm getting an education in something I would have never in a million years believed I would ever mess with, satellite stuff.

Thanks guys! You all rock!

 

[Anole]

Your Dad is drillin' or tapin' pretty low.
That'll be a real treat to work with.

But, will that big round Primestar Ku dish be in the way?
Hard to tell from the angle the picture was shot.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Your Dad is drillin' or tapin' pretty low.
That'll be a real treat to work with.

But, will that big round Primestar Ku dish be in the way?
Hard to tell from the angle the picture was shot.

No no... They are a little over 8 feet apart. I'm pretty sure, well, I'm hoping, that I will be ok on that.
I did however just realize that I won't be able to get my Deere through there. I sit pretty high on that thing, it's a BIG mower.
I guess I'll have to dig the push mower out and get someone to help me make it run. I think it has bad gas in it. I got a weed farm going under those dishes, how shameful! Oh, and NOT weed, ~weeds~ as in the weedeater variety. My push around weedeater may have bad gas too, it's been sitting up for months.

Oh yeah! I was out back with the dog a while ago and I took a look at the dish and WOW! I can see things are waaaaaaaaay out of whack!
The ring for the lnb is all wonky like really, really badly. The lnb though seems to be "square" with the dish in comparison to the ring.
Scarlar ring, right? I need to post a photo of this train wreck. No wonder I have so much trouble with this thing!

 

[Dee_Ann]

I snapped a pic of the dishes from the side to show the clearance. I wasn't really thinking ahead too far when I planned out where to plant these things so I sort of had a little panic attack when y'all mentioned clearing each other... So looking at this now I think I will be ok, with just enough room to walk around it. But not by much. Mowing will be a pain.

Also I moved the ladder over to the side and took some photos of the dish so you can see how the ring is all crooked. I tilted the camera over, there are grid lines on the display of the camera so I lined the dish up with the grid so you can see exactly how crooked it really is.

I also loaded it into paint and made a grid over it to show how messed up it really is.

And lastly a snap of the ground where I dug it up and buried the wires from the switch box to the dish. I had to put some chunks of old cement on the wires to hold them in place and protect them from the mower and the weedeater. I need to come up with a better solution to that though for sure.

Looks to me like I have a serious mess going on with the lnb....

 

[Magic Static]

Yes it is off. Time for a little tweak via big hands and muscles. Obviously that adjustment is not as critical as some. So if you can get it to look decent it should be pretty good. I had the same issue with my dish. I just grabbed it and twisted it into shape.

 

[Dee_Ann]

And once again, about 6:15 or there-a-bouts, as the sun comes up, the signal for MeTV on 87 degrades.
I went outside and checked and the sun is not hitting the dish at all so it can't possibly be heating up. It was cool last night and for the past 30+ hours as we had a little cool front come in. But it for sure is not from the sun hitting it because it's not at all. It's not the wind as there is none this morning, for the first time in weeks. It's for sure related to the sunrise somehow, it's done the same thing several times. The same exact thing and it's always a little after sunrise. The weather site lists sunrise at 6:35am. The signal started messing up about 5 or 10 minutes after that.

I'm willing to be money that later in the day the signal will get better again.

As it is now, it's really pretty much unwatchable. It's like watching stop motion at 4 frames per second. The audio seems to be ok though.
Forget recording anything.

I just don't understand why it works great except in the mornings. How weird is that?

 

[sergei]

And lastly a snap of the ground where I dug it up and buried the wires from the switch box to the dish. I had to put some chunks of old cement on the wires to hold them in place and protect them from the mower and the weedeater. I need to come up with a better solution to that though for sure.

Unless that cable is designed to be buried I'd get some PVC pipe to lay the cable in, remember all it's going to take is a small cut ( or dog ) plus water to give you problems down the road.

 

[Anole]

picture worth 1000 words !

From a close look at your grid, I'd say it's aligned excellent with the face of the dish.
Yes, the scalar ring is way off parallel to the dish face.
But, the LNBF is not as far off being perpendicular to the dish.
Worst point is, the LNBF is neither located-at, nor aimed-at the center of the dish.
Zoom in on the picture, and you'll see what I mean.
And people wonder why I always request photos...

I know it'll be hard to get the LNBF relocated properly, prior to lowering the dish.
I'd be inclined to suggest you wait 'till ya cut the pole, 'cause everything will be much closer to the ground.
Just be sure you don't cut off too much.

Once the LNBF is centered-on, and aimed-at the middle of your dish, I suspect you'll find you need to adjust the elevation just a wee bit.
But, that could be just what the doctor ordered.

Is there any chance you'll be able to look up through the hole in the center of the dish to see if the LNBF is centered?
I won't suggest rigging up a cheap laser pointer at this point, since it might be more like the tail wagging the dog.
But whatever techniques you develop for this little dish, will go a long way to ease the alignment of your big BUD, later down the line!

 

[PopcornNMore]

Personally, I would NOT cut the pipe down. Looking at your pictures it looks fine and lowering it risks the other dishes and tree branches being in the way. Just my 2 cents.

For some reaon MeTV has been coming and going for me also the past few weeks. This weekend I will be adjusting the dish to see if this can be corrected.