Free LNB's

[bill55az]

I know only Pub Members can post classified ads, but how about free stuff?
I found an AT9 dish with LNBs (WNC fw9 for Ka/Ku, and WNC fw2 for 110/119)),
I will be making a solar cooker with the dish. Anybody want the LNBs? Just pay shipping, priority mail....

 

[Joe Diamond]

I know only Pub Members can post classified ads, but how about free stuff?
I found an AT9 dish with LNBs (WNC fw9 for Ka/Ku, and WNC fw2 for 110/119)),
I will be making a solar cooker with the dish. Anybody want the LNBs? Just pay shipping, priority mail....

PLZ report on the solar cooker.

Having been stranded on this planet our chief engineer caused the small satellite businesses to focus their dishes in the direction of out last reported position. When the rescue ship arrives we will cause all small satellite dishes to show a mirror coating that should signal the mother ship which planet we are on.

Till then the solar cooker could be fun. I have a pile of PrimeStar dishes here with arms and LNBs. Might try making a solar hot tub or distillery.

Joe

 

[bill55az]

PLZ report on the solar cooker.

Having been stranded on this planet our chief engineer caused the small satellite businesses to focus their dishes in the direction of out last reported position. When the rescue ship arrives we will cause all small satellite dishes to show a mirror coating that should signal the mother ship which planet we are on.

Till then the solar cooker could be fun. I have a pile of PrimeStar dishes here with arms and LNBs. Might try making a solar hot tub or distillery.

Joe

Stranded? or marooned?
I have built several solar cookers of the "inside the parabola" variety, using Aluminum high bay lighting reflectors with glass covers. The focal point is inside, near the bottom of the reflector. You put a small black pot under the glass, with a thermal break between the pot and the reflector, and insulated on the outside of the reflector. Pots are typically stainless or aluminum pots painted black on the outside. They work well with water based cooking. Some report up to 450 degrees F (dry). I find that 350 is more common, but that is more than enough to make dinner.
Unless you want to do oil based cooking...(want fries with that?). Then the focal point will be above the arc of the parabola, as satellite TV dishes usually are. You can get your cookware very hot using a pair of small dishes or one big dish. Hint, don't use aluminum pots.... Problem is getting a good smooth and reflective surface. The "flatter" the dish, the easier it is to coat with aluminum tape or foil duct tape, or whatever, without getting scads of wrinkles that diffuse light.
Here in the USA, most satellite dishes are steel, good luck getting a good smooth and reflectilve surface with them. In Europe, it is easier to find aluminum, which can be polished to a mirror light surface. Aluminum reflects far better that chrome, nickel, etc. which tend to absorb much of the light instead of reflecting it.
There are fresnel lens cookers as well, but UV light damages them quite rapidly, so forget about them.
The AT9 dish looks to be one of the better dishes to use.....will know soon as I coat it with Al foil and see what burns....

 

[bill55az]

I googled prime star, Images, first pic is of a small house practically obscured by old dishes....is that your house, Joe?

 

[Joe Diamond]

I googled prime star, Images, first pic is of a small house practically obscured by old dishes....is that your house, Joe?

I think I know the pic you mean. Many dishes on a porch? That is a neighbor. We put our dishes on a dead Pinto wagon out front on the lawn. Took the wheels off for added stability and, with the trunk lid removed the chickens can hide from the dogs & pigs.

Pstar dishes had the potential to take over the world. The DirecTV rig was about half the size. I even mounted a few directly on the Pstar dishes; just drilled the face of the big dish & bolted the new dish / mast on....worked well when additional elevation was needed but looked strange.

You are correct about the focal point. It is somewhere between the top of the dish and the line of the LNB arm which is what you said in another way. I did try making one a reflector by using aluminum high temp tape. It worked a little but the texture of the Pstar dish seemed to distort the collected light. The size was better but if I had to do it again I think I would use some Bondo or other filler that could be sanded/polished smooth before applying the aluminum tape.

I plan to revisit the parabolic stove idea for another reason. Since the mother ship is going to be late I thought I might use an old hot water heater tank / core to heat water for a green house floor heat system. My plan is to focus the sunlight through a hole in the insulation and sheet metal skin to heat a spot on the tank. I think if it gets hot enough the liquid will circulate without a pump through the lines in the floor. I would also use as many dishes as I can rig to focus on a heat mass (concrete blocks) to sustain heat at night. Might even rig a photo voltaic cell to run a fan.

And you can use one of them to watch TV.

Thoughts?

Joe

 

[bill55az]

I think I know the pic you mean. Many dishes on a porch? That is a neighbor. We put our dishes on a dead Pinto wagon out front on the lawn. Took the wheels off for added stability and, with the trunk lid removed the chickens can hide from the dogs & pigs.

Pstar dishes had the potential to take over the world. The DirecTV rig was about half the size. I even mounted a few directly on the Pstar dishes; just drilled the face of the big dish & bolted the new dish / mast on....worked well when additional elevation was needed but looked strange.

You are correct about the focal point. It is somewhere between the top of the dish and the line of the LNB arm which is what you said in another way. I did try making one a reflector by using aluminum high temp tape. It worked a little but the texture of the Pstar dish seemed to distort the collected light. The size was better but if I had to do it again I think I would use some Bondo or other filler that could be sanded/polished smooth before applying the aluminum tape.

I plan to revisit the parabolic stove idea for another reason. Since the mother ship is going to be late I thought I might use an old hot water heater tank / core to heat water for a green house floor heat system. My plan is to focus the sunlight through a hole in the insulation and sheet metal skin to heat a spot on the tank. I think if it gets hot enough the liquid will circulate without a pump through the lines in the floor. I would also use as many dishes as I can rig to focus on a heat mass (concrete blocks) to sustain heat at night. Might even rig a photo voltaic cell to run a fan.

And you can use one of them to watch TV.

Thoughts?

Joe

Focusing light inside a greenhouse? Is the greenhouse combustible? Be careful....
I would strip the cover and insulation off the tank, paint it flat black, and try it that way, without help from the dishes first, to get a feel for what that can do. Get some of those walmart electronic thermometers that record highs and lows, place one near the middle of the greenhouse, see if you get enough heat without tank or dishes. Then add the tank full of water, test again for a few days, takes some time for that much water to get warm. Then add the dishes. I wonder is bright white highly reflective paint on those dishes would work? Since you have so many of them. Point them all towards the bottom...
I think one of my AZ dishes is a PrimeStar, some kind of plastic with ribs on back, right? Works pretty good, but then it is AZ. My Utah dishes are all standard stuff except for the AT9 I just got and some Cisco 24" aluminum dishes. There is a place in Idaho Falls, ID that hydroforms aluminum dishes, you can get some 24" dishes (most likely same as the Cisco dishes)
from them that have not yet been painted. I was quoted $50 per each. It is Anderson Mfg, on North Yellowstone. Not related to Anderson Windows.....they also make a solar cooker, plus some much bigger dishes.

BTW, the mother ship came and went.....the Admiral decided he needed more room for his personal collection of plastic flamingos. He took your space. Sorry about that...

 

[Joe Diamond]

Focusing light inside a greenhouse? Is the greenhouse combustible? Be careful....
I would strip the cover and insulation off the tank, paint it flat black, and try it that way, without help from the dishes first, to get a feel for what that can do. Get some of those walmart electronic thermometers that record highs and lows, place one near the middle of the greenhouse, see if you get enough heat without tank or dishes. Then add the tank full of water, test again for a few days, takes some time for that much water to get warm. Then add the dishes. I wonder is bright white highly reflective paint on those dishes would work? Since you have so many of them. Point them all towards the bottom...
I think one of my AZ dishes is a PrimeStar, some kind of plastic with ribs on back, right? Works pretty good, but then it is AZ. My Utah dishes are all standard stuff except for the AT9 I just got and some Cisco 24" aluminum dishes. There is a place in Idaho Falls, ID that hydroforms aluminum dishes, you can get some 24" dishes (most likely same as the Cisco dishes)
from them that have not yet been painted. I was quoted $50 per each. It is Anderson Mfg, on North Yellowstone. Not related to Anderson Windows.....they also make a solar cooker, plus some much bigger dishes.

BTW, the mother ship came and went.....the Admiral decided he needed more room for his personal collection of plastic flamingos. He took your space. Sorry about that...

I wondered where they went,
I protected that flock from HOAs and zoning departments all over the planet. There is nothing like a flock of pink flamingos on a lawn in an historic district to make the little blue-haired ladies crazy!

Thanks for the ballpark # on the dishes. At the time of the Primestar / DirecTV transition those things came down by the ton. The subcontractor cable companies that were routing the work put dumpsters in their yards for awhile. Then they discovered what a load of plastic dishes and cardboard cost to dump in a landfill. Instead of doing a recycle program they got rid of the dumpsters and told the techs to leave all trash with the customer.
I put about twenty five beside the barn to ripen. We have used some to sight in guns for deer season.I have tried using them as feet for a series of trusses across a swamp; one dish per leg.....they don't sink much.

My thought on the green house here in MD is that in summer there is excess heat to disperse.It is in late winter to early spring that both heat and light are needed before they arrive from natural sources. So the heat storage concepts caught my interest. Likewise in late fall a little more soil heat allows another crop. I had this problem solved by back feeding the local sanitary system through the reactor on the mother ship. Then a crewman without gin experience burned the local power grid. We were using it for communications....we had to move.

Now I am here in MD. I wear an aluminum foil helmet to keep the planet radio noise out. I have discovered that interstate busses are also good for radio noise shelter. I take long trips to hide from the voices. Maybe I'll get on one going to AZ.

Joe

 

[bill55az]

How about a contest, most interesting use/abuse of an old satellite dish? Recycle, upcycle, downcycle, whatever....
With bonus points for innovation. Winner gets 10 of Joe's old PrimeStar dishes.....

Looks like no takers on the LNB's.....and I can't think of any other use for them. Guess I'll take them apart to see what is inside.

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

the LNBs on a AT9 dish or sidecar are pretty much worthless these days.