I haven't yet bought a FTA reciever, ( I really am not sure which one I want to get ) but have been looking at some of the manuals linked to this site. If my 4DTV receiver will be positioning the dish, what's all this set up stuff in the FTA receiver about. Why or how would it be showing dish position, setting dish travel limits, etc,. when this will be done by the master receiver? Can anyone give me some detail on this? I'm the type who likes to know what he's getting into.
FTA receiver dish positioning setup
- Thread starter dvstahl
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When you slave a FTA receiver, your 4DTV receiver moves the dish and you need to know which sat you are on and which polarity (h/V) when you are scanning/tuning in a channel unless you have a separate dish for your FTA receiver, which you could also do is have both, your Big dish and a separate dish combined with a DisecQ switch.
I don't understand. I have a big dish, with a 4dtv receiver which would be positioning the dish, and would tell me what satellite I'm on. How is the FTA receiver going to know what satellite I'm pointing at unless I manually tell it? Is there some sort of software involved that will take the info from the 4DTV and put it into the FTA?
It won't know where you're at unless you tell it. When you're doing the initial setup, you'll position the dish with your 4dtv, select that satellite on your FTA receiver, and then do a scan. It will place the "channel list" for that satellite onto your receiver.
Then when you want to watch a channel on your FTA receiver, you'll position the dish with your 4DTV receiver, go to your FTA receiver and select the appropriate channel for the satellite that you're pointed to, and watch. It's very manual, but that's how it works under the setup you're looking at now.
Then when you want to watch a channel on your FTA receiver, you'll position the dish with your 4DTV receiver, go to your FTA receiver and select the appropriate channel for the satellite that you're pointed to, and watch. It's very manual, but that's how it works under the setup you're looking at now.
But what is this setup that is in the FTA receiver that require you to input into the FTA, that it is motorized, dish positioning, and dish limits. This is the thing I don't understand. If it is all done by the 4DTV receiver, what does this accomplish? I can understand entering a specific satellite into the FTA, so that it will know what channels to look for.
All that stuff (motor/limits/etc) are for when you actually have your FTA receiver position your satellite dish. There are several models of smaller dishes and motors that people connect to their FTA receivers. Those settings do nothing for you if you do not have a compatible motor (one that is either diseqc or ulas compatible - not like the actuator arm that you most likely have on your BUD).
There are some FTA receivers that can actually move your actuator arm if you set it up to do so (some pansats and others). But that would mean having your FTA receiver move the dish instead of the 4DTV. There are also some devices that you can use to position the dish from any FTA receiver (like a moteck V-Box II). Neither of these devices mean much though, if you are going to slave your system from your 4DTV setup.
You'll ignore the dish positioning information entirely, on your FTA unit, if you are going to slave it to your 4DTV (since it's doing that stuff for you, and your fta equipement couldn't do it without some complexities involved)
There are some FTA receivers that can actually move your actuator arm if you set it up to do so (some pansats and others). But that would mean having your FTA receiver move the dish instead of the 4DTV. There are also some devices that you can use to position the dish from any FTA receiver (like a moteck V-Box II). Neither of these devices mean much though, if you are going to slave your system from your 4DTV setup.
You'll ignore the dish positioning information entirely, on your FTA unit, if you are going to slave it to your 4DTV (since it's doing that stuff for you, and your fta equipement couldn't do it without some complexities involved)
Basically all recent FTA receivers can move a diseqc or ulas compatible motor (not like your big dish has - your BUD probably has an actuator which is different). They control the motor via the RG6 cable - by sending down a diseqc signal over the cable to tell the motor where to position (the motor has two rg6 connectors so that it can pass the signals from the LNBF through it and back to the receiver over that same single RG6 cable). SOME (very very few) receivers actually have the capability of hooking up the actuator arm like your 4DTV has.
So the software in those receivers "can" move a compatible dish motor, but you have to have the right motor and setup (i.e. not slaving them to something else).
So the software in those receivers "can" move a compatible dish motor, but you have to have the right motor and setup (i.e. not slaving them to something else).
If you want to move a big dish (BUD) with a FTA receiver, you can get a V-Box II positioner (as mentioned in post #6 above), and it will move it just fine.
This is how I slave my FTA receiver to my BUD:
http://www.dmsiusa.com/add_a_receiver.htm
it works really good!
Al
This is how I slave my FTA receiver to my BUD:
http://www.dmsiusa.com/add_a_receiver.htm
it works really good!
Al
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