IT'S ALIVE!

[dunnsept]

my neighbor, wonderful lady that she is, presented me with a present today: a uniden UST-4400! WHEEE
she found it in the barn ;-)

Just went down and did a lame job splicing the wires back together, hooked up the wires, turned it on,.... and...

IT'S ALIVE!
turns out that my dish is pointing at Galaxy 15. So I watched Classic Arts showcase, ShopNBC, EWTN and some other religious channel.

So, now I have to figure out what all the wires are. on the one that runs to the motor: thick RED and WHITE, I'm assuming that's the 36v motor, then there are 3 other wires which, in number, match the terminals on the back of the recvr.. just gotta figure out what's what.
then there's a set of red, white & black wires that match another set of terminals.. BUT now I have an ORANGE and a WHITE wire left with nowhere to go. Any ideas what those are for?
I know at the dish, the 1 wire goes in the motor, and the other three go up inside the feedhorn.
MAN am I geeked! if it weren't pitch black, and freezing cold I'd be out there clearing raspberry & blackberry bushes from around the dish so I could move it (well, except that my neighbor can't find the remote and I have no means of changing sats from the front panel of the uniden.
I have got to get a 4dtv and FTA now..soooo many tempting channels out there

Paul

 

[Lak7]

Thick Red / White are 36volt to motor

There are 2 thin wires that also go to motor, for Pulse count, it's how the receivers knows where it's at. It counts motor revolutions.

Then there are 3 thin wires that go to Servo Motor (small Blue Box) on the Feedhorn. That controls polarity, Horizontal and Vertical.

I've got a 4DTV for sale, if you are interested.

 

[dunnsept]

thanks... got those hooked up.. but there are 2 wires left.. orange and white. no clue where those go. I'm going to go try to find a manual online for the old toshiba I had.. I know all of those wires were hooked up before. I just have no clue where they go or what they do.

Also what I have to figure out on the motor wires, which are sensor and which is ground. are the wires polarized? how badly can I screw things up if I switch polarity on the wires?

I know one is brown, can't remember the other colors and too lazy to go downstairs again ;-)

 

[Lak7]

Wires are not polarized, Signal is.

Here is the manual...
http://www.uniden.com/pdf/UST4400om.pdf
Page 3.....
"R2" is Motor and Sensor - 5 wires total, 2 thick, 3 thin Black Red White
"R3" is for Servo Motor, Controls Feed polarity

 

[14karat]

Dunnsept,
You'll need to check the wiring at the satellite.
Like Lak7 said, the 2 thich wires will go to the actuator motor.
The others could be in any sequence... You should have 2 small wires going to the actuator sensor and 3 going to the feedhorn servo.
Beyond that are probably just extra wires going nowhere.
When you try and move the actuator you need to be where you can see the dish.
Make sure first that it will move and is not stuck (don't want to burn up the actuator motor)
Then make sure it moves the right direction. If you move West in the receiver but the dish moves east, then you've got the motor wires crossed.

 

[dunnsept]

(edit).. OK.. I have 10 wires total, plus coax.
in the sheath going to the motor there are 5 wires. 2 thick and 3 thin (plus a bare stranded in the sheath)
then I have 3 sheaths going to feedhorn
one has coax in it.. got that one ;-)
one has 3 wires in it: feedhorn servo
one has 2 wires in it. let's call them medium thick, orange and white. these are the ones I have no clue.
too bad I dont have the @#*(!@# remote for this thing as I can't move the dish without it.

BUT one of the people at work overhead me saying that I'm trying to get my big dish going and she offered her receiver with remote. just a question of when she'll bring it in. ;-)

here's another question for you tho: what software/website do you guys use to figure out what sats are visible given either lat/long or a zip code? In reading other posts on FTA hispasat was mentioned.. so how do I find exactly which sats I can theoretically get with my dish?
The only limit now will be trees and my house to the extreme east.

 

[14karat]

Try dishpointer.com. I like n2yo.com myself...
For reference, I'm at 90.1 long. My absolute line of sight range is 17W to 169W (I have no issues with trees, etc...)

 

[dunnsept]

OK.. I'm at 84. According to dishpointer it goes from echostar at 148 down to Atlantic Bird at 8. Of course there were bunches in the list that were outside footprint.. but that's OK
I guess once I can move the dish, I'll have a better idea what I can get and then convince SWMBO I _NEED_ an FTA receiver too ;-)

thanks for the help

 

[Anole]

sat calcs

There's a nice satellite calculator at the top of this (every SatGuy's) page.
It's called The List and has an aiming calculator along with technical info on most all the birds you can see from NA.

One of our Gold Sponsors, SatelliteAV, has a fine calculator which will give you a .PDF printout of all the satellites at once.
You just have to avoid any birds which are too low in the sky.
A lot of guys can get a dish down to 20° above the horizon, but getting from there down to 10° or lower, is generally quite the problem.

Sadoun, another Gold Sponsor, has a satellite aiming calculator, which uses satellite-view maps.
A lot of people like the novelty - give it a try.

Last, this calculator is called Satfinder, and has been updated with recent name-changes of the satellites.
It's a stand-alone application you can run on your desktop without relying on web sites.
I sometimes clip out the calculated list and paste portions to a page or discussion thread.
It does rely on having a current copy of JAVA, but I don't find loading that very threatening nor difficult.

 

[dunnsept]

thanks anole. I "found" the "list" after I typed that post. It shows something like atlantic bird 1 (at 12.5) then Telstar 5 and NSS 7 for me. If I could start with NSS 7 that would rock. but I don't know if I can get it or not.. and wont until I can move the dish and have a receiver for it.

I'm going to cut back all the brush & stuff that's grown up around that dish (sucks too, some raspberries & blackberries in there) and hope to either have my neighbor find the remote OR have the person at work bring her recvr in on Monday.. I'm just impatient and don't want to have to wait.

Paul...

 

[Lak7]

The size of the Actuator Arm will determine how much of the sky you can see.
I'm at 88west 41north, with a 24" Arm on 10' BUD, I can get from 50 west to 137west.
You may get a little more to the east.

 

[truckracer]

I am at 83 degrees West. Using a 36" actuator I can see from 40 degrees to 139 degrees west.

 

[dunnsept]

thanks guys.
are you basing this on the satellites you can pickup or are you measuring it somehow? I'm not sure how long the actuator is. I'll have to go play with it this weekend.
I talked to my neighbor and she said I can come by this weekend and dig for the remote.
here's hopin!

 

[Lak7]

That's what I can get.
The bigger the Arm, the more sky you can cover.