ordered a dual C and ku feedhorn
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Those PBS transponders are tough sometimes. When I had my BSC-621 on my 10' dish, I struggled to get 50% quality on those. It seems the 12179v was weaker than the 12140V.
Now with my Corotor II and Eagle Aspen .6Ku lnb, even today with it raining pretty good, My readings are in the low 80's on quality. Montana PBS is 80'ish too.
My pansat 9200 seems to have a stingy meter sometimes. It will lock a lot of tp's down to 25% quality.
My 75cm patriot PTX offset dish with a .5 Ku lnb can hardly lock those amc-3 pbs channels when the weather is rainy. Sunny days it will but not much headroom left.
Now with my Corotor II and Eagle Aspen .6Ku lnb, even today with it raining pretty good, My readings are in the low 80's on quality. Montana PBS is 80'ish too.
My pansat 9200 seems to have a stingy meter sometimes. It will lock a lot of tp's down to 25% quality.
My 75cm patriot PTX offset dish with a .5 Ku lnb can hardly lock those amc-3 pbs channels when the weather is rainy. Sunny days it will but not much headroom left.
My Bullseye II feed-horn finally got here today. It has been almost 3 weeks since I ordered it.
I knew Anole would want to see it up close and personal, so I took some shots down it's throat from both ends just so he could see it and hopefully everyone else can see the difference in design between it and the LNBFs we've been having so much fun with.
As you can see the C-Band probes are at the same depth inside the feedhorn.
The Ku travels independently down the center chute and is straight out to the vertical LNB while the horizontal is bent through an elbow.
It has separate skew adjustment for the Ku from the C-Band. It will be interesting to see how well it performs.
Now just to get some time, some more dry weather and get it put on the dish. I have been waiting long enough.
I knew Anole would want to see it up close and personal, so I took some shots down it's throat from both ends just so he could see it and hopefully everyone else can see the difference in design between it and the LNBFs we've been having so much fun with.
As you can see the C-Band probes are at the same depth inside the feedhorn.
The Ku travels independently down the center chute and is straight out to the vertical LNB while the horizontal is bent through an elbow.
It has separate skew adjustment for the Ku from the C-Band. It will be interesting to see how well it performs.
Now just to get some time, some more dry weather and get it put on the dish. I have been waiting long enough.
Great clear pics Linuxman, is the Feedhorn expensive? (Wondering where one can get a good deal on that Feedhorn). How many switches are you using to wire it up? That is, are you using a 4X4 Switch and a Power Inserter?? Looking forward to hearing how it works out for you!
JsatTV -
See my recent ramblings, and it should bring you up to speed.
Linuxman -
Thanks a bunch for the fine pictures. Each is worth a thousand words!
Why the cheap voltage controlled LNBf's can't work this well, is beyond me!
See my recent ramblings, and it should bring you up to speed.
Linuxman -
Thanks a bunch for the fine pictures. Each is worth a thousand words!
Why the cheap voltage controlled LNBf's can't work this well, is beyond me!
Mine came too. Looks exactly like what i have. Mine came with two Norsat 8000 series lnbs, and two Norsat KU lnbs. Not bad for 50.00!!!
It will be this weekend before I can install. I put one of the Norsat 8000 on my Corotor and picked up 5-10% quality across the board on C-band over my cheapo lnb.
I still need two multiswitches for the bullseye to work properly. Plus two power inserters. I think I am going to Lowe's and get one of those Large water proof NEMA boxes to put the multi swithes inside out of the weather since I don't want to string two more RG-6 coaxes back to the house 200ft.
It will be this weekend before I can install. I put one of the Norsat 8000 on my Corotor and picked up 5-10% quality across the board on C-band over my cheapo lnb.
I still need two multiswitches for the bullseye to work properly. Plus two power inserters. I think I am going to Lowe's and get one of those Large water proof NEMA boxes to put the multi swithes inside out of the weather since I don't want to string two more RG-6 coaxes back to the house 200ft.
Ok, I managed to solve the problem of 13V on the vertical side.
I asked my electronics engineer neighbor to come over tonight to look at my power inserter things I spoke about above.
I explained to him what I was going to do using a 3x4 multi-switch which will do the actual switching to which LNB will be accessed on the Bullseye II feed-horn.
He popped the lid off and within 10 minutes he had 18.7 volts feeding out both sides.
I have before and after pictures and a picture of what he removed. Those of you that can follow traces can see what he did. He took the other one home to do it tomorrow on his lunch hour.
So now I will have two power inserters with 18V going to the LNBs all the time.
Here are the pics.
I asked my electronics engineer neighbor to come over tonight to look at my power inserter things I spoke about above.
I explained to him what I was going to do using a 3x4 multi-switch which will do the actual switching to which LNB will be accessed on the Bullseye II feed-horn.
He popped the lid off and within 10 minutes he had 18.7 volts feeding out both sides.
I have before and after pictures and a picture of what he removed. Those of you that can follow traces can see what he did. He took the other one home to do it tomorrow on his lunch hour.
So now I will have two power inserters with 18V going to the LNBs all the time.
Here are the pics.
I have run the trace as best I can so that other can follow what he did.
See the traced picture.
See the traced picture.
Well that's pretty slick...I haven't tore into one to have a look but what he did was he is now powering the 13 volt side with the bias voltage meant for the 15 volt regulator which is probably coming from the 18 volt reg on the other side. The only thing that would concern me would be some possible added crosstalk between ports. Fire in the hole...
Well I don't understand most of what he says, but from what I did understand, he only removed or by-passed the parts that brought the voltage down to 13V. The circuitry was all there and is still there for everything else.
He says it should be fine.
I hope to know by Sunday or Monday.
A very good solution to the problem.
And a good example of "thinking outside the box".
Since these switches will be dedicated to the task, modifying them is just fine.
Of course, you cannot ever replace them with stock switches, so just keep that in mind.
This switch has an external 24 volt power supply?
I think that's a plus for this operation.
Hope everything else with this install goes as smoothly.
And a good example of "thinking outside the box".
Since these switches will be dedicated to the task, modifying them is just fine.
Of course, you cannot ever replace them with stock switches, so just keep that in mind.
This switch has an external 24 volt power supply?
I think that's a plus for this operation.
Hope everything else with this install goes as smoothly.
Looks like he just bypassed the 13V regulator. Great idea.
That is interesting that the bullseye has the c-band probes at the same depth inside the feedhorn unlike lnbf's do. My old astrotel lnbf's have the probes at different depths with an isolation bar between them.
I do like the seperate skew adjustments from C and ku too. That would be really handy with a dedicated dish on AMC-1. You would not have compromise the C band for ku reception with this feed horn.
Can't wait to do mine this weekend (weather permitting).
That is interesting that the bullseye has the c-band probes at the same depth inside the feedhorn unlike lnbf's do. My old astrotel lnbf's have the probes at different depths with an isolation bar between them.
I do like the seperate skew adjustments from C and ku too. That would be really handy with a dedicated dish on AMC-1. You would not have compromise the C band for ku reception with this feed horn.
Can't wait to do mine this weekend (weather permitting).
The devices that I am using are not switches. I don't know what you might call them except maybe LNB power boosters. See this link from where I talked about them before.
The switch will actually be located between the receiver and these devices. Here are those pictures again.
Since they don't actually do any switching themselves and are only used for boosting power to the LNBs is what led me to think that if it can output 18V on one side, why not both sides?
That's basically all he did.
I ordered another Bullseye II feed-horn. The guy I ordered my Bullseye II from had two of them. I just received the first a couple of days ago.
I called and ordered the second one yesterday, and just got confirmation on the shipping a little while ago. It takes almost 3 weeks for them to get here from the North East side of New Foundland Canada.
Mine didn't have LNBs, and they cost me $40.00 each plus shipping. If you look around on the internet, you can find them for a reasonable price.
Until our "smart" guys come up with a way to conveniently flip the servo motor on a Co-Rotor, I think this is the best setup to have as we move forward into the future with HD and DVB-S2 receivers. None of the newer receivers have servo control.
The other factor might be a re-designed C/Ku LNBf that works better than what currently is available.
I called and ordered the second one yesterday, and just got confirmation on the shipping a little while ago. It takes almost 3 weeks for them to get here from the North East side of New Foundland Canada.
Mine didn't have LNBs, and they cost me $40.00 each plus shipping. If you look around on the internet, you can find them for a reasonable price.
Until our "smart" guys come up with a way to conveniently flip the servo motor on a Co-Rotor, I think this is the best setup to have as we move forward into the future with HD and DVB-S2 receivers. None of the newer receivers have servo control.
The other factor might be a re-designed C/Ku LNBf that works better than what currently is available.
One thing that I haven't seen mentioned in support of ortho feeds is that the servo style feeds have a bit of loss in the probe, and the ortho style counters this loss. Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that the IF section and the microwave section of receive systems are directly related...that is...the "line amp will help a marginal signal" syndrome. They have to be treated as two seperate sections of the chain because the receiver only sees the downconverted IF signal and not the microwave signal. I mentioned on another forum that I was doing some research into Gregorian style dishes and the possibility of using a modified DBS dish as the sub reflector. This style is 10-12% more efficient with the same size main reflector.
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