It certainly looks strong enough. What kind of motor is that? I would be very concerned about how to mount it on the roof. Let us know the results.
Old John
Old John
Primestar Dish on SG2100 ?
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There were some off topic comments that have been removed. If you have a picture of a Primestar Dish on a motor, please use the attachment option to upload them here. Please refrain from posting off site links, mainly because we don't know where they go (and may make some people hesitant to click on it) 
Stefan and Pepper:
Out of curosity I looked out at the dish from my window and it did, indeed, look round. Although I had measured it before installing it I decided to measure it again. It measures 39.5 x 43. I don't know how I could have made such a mistake as I used to be so good with numbers. Unless you are looking at it straight on it does appear to be round and the slight difference explains why.
I hope my mistake didn't cause any difficulties on your part.
Old John
Out of curosity I looked out at the dish from my window and it did, indeed, look round. Although I had measured it before installing it I decided to measure it again. It measures 39.5 x 43. I don't know how I could have made such a mistake as I used to be so good with numbers. Unless you are looking at it straight on it does appear to be round and the slight difference explains why.
I hope my mistake didn't cause any difficulties on your part.
Old John
dirtyshame said:
Yeah, I could tell from the pic that your dish was what we call a "round" primestar, although they're not totally round and I suspected your measurements were incorrect. Anyway, these dishes are closer to being round than the other smaller more oval primestars. Technically the dish could be considered round because with the signal coming in at an angle from above, the way it does on all offset dishes, the dish would appear to the signal as being round. These type are bit taller than they are wider. The smaller oval primestars are the opposite being wider than they are taller and are much more obviously oval. The smaller more oval ones don't appear round to the incoming signal and for optimum performance require the use of their existing feedhorn as it is optimised to their non-standard shape. The "round" ones are really better in that regard and also in the fact they are larger and have more total surface area. So, your dish should be a pretty good performer. I have one just like it but I have it fixed on G10. Technically this dish is classifed by channel master as the 1.0M meter size. There was also a 1.2M size that was just like this but a bit larger and I believe there was also a slightly smaller size.
Anyway, as I was saying earlier there were 2 different "families" of channel master dishes commonly used by primestar and those were these "round" ones like you have and the smaller oval ones with each "family" coming in at least 3 different sizes. I believe the different sizes used the same mount but the 2 different "families" used different (though somewhat similar in overall appearance) mounts. I believe all the mounts (or all the ones I've seen) mounted to the same 2 3/8" size pole but the bolt hole pattern that attacehes to the dish is different with the bolts being spaced much wider apart on the round ones. This and the fact that the mount used on the round dishes appears to be constructed of much thicker material makes them much heavier than the smaller mount used on the small oval dishes. This is why whenever the smaller oval dishes are attached to a motor it's possible to use the existing mount flipped upside down but with the larger round dishes, like the one you have, it's recommended to either highly modify or fabricate your own custome mount as you've done. Anyway, it looks like you've done an excellent jobs.
My guess is that Primestar overdid it on the early systems and used a much stronger mount than was neccessary. I'll bet the heavy one would withstand a hurricane. The pole might get blown down but the mount would not be damaged.
Speaking of poles, I am very lucky to have clay about 4 inches from the surface. I used a post hole digger to make a hole 2 ft. deep. Believe me it was hard digging, and it wasn't dry either. I stood my pole in the hole and poured about one quart of concrete mix in followed by a little water. I mixed it with a rod resembling a broom handle. I repeated this process several times until I had it full. After the second or third mixing the pole would stand alone, but I kept a sharp watch on the angle finder just the same. The next day was too cold and windy for comfort and for handling a dish so I let the concrete cure. It is solid as can be and did not shift position as it dried. I used about 60 lbs. of mix total.
Thanks for the kind words!
Old John
Speaking of poles, I am very lucky to have clay about 4 inches from the surface. I used a post hole digger to make a hole 2 ft. deep. Believe me it was hard digging, and it wasn't dry either. I stood my pole in the hole and poured about one quart of concrete mix in followed by a little water. I mixed it with a rod resembling a broom handle. I repeated this process several times until I had it full. After the second or third mixing the pole would stand alone, but I kept a sharp watch on the angle finder just the same. The next day was too cold and windy for comfort and for handling a dish so I let the concrete cure. It is solid as can be and did not shift position as it dried. I used about 60 lbs. of mix total.
Thanks for the kind words!
Old John
FINALLY!!! Its finally done, and aligned and works fantastic!
What I did was this. I took a mount from the smaller primestar dish and used it as a roof mount. I cut down the pole by about 3 feet, and then mounted the dish to that (mount pictures are on page 6 of this thread).
The result is incredibly sturdy, and as I hoped, the motor has no problem turning.. It is a smaller one too, the HH90. Because I was unsure how much success I might have, and because it was so close to christmas, I simply used what I had, and haven't shelled out the bucks for a decent LNB.. that will come in time I suppose.
Sometimes, even if your needs are a little different than everyone elses, simply seeing what they are doing is enough inspiration to come up with your own solution. Thats what did it for me.. So again... enjoy the pics.
What I did was this. I took a mount from the smaller primestar dish and used it as a roof mount. I cut down the pole by about 3 feet, and then mounted the dish to that (mount pictures are on page 6 of this thread).
The result is incredibly sturdy, and as I hoped, the motor has no problem turning.. It is a smaller one too, the HH90. Because I was unsure how much success I might have, and because it was so close to christmas, I simply used what I had, and haven't shelled out the bucks for a decent LNB.. that will come in time I suppose.
Sometimes, even if your needs are a little different than everyone elses, simply seeing what they are doing is enough inspiration to come up with your own solution. Thats what did it for me.. So again... enjoy the pics.
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Before Katrina, I took off the reflector on my 1 meter Channel Master and left the non-penetrating roof mount and AZ-EL mount up there. I also took off my entire motor and dish assembly from another non-pen mount, leaving that mount up there too. After the storm, both mounts were still in place, and the AZ-EL mount from the Channel Master was still perfectly on target. All I needed to do with that dish was re-bolt the reflector. The motorized one, though, I had to totally re-tweak.
We had 140+ MPH winds here in Metairie.
We had 140+ MPH winds here in Metairie.
Funny the P* mount I picked up from the sat shop that tossed it out has a 18" mount on it too.
Thanks for all the pics and good luck with your recovery.
Thanks for all the pics and good luck with your recovery.
Great pics, Wtfover!
I had taken the 1 meter Channel Master inside before the storm, I knew we were going to get pounded really hard and didn't want to lose it. There are fiberglass Channel Masters all over New Orleans that bit the dust due to Katrina.
I was VERY surprised that the non-pen roof mounts actually stayed in place! Katrina ripped a 35 year old Pecan tree completely out of the ground in our yard, tore both neighbor's fences to shreds, and knocked some neighbor's doors out of their frames.
I had taken the 1 meter Channel Master inside before the storm, I knew we were going to get pounded really hard and didn't want to lose it. There are fiberglass Channel Masters all over New Orleans that bit the dust due to Katrina.
I was VERY surprised that the non-pen roof mounts actually stayed in place! Katrina ripped a 35 year old Pecan tree completely out of the ground in our yard, tore both neighbor's fences to shreds, and knocked some neighbor's doors out of their frames.
Modification of Dirtyshame's Mount
I"m new to FTA. My first-ever receiver and motor arrived three days ago. I've been busy since then putting my system together. I'm mated an old 36 inch by 39 inch Primestar dish to my new sg2100 motor. I had read this thread, and knew it was important to try to reduce weight. I saved 4.5 pounds by replacing the original Primestar mount with a mount that I built, based on one shown in this tread by "dirtyshame". See my mount in the pics below.
I made the mount from the "foot" of a surplus Superdish mast. Note that I took the original "tube" off the sg2100, and bolted an optional larger diameter tube back on, in the 180 degrees backward position.
In retrospect, I really think it would have been better to have used the original tube (turned around 180 degrees, of couse). I say that because the original tube already has a hole pre-drilled in the place where the foot pivots. The optional larger diameter tube does not have this hole, and I had to go to great pains to make sure I drilled this hole parallel to hole that bolts the tube to the shaft coming out of the sg2100.
The channel in the foot is wider than the tube, so washers are necessary to fill gap.
Of course I had to cut off part of the length of the tube. And, once I bolted the foot to the tube (at the pivot point), I had to drill a hole in each side of the tube so that a tightening bolt could be put in each side.
I've already got my Ku channels blind-scanned in. Next I will blind scan the c-band channels.
I've got a 10 foot BUD, and I used one-port-power-passing splitters to put the Ku and C-band signals to my Coolsat 5000 and my old Echostar 710 analog reciver. The Coolsat controls polarity of both the Ku LNBs and the C-band LNB via voltage.
A neighbor has his 4DTV reciver up for sale. It is capable of polarity control via voltage. I might buy it....then each receiver would be autonomous just by turning off the power to the other receiver. For that to work, I'd have to replace my splitters with the kind that both ports pass the power. I hope that having both receivers on simultaneously wouldn't do any harm to the receivers. (One guy posted in this forum that he had done it with no ill effect.)
I'm enjoying watching FTA tonight. RT (Russia Today) is a good channel. Dr. Scott just reprimanded a kid that was not paying proper attention. He told the kid's dad to take the kid outside. I've watched MTA Muslim TV's English channel some. I'm not of the verge of converting to Islam, but maybe it'll help me understand their culture better.
Thanks to all you guys who post in the FTA forum. I followed your advice, and I my installation went pretty smooth. I still have a lot to learn, though. I'll be asking some questions.
I"m new to FTA. My first-ever receiver and motor arrived three days ago. I've been busy since then putting my system together. I'm mated an old 36 inch by 39 inch Primestar dish to my new sg2100 motor. I had read this thread, and knew it was important to try to reduce weight. I saved 4.5 pounds by replacing the original Primestar mount with a mount that I built, based on one shown in this tread by "dirtyshame". See my mount in the pics below.
I made the mount from the "foot" of a surplus Superdish mast. Note that I took the original "tube" off the sg2100, and bolted an optional larger diameter tube back on, in the 180 degrees backward position.
In retrospect, I really think it would have been better to have used the original tube (turned around 180 degrees, of couse). I say that because the original tube already has a hole pre-drilled in the place where the foot pivots. The optional larger diameter tube does not have this hole, and I had to go to great pains to make sure I drilled this hole parallel to hole that bolts the tube to the shaft coming out of the sg2100.
The channel in the foot is wider than the tube, so washers are necessary to fill gap.
Of course I had to cut off part of the length of the tube. And, once I bolted the foot to the tube (at the pivot point), I had to drill a hole in each side of the tube so that a tightening bolt could be put in each side.
I've already got my Ku channels blind-scanned in. Next I will blind scan the c-band channels.
I've got a 10 foot BUD, and I used one-port-power-passing splitters to put the Ku and C-band signals to my Coolsat 5000 and my old Echostar 710 analog reciver. The Coolsat controls polarity of both the Ku LNBs and the C-band LNB via voltage.
A neighbor has his 4DTV reciver up for sale. It is capable of polarity control via voltage. I might buy it....then each receiver would be autonomous just by turning off the power to the other receiver. For that to work, I'd have to replace my splitters with the kind that both ports pass the power. I hope that having both receivers on simultaneously wouldn't do any harm to the receivers. (One guy posted in this forum that he had done it with no ill effect.)
I'm enjoying watching FTA tonight. RT (Russia Today) is a good channel. Dr. Scott just reprimanded a kid that was not paying proper attention. He told the kid's dad to take the kid outside. I've watched MTA Muslim TV's English channel some. I'm not of the verge of converting to Islam, but maybe it'll help me understand their culture better.
Thanks to all you guys who post in the FTA forum. I followed your advice, and I my installation went pretty smooth. I still have a lot to learn, though. I'll be asking some questions.
Attachments
Finally some pictures
Here are some pictures of my cheap-o primestar mounting to the SG2100 (described somewhere earlier in this thread but never shown because I hadn't bothered to photograph it yet). First I removed all the mounting hardware on the back of the dish and replaced it with what's in the pictures.
That's a skew-plate from a Dish500. It's mounted with the two top bolts, and the bottom of the motor tube rests against the piece of metal that's wedged in there at the top edge of the two bottom bolts. I don't know what that piece is, just found it lying around somewhere and it fit the gap perfectly. I found my true south satellite, adjusted the elevation bracket and peaked the signal, then tightened it down and was good to go from 30W to 127W.
The bolt at the top goes right thru the pre-drilled hole in the motor tube.
Here are some pictures of my cheap-o primestar mounting to the SG2100 (described somewhere earlier in this thread but never shown because I hadn't bothered to photograph it yet). First I removed all the mounting hardware on the back of the dish and replaced it with what's in the pictures.
That's a skew-plate from a Dish500. It's mounted with the two top bolts, and the bottom of the motor tube rests against the piece of metal that's wedged in there at the top edge of the two bottom bolts. I don't know what that piece is, just found it lying around somewhere and it fit the gap perfectly. I found my true south satellite, adjusted the elevation bracket and peaked the signal, then tightened it down and was good to go from 30W to 127W.
The bolt at the top goes right thru the pre-drilled hole in the motor tube.
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Another primestar mount.
Just installed. Used some Northwest timbers and a dtv dish mount. 6 inch lag screws to a 4x4 spacer beam to the 6x4 "pole". Added some steel U channel to stop the wood from warping.
Just installed. Used some Northwest timbers and a dtv dish mount. 6 inch lag screws to a 4x4 spacer beam to the 6x4 "pole". Added some steel U channel to stop the wood from warping.
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Nice work and pictures! The wood post will move over the months so some slight realignment will be needed from time to time.
I would not have used steel staples as you do not want to crush or even have too sharp a bend in your coax!
I like the use of the aluminum and the DirecTV mount, picture 3 is stunning!
Thanks for posting
I would not have used steel staples as you do not want to crush or even have too sharp a bend in your coax!
I like the use of the aluminum and the DirecTV mount, picture 3 is stunning!
Thanks for posting
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