Ressurecting my C-Band

[dunnsept]

Howdy all!
I have a 10' mesh dish at home, c/Ku LNB that has been "idled" for about 8 years. I want to bring the thing back to life. But before I bid on a 4dtv on ebay or on an FTA recvr, is there any way to check manually if the dish is still good? to check that it still can move etc? I read somewhere that the motor was 36 volts, which I can do, the is it PWM or what for the signal to control it?

I would hate to buy a receiver only then to find out that something is wrong with the dish/motor/lnb.

I'm asking around to see if I can find somebody who has an old receiver that I can hook up to check things first.. but so far no luck.
Also, any suggested maintenance on that dish before I do so? grease/lube? that sorta thing?

thanks!
Paul...

oh.. one other? Is it possible to run a 4dtv and an FTA together? one thing I always liked about the c-band was sitting there with a beer friday nights, surfing around to see what kinda odd & wacky channels I could find

 

[dfergie]

Welcome to SatelliteGuys! you can hook the large Red and White wires that go to the Motor only of your "dish mover" to either a 12 volt battery or a battery charger to see if it moves... before doing so look at the arm and see if it is rusty etc... if so maybe pour a little penetrating oil or even brake fluid on it and let it sit for awhile...if it looks good maybe a thin coat of vaseline or grease... and yest you can do FTA and C-band at the same time. Check the C-Band FAQs...

 

[dunnsept]

thanks.. I guess I should have included this part: the wire that comes from the dish inside the house is a 4 conductor flat ribbon type cable. The conductors are not thin, they are quite large.. I will also have to try to figure out which is which because, of course, when I disconnected the old receiver, I didn't mark them.. (altho I did "park" the dish at G5)

 

[dfergie]

One of the 4 should be a bundle of wires for the Actuator with larger red and white wires about 12 or 14 gauge and the others much smaller... should be 2 coax (C & Ku) and the Polorotor wires... if you know it was at G5 perhaps wait on trying to move or mark the arm if it is not rusted togather...

 

[dunnsept]

hmmm.. may have been a home-owner install. I remember that each wire was the same. same diameter (probably in the 12ga stranded range) same style.. and none were coax. just stranded wires. Used to have a toshiba recvr on it.. worked fine. only reason we got rid of it was that SWMBO wanted that new-fangled Food network channel, and I couldn't afford a 4dtv at the time

 

[14karat]

I would pull the cover off the actuator at the dish and look where the wires connect.
On the opposite side of the connection block, there should be 2 thin wires for the counter pulse and 2 larger wires for the motor.
On my HTS the motor wires are white/green and the counter is violet/black, but yours may be different.
If it's set 8 years, there's a good chance the motor may be stuck, but in otherwise OK shape.
If you aren't afraid of some simple mechanics and a few gears, it's not a big deal to get those old actuators apart, loosened up, and well lubed for another 10 years or so of service...

 

[dunnsept]

cool.. thanks.. I'll open the thing up when I get home and see what I can find. I'm now rueing switching from c-band to dishnetwork.. and if I can get everything around and working, I'll be switching back.. tired of getting ripped off for the little dish

 

[14karat]

tired of getting ripped off for the little dish

I feel your pain...

 

[dfergie]

Example of Ribbon Cable

 

[cappy29]

Bud idled

Howdy all!
I have a 10' mesh dish at home, c/Ku LNB that has been "idled" for about 8 years. I want to bring the thing back to life. But before I bid on a 4dtv on ebay or on an FTA recvr, is there any way to check manually if the dish is still good? to check that it still can move etc? I read somewhere that the motor was 36 volts, which I can do, the is it PWM or what for the signal to control it?

I would hate to buy a receiver only then to find out that something is wrong with the dish/motor/lnb.

I'm asking around to see if I can find somebody who has an old receiver that I can hook up to check things first.. but so far no luck.
Also, any suggested maintenance on that dish before I do so? grease/lube? that sorta thing?

thanks!
Paul...

oh.. one other? Is it possible to run a 4dtv and an FTA together? one thing I always liked about the c-band was sitting there with a beer friday nights, surfing around to see what kinda odd & wacky channels I could find

Hi, yeah i would check the actuator to see if it seized up and also i just started using my bud after 4 years and both my C and Ku-band lnb's were shot,but you will probably have to wait till you get a receiver to know if there good or bad when i got my receiver and plugged it in after it went through the warm up it would keep restarting but as soon as i put a new C-band lnb on it was fine,you also will want to check your coax for damage or corrosion.

 

[dunnsept]

whoa.. mine looks nothing like that. I had a toshiba receiver way back when and it had 4 spring-loaded connectors (like you would find on speakers)
There are 3 wires coming out of the LNB and one that goes to the motor. Each is just stranded wire. I will take a pic of it tonight if it might help.
I found a pic of the toshiba I had, online and there were the 4 spring terminals for the wires.
I dunno, might it be best to re-run the wires? The dish is only about 25' from the house, the 4 conductor still goes in the house and is just coiled up in the ceiling.

The more I read on the internet, the more I want to get that big dish working again. I've been asking around for an older c-band recvr to borrow for testing, but so far no luck. everybody has gotten rid of them. and I would hate to buy a 4dtv only to then find out that I'll have to replace large amounts of parts on the dish.. altho I would still recoup my money from canceling the little dish, would just take longer.

thanks also for the very prompt replies!

Paul...

 

[dfergie]

Check freecycle, and also pawn shops or flea markets around...you might get lucky!

 

[1captain]

Also may want to call some of you're local satellite shops, they know that the old analog receivers are useless, an may just give you 1 for you're bussiness in the futher, or sell you 1 cheep.