Well im taking the plunge and starting the install on a 10' unimesh that i picked up around the corner today. Figured i better start a thread for the questions that will come up. First one i have is how much space around the dish do i need? Id like to plant it next to the office but want plenty of room so there is room to spare if its at the ends of the arc. Next one im not as in dire need for an answer but what brand actuator is good? It has a 24" super jack on it that i have no idea if it works or not yet, but i seen a superjack 36" QARL heavy duty actuator on ebay for $129 shipped, or a 48" superjack for $169 shipped. Are these decent actuators or should i look for something else? Thanks in advance for any help you guys might give me.
Setting up 10' unimesh
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Use http://www.dishpointer.com/
That will show you how much height you need around the dish along with much other information that is very useful for installing a dish and seeing what birds you will be able to hit.
Try to get 43w up to 139w
My experience with Superjacks, is they are junk. I bought two venture maxi-ball from word of mouth. I have only had one of them running for about 4 months. We shall see how it works during the winter.
That will show you how much height you need around the dish along with much other information that is very useful for installing a dish and seeing what birds you will be able to hit.
Try to get 43w up to 139w
My experience with Superjacks, is they are junk. I bought two venture maxi-ball from word of mouth. I have only had one of them running for about 4 months. We shall see how it works during the winter.
In the spot im wanting to plant the pole i have plenty of clearance in front of the dish I mean how much room between the building and the back of the dish should i look for, 5'? just dont want the dish to move over and smack the building when i do move it.
Okay, i gotcha. Well, i would think minimum would be half the dish size. But, i would probably add a couple feet to that to not cut it so close.. Others may weigh in on that.
I have been running a 36 inch Venture that I bought from the factory for over 1 year with 0/NO problems.
You may be able to get by with what's on it for a time (if it is functional of course
). If you're looking to upgrade I'd go with Venture. I don't have one myself (yet) but have seen good reviews of both 24" models (especially the 24" ball screw). Best to avoid the 18" though as apparently that is imported from China. http://www.gofastmotorsports.com/rickssatellitedishmovers.htm
Exactly 1 year ago I was in the same spot as you (except it was a 7.5ft Unimesh). I made the mistake of getting a QARL / Superjack / chinese junk even though those here said not to do it. I ended up with a Venture Maxi after 2 junk actuators died in quick succession. I love the Venture Maxi. Others will recommend the Venture Ball Screw - they are probably right also, but the Venture Maxi is less expensive and really good.
Hopefully the one that is on it will work, and ill have to test that over the next week as im working on the dish. Still need to know minimum clearance to the rear of the dish. Right now im thinking to plant the pole 6' from the building. 2 main reason i need to know is 1 im planning on planting the pole today, and 2 while i have a little bit of leeway as far as the permit goes the city is requiring me to place the pole as close to the structure as possible without causing damage to the dish or structure. Tentatively they put 5' on the permit. Please bear in mind that this 10' dish will not be the permanent dish installed, eventually there will be a 12' dish installed permanently. Why not put the 12 up to start with you might ask? well it is currently 57 miles away, and the 10' dish is 2 blocks east and one south (should be very little need to set declination, perhaps just fine tuning). I figure the 10' is a good option to get my feet wet in the c-band dish, if only because it would appear it would be easier to get a signal with declination already set for my area.
First :
If your wall runs exactly due east to west...then it would require less clearance than a wall that runs north/east to south/west for instance. Not many houses happen to be exactly compass oriented.
Some reasons that the maximum arc coverage may not matter anyway:
An actuator will not give you horizon to horizon coverage. So you will not be swinging all the way on both sides of the arc.Maybe not even all the way on ONE side of the arc.
You might not be interested in Satellites at one extreme or the other. (Very little English programming on the far east side for instance.Tons of Spanish though! )
Line of sight may be blocked at one extreme or the other. Remember, the farther you swing away from true south...the lower the angle the dish is looking. A puny little tree starts looking like a signal blocking monster.
My GUESS is that 6 foot from a TRUE East/West wall would be ok for a 12 footer.But that is only a guess. I would not go any less than 6 ft.
Sorry I can't give you a specific yes or no answer.
Maybe someone with a 12 footer can motor over far east and west... and take a measurement?
First :
If your wall runs exactly due east to west...then it would require less clearance than a wall that runs north/east to south/west for instance. Not many houses happen to be exactly compass oriented.
Some reasons that the maximum arc coverage may not matter anyway:
An actuator will not give you horizon to horizon coverage. So you will not be swinging all the way on both sides of the arc.Maybe not even all the way on ONE side of the arc.
You might not be interested in Satellites at one extreme or the other. (Very little English programming on the far east side for instance.Tons of Spanish though! )
Line of sight may be blocked at one extreme or the other. Remember, the farther you swing away from true south...the lower the angle the dish is looking. A puny little tree starts looking like a signal blocking monster.
My GUESS is that 6 foot from a TRUE East/West wall would be ok for a 12 footer.But that is only a guess. I would not go any less than 6 ft.
Sorry I can't give you a specific yes or no answer.
Maybe someone with a 12 footer can motor over far east and west... and take a measurement?
The wall in question does run East-West though not perfectly. we decided to plant the pole 6' 6" at 42" deep leaving 7' above ground. Though I gotta say i did wind up making more work for myself when we removed the dish from the pole we ripped one panel pretty good. Im hoping my father in law has a unimesh dish in his pile of retreived dishes out on the farm. I did check the dish with 4 strings run across from edge to edge then with just 2 moving around the perimeter to make sure we didnt warp the dish. Appears we didnt warp it.
Another question came up that i havent seen addressed yet. So im taking a bunch of measurements before disassembling the various portions of the dish for repair and i notice the corotor and lnb look pretty exceptional. I was wondering if there was a way to check the servo motor with out a receiver or asc1? I figure even though i ordered a c1pll with lte filter already but there may come a day i want to play with the corotor.
The servo is controlled via PCM commands, so without those being generated and resistance monitored for feedback, there is no other test other than seeing if black, grey or yellow color smoke pours out if connected to power...
JOKING!!!! Please do not connect to power!
JOKING!!!! Please do not connect to power!
The servo is controlled via PCM commands, so without those being generated and resistance monitored for feedback, there is no other test other than seeing if black, grey or yellow color smoke pours out if connected to power...
JOKING!!!! Please do not connect to power!
LOL i knew you had to be joking when i got to the different colors of smoke. So Since it rained i double checked my pole for plums after a huge round of storms rolled thru last night, it appears to still be quite plumb. Then i went over and removed the actuator and took it into the shop. First thing i did was spritz everything down with some silicone spray and let it soak while i went out and removed the feedhorn cover so i could see what was under there. I want to note that i was pretty suprised the the throat cover sure seems to not be overly weathered, at least not as bad as some i have seen. It is pretty dusty under there but it appears i have a pretty nice single band chaparral feed horn and there is a norsat lnb (that wasnt dusty on the side with the lable) mounted to it. Next step is to take some measurements of feedhorn placement and remove feedhorn and support arms and remove and repair/remove dents from the mesh panels one at a time. I did manage to get the pivots on the actuator moving pretty good in about 3 minutes so it wasnt sitting forever for sure, and I hooked it to 12v dc and it moved without a hitch and didnt make any funny noises. so i can ride out a little longer on the existing actuator it seems. Hopefully my new lnbf will arrive about the time i get ready to put the thing back together.
One last question, would it hurt if i used some washers under the screws that hold the mesh on the dish? will this affect reception? I have some places that the mesh is ripped at the screw hole and thought a washer would help it hold a little better.
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Oh yeah one more question when i take the measurements do i measure from the lip of the dish to the scaler, or the the feed horn throat for center position. I know where to measure for focal lenght (remember doing all that when i helped dad with his)
Because I am in town and in order to put up a dish larger then 1 meter you are required to obtain a permit from the city in residential, the good news is this dish is going over at my business location and its zoned commercial. technically according to our zoning book i didnt have to get a permit because it is being installed in a commercially zoned area, but I already had to pull a permit for some fences and improvements (bought more land to expand) I threw it in there anyways to make sure. My city just took over the zoning from the county and they are kinda being weird about things right now. I figure best to be safe then sorry. It went thru alright all things considering. they just like being able to tell you where you can and cant put things. its a lot better then other towns in the surrounding area. several of those cities passed ordinances forbidding BUDs within the city limits period.
Looks like we have the same actuator.. How did you go about cleaning it up for testing, I'm going to try to get mine this weekend? Appreciate the replies
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I had read on a few other posts about being able to use a 12 D/C supply source and hooking to the power leads and swapping polatities to go oppisite direction. ANd they also said to use liberal amounts of silicone lubricant so i worked on the pivots first and then squirted the actuator arm that was exposed. I think i was lucky because this dish was in use as of 4 years ago till the guy just couldnt get up on the ladder (the dish was 9' in the air) to work on it and keep his trees trimmed anymore. I hooked power up and it took off right away without any weird noises. just make sure you dont hook up to the sensor.
All i know is taking each strip of mesh of and flattening the dents out and sewing the tears sucks. It doesnt help that the darn dish shifted on the forks while we were taking it off the pole and i really tore one screen pretty good.
Sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission.
Seriously though, most cities have trashed the zoning laws pertaining to BUDs because there are so few of them left. If I was closer to you, I'd check your site for you. I have a Bird Finder that actually has a polar mount built into it. You set it up like you would your dish, and then you can sweep the entire arc to see if trees, buildings or hills are blocking your view.That little device pulled my fat from the fire several times when I was surveying a location with a lot of trees or other obstructions. I thought about selling it several times, but I hesitate each time and decide not to. When I was setting up dishes in close quarters, I never left less than 6-7 feet between the edge of the dish and the obstruction, that way it can see over a roof, fence or other obstruction. You have to take into consideration how tall the obstruction is.
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