Slaving Receivers

[GMFreak8]

I have a Uniden UST-4400 and I'm getting a Mercury II for my setup. I was wondering if it's at all possible to slave the Mercury II to the Uniden so I can have the uniden move the dish instead of having to get a V-Box II. Is this possible? What are the drawbacks if any?

 

[ronjohn]

I have a UST-4600 and it does not have an IF output connection for the sat signal. The Mercury II has an LNB input and an IF output to pass the signal to another receiver. The 4400 may be different, but I doubt it has a connector to pass the signal to another receiver.

 

[GMFreak8]

I have a UST-4600 and it does not have an IF output connection for the sat signal. The Mercury II has an LNB input and an IF output to pass the signal to another receiver. The 4400 may be different, but I doubt it has a connector to pass the signal to another receiver.

Damn, thanks for the information. I doubt it'll have an IF passthrough. I guess I'll just have to get the Vbox II.

How would I go about having the Uniden and Fortec receiver both connected to the dish? I won't be able to have the Uniden and Fortec both able to move the dish, will I?

 

[ronjohn]

I don't have a large dish motor, so someone else will have to answer for sure. I think you will have a coax cable connected to the LNB. You can connect that to the mercury II, and the slave the Uniden off of the mercury. There will be a separate cable(four wire?) connected to the dish motor. You should be able to connect the dish motor to the Uniden, which has connectors to move a large dish. You will just have to use the Uniden to move the dish, and the Mercury II to set the polarity of the LNB. You shouldn't need the Vbox.

The disadvantage would be that if you want to move the dish while watching the mercury, you have to turn on the Uniden. If you want to change the polartiy of the LNB(Horizontal/Vertical) while watching the Uniden, you would have to turn on the Mercury.

 

[GMFreak8]

I don't have a large dish motor, so someone else will have to answer for sure. I think you will have a coax cable connected to the LNB. You can connect that to the mercury II, and the slave the Uniden off of the mercury. There will be a separate cable(four wire?) connected to the dish motor. You should be able to connect the dish motor to the Uniden, which has connectors to move a large dish. You will just have to use the Uniden to move the dish, and the Mercury II to set the polarity of the LNB. You shouldn't need the Vbox.

The disadvantage would be that if you want to move the dish while watching the mercury, you have to turn on the Uniden. If you want to change the polartiy of the LNB(Horizontal/Vertical) while watching the Uniden, you would have to turn on the Mercury.

Yeah that sounds like too much of a pain to do. To bad I just couldn't use the Vbox for the Mercury and somehow tie into the wires for the uniden. Or could I?

 

[ronjohn]

I don't think it would be too bad, unless you are planning to leave it for your wife/kids/other uniterested person to use while you are gone. When I watch my Uniden, I always have the Mercury II turned on anyway. I move the dish, and set the polarity with the Mercury II, and then watch the Uniden. I assume you are planning to use the Uniden for sports, and finding things will take a little bit of experimentation anyway. Once you get used to it it won't be too bad.

I don't know about connecting the wires from a Vbox and the Uniden together. You would be connecting two power supplies together, and would probably burn up at least one of them. If you don't want to use the Uniden to move the dish while watching the Mercury, it would be best to move the wires from the motor back and forth between the Vbox and the Uniden. That would probably be more of a pain than turning on the Uniden, moving the dish, and turning it off.

Another thing, if you slave the Uniden to the Mercury, install a DC block between the Uniden and the Mercury. I haven't had the problem, but I have read that some people have burned the IF output from their master receiver when they plug in the slave receiver without the DC block.

 

[GMFreak8]

I don't think it would be too bad, unless you are planning to leave it for your wife/kids/other uniterested person to use while you are gone. When I watch my Uniden, I always have the Mercury II turned on anyway. I move the dish, and set the polarity with the Mercury II, and then watch the Uniden. I assume you are planning to use the Uniden for sports, and finding things will take a little bit of experimentation anyway. Once you get used to it it won't be too bad.

I don't know about connecting the wires from a Vbox and the Uniden together. You would be connecting two power supplies together, and would probably burn up at least one of them. If you don't want to use the Uniden to move the dish while watching the Mercury, it would be best to move the wires from the motor back and forth between the Vbox and the Uniden. That would probably be more of a pain than turning on the Uniden, moving the dish, and turning it off.

Another thing, if you slave the Uniden to the Mercury, install a DC block between the Uniden and the Mercury. I haven't had the problem, but I have read that some people have burned the IF output from their master receiver when they plug in the slave receiver without the DC block.

Thanks for the tip about the DC block. I wouldn't have thought about it otherwise.

I could just install a splitter for the coax, and a switch for the motor controls. When I want to use the uniden, I just flip a switch and it cuts off the vbox and allows the uniden to control the motor. You think that would work, or would it mess with the alignment?

 

[ronjohn]

You can't use a splitter for the coax, you would have to use a switch also. That would cut your signal level(A splitter will also), but it would work.

Someone with a big dish will have to answer the question about changing the motor wires back and forth between the receviers. I don't know how the big dish motors work.

 

[GMFreak8]

You can't use a splitter for the coax, you would have to use a switch also. That would cut your signal level(A splitter will also), but it would work.

Someone with a big dish will have to answer the question about changing the motor wires back and forth between the receviers. I don't know how the big dish motors work.

Whoops, sorry I meant to say a switch.

Alright, thanks for your help. If anyone with a big dish could chime in, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[voomvoom]

This is how I do it:
http://www.dmsiusa.com/add_a_receiver.htm

Al

 

[bill190]

The way dish movers (positioners or actuators) work is they have a "counter" which counts how many times a gear inside has turned one direction or the other.

The receiver or VBox keeps track of how many times the gear has turned and knows what the count currently is. This way it keeps track of where the dish is.

So say you have the dish pointing all the way east and this is 0 on the counter.

Then you have satellite A and the positioner needs to turn the gear 100 times to get there.

Then satellite B and the positioner needs to count 200 for that location.
Then satellite C is at 300.

Then the receiver starts at zero, you tell it to move to sat B. It knows it is at zero, so just moves the dish forward 200 counts.

Now you tell it to move to satellite A. It knows it is at 200, so just moves the dish backwards 100 counts.

The thing is the receiver or VBox always knows where the dish is. So say you are using the VBox and have moved the dish to 200 count. The VBox thinks the dish is at 200.

Now you move the wires from the VBox to the receiver and move the dish 100 counts forward. Then later move the wires back to the VBox. Well the Vbox still thinks the dish is at 200! But it is actually at 300. So you tell the VBox to move the dish to Satellite A, the VBox moves the dish 100 counts backwards and thinks it is at satellite A, but actually your dish is at satellite B!

In other words, you need to leave your dish positioner connected to just one device. Can't be moving wires around or the receiver/VBox will get confused and not know where the dish is located.

So far as using the Mercury with the VBox, this is good. You can click on a channel and the Vbox moves the dish to the correct satellite. I have this setup and have over 300 FTA channels on maybe 20 different satellites. It is REAL nice to be able to just click on a channel and the dish gets moved where it should go.

Also for others in my house who are not geeky, this is the only way they would be able to operate the receiver. They have a hard enough time switching between DVD, stereo, and satellite.

So I say keep it simple. Makes life more pleasant!

 

[GMFreak8]

This is how I do it:
Add a receiver

Al

Hmm interesting. What about the big dish motor though?

 

[GMFreak8]

The way dish movers (positioners or actuators) work is they have a "counter" which counts how many times a gear inside has turned one direction or the other.

The receiver or VBox keeps track of how many times the gear has turned and knows what the count currently is. This way it keeps track of where the dish is.

So say you have the dish pointing all the way east and this is 0 on the counter.

Then you have satellite A and the positioner needs to turn the gear 100 times to get there.

Then satellite B and the positioner needs to count 200 for that location.
Then satellite C is at 300.

Then the receiver starts at zero, you tell it to move to sat B. It knows it is at zero, so just moves the dish forward 200 counts.

Now you tell it to move to satellite A. It knows it is at 200, so just moves the dish backwards 100 counts.

The thing is the receiver or VBox always knows where the dish is. So say you are using the VBox and have moved the dish to 200 count. The VBox thinks the dish is at 200.

Now you move the wires from the VBox to the receiver and move the dish 100 counts forward. Then later move the wires back to the VBox. Well the Vbox still thinks the dish is at 200! But it is actually at 300. So you tell the VBox to move the dish to Satellite A, the VBox moves the dish 100 counts backwards and thinks it is at satellite A, but actually your dish is at satellite B!

In other words, you need to leave your dish positioner connected to just one device. Can't be moving wires around or the receiver/VBox will get confused and not know where the dish is located.

So far as using the Mercury with the VBox, this is good. You can click on a channel and the Vbox moves the dish to the correct satellite. I have this setup and have over 300 FTA channels on maybe 20 different satellites. It is REAL nice to be able to just click on a channel and the dish gets moved where it should go.

Also for others in my house who are not geeky, this is the only way they would be able to operate the receiver. They have a hard enough time switching between DVD, stereo, and satellite.

So I say keep it simple. Makes life more pleasant!

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Makes sense. I guess I'll just use the mercury Receiver. Maybe in the future I'll get another dish for just the uniden or something. It's what I want to do anyway. I know where a lot of smaller mesh dishes are.

Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[voomvoom]

Hmm interesting. What about the big dish motor though?

The motor and the polarity from the lnb's are controlled by the Analog Receiver. The diagram shows how to connect the 2 different receivers to the lnb's. If you are watching with the DVB receiver, if you go to a channel on a different polarity than the one you are watching, you will have to change the channel on the analog receiver to a channel with the polarity you want to watch on the DVB receiver. It can be a pain, but it gets the job done.

Al

 

[GMFreak8]

The motor and the polarity from the lnb's are controlled by the Analog Receiver. The diagram shows how to connect the 2 different receivers to the lnb's. If you are watching with the DVB receiver, if you go to a channel on a different polarity than the one you are watching, you will have to change the channel on the analog receiver to a channel with the polarity you want to watch on the DVB receiver. It can be a pain, but it gets the job done.

Al

Yeah, it sounds like I'll just stick with the DVB receiver. Thanks for all the help guys.

Looks like I may be picking the dish up tomorrow, if all things go well. I'm looking forward to getting the dish, but I'm not looking forward to doing it. It's supposed to be 93 degrees tomorrow.