I am looking into upgrading my feed. I use a 2x4 multiswitch and a dual LNBF to feed my C band system. Will the orthomode feed be pretty much interchangeable with the LNBF?
OTHER Upgrading from LNBF to Orthomode feed
- Thread starter Captain Midnight
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Sure will, just have to make the normal adjustment to the feed. Centered, FD ratio ect. Also if you use a feedhorn cover it may not fit. But the benifts of the ortho out weigh the intial ajusting. I might have read your post wrong, but if you are asking if you can use your LNBF with it no. Put a pair of norsat 5150's on it and make sure your switch is a powered type.
My switch is a basic passive Zinwell. The LNBs I found are New Old Stock NJRC PLL rated for 15K noise and 15khz stability! Should prove better than those 5150s. And the feedhorn is the original that is matched to my dish by the manufacturer for best f/d ratio.
I use orthos and multi-switches for polarity control on my dishes. The problem you will have is the STB will not provide enough current to run PLL LNBs effectively. PLLs are power hogs. A pair of DROs could work but the best bet is to use powered multi-switches. I also mod the switches to provide full voltage to the vertical LNBs. I do have a passive Zinwell on a Ku dish with a quad Inverto Black Pro LNB which is not an ortho of course.
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Okay, so 18V to both LNBs. Do you just have your receivers set with LNB Power off? And where might I find a modified switch?
I don't find it necessary to turn LNB power off on the receivers. The modified Zinwell WB68 I use is a passive switch that is modded to not pass power to the LNBs but use an external 24v DC power supply for LNB power. The switch itself uses power from the receiver though. The other multi-switch I use is the WNC SMA-48 ,externally powered. This is an easy one to modify. Unfortunately I don't know any place to get a modified switch other than do it yourself. I have the link to the Zinwell mod but haven't found the other one yet.
Naughty Mods III: 6x8 Switch with Power Insertion
Sometime back I posted details on modifying the WNC SWA-48 4x8 switch to have all inputs wired for a 18V supply voltage for driving LNBs that don't think in terms of 18/13V and 22 KHz. At the time this switch had a lot going for it (1) it was already powered, (2) it had good headroom, (3) it...
www.satelliteguys.us
Magic Static It's right here: Naughty Mods II: 4x8 Switch with All 18V outputs
Thanks. I found it earlier by searching modified multiswitch. I found a WNC switch in the box on ePay for $24. I am thinking about grabbing it unless there is another option just 2x4.
What about circular polarity? Can I fit a dielectric slab in there and receive circular as well as the Titanium receives it? I have a few slabs that I can cut to fit.
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Yes you can. Also, IF you get the 4x8 switch, you could later add another dish to the other set of inputs. Maybe a dedicated KU dish.
I have a 1.2m for Ku on a Stab motor. I just wonder if there's a way I can drive it with multiple receivers? I have standard and universal dual LNBs I can use. Standard is necessary for 22khz switching. If I ran it through the switch, only one polarity would activate the motor, since one coax line goes to the motor and the other directly to the Ku LNB? Would it work if I was to tune to the polarity of the coax line running thru the motor when switching satellites in each receiver?
How would each receiver ever keep track of where another receiver moved the dish? THAT'S your problem with trying to do that scenario... ONE of the receivers must be the "master" receiver for moving the dish. The other can be used as slaves, simply for watching whatever is on the satellite the master moved to. YOU have to know what sat that is, to choose it on any slave receiver.
There is a way to share control of the dish mover with multiple receivers. It does have limitations though. I used a "diode steered power passing splitter" to share my two V-Boxes with three receivers. But only one receiver can be powered up at a time. Also as Primestar indicated, some STBs don't play well with others and don't want to share the motor control. The Edision and other E2 units are an example. The big reason is the E2 units will not issue a DiSEqC command to move to a satellite it thinks it's already at. Other STBs issue a DiSEqC command when you turn them on so they work well together. I had other intermittent issues with the Edision when sharing that way too. So I discontinued that function and just use the VBox remote to move the dish for other STBs.
Sounds like a headache! I'll stick with using my Amiko as the Master. But if I were to connect it thru the switch, would my master box only move it when I tune to a channel with the same polarity as the coax that connects thru the H-H motor to the Ku LNB? Feel free to chime in, Primestar. For some reason, I can't reply to your comments or "like" them.
Not sure I understand your question, but here is a diagram of my setup when I was using the diode steered splitter. The V-Box duo is two V-Boxes on a DiSEqC 1.0 switch.
What I am asking about is integration of my Ku system with a STAB H-H Motor into a 4x8 switch. Seems the motor would only receive the command to move the ku dish if I tuned it to a channel using Horizontal Polarity, if my logic is correct. The Amiko is what I use the control the H-H motor.
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OK I understand. Yes the STAB motor having the controller on board makes it a different setup if you want to use a multi-switch to connect additional receivers. I have a similar Ku dish situation here. Even though it uses a V-Box and linear actuator I had to put the V-Box out at the dish. What makes this work is a Quad LNB(F) on the dish. I use three coaxes from the LNB on the dish. One goes to the V-Box (Stab in your case) and then to the Master Receiver. The other two coaxes go to the two inputs on the multi-switch and all the additional receivers connect there.
Okay, so what is the proper placement as far as angle and depth for the plate to properly receive circular polarity? I can only get it down around 1/2" inside the edge of the opening. I need to shave down the edges of the plate a hair to allow it easier entry.
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