2.4 DH Antenna installation

[blademedia]

Plan B, all my connections will go in this box, the probar will be in here, I will buy another ground rod for the probar so the lnb and the dish are earthed separately, will still use protection indoors,

 

[blademedia]

Picked probar 8 up, I might want to run more than four cables in the future, earth rod in, can start running cables tomorrow if it stays nice,

 

[blademedia]

Moving on to electrical work today motor cable, picked 20mtr of four core wire up, the stops are on the outside as mentioned previously, new water proof box for stops connections

Motor rewired new water proof box installed

 

[blademedia]

Cables for LNB's installed

 

[Captain Jack]

Looking good. Plug those holes though, unless you want spiders making it a home.

 

[blademedia]

Looking good. Plug those holes though, unless you want spiders making it a home.

Thanks, yes I will do I need to pick some bungs/silicone up

 

[Lazarus]

Yup. Excellent work plumbing that lot in.

 

[moonbase]

blademedia,

That is a nice tidy job with the LNB cabling, very good to look at, easy on the eye. You have done this before.

Rgds

 

[blademedia]

Thanks guys, yes ive done cabling before, I want to be able to disconnect everything from this point, so actuator plugs to do as well, obviously the runs to the shack will come straight up when ive drilled a new hole.

 

[marciano]

 

[blademedia]

LNB coax cable tidy installed, also made it into a life line, I will be running two cables up each lower arm, so same to do at the other side.

 

[blademedia]

same to do at the other side.

Other side complete tried a cable and it hangs nice, another job to tick off the list.

 

[John]

No, no, no, no, no ....yes

Me and scopus Chris picking it up next Tuesday ..... does anybody want anything or enquiring about whilst we are there ?.

 

[s-band]

Me and scopus Chris picking it up next Tuesday ..... does anybody want anything or enquiring about whilst we are there ?.

If they've got a king post and full az-el mount for a 3.8m in their bargain bin for £1k;-o

 

[blademedia]

Me and scopus Chris picking it up next Tuesday ..... does anybody want anything or enquiring about whilst we are there ?.

Great John, I cant wait for you, could you pick me up one of there all in one KA band LNB's please , later in the year I will be interested in a 1.8, I will make enquires nearer the time if I get planning permission,

 

[blademedia]

so actuator plugs to do as well,

My connectors turned up, went for a eight way, declination motor can be wired straight in when I do the modification,
Extremely windy today might not get much done, but at least I have the part, can run and fix H to H wire when wind calms down,

Dish is solid no movement in strong gusts,


Ive been studying for the last few days regarding a feedhorn, I think I am going for a corotor 11 plus wideband with servo, it appears to be my best option without spending 3G on a Viking,

 

[s-band]

Ive been studying for the last few days regarding a feedhorn, I think I am going for a corotor 11 plus wideband with servo, it appears to be my best option without spending 3G on a Viking,

Thanks to John's new servo motor, my Corotor is now working again. In testing I found that I needed 300-2400us pulse widths to cover the full 180degree range. The standard servo range is 1000-2000us for radio control and it would be hard to get the probe positions needed for both V/H linear and L/R circular polarisations on my corotor. I don't know what you'll be using but I found that this works well and covers more than the required pulse width range: Pololu - Micro Maestro 6-Channel USB Servo Controller (Assembled) There is enough power on a standard USB for the servo if a capacitor is added to cope with peak drain. That way you don't need yet another PSU and can run the servo just from the PC. You could probably run 2 or 3 servos from the USB power as long as only one servo was moving at any one time. I'll post my wiring mod for the Pololu if anyone wants it.

 

[blademedia]

Thanks to John's new servo motor, my Corotor is now working again. In testing I found that I needed 300-2400us pulse widths to cover the full 180degree range. The standard servo range is 1000-2000us for radio control and it would be hard to get the probe positions needed for both V/H linear and L/R circular polarisations on my corotor. I don't know what you'll be using but I found that this works well and covers more than the required pulse width range: Pololu - Micro Maestro 6-Channel USB Servo Controller (Assembled) There is enough power on a standard USB for the servo if a capacitor is added to cope with peak drain. That way you don't need yet another PSU and can run the servo just from the PC. You could probably run 2 or 3 servos from the USB power as long as only one servo was moving at any one time. I'll post my wiring mod for the Pololu if anyone wants it.

Thanks G, I will look into the Pololu,

How do you find the Corotor compared to Tit etc, I think I will be going for PLL LNB's any information would be useful to me

 

[moonbase]

Me and scopus Chris picking it up next Tuesday ..... does anybody want anything or enquiring about whilst we are there ?.

John,

Is this the new 2.2m Elite you are collecting? Awesome, you gonna be rockin on the C Band with that one.
Did you go for the powder coat finish or just bare metal?

I am looking forward to the installation topic and the pics, lovely piece of kit, it seems true what "scopus" was saying, you got plenty solid in the tank.

Rgds

 

[s-band]

How do you find the Corotor compared to Tit etc, I think I will be going for PLL LNB's any information would be useful to me

I've only recently put it back together and not tried it again. The last time I used it was in 1990s on a 3m mesh. It wasn't much different to a normal Chaparral C band servo model however, I never really trusted it on Ku. I didn't do comparisons between the same LNB & feeds on the same dish. The 3m Winegard was deep but well aligned. I think it gave a couple of dB extra on Ku compared to the IRTE 1.5m as opposed to the theoretical 6dB. I only ever used Ku on it to align the dish. I recenly checked the SMW DRO Ku LNB I used to use on the 3m and it is rubbish. The phase noise is awful but I can't be sure if it was always that way or has aged badly. Once the wind dies down, I may try it again on the 2.4 tin dish.