diseqc in a box

[closetosoton]

Just a quick post to say I followed rolfw's advice and bought a waterproof box from maplins after deciding to fit my switch external to my house. It switches 13E/19.2E on a 60cm dish with two LNBs (not monoblock). Its a 4 way switch so I can expand at will, I have another dish at 5W which I considered adding to the switch, but I thought I'd wait to see what happens to the FTA french digital channels on there at the moment. I'd like to add a minidish at 28.2E, but 3 dishes on the house is getting a bit much.... cheers.

CTS

 

[BGonaSTICK]

Neat.

Do you have a catalogue number?

 

[closetosoton]

Neat.

Do you have a catalogue number?

'fraid not, i just went down the local maplins and said - waterproof boxes, what'd'ya got? and they bought down a load. i chose this one, also the waterproof gromet screw cable-through things. i was quite happy with the result. neat as you say. hope it holds out against the weather. the box cost more than the switch!

-cts

 

[Llew]

Neat.

Do you have a catalogue number?

Checking my catalogue, you have a choice of sizes :-

YM92A - Large - £14 99
YM91Y - Medium - £4 99
YM90X - Small - £3 99
YM93B - Medium with transparent lid - £8 99

Llew

 

[BGonaSTICK]

Llew, you are as ever, most helpful.

 

[closetosoton]

YM90X - Small - £3 99
Llew

it'll be the small one then. h22p://www.maplin.co.uk/images/Full/25154i0.jpg

here are some pics of the installed product:

neat enough for now.

-cts

 

[altis]

Let me pass on some experience with waterproof boxes.

Part of my work involves the fitting of instrumentation and control equipment to piling rigs. This equipment is housed in waterproof boxes and is distributed about the rig. We were persistently having problems with water getting into the boxes and upsetting the electronics. The boxes are rated IP67 and, in theory, shouldn't leak. However, many of the boxes in one location were often filling with water. We tried moving the box 'indoors' but it still suffered. Eventually we realised that the water was coming in down the middle of the cable in the tiny gaps between the cores. This particular box normally had about 20m of cable going straight up the mast to a, usually unsealed, box at the top. What we think was happening is, with the heat and cold, the air in the box was expanding and contracting. All the joints were sealed so the only way for the air to go was up the middle of the cable. As the box cooled and the air was drawn back down the cable, moisture from the outside air was pulled with it. This would condense inside the cable and, with 20m of head, would even force its way through the middle of an IP67 connector back into the box. Our solution has been to install in each box a waterproof breather (RS 838-805) which, so far, seems to have fixed the problem.

 

[Llew]

The moral is - use foam dialectric coax, and seal the LNB connectors thoroughly with amalgamating tape

Llew