Famaval 2.4 Extension Petals - advice please

[bignick]

Am fitting them in just over a week!


I'll update you all then

Cheers

Nick

We fit the base because we do get some strong winds here and the local buildings are a bit dodgy. Basically we drill more holes into the roof, fit some steel reinforcing bars and pour a 1M X 1M X 30mm base around the base of the dish in a wooden frame.

How has things gone anyway?

One day I will come for that Beer. Keep one cold for me!!

 

[bignick]

I'm pleased to say that myself and maniacop fitted the petals today and it seems that it is sucessful so far. I have just been on the blower to the happy customer who reports that the 7-9pm weak spot was sparkley free - picture on bbc and itv solid as a rock. Thanks to all concerned.


I aplologise for lack of pics, they will come in the next 24hrs I hope.

As usual, even though it seemed a successful instal, there are questions.

We sat it up exactly as trigg and simon advised - ie petal to petal first then petals to dish and all was ok. We got alignment petal to petal perfect with little problem. Petal to dish perfect alignment is not possible is it? Pushing up on the petals from behind with the fixing bolts loose still leaves the petals sitting 1 or 2mm lower than the dish - is this normal? It doesn't seem physically possible to push them into line with the dish! results speak for themselves ie perfect picture - but will this be the case in the hieght of summer?

Before we started we checked with the satlook and we were getting almost nothing - afterwards we got three of the four lights lit constantly - but not the 4th therefore we couldn't check SNR - is this normal for cyprus? We adjusted further by setting it to an astra 2b transponder (11900) and got it touching 9.0db but usually about 8.0db at 1600hrs local - is this ok -it was hard to tell as it was really gusty - those dishes REALLY do move in the wind BTW we used three wire rope stays; 2 didn't seem enough (plus I made 3 anyway

) photos will show!

Feedhorn - It became obvious to us when we swapped the large diameter feedhorn disk for the small diameter one that the large one was the best. I'd say it was 1/2db better than the small one! We made efforts to setup the feedhorn as close as possible before the petals went on so we didn't have to screw with it too much afterwards. We didn't adjust the Focal distance afterwards. It wasn't the safest job to get to the LNB after the petals were fitted (good call simon)

Photos coming

Cheers

Nick

 

[iceman]

We sat it up exactly as trigg and simon advised - ie petal to petal first then petals to dish and all was ok. We got alignment petal to petal perfect with little problem. Petal to dish perfect alignment is not possible is it? Pushing up on the petals from behind with the fixing bolts loose still leaves the petals sitting 1 or 2mm lower than the dish - is this normal? It doesn't seem physically possible to push them into line with the dish!

Hi Nick
I have no experience with Framaval dish or its extensions but plenty on the Jonsa petalised dishes.The original holes on Jonsa dishes very rarely match for a smooth/level joint so i ALWAYS enlarge them or drill new holes..I dont see why this method shouldnt work on Framaval..
Lets wait and see what Simon says..He has experience on these dishes..

 

[simonskyman]

It seems you did a good job if it works all night.Well done guys.What about 8-10am?
Does ITV Yorkshire(10.891H) work after 7 pm?And ABC1 (channel 281).
I just started using the satlook recently(because i lost my roversat) and i cant get the "4th light" on or s/n readings,bloody annoying so i rely on the spectrum and span reading.
One other tip is to take off the bottom petal so you can get closer to the dish and adjust lnb for final readings without disturbing the dish,then carefully put petal back.
As for not been in line,I had that problem on a couple of dishes but not a big deal as long as the final shape is not warped,you can tell by looking at the dish from a side ans bottom view.do you have the old beige dish and new grey petals?The grey dishes have a slightly different edge that fits better to the petals.

 

[Zorba]

This is one way to stabilise the dish.Only one bar was used at that time to see if it was enoughand it seems to hold well so far,except if you rock the dish by hand with force,the dish moves back and forth,not left to right,but its okay in strong wind.

 

[bignick]

Thanks for the feed back guys - its all useful stuff.

Yes, the dish and petals are a different colour Simon & and I'm relived to see you have the same issue with the satlook. I haven't mastered the satlook to the point that I see the real worth of the spectrum and span settings. I understand its useful for getting skew bang on i.e. making the height/depth of the hills and valleys as big as possible but I'm even having difficulty with that - I usually set skew by A1 eye!! Does the reading on the side (usually in the 60dbuv range) actually mean anything? I've found the only reading of real use to be the SNR reading on digital!



The final fit of the petals was such that both me and Chris reckoned that the dish looked spot on with no warping at all.



As for the channels - I will ask the customer to check these channels at the time you mentioned. We were checking the BBCs and ITVs mainly. We know that BBC Scotland and N.ire were both ok and they usually go quite early! I have to go back there as the photos taken on my phone camera were....well,

crap really!



Thanks for the extra pics zorba – there’s a dish next to the paphos dual carriageway just getting into Limassol that looks to have the same setup. Now I know what it looks like without becoming (more of) a danger on the road as I squint to see it!!!



Thx



Nick

 

[maniacop32]

nice view .is it a village in limassol district?

 

[Zorba]

nice view .is it a village in limassol district?

Not my installation but a place around Apesia.The name of the village may have been changed to protect the innocent.

 

[maniacop32]

i bet thats your previous dish .is it?

 

[Zorba]

No thats still 7 floors up in limassol.If there is one thing worse than putting these extensions together,its taking them apart and putting them together again somewhere else.

 

[Zorba]

I dont think its upside down,we were advised once to do it that way ,but i cant remember why.

 

[bignick]

Hi all

Finally got the pics

will post as soon as I work out how to do it

Cheers

Nick

 

[maniacop32]

Here it is.For some reason that only nickknows he could nt upload them.O-Ha

 

[simonskyman]

Not bad,boys.
Whats the focal length,the feedhorn looks a bit high.
Ps Dodgy stand

 

[Zorba]

So how much did it cost in the end?And is it 24/7 ?

 

[bignick]

We set the focal length to 93cm in accordance with an earlier post though to both me and chris we thought it seemed close to the end of the feed horn, but you can't argue with the tape measure!!

PS Dodgy stand? Please explain? I thought it looked ok, in fact I was impressed by the way that it could take 8 rawlbolts instead of the standard 4. I always smirk when I hear people talking about the size of concrete base to use then give no thought as to how they connect it to the stand. This one seemed ok especially if compared to the ones that trigger is supplied with - the footprint of the base seems too small to me - if you think of the dish as a sail then the elements (ie wind) has a greater mechanical advantage on the smaller base. I can see why he goes the extra mile and covers it in concrete.

Zorba - The first night the customers said it was good all night. A couple of days later they said they had experienced a little pixelation which is a little concerning. I've already discussed with chris to go back as the signal weakens somewhat and fiddle with the lnb using simons most ingenious plan with removing the petal. I feel in Ypsonis they should have 24/7 BBC at this time of the year..........still, not a bad first crack wouldn't you say?
As for cost....well....guess

Not bad,boys.
Whats the focal length,the feedhorn looks a bit high.
Ps Dodgy stand

 

[simonskyman]

The base of the stand looked flimsy,especially the cross part,but those extra bolts are helping otherwise the stand would wobble,with the extra size dish now,more wind area.But thats why you have the tension wirw.

 

[trigger]

Just thought I would post you some pictures.
In my earlier post I mentioned concreting the base and that it gets a bit windy here. Have a look at some of the pictures of why I think they should be concreted in - especially when hurricane Delta comes to town!!!

The first two are of a dish that sustained damage even though it had a base fitted (not very well though). In the second picture you can see where the dish and base "walked" across the roof. The picture is taken from where it should have been.
The third picture is of a dish that got hit by a flying pergola off a local bar.

Happy Days

 

[bignick]

How windy did it get Trigg? The one that 'walked' - I take it it wasn't bolted down to the roof and was relying on the wieght of the base.

GREAT PICS!!!!

Cheers

Nick

Just thought I would post you some pictures.
In my earlier post I mentioned concreting the base and that it gets a bit windy here. Have a look at some of the pictures of why I think they should be concreted in - especially when hurricane Delta comes to town!!!

The first two are of a dish that sustained damage even though it had a base fitted (not very well though). In the second picture you can see where the dish and base "walked" across the roof. The picture is taken from where it should have been.
The third picture is of a dish that got hit by a flying pergola off a local bar.

Happy Days

 

[trigger]

Official figures state 95kph but it was much much windier than that - especially in gusts. Quite a lot of damage here. You can see on the first pic i think that the dish has bent around the 12 fixing bolts where it fixes to the mount. I'm sure i read somewhere that Famaval quote 160KPH as survivable speed - but not sure so will try and find out.
Xmas has come early for me as had 57 call outs on the first day and lost count since.:-Cbigsmil

Too right about the builder not putting the steels into the roof. The base was essentially free standing. Muppet!!