Advice Needed First motorised dish

S

Sat-Junky

Regular Member
My Satellite Setup
2 x SkyBox F3 + 28.2E fixed, VU+ Solo + Triax TD110 +
Inverto Black Ultra High-Gain Single LNB + Alsat Supreme Intelligent LED DiSEqC DarkMotor, Slingbox Pro HD
My Location
Manchester
Finally decided go for a motorised dish planning on placing the order for the kit today just need some advice. I’m not aiming for any specific channels or satellites I just want as many channels as I can from as many different satellites as possible with a Triax TD110. I have never used a motorised dish before and don’t know much about it.

Here’s what my list is looking like now feel free to suggest alternatives

Triax TD110

Inverto Black Ultra High-Gain Single LNB

Alsat DiSEqC Motor Dark Gear Supreme LED
Is it any better than Alsat Superior DiSEqC DarkMotor All Metal Gears other than having LED? If not I’ll go for Alsat Superior DiSEqC DarkMotor All Metal Gears

I’ll be using it with a Cloud Ibox do I need Alsat V-Box 400 GBOX v2000 DiSEqC Positioner?

What sort of pole and brackets will I need and where do I get these from for above the gutter install?

Will I need a single feed or twin feed and what are the best cables to use?
 
I am unfamiliar with a Cloud IBox but you don't need a GBox for a DiSEqC motor. It's only needed for old-school 36v motors, which your selected motor isn't, so they can be controlled by receivers without 36v positioner (all current receivers).

The dish you selected is a great performer but please be aware that it's really, very awkward to adjust elevation on it as the bracket is stupid. When you think you have the best signal and go to tighten it up, the alignment is lost. For your needs, I would go for a 1m Gibertini or maybe even an Orbital one - especially as the TD110 might be a little on the heavy side for over the gutter installation.

Speaking of - why over the gutter? Is it possible to install it in your garden or somewhere more south facing? If not, I would go for a good set of TK brackets x2, so you can have a K-T-K installation for extra support and a good solid 2 inch pole. Aluminium ones are lightweight but more flimsy, so go for a good scaffold pole - get one from a local scaffold merchant. They will charge you very little if anything for it. Also, the top bracket should be at least 6 bricks from the top of the gutter line, so you have some weight on it - else the top bricks can come out in a small gust of wind, sending the whole installation crashing down on someone's head.
 
Totally agree with CJ. Not only might the TD 110 be too heavy but an incredible pain to adjust if you are working on it in an awkward position (e.g. over the gutter) Go with a 1 metre Gibertini and also consider a Clarke Tech motor as an alternate to the Alsat. By the looks of it, your Cloud I box only has one tuner therefore only needs one feed. Out of curiosity why a Cloud Box? There are lots of Enigma 2 boxes in both single and double tuner versions which I'm sure have much better support should you run into problems.
 
You might want to consider fitting a twin LNB, you might not need two feeds, at the moment, but you might want to run the cable, and fit a different LNB, if you upgrade, in the future, to a dual tuner receiver, or wish to install a receiver in a new room.
 
Thanks for the replies unfortunately I went out and got a TD110 and LNB before I read your replies. Picked the last one up for £37.50 with a few scratches here and there from Satsecure Stockport they were going for £59.99.

The only place I can mount the dish in the garden is above the gutter on my extension as I barley have room to walk in the garden due to extension. Had a quick look at dishpointer.com and that seems to be a better option. I should receive everything between 72.1E and 77W. The motor only remembers 60 positions but there are 131 satellites I may be able to receive is that something the receiver controls or would I have to do something to the motor every time I want to watch something on a satellite that isn’t stored in the motor?

As for mounting the dish I was thinking of something like this http://www.satellitesuperstore.com/gstands.htm#50300north but there must be a cheaper alternative. I’ll look into C-Tech DiSEqC Motor HH390.

I was initially after a VU+ Solo but didn’t fancy paying the price UK sellers were selling it for and didn’t want to import one as I had no idea if it’s a clone or not. So decided to go for a clone of the clone for a fraction of the price for the time being but will upgrade the receiver sometime in the future for sure. I already have two SkyBox in two rooms with twin feeds coming to each receiver but only one is being use so I may be able to use one of these if I decide to go for a twin tuner.
 
First question, do you have a clear South facing view of the satellite arc? When you get towards the Easterly and Westerly extremes of the arc, these satellites are just above the horizon. The two you mentioned are only 2 degrees elevation.

What are you trying to achieve? A fair few of the 131 satellites you wrote about either don't cover the UK, only carry data or are operating in a different band which requires a much larger dish. 60 satellites would be more than enough believe me. On my fixed set up I use four dishes and receive signals from 16 satellites, which is more than sufficient to play with.

There are clones of VU+ receivers for sure, but if you used one of this forums supporting advertisers I'd be pretty certain you'd get a genuine one. I got mine from a very reputable German dealer.
 
You won't pick up anything beyond 45W on Ku band, only 1 channel on there anyway! Realistically 30W (if you can clearly see it) is where you will find plenty to watch and would make a good starting point. Going the other way you might get 68.5E, if you can't then 53E offers a selection of channels to look at. So probably about 30/35 satellite positions will be available to you, probably about 8000/9000 channels. You do realise, I hope that you won't be able to actually watch all of these channels, most of them will be encrypted in some way, unless you have a subscription to a package or use "other" methods, many of which are illegal or at best "dodgy"! But there are FTA channels across the sky that are watchable and interesting, and it can be fun chasing them all down and keeping updated with what's going on. It all depends on what you want and expect out of your satellite setup.:)
 
The solution in the SSS link you posted is good and sturdy but hugely expensive for what it is! Get a good set of 2x TK and scaffold pole.

The fact that it's a DiSEqC motor means that you don't need to "store" positions but simply use USALS feature on your receiver (most will have it) to send the motor in the right direction. In this mode, satellite positions are not "stored" on a motor at all but are simply held as coordinates on your receiver, which does all the leg work. Good installation is critical here but easy enough to achieve. Like Riverblue said, you won't actually ever need to use more than 30-40 satellites anyway.

£37.50 is a good price for a TD110 but... you've been warned on the bracket!
 
Sat-Junky said:
I was initially after a VU+ Solo but didn’t fancy paying the price UK sellers were selling it for and didn’t want to import one as I had no idea if it’s a clone or not. So decided to go for a clone of the clone for a fraction of the price
Click to expand...
Big mistake.
 
I have clear south facing view of sky but as I turn further east or west the view is compromised anyway due to terraced houses being on both sides. I’m trying to get as many satellites as I can but as Riverblue said I would probably get 30/35 which I’m more than happy with.

I haven’t purchased the receiver yet so the option of going for a VU+ Solo or even VU+ Solo 2 is still open to me. Would appreciate if you guys could point me towards the right direction on getting one I don’t mind waiting few weeks for it.

What sort of cables would you recommend for me to use? It’s going from the dish to the end of the garden over the wall and roof into the front room. Around 50 meters.

I’ve attached an image of the extension and what’s left of the garden.
 
50 metres is a long way and you are going to suffer with considerable cable loss over that distance. I would suggest that you spend wisely and buy WF125 cable (RG7) with the correct sized connectors and reduce to WF100 cable for the last 1.om or so to connect up to your receiver.
 
Looking at your picture it looks like you are located in a built up area, have you tried Dishpointer to check out your line of sight and any obstacles. Just enter your longitude and latitude details for your location, or move the cursor to your house. Check for different satellites, very helpful to give you an idea of what you can see (satellite wise) and for locating and setting up your dish.




Mod. Note: Link fixed
 
Added a few more pictures
 

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On the roof it looks like a very decent line of sight for most of the arc, so you stand a decent chance of getting pretty much the full coverage.
 
personally id forget the cloud ibox and if you must go for a clone a VU+solo V 3.2 can be got for around £70 delivered and has plenty of support. seeing as you are new to satellite then just incase you dont know E2 linux stb,s can have a steep learning curve and require a great deal of work/patience. have you not considerd something like the Technomate TM5402hd M2 as they are easy to use, have good support and fantastic tuners for fringe reception. im in the north-west near you and run a TD110/inverto black ultra and get most of the arc from 57e to 45w. i agree with C.J. and know from installing a few that the elevation design on the TD range is dishes is awkward at best and even moreso at the top of a ladder. there is a great deal of FTA/FEEDS and if using 3rd party software theres softcam/biss aswell available to you but satellite is a hobby and you only get out of it what you put in. BE SAFE when working on ladders and get a friend to help you
 
I'm starting to lean towards VU+ Solo original. Haven't heard much about Technomate. There seems to be more images and interest for the VU+ receivers on forums and I like the auto bouquet builder feature on it etc. I'm sure more or less similar features are available on all Linux receivers.
 
Vu+ Solo is OK but if you can spare a little more cash, then the Uno is better, especially as you can convert it to twin tuner at a later date. It also has a faster processor than the Solo.
 
Any suggestions on where to purchase one from?
 
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