Identifying Quattro outputs (Satlook Lite)

[OldBen]

Right, so the "temporary" labels on my cables that were out in the rain for 2 months have made it difficult to connect up one of my quattro's for 13E as the ends outside are basically unmarked now.

I decided to plug them all into the LNB, then use the meter to work out which is which. I am assuming there is an easy way to do this, but I am getting a bit lost why some of the outputs seem to show identical which is not expected. The quattro does of course have fixed outputs so voltage/tone does not make much difference.

I was expecting to use the spectrum analyser to see which of the H/L H/V I was on, but I am seeing output for the same frequency range on two different connections which was not expected (H/V maybe showing?)

I also have a search feature on the meter that will look for transponders, and I can set 13/18v and H/V, but again I seem to be seeing say 12300V on more than one connection.

Am I making a pigs ear of the whole thing and there is an easy way to do this?

I could program transponders for each combination into the meter, but I am assuming people who do this for a living have an easy way to identify connections in this way?

Any pointer appreciated....

 

[A nonymous]

13e is a fun one as you can set your meter to HL and get a reading from both HL & HH off a quattro lnb. The way i used to do this on my old Rover ST4 meter was by having a channel plan which worked sweet until BIS went to DVB-S2 which threw that out of the window.

In the end i had to make a channel plan and then check which channels were on that transponder using (MPEG Picture) once i got a reading, although that doesn't really help you as you have a satlook.

Can you access the dish? If so remove all of the cables and then connect each one up at a time taking a reading from all four cables then marking down which one you get a reading from.

The other alternative is to use a cable mapper. Mine has got me out of the merde on more than one occassion.

You can get them off ebay for around £35. Definately worth the money if your in the trade.

ebay item number 170444302701 is an example.

:-beer


Nano

 

[OldBen]

Thanks for reply.

I can easily access the dish, the quick answer is to phone a friend and use a continuity check to find the shorted plug as he shorts them one at a time, I just can't believe there is not an easy way to do it!

I did have them almost right, but receiver only tuned about 1000 services (TV&Radio) but clearly it had mixed connections as I had lots of signal but 0% picture (or in other words, I am pretty sure I had a horizontal output into a vertical input).

Not sure cable mapper is worth the cost for one of use, I suppose I could go into the box of bits and find 3 resistors to make up my own ;-)

 

[Huevos]

It depends if you know the satellite or not. If you know it you just identify each band and polarity just by looking at the spectrum. If not just plug the meter in each port in turn and take a screengrab from the spectrum display. If that meter can't do spectrum grabs just use your mobile phone to take a picture of the spectrum display. To identify which is which pop a normal universal LNB on the dish temporarily and see which band and polarity match up with your screengrabs.

Another way is use the NIT functions of the meter. Read out what channels are on any transponder and match them to data on kingofsat.

Another way, if there is a receiver plugged in, put the receiver on a known channel and remove the cables one at a time until you find the one that corresponds to that channel. Using two people would make that a lot faster as you could have one inside looking at the TV talking to the person by the dish on the phone.

My meter identifies channels by name so if I were doing it I would read the channel names from the meter and identify the band and polarity from kingofsat using my mobile phone without any need to move from the dish or need any help.

 

[OldBen]

AH-HA!

Yes now, the Satlook lite does have NIT reading, one of the reasons I bought the thing in the first place. So your bang on that I could take the netbook into the loft and just look up the transponder located on king of sat using search. I know which satellite is which, I just have two bundles of 4 with suspect labels for 13E and 19 (28 and 23 working fine).

The problem with spectrum is (you can adjust for low/high etc) that it seems to show H & V at the same time. The meter is sort of advanced hobby than full pro. Unless I am reading it wrong, which I might be. Not swapping LNB's around, took a long time to optimise everything on the LNB arm to max signal so far!

I will have a try using that method tonight.

 

[satelliteman]

...The problem with spectrum is (you can adjust for low/high etc) that it seems to show H & V at the same time.

Won't show both polarities at the same time; your getting confused.

Try all four cables in turn and identify [using the spectrum in full span mode] transponders down at IF 960Mhz... and those at 2100Mhz. This will give you hi/low ports of the Quattro. Then find your two horizontals giving you the verticals of both Hi/Low with what's left.


Note, for example: If you have in your hand the cable that corresponds to Horizontal / low port on the LNb whilst aligned to 13e, when you look at the spectrum full mode, the transponders below will also show on the trace as the meter has a measuring tuner range upto 2150Mhz, (11900 - 9750 = 2150).

11747 H
11785 H
11823 H
11862 H
11900 H

Hope this makes sense.

 

[OldBen]

Thanks sateliteman, I think the problem is the meter spectrum seems to be for just part of the band, so its not 100% clear what I am seeing, if I could see clear H/L I would be on a winner.

I used the Huevos method with the transpoders and that seems to have done the trick. At times the meter was showing the wrong frequency on the display for the transponder, but perhaps that's as the search was in the wrong mode and it was sending or not sending 22Khz etc (which the Quattro ignores of course).

Not 100% sure I have all of 13E TP's as I think the house might be ever so slightly obscuring the dish, but need to double check. Have most of what was expected including RAI and RTL on 13 and 19 so all seems working well now compared to before.

Thanks for help, will have to look again at satlook lite manual on spectrum and see if it is capable of full range.

The moral of the story is at least sellotape up labels if you leave them in the rain! (the irony is I put plastic bag taped over end of all the cables to stop this, but had to remove it as it actually filled up some how with water when it rained!)