Moving from motor to DiSEqC Switch

[OldBen]

Hi All,

So I currently have a Motech motor on my 80cm dish, not unlike the one in the howto PDF ;) but once again its slightly out of alignment and I have noticed that the last two years have not been kind to the finest far east finish on the bracket (now racing red) so it needs some TLC.

I used to use the dish mainly with a Technomate receiver, specifically was watching Czechlink on 1West, but lately I have been playing around more and more with DVB-S2 (i.e. BBC HD) on 28.2 on the PC in the lounge that runs MythTV - partly for BBC HD and partly as Czechlink card expired ;)

I am thinking that I might connect the dish full time to the PC, but the motor is not supported (well moving it anyway, it being there has no effect apart from some signal loss maybe) technically, although I can get it to work with utilities, I can't get it to integrate well with application I am using.

Rather than leave the Dish on 28.2 for BBC HD, I was thinking about taking down motor (bracket needs some love if it stays up there) and just fixing dish and getting some offset LNB's and a switch, had some questions for the combined collective:

1. Can I get an offset bracket that will do 28.2E, 1W and some other useful sat? (13E maybe?)

2. 1W comes in strong at the moment, but with offset will I be loosing much signal, I understand the reflective physics etc but it occurs to me some signal loss must occur when not having a single central collector?

3. Can I use dual or Quad LNB on an offset bracket? (thinking next TV might have freesat built in, wanted 2x LNB on 28.2, third output to use with Technomate as well could be useful).

4. Anyone recommend a 2 or 4 way Diseqc switch? (will be checking site sponsors shortly)

5. Anything else I should think about?

I am braced for the flood of "keep the motor" replies, but as I can't steer it effectively it seems a switch and offset arrangement would give me the most options with my PC setup. I know the satellites way to do it would be keep the disk on the technomate and put up another small dish for 28.2, which I have considered, but I think its overkill, and main dish bracket has to be sorted in any case.

Any pointers appreciated as always! :-worship

 

[rolfw]

Hi how's it going, which brackets are rusting? .

I think 29 degrees offset is probably a little too ambitious for that dish, why not use the transparent for 1W and 13 East, then a standard minidish for your Astra 28.2 viewing?

You could get that range if using something like a Visiosat Bigsat dish, any reaonable quality DiSEqC switch would suffice, but you need one switch for each tuner you wish to feed if using quad or twin LNBs.

 

[Rick]

1w to 28e is ambitious on an 80cm dish. I have done it on a TD110 with some modified brackets. On a 80cm you will be looking at about 20 degree range.

The Triax Multi bracket can be adapted to clamp onto your existing LNB, or you can get universal ones that will do the job, even if they look abit naff.

You can use twin or quad lnbs, just be sensible about how much weight you put on the dish arm. Some of the older quads are quite heavy.

I have just switched to multi LNB myself, though I have got 3 dishes up

1w + 13e - Zone2
19e + 28e - Zone2
7e, 16e + 23.5e TD110

Makes for much faster zapping between sats. Also gives a better choice accross 2 recievers.

 

[OldBen]

Hi Rolf, good thanks, still owe you a pub lunch as I recall, any time you want to call in the debt let me know!

Its the Moteck brackets that are rusting, the T&K look as good as they day they went up. I would try to get a picture, but its a bit dark and right now it does not sound like the dish is keeping still enough to pose for a photo!

Hang on, ok found the attached picture from May, it may have slightly rained a bit since then as noted in recent news, and its definitely now worse.

I think its the location exposed above the roofline, it does mean the dish can crank round to Hispasat, but it gets a real hammering from rain and wind. Its also slightly off-kilt again, but that could be droop not rotation as 28.2 is fine, but 1w for example I have to nudge into position. Still get OK signal though. Technomate does not want to learn new location though which is a bit annoying.

I did think the offset was too much for 80cm, thanks to all for confirming that

Maybe I should try to get the motor working (going to rebuild PC over Christmas) again before I moved to fixed. Not sure I want two dishes, there is room on the current pole (if lower dish is 28.2 fixed) but I may just go for 28.2 and remove motor assembly. Not really using 1W at the moment in truth.

Rolf, definitely don't want a bigger dish, at least not on corner of the house! (no planning approval from other half for garden space as yet!)

Rick, thanks for pointers, would be buying latest low noise etc rather than something old, but with motor I think quad LNB would be a strain, happy with it if its fixed, I can also lower dish below roof line if I fix it at 28.2 and its not trying to sweep 30w to 70e or whatever I can get at the moment. Definitely can't have 3 dishes...

 

[Rick]

You could maybe go for a wave fronier, they are designed for multisat reception, and would allow you to just have one dish. Just a thought

 

[bigtee]

You could maybe go for a wave fronier, they are designed for multisat reception, and would allow you to just have one dish. Just a thought

.... or a Raven 90cm dish - if you can still find one (as it is cheaper than the Toroidal wavefrontier). I have 1w to 28e currently on one such Raven 90.

 

[OldBen]

Thanks for tip bigtee, I think though that part of my issue with alignment is the 80cm sail in the wind tunnel between our house and next door, and 90cm would be worse. Ideally I would re-mount in the garden at head height so I can easily re-align, but it won't pass wife planning approval ;)