Swapping DM500 for a PC card solution?

B

bluearmy

Member
My Satellite Setup
DM500 on a 1.2M motorised dish.
My Location
Manchester
I currently have a DM500 connected to a 1.2m motorised dish.
I would like to put the DM in another room and use the HTPC I have in main room insted. I know I can buy PCI cards for satellite feeds. I just want to know how easy it is to swap?

I didnt do the install myself so not sure if I can just swap and hope that the software can pick up where the dish is pointing...

Would I have to move it to a certain point before connecting to pc?

Any help appreciated.
 
From what I have read, most of the PCI cards are not able to drive the the motor as they need to draw any such power from the PC. It will be interesting to see who disagrees with me
 
Topper said:
From what I have read, most of the PCI cards are not able to drive the the motor as they need to draw any such power from the PC. It will be interesting to see who disagrees with me
Click to expand...

Hope this isnt a silly question, but what is the problem with drawing power from the pc? Or is it the fact that they just cant do it because its not built in?
 
bluearmy said:
Hope this isnt a silly question, but what is the problem with drawing power from the pc? Or is it the fact that they just cant do it because its not built in?
Click to expand...


Most 500s units do not have a big enough power supply for driving the motor let alone a poor little PCI card, I not suggesting it will not work I am suggesting it is a known problem with PCI sat cards.

Many PSU's for PC's are rated at 300W, I have even seen 200w PSU's and thus have little or no spare capacity for driving electric motors, which on startup, draw an average of 4 times the rated amperage for a very short period of time. This is the reason softstarts were invented for bigger motors.

There are a number of threads on the forum here is one
http://www.satellites.co.uk/satelli.../156706-advice-pci-card-pc-diseqc-system.html
 
Now that I understand.

What if I connect to my sky dish, will it pick up channels automatically or is there something else I would need to do
 
Sorry you are not making yourself very clear, what if you connect what to your sky dish?

Assuming your sky dish is currently working and receiving sky channels, if you power the stb down and connect any stb or PCI satellite card, do a scan you will get all the FTA channels on 28.2 East.
 
Hi M8 ..
Assuming you already drive the motor with the DM500..
Your best option is to fit a dual lnb on your motorized dish ...
run a seperate cable from the second lnb connection to your pci card ..
Then use the DM500 to drive and position your dish ....the 2nd lnb connected to the pci card will then have independant control of horizontal and vertical transponders at whichever location your dish is pointing.
Alternatively ..if the DM500 has IF loop through ...you can connect this to your pci card ...
..but this then limits you to either the horizontal or vertical transponders as determined by the DM500's current channels being viewed.

If however its just Sky/freesat channels from 28 deg you want to feed to the pci card ...then a new cable to a spare lnb output on your minidish should be all you need.
If you have a quad lnb already and you are not using all the outputs ...you're larfin'
rgds
VS
 
Not just Horizontal and Vertical, but Low and High Band switching too .... :)
 
Why not use an external positioner like the Stab DiSEqC Interface MS220. It has its own mains power supply and remote control.

External positioners used to be common 25-20 years ago but died out when 36v positioners were integrated with recievers. It is an extra step but you would soon get used to it. It also reduces the chance of selecting the wrong channel and sending the dish to the wrong end of the arc (who has never done that then?!).

It would stop any chance of blowing your PSU or mainboard. As Topper pointed out, many PCs are actually a bit underpowered. The cheaper PSUs, which are frighteningly common, are often ok until stressed. I always recommend a decent surge protector. In country areas where brownouts are common, a UPS is also a good idea.


Topper said:
Most 500s units do not have a big enough power supply for driving the motor let alone a poor little PCI card, I not suggesting it will not work I am suggesting it is a known problem with PCI sat cards.

Many PSU's for PC's are rated at 300W, I have even seen 200w PSU's and thus have little or no spare capacity for driving electric motors, which on startup, draw an average of 4 times the rated amperage for a very short period of time. This is the reason softstarts were invented for bigger motors.

There are a number of threads on the forum here is one
http://www.satellites.co.uk/satelli.../156706-advice-pci-card-pc-diseqc-system.html
Click to expand...
 
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