Upgrading an old motor-dish system

P

Paschulke

Member
My Satellite Setup
None working recently
My Location
Uppsala-Sweden
Hi!

I recently moved to a new place where an old 135cm motor dish was installed (standing on an enormous concrete base, looking like if it had been taken from the Normandie or something). When I tried to start up the Luxor ACU8152-motor steering thingy it first made a hissing noise and then tried to impress me with some fancy smoke coming from it - I guess it died then.

To cut a long story short: I'd still like to use this dish but maybe with a newer motor which is Diseqc-controlled. I think I'll need a new receiver, LNB and maybe some cabling. I'm neither a hacker nor an enthusiast so programmable receivers probably are a waste on me.

I tried to find the info myself but I don't know if I can use the old dish. So suggestions for a new setup would be greatly appreciated.

I attach some pics of this stuff.

Many thanks, Paschulke.
 

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You can still use this dish, The lnb holder looks like a standard 40mm universal lnb type.

If you bought a new actuator, then you would also need a Vbox II to convert the diseq signals to 36v.

But the actuator looks in good condition, maybe it would work, you can test with a car battery


It would be a shame not to use this nice dish, just give it a scrub;)
 
Don't forget to post some piccies when your up and running :)
 
Paschulke said:
When I tried to start up the Luxor ACU8152-motor steering thingy it first made a hissing noise and then tried to impress me with some fancy smoke coming from it - I guess it died then.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily.
That looks like a clean motor and any problem is almost certainly down to the dish bearings getting stuck, or the limits are wrong and the dish is moving too far on the polarmount.

Remove the motor and try it without a load (I think they are five wire so you will need another supply to drive the optocoupler circuitry). Then see how freely the dish moves on its own.

Connecting any other motor without freeing off the dish will only cost you more money.
 
Thanks for all answers this far. The dish is 150cm btw, mixed it up with the 185cm-dish lying around behind the barn.

I opened the unit steering the antenna and parts of the circuits are indeed blackish and melted.

So I will clean and lubricate all the moving parts, free the motor and test it. If it works I get a replacement for the burnt antenna positioner. Will any off-the-hook digital receiver communicate with the positioner? Geez, this isn't easy if you're a total rooky like me.

Sorry if I asked loads of stupid questions and thanks in advance.
 
The dish is 150cm btw
Click to expand...

Even better!:)

Any receiver with an inbuilt 36v positioner will work the actuator.
 
That's the second SMW OA-1400 that's been mentioned on the forum in the last day or so. Clean it up Paschulke, it'll outlast most other dishes around now.

Any more out there? Wouldn't mind upgrading mine :-rofl2

Llew
 
Pashulke. If you are going to test the actuator off the dish a) careful the dish does not run away from you in the wind. b) Do not allow the actuator dish end knuckle to rotate during tests. shove a big screwdriver through it !
 
stocksie said:
Pashulke. If you are going to test the actuator off the dish a) careful the dish does not run away from you in the wind. b) Do not allow the actuator dish end knuckle to rotate during tests. shove a big screwdriver through it !
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly, that actuator has no limits in the gearbox and so any danger will be done by failing to set the electronic limits. No need to stop the worm drive from rotating when off a dish.
 
Thanks all for your help.

I didn't have the time yet to check the antenna, but there are still three weeks of vacation left :P I guess in the meanwhile I'll try to find a suitable receiver. I'll be back with updates :)
 
Hi again,

now I did some scrubbing, there actually was a dish underneath all that green stuff. I also loosened the bold connecting the actuator and the dish - the dish moves freely and easily.

Now I was looking into the receiver part. Thought about a Hyro V-Box and a Dreambox, would that make any sense? I guess it's mostly about what I want to achieve. Give me ze German tshannels and ze motorsports and I'm happy.

Cheers.
 

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Paschulke, if you don't have any information on that actuator, here's a copy of the one that came with mine, as I'm not sure if Arkivator make them now.

Llew
 

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Can that dish see any sky at all? Looks like there are a lot of trees.
 
@Llew Thanks mate! I found all kind of stuff the former owner left behind - like advertisements from 1988 and a handful of brochures of other brands. So the diagram comes handy, thanks again.

@Huevos Well, there are quite a few trees in front of the dish, but nothing the chainsaw couldn't solve. The lady wanted to have a better view/more sun from that direction so I guess I'll obey ;)
 
Hi again!

So now I finally got some update. Yesterday I got my Dreambox 7020 and the Moteck Vbox.

One of my troubles is that I got too many cables as it seems? "Out of the wall" comes:
Black - Ground
White - Pulse
Red - +5V
Blue - Motor A
Green - Motor B

So far so good. But then I also got a yellow and another ground that were connected to something called "Magn pol +/-". What do I do with those?

Furthermore I wonder if not the connectors on my Vbox have the wrong colours? Shouldn't the lower two connectors are red left and black right so you get a pair up/down? See attachment.

Thanks in advance!
Pasch
 

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You won't be using a polariser on the new setup, so those wires can be ignored.:)
 
It would be worth going out to the dish and confirming exactly where those 'other' wires go to.

Some motors had separate wiring for limit switches (not often needed), but others require a separate earth wire as the dish is electrically insulated from the motor, and so you either connect both at the dish, or with the correct cabling, bring them back into the house.
 
Just the five wires are in the cable coming out of that actuator to the ABS box -

Blue - Motor A
Green - Motor B
Red - +5V
Yellow - Pulse ( this will no doubt be connected to the White wire coming out of the ABS box)
Black - Common Ground

No other wires for limit switching. The actuator just stops at the mechanical limits.

Always assuming the cable has been wired correctly in the first place.


Llew
 
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