echelon,
In my theory you could have two zone 2 plain Dish face's side by side one for east the other for west with the LNB focus arm in between the two Dish face's and not on the Dish Face its self.
echelon,
In my theory you could have two zone 2 plain Dish face's side by side one for east the other for west with the LNB focus arm in between the two Dish face's and not on the Dish Face its self.
sounds feasible but I wont be testing the theory myself as I already have 2 dishes up as stated earlier and all working fine
think the point here is that I have done some testing of different uses of a sly zone 2 dish , and the idea is for others to see what can be done with a bit of imagination and tinkering. ie:- think outside the box
if what I have posted helps others with multi-lnb or monoblock setups then thats fine
anyone not interested in what I did , thats also fine by me , just ignore my ramblings
in the meantime I have 2 fixed sly zone 2 dishes with 5 lnb,s giving me 5 main satellite positions , and I am quite happy with the results and it look little expense and little effort to achieve
the pictures also clearly show the relationship between the lnb,s and the fact they are not horizontal but inclined and skewed
best wishes to anyone who get inspiration from this and seeks to duplicate or replicate what I did , and bear in mind you can use 80cm , 90cm , 100cm and 110 cm dishes for this task too ( I happened to have a few raven zone 2 dishes lying around doing nothing !! )
Actually mate, this has been a very informative read and as you say
'Think Outside The Box'
I have a spare 80cm steel fixed dish in the garden, I was thinking of putting it up at some point, but thought I was limited only to using a monoblock ..... this actually gives me more options and is a manageable project (no climbing up high ladders + cost ).
Thanks again
echelon,
I was doing more or less the same in the 80s (short of work and no money) I had got a small welder and I use to walk to the local tip or scap yard walk back with old bits of dented Dishes in those day's it was a 1.4 blue cap or white cap LNB and the only way to get two Sats that was close to one another was to use one LNB and two Dish face's,there was no internet that you could get info on how to do these things it was trail and error with a lot walking to fine tune.
What you are doing brought back memories of when I first started and how it gets you hooked.
no problem m8
glad it brought back memories because I too have experimented a bit in the past with various an alogue boxes , bsb squarials and dishes etc
just seems to me that most ppl stick in the comfort zone and do things all standard and then miss out on better solutions where you have to do a bit of work but get a good payoff
nice to see some ppl like me and you still exist and are willing to try stuff out
Age and Disabilities have cought up with me now so not as active as I would like to be this time of year bones and ticker.
Thanks Echelon for expanding on what initially started out as a basic set up thread. I admire your experimenting and pleased that it works OK.
I'm rather intrigued about extending the length of lnb arms.
When the better weather arrives, I'm like Slap old bones and ticker problems, I shall be carrying out some experimenting of my own.
Thanks again for your input, it's got me thinking, and thanks for your superb detailed photographs.
Regards NW10
Sorry but the wall bracket should be mounted at right angles to its present install, longer section should be mounted vertically and the mast short length should face down as this will fill up with water and rot from the inside!! regards mikel.
I havent changed the wall mounting bracket orientation but I have taken your advice and flipped the L bar so its now pointing downwards and the dish is now much closer to the wall too due to me reversing it and having the short section pointing out and the longer section pointing downwards
I have also changed the lnb arm to a piece of 30mm by 20mm aluminium box section , and its set at 15 inches from the fixing point at rear of dish to the end of the lnb arm
I have also changed a couple of the lnb,s from skyware ones , one is now a slyplus quad lnb , and all 4 get excellent reception , and so from left to right its:---
42e , 28e , 19e , 13e , with the dish focussed onto 13e hotbird
the cables go inside the garage to an 8 way emp centauri p168 diseqc switch from italy , and a fifth input is going to another raven zone 2 dish at the rear of my property fitted with a slyplus quad lnb which is focussed and skewed onto 30 west hispasat , giving me a choice of 5 sats at the moment
this 8 way switch has a goto nn function in diseqc v1.2 and can be used the same as a motor so you adjust the switch the same way as you would a motor , ie:- the receiver thinks you have a diseqc motor connected
as well as making a longer dish arm , the lnb brackets need some sawing and filing to reduce the side sections so that they could be brought closer together for 13e and 19e , as they actually touch each other, as do the 2 lnb,s as well. the 28e lnb bracket and the one at 42e didnt need any adapting as they are spaced further out
this is now the final fixing for this dish , as all the components are now sorted out and fixed in place
I have toyed with the Idea of doing something with my Dishes but echelon, can you tell me the size of that dish you used.
I have 2 x 80cm dishes, one with HB and Astra and another sitting doing nothing on 1w.
Can a normal round 80cm pick up other Sat's with a multi arm and by what I read from you, you need to increase the angle up of the LNB's?
What's the cost these days of a basic motorised dish?
Thanks
I can tell you that the sly zone 2 dish is about 58cm high and about 78cm wide
a standard 80cm dish would do the job just as well but would cost more money , having said that the dish arm length needs altering to 15 inches on the zone 2 but should be fine on a standard 80cm dish like a triax , lenson heath , raven etc
your second dish would be better employed on 30 west like mine is
a diseqc motor is probably about £50 to £80 , and a dish probably about the same again
Thanks m8
I was just wondering about 42e as I already have a sly dish on 28e.
As for the 1w dish, well I'm one of those ones who is keep my fingers crossed if anything ever happens with 1w.
To me from the early days, 1w was the best place and I hardly watch much these days.
Is there much difference between 30w and what is on 19e?
Pity there's no Asian channels I can pick up, but I will look at a semi motor setup while we hit Spring/Summer.
I'll try and see what the brand of dishes are, as they have been up since around 1990-1994 I would say when Asianet was on 37w I think.
Thanks
you didnt mention having a third dish on 28e
the 80cm dish you have on hotbird and astra could probably be adapted to get 28e and 42e as well , just as mine is, by using a 4 way multi-lnb holder , especially if the lnb arm is square or rectangular and not round
so I dont see any major obstacles as you already have the correct size dish getting 2 of those 4 sats
30 west has d+ and cabo , whereas 19 east has d+ and premiere , so thats the major difference between the two
Yeah, I forgot about the 28e dish with a quad.
Since Freeview I hardly use my slyboxes as I should really get rid of the spares I have.
The best thing about them is the series link, unlike freeview which you have to keep setting if I want to get a reminder.
I've had a look at 42e but not sure if there is anything on there I would watch, unless it's English.
I just want to make use of stuff I have as I have CAMS lying around and receivers not doing much.
Still like your setup though and will need to see if the arm of the dish is round.
Thanks for the reply mate
no problem m8
42e is mainly for the footy on the turkish channels ( not in english )
most freeview channels are also on 28e
I use a humax 8000 freeview with a 200 gig hard drive I fitted for recording programs , especially series as I set it to record weekly like on a video
I suppose you might be able to fashion something for a round arm , or adapt a suitable lnb holder , but rectangular works better , especially with that multi-lnb arm I used on mine as shown in the photos
I have a90cm dish with 4 lnbs and just squeeze abouyt24 degre differential.
5 West to 19E. Find I need some slim line lnbs too!
Update
Yep, I have a round arm so will look what options as I have seen dishes with 4 holders on for a fair price.
The main older dish with the round arm is my oldest, so showing a little rust.
Thanks
I may have missed this...apologies if I did but there's a lot to take in on this thread!
Q. if you have a 4-way diseqc switch with 3 inputs already used by single(normal) lnbs.. does the fitting of a single monoblock lnb..to the spare (4th)input on the 4-way dieseqc switch give (effectively) access to 5 satellites...Or does the fact that there's a built-in (2-way) diseqc switch already in the monoblock mean that you cant do this?
Last edited by ekon; 11-06-2007 at 10:07 AM.
afaik you cannot use diseqc through diseqc in a cascade of switches , so the monoblock would give access to whatever the switch has defaulted on , bearing in mind it could get confused because it uses the same commands on the 2 way switch as you would on the 4 way switch , but the 4 way switch comes first
it is possible on some receivers to connect a diseqc motor to a diseqc switch , which is what I have now done with my 4 way switch and stab motor
thanks echelon..yes that sounds logical..I will have to think again!
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