Multiroom equipment requirements

[rainman]

Originally Posted by Templeton

The Mercury II is one I've been looking at.

As for BUDs, I saw one on CraigsList in our area...free for the taking..."10' dish, LNA, Receiver, positioner, etc. Already taken down and apart, just come pick it up!"

Is there anything I should know about before attempting the conversion?

If you are wanting to do ku also stay away from the fiberglass dishes as they usualy won't work if it is a mesh dish make sure the holes are the size of pencil lead no bigger. also look at the dish if possible to make sure it is not warped or have a bunch of dents.also my preference is the quad leg feedhorn mount more stable in the wind. then about all you have to do to upgrade is make sure the actuator is ok if not you will need a new one add bsc-621 lnbf and cables and you should be ready to start receiving FTA signals.

[lumpkin666]

Templeton, I haven't kept my list up to date .. Right now I have 2 motorized 36" dishes, 2 primestar stationary dishes (75cm), 2 10 ft mesh c-band dishes (both motorized, but I rarely move any of them) and 1 7.5ft mesh c-band dish (stationary). Am also have 5 dvb receivers, a pci satellite card, and two analog receivers - this hobby can get quite addicting!

I use all of these dishes .. plus I have a few more dishes at my mom's house that I have her setup to use

As stated, you can make a BUD into a c & ku band dish. Depending on the dish, you may not have as good of results as you'd hope for when using a BUD for ku-band. KU band is a lot more precise and less forgiving than c-band is. I actually use separate dishes for KU and C-Band based on my difficulty in getting decent KU reception on my BUD that I tested this with.

As far as which receiver to buy, that's probably why I have so many (all bought since Spring of this year). For watching TV.. just about any receiver is okay.. but for me, if you're going to tinker around, you gotta get the blindscan.. and ac3 support is important for those PBS channels... and of course good motor control is a must! Once you have all of those avenues covered, then you can start looking at PVR/High Def/networked machines. I'll tell ya that so far I've bought (and sold/given away some) receivers costing anywhere from $35 to $250, and the most simple/trouble-free/all-inclusive receiver that I've gotten is a simple Fortec Classic NA that I bought from Sadoun.

[Templeton]

OK. I've sent an email to the Craigslist person asking questions about the BUD.

Now, that brings up another question...if I have a little dish and a BUD, can I still do what I wanted to originally....watch different programs in 3 TVs? How would I hook join them together to the receivers? Remember, I still have all the wiring from the DISH 4-room system.

I obviously can't use the totem pole approach to mounting, so I guess I'd have a mini dish garden. Oh, and what about locating the BUD? Is having a clear southern view the only requirement, or does this thing need to sit out in the middle of somewhere with a clear shot of the whole sky? (I can do that, even if I had to put it on top of the brooder coop; it would just mean more cable)

[Templeton]

This is the answer I received from the person on Craigslist regarding the BUD:

"The dish is mesh. The receiver is a DX Antenna model DSB-500. The positioner is a Tru Trac CB-102L. That's all the info I have...I have no clue when it was last used."

Any comments? I couldn't find any info in the CB-102L specifically. I saw references to TruTrac, but nothing that seemed germaine to my search.

[rainman]

Originally Posted by Templeton

This is the answer I received from the person on Craigslist regarding the BUD:

"The dish is mesh. The receiver is a DX Antenna model DSB-500. The positioner is a Tru Trac CB-102L. That's all the info I have...I have no clue when it was last used."

Any comments? I couldn't find any info in the CB-102L specifically. I saw references to TruTrac, but nothing that seemed germaine to my search.

it sounds like a old system due to having a receiver and a positioner seperate most of the more modern system's have the receiver and positioner built together but still maybe worth a look if it is not to far away you are mainly looking for a dish right now anyway. and if the dish is not in bad shape you can upgrade it.

[Templeton]

Originally Posted by rainman

it sounds like a old system due to having a receiver and a positioner seperate most of the more modern system's have the receiver and positioner built together but still maybe worth a look if it is not to far away you are mainly looking for a dish right now anyway. and if the dish is not in bad shape you can upgrade it.

The dish is located within 20 miles, so it's not too far, considering I live out in the sticks.

I'm going to send another email to the owner to find out what size holes are in the mesh, and if there is any damage to the dish. I'm thinking the positioner and receiver are scrap. Any idea how much it might reasonably cost to upgrade the positioner thing?

I noticed the specifications for the Mercury II call for ku/c reception; does that mean I can use the same receiver for the BUD (if I get it) and the smaller eliptical dish I'll probably have as well?

[rainman]

Originally Posted by Templeton

The dish is located within 20 miles, so it's not too far, considering I live out in the sticks.

I'm going to send another email to the owner to find out what size holes are in the mesh, and if there is any damage to the dish. I'm thinking the positioner and receiver are scrap. Any idea how much it might reasonably cost to upgrade the positioner thing?

I noticed the specifications for the Mercury II call for ku/c reception; does that mean I can use the same receiver for the BUD (if I get it) and the smaller eliptical dish I'll probably have as well?

the mercury should work just find for the dish as for positioner all you will have to get is a v box that will send the 36 volts you need to the actuator to move the dish as long as the actuator is ok if not you will need a new one of them also. with actator and v box you should be around $250 plus a bsc-621 so for around $300 should have it up and running.

[elgemcdlf]

Ok now to throw more fuel on the fire If you are going to spend $300.00 to get a working big dish for DVB FTA just take the next step. Buy a 4DTV receiver along with a CorotorII with C & Ku lnb's. Now you have a system that is capable of subbing to most any channel you desire should you desire. The 4DTV receiver will also act as the positioner. Slave a DVB receiver to the 4DTV and have almost everything available out there. You still have the issue of multiple rooms though. This takes us back to the very beginning.

[Templeton]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

Ok now to throw more fuel on the fire If you are going to spend $300.00 to get a working big dish for DVB FTA just take the next step. Buy a 4DTV receiver along with a CorotorII with C & Ku lnb's. Now you have a system that is capable of subbing to most any channel you desire should you desire. The 4DTV receiver will also act as the positioner. Slave a DVB receiver to the 4DTV and have almost everything available out there. You still have the issue of multiple rooms though. This takes us back to the very beginning.

Nice job...I'm confused. I got the price down to $200 to fix up the BUD with a v-box, actuator, and LNBF. That's kind of settled....in my mind anyway.

I know you guys have it in you, so cough it up...how do I get over the problem of multiple rooms with the C-dish? Why isn't it the same as the ku dish that can do it with motors? How 'bout if I restrict the BUD to one room's receiver along with the ku dish, and then let the other two rooms feed exclusively off the ku dish? Will that work?

[lumpkin666]

Originally Posted by Templeton

...how do I get over the problem of multiple rooms with the C-dish?

It all comes down to the fact that with multiple rooms, you only get to see the channels from the satellite that the dish is pointing at. The only way you're going to fix that, is to have multiple dishes, (or some multi-lnb dish like a toroidal), or force the multiple rooms to live with the fact that their channel selection is limited to whatever satellite the main receiver has chosen to position on (that's how I have ended up with 3 BUDS). As well, with the corotor setup, you'll be also be limited to only the channels on that sat that have the same polarity as the channel being watched on the "controlling" receiver (unless you go with a dual c-band configuration instead of the c/ku configuration).

[elgemcdlf]

Unless you are planning on only looking at 1 sat all the time you are destined to multiple dishes. 1 per tv. If you drop the C Band portion of what you want you can accomplish what you desire with a T-90. If you can live with c band access limited to 1 tv and the Ku to all 3 a Big dish and a T-90 would do it. The largest problem with your request is first determining what sats you will be watching. Experience tells me you will not be satisfied with anything less than all of them.

If that be the case you will be far more cost effective doing it all out to begin with. If expense is an issue I would start by setting up 1 tv correctly and then working on setting up the second and finally the third. This can be accomplished with 3 big dishes and nothing else outside. If you want C Band on all 3 tv's you will need 3 big dishes or be limited as stated in the above post.

Ku can always be handled by the T-90 BUT when doing a cost comparison you may find it less expensive to setup the 3 big dishes to do both C & Ku than doing a T-90 for Ku only. The 4 port lnbf's required for every sat will get costly. Sadoun will probably give you a break if all purchased at the same time but still costly none the less. I believe in single purchase form they are somewhere near $69.00 each.

[Templeton]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

Ku can always be handled by the T-90 BUT when doing a cost comparison you may find it less expensive to setup the 3 big dishes to do both C & Ku than doing a T-90 for Ku only. The 4 port lnbf's required for every sat will get costly. Sadoun will probably give you a break if all purchased at the same time but still costly none the less. I believe in single purchase form they are somewhere near $69.00 each.

Are you saying that a big dish can be pointed at everything? And if so, how big is big? On first pass, I presumed you were talking about big round dishes, not the elliptical ones, that have the 3 or 4 legged mounts to hold the cone in the middle, but the only 4-port LNBFs I've seen have been the ones from Invacom (the Q-somethings) and I was under the impression those were not for use with BUDs. Did I miss something?

[Templeton]

OK. Scratch the BUD for the time being.

I've moved on to how to set up a wireless internet connection for my receivers. I'm going to purchase the Neosat IPRO 2000 model, which can update itself by being connected to the internet, and I would like NOT to have to run CAT5 cable all around the house from my DSL line to each receiver.

I saw a nifty ad for Logitech Play Links, but as I was reading the fine print, it stated they came in paired/matched sets...that's an issue, I think. Maybe I'm wrong.

I was thinking I needed one main transmitter unit, and then three receiver units, one at each receiver. Maybe I need to plug one set in at each outlet. I don't know.

Is there anyone here that has experience with this sort of thing. I'm in way over my head when it comes to networking.

[vze59zgb]

Originally Posted by rainman

LOL. this sounds like my wife on the farm thing so we comprimised she gets her aniamal farm on one side and i get my dish farm on the other side.

how you doing rainman hope everythings good with you. i got a little dish farm my self i would like you guys to see it how can i get the pictures to the site regards vze59zgb

[rainman]

Originally Posted by vze59zgb

how you doing rainman hope everythings good with you. i got a little dish farm my self i would like you guys to see it how can i get the pictures to the site regards vze59zgb

I put my pictures in the my picture section of my computer and then add attachments when I post.