DiSEqC Switch

[arden]

ok its getting closer to moving day have a lidl 80cm dish and decoder to put up as my project

the house already has a sky dish prob going to leave it pointing at Astra2 and use the 80cm for "playing"

This may become really clear when I'm doing it but when setting up the 2nd dish do i need to take the first out of the system?

and if i get a motor for the 80cm dish will the decoder go to the fixed dish for Astra2 or move the other?

and could anyone tell me the best place in yorkshire to buy cable and connectors ?

sorry for the newbie questions

Arden

[Analoguesat]

Keep the system seperate and you cant go far wrong. Or put a multi port lnb on the sky dish and you can watch the fta stuff from 28E dish via disecq switching.

[BGonaSTICK]

Hi Arden - you seemed a bit confused. Do you understand what Analoguesat said?

If not, let us know. It can be pretty bewildering to start with

STICK

[arden]

think there is a little confusion here im only going to use the sky dish for fta its been left by the previous people.

Was wondering if the decoder box was clever enough to realise it had a dish already pointing at 28e of would just move the 80cm dish when I get round to putting a motor on it.

Arden

[Analoguesat]

Originally Posted by BGonaSTICK

Do you understand what Analoguesat said?

STICK

I dont know what Im rabbiting on about myself most of the time

[BGonaSTICK]

LOL - OK, maybe it's be being a little dense.

Let me just run through the options I think you have.

You have an existing Sky minidish. You have a fixed 80cm Lidl dish, and the Lidl SL65 Comag/Silvercrest receiver. You may want to add a motor later. I hope I've got that right

Now, based on the title of this thread, I take it you're contemplating a DiSEqC switch. I would always recommend a four-way switch if you're not sure what you're going to do in the future for the little extra they cost over a two-way switch.

You would connect the Sky dish to the LNB1 connector of the switch, and the 80cm dish's single LNB to the LNB2 connector, leaving 3 and 4 disconnected.

In the receiver, you would tell it that LNB1 is on Astra 2, and LNB2 is on whichever satellite you point it at. You can change the later - both the physical alignment of the dish, and the corresponding LNB definition in the receiver.

Everything's cool.

Now, adding a motor will change all that. It's very unusual to try and combine a DiSEqC switch with a motor.

You would dump the Sky minidish as the motorised dish would get Astra 2 as well. You would dump the DiSEqC switch as you no longer have a need for it. Your motor would be controlled by the receiver, whose LNB/DiSEqC definitions you would have to totally reconfigure to tell it you were driving a motor and not a switch and multi-LNBs.

Does that make sense?

[Jimdefruit]

Just to throw in my two pennyworth of confusion, arden, I would keep the existing dish pointing at 28.2E and have a cheepy fta receiver or second hand digibox and free to view card (assuming you dont want to go the whole hog and have a full sub to sky).

I would have a separate receiver connected to the new dish which would be either multi lnb or single lnb and motorised so that you can watch and record different sats simultaneously.

Saves a few arguments in my house anyway by doing it that way.

[arden]

ive alrady got a freeview box so with sat will have two uk free to air boxes

one reasion for getting this set up is im starting german lessions next so the many german channels im told is on astra1 will come in handy for "getting an ear for the language" at least I hope so

one thing I would consider getting a sky sub is for there Knowledge Mix Discovery ect

are any of these channels FTA on other sats? guessing uk history as its on freeview

[Jimdefruit]

Ok arden, if you already have a freeview box then I wouldn't go for a sky box as well. A sky box will be useless for other satellites so ideally you need to go for a patchable or programable type box. If you just want the odd German channel you could go for a free to air box, but as your German gets better you may want to find and open a few of the encrypted channels - it is possible.

[arden]

yep Ive got a sl65 from lidl good enough to start playing

hopefully patches will come along later