multiswitch query..

cormacl

Folks,
I've an 80cm with 3-lnb diseqc 13/19/28 setup on the chimney feeding a non-Sky receiver (dreambox) and also a single-feed sky minidish on the front of the house connected to a sky receiver.

The storms some months back gave the 80cm dish a good rogering and I needed to correct it slightly afterwards.. also during the high winds, it was nearly unusable. The Sky minidish however was working fine through the high winds.

I remember it well.. the night yer man was driving into RTE's front door, I was outside at home in the lashing rain & wind shining a torch up at the dish looking at the the LNB arm bouncing from side to side! I'm not at ease letting this stay there in case it may eventually cause structural damage or blow off and damage slates etc.

I want to now plan to remove the dish from the chimney, relocate it to the rear garden wall at a lower height and install a multi-switch setup to future proof for extra tv points etc.

I was hoping to refit the dish with two dual-LNBs for 13 & 19 only and run the 4 cables from the garden to the attic (I've measured this to be about a 35m run).

Then refit the Sky dish with a quad LNB, leaving the existing Sky feed in place, but add 2 extra cables cables to feed the 28.2 signal into the attic and multiswitch... This seemed a sensible thing to do in terms of keeping the Sky dish.

I would also rewire my terrestrial aerial to feed into this switch. The hope then is to be able to feed as many TV points as required with sat and terrestrial signals, with suitable switch sizing etc.

Question.. is the 35m run too long or at least likely to suffer significant signal loss?

Question.. if I get one of those multiswitchs that can combine a terrestrial feed.. how does this then split out at the other end for terrestrial use?.. I've not found much detail on how this works.

Question.. if I wire the 28.2 feeds as the first input to the switch (presumably diseqc AA/LNB-0).. would standard sky boxes work with the output feeds then in terms of straight forward horizontal/vertical switching (but not LNB switching)? ... I'm asking this just in case it means I could relocate the sky box from its current location or if desired add more sky receivers for FTA instead of generic receivers.

Any advice clarification, much appreciated.

Sponge Bob

35m is fine with good cable and connections .

multiswitch links here

http://www.satellitesuperstore.com/multiswitch.htm

diseq commands are not issued by Sky boxes , its a feature, so you probably need a sky 'aware' multiswitch which can also handle diseqs .

also note you may need quattro instead of dual lnbs too (the 4 outputs are split by frequency ), thats 4 x 35m cables x 2 if the multiswitch is inside .

cormacl

thanks for the tips..

Can I fit the Sky dish with a quattro LNB or will a Sky quad LNB work as an alternative for its 4-cable feed into the multi-switch?

Then finally, if anyone knows.. please advise of Sky friendly multi-switches.. I assume that by being Sky friendly,it will select a default diseqc feed in the absence of the LNB diseqc commands... is that correct?

watty

Some but not all multiswitches will work with Quad. The EMP-Centauri have a switch with up to 4 LNBs. Only the LNB1 can be a Quattro or Quad.

Put LNB for 28.2 as 1st LNB, and all Diseq Multiswitches will work with Sky.

snaps

watty is corect in his setup he suggests. 28east has to be LNB 1 or disque 1. Sometimes when using with another reciever (That uses the other LNBS of disque switch) you may have to turn off that reciever with switch 1 selected otherwise the sky box will not switch onto the LNB for 28east. I have a simular set up in spare room with sky box and technomate. I always switch off technomate on say BBC1.

watty

But if you have a Multiswitch based Diseqc switch, the receiver outlets are independent and can all be different at the same time. I have 8 receivers on a Multistich. Only two are Sky boxes. LNBs are 28, 19, 13 and 4th is a C-Band LNBF with two outlets on a separate dish AND the High Frequencies only on a 4th Ku Quattro LNB.

I haven't got the C-band dish aligned properly yet. Too busy,

cormacl

whats the story then on demuxing the RF signal from the antenna feed?..

Do I need to run a separate output cable for the analogue terrestrial feed or can it be demuxed from any of the in-use satellite outputs?

I've seen these sat sockets on German sites that feature a sat and RF out combined (or a double-version).. would these be the sort of thing I need to use?

Also.. if I relocate the 80cm dish with 13/19 LNBs and run 8 cables from the back garden rear wall some 35-40m to the attic.. is there some recommended way of ducting these etc.. I don't like the idea of a large wad of cables being visible and neither does wifey.. so any advice there is very welcome

byte

You'll need sat/tv diplexer to seperate the signals again. These are available as wallplates too.

watty

I have a pipe buried under back lawn with most of the cables in it.

Unfortunately I didn't bury a big enough pipe for what I have now.

cormacl

Watty,
what kind of piping did you use?.. was it some kid of hosing or solid pipe etc.. and advise of any sealing if it needed to be assembled or joined.

I'd like to bury the cable run as its the least visual impact and harder for little hands to damage... but I'm worried about water damage etc.

watty

Rigid PVC Waste pipe. Glue the joins. Use a cord twice the length so when you pull in a cable you can pull back the cord for another cable someother time. Use as big a pipe as you can afford. I put one too small.

It's been there about 5+ years and everything is working. If you use exterior grade cable it shouldn't matter if water gets in.

Sponge Bob

use a 4" sewer pipe with smooth inside plastic if you can.