Anyone selling a sattelite system?

martyc5674

Anyone selling a sattelite system for a camper??
Cheers,
Marty.

zoltar_boi

Marty,

Lidl and Aldi regularly do suitcase satellite systems which are quite popular, and despite some technophobes telling you otherwise, are very easy to set up.

I got a similar one from Maplins in the UK (£7 delivery on top of the price & they charge Irish VAT rates - but still cheaper than buying here), which has a very small scart receiver, so I saved counter space.

Michael

martyc5674

Cheers,
Yeah its one of the lidl/aldi ones im after ideally as budget is tight..but i think they had them a few weeks back so i missed the boat!!
Theres a maplin not far from here...ill give them a bell tomorrow, heading off the weekend for 2 weeks so id like to get one fairly pronto!!
Cheers,
Marty.

martyc5674

Is it this one you have???
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=217921
Cheers,
Marty.

zoltar_boi

Hi Marty,

It's very similar, except the receiver I got was the size of a cigarette pack and plugged straight into the SCART socket on the back of the TV but this will do the same job.

Michael

dowtchaboy

Marty - you should ask at the checkout at LIDL - even when it is not on display they quite often have the stuff in the backroom. As I recall the last time the had these they did not sell out on the first day (was April 23rd for the "camping" one).
They may even have them at the distribution centre in Charleville - suggest you try the 1800 number - you never know.....

1800 347 447 (Republic of Ireland)

Monday - Saturday
8 a.m. - 9 p.m.

customer.services@lidl.ie

Also might be worth putting up a "wanted" ad locally or on Freecycle or whatever - I have come across people who never used theirs as they didn't bother to read the (large) fine print that said they would not be able to receive Sky (or RTE etc).

martyc5674

Cheers for that!
Mail sent ;-)

Macspower

sorry to hijack your thread but it might help you if I get sorted.

I'm using my lidl receiver with my existing built in dish and all works perfectly but I was wondering if there is a 12v receiver that will take my sky card .

If I can get one I,ll sell / give you mine

stapeler

Macspower wrote: »

sorry to hijack your thread but it might help you if I get sorted.

I'm using my lidl receiver with my existing built in dish and all works perfectly but I was wondering if there is a 12v receiver that will take my sky card .

If I can get one I,ll sell / give you mine

There's a couple on ebay at the minute, the Pace 1000 runs on 12volts

joe250

Why not get one of these.
Looks good and small

zoltar_boi

Hi Joe,

That's the receiver I got with a camping kit from Maplins earlier in the year. Does the job, but a word of warning, I tried it on 3 TVs and depending on the location of the scart socket, it didn't fit all the scart sockets because the casing in quite bulky. Seems to be more an issue on LCD TVs, so buyer be warned.

Apart from that, it has some nice features for classifying channels, setup is dead easy too.

Michael

yardeyar

Hi we have a Lidl or Aldi Sat in our house and its brillant but on our old camper when we'd stop I'd have to turn it right a bit, left a bit, up a bit down a bit etc..... and it was difficult to get good pictures on the contenient so this year we bought a Oyster self finding dish which was dear but excellent. Press a button and within a few minutes you have tv. All the way through UK, France, Swiss, and to Northern Italy we got all BBC's ITV's, but as we headed south towards Pisa and Rome we lost all BBC and ITV's but still had many English speaking channels including SKY News. We drove south to Naples, Italy and east to Krakow, Poland and Sky News worked perfect. If you can afford an Oyster 85cm System then go for it. Good Luck! YEAH!

Macspower

http://www.satellitetv.ie/shop/index.php?controller=product&path=71&product_id=173 :eek: I'll keep twiddling my cheapie one...

looks great but as you say at a price!

dowtchaboy

Hey Marty - looks like LIDL were listening to you!.... the 12v system is back next Thursday 16th:
http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20090716.p.SilvercrestDigitalCampingSatelliteSystem
and at €79.99 it's a tad cheaper than before, no?

volker 991

dowtchaboy wrote: »

Hey Marty - looks like LIDL were listening to you!.... the 12v system is back next Thursday 16th:
http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20090716.p.SilvercrestDigitalCampingSatelliteSystem
and at €79.99 it's a tad cheaper than before, no?

Marty,

yeah just checked the flyer , its back and cheaper as dowtchaboy said,
my friend has one ,he is very happy with it ,gets him out to fiddle with something away from the girlfriend:Don trips.....
Very good on the continent as you would expect...:p.
I will by one myself ,next year want need it before my big trip,mind it mybe even cheaper then 69.99 i hope :mad::D

yammagamma

hi guys.. 35cm dish is a bit small for here.. be ok in continent, it will prob work ok but if it gets bad weather ie rain signal prob break up alot, i would say you could pick up a old s@y dish which are 60cm for nothing,seen a few thrown in skips even. be way easier to setup as you would not have to be so accurate on the sat.. here is a link might help. re different dish size for different satellites..http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/europe.html

receiver is grand just i say dish size be more headache then its worth

dowtchaboy

Presume you got your LIDL one by now Marty? My local LIDL (Carrigaline) has a ton of them left yesterday (Friday) - I reckon there's less than 10 or so gone off the pallet-load. There must come a point when everybody who wants one has one....... certainly the sales of the 220v version have slowed down too - there use to be a big rush as the East Europeans all wanted one to get TV from home but now that they either have one or are heading off to places with work.

Re 60cm dish - agreed you will get much better reception once aligned - but who needs to lug a big dish around - in a camper? I spend my time trying to leave stuff at home (including the TV as it happens....)! Perversely - it's easier to initially locate the satellite with a smaller dish as the focus is less tight than the large one. It's also less sensitive to slight movements.

martyc5674

Cheers lads.
Was away in the van last 2 weeks(which i would have liked the sat for!!)
Anyway popped into lidl in tralee on the way home and there were heaps of them so i picked one up...looks grand...havent had a chance to see how well it works yet tho will post back when i get a chance.
BTW bought a lovely LCD TV in argos...its 16 inch which is grand for the camper and it was only 129 euro...has scart and HDMI inputs and basically ever other input you can imagine..watched a bit if TV on it and a fair few films off the laptop..had a great 2 weeks..planning the next spin now
Marty

martyc5674

REmote control doesnt work!!
Back in to lidl this eve to try exchange it!
Marty.

Niall_G

Hi Marty

Does this TV have DC power or only AC? The specs on the Argos website only mention the AC.

Thanks
Niall

martyc5674 wrote: »

Cheers lads.
Was away in the van last 2 weeks(which i would have liked the sat for!!)
Anyway popped into lidl in tralee on the way home and there were heaps of them so i picked one up...looks grand...havent had a chance to see how well it works yet tho will post back when i get a chance.
BTW bought a lovely LCD TV in argos...its 16 inch which is grand for the camper and it was only 129 euro...has scart and HDMI inputs and basically ever other input you can imagine..watched a bit if TV on it and a fair few films off the laptop..had a great 2 weeks..planning the next spin now
Marty

martyc5674

Hi Niall,
The TV is in the camper which isnt @ home @ the moment(ill check the weekend)
Im pretty sure it is ac only though.
Marty.

Macspower

Most of the TV's are not advertised as DC but how you will know is to go into one of the large shops and see which ones ahve a transformer on them and see if it says 12vDC
If so all you need is a cable with the same plug and a cigeratte lighter plug on the other end

Niall_G

Thanks Macspower. I know that, but unfortunately you can't inspect them in Argos, which is why I'm hoping Marty can save me the hassle.

zoltar_boi

Niall,

If you go to the customer services with the product number, they can let you view before you buy. Failing that - they do operate a 30 day return (no quibble) guarantee on most products, so you could ask if TVs are included and then if they won't let you see it, buy it then take it outside, check it and return straight away if not what you want.

dowtchaboy

Macspower wrote: »

Most of the TV's are not advertised as DC but how you will know is to go into one of the large shops and see which ones ahve a transformer on them and see if it says 12vDC
If so all you need is a cable with the same plug and a cigeratte lighter plug on the other end

Anybody got an real experience with this? I was hoping for this to be true (ie just bypassing the AC to DC brick) but I did see on some other forum someone claiming that the "up to 14volts" you can get in a van when the alternator is running can kill a nominally 12v LCD. Now I think this guy was selling some sort of smoothed regulated supply so I don't know what the truth is.

martyc5674

Guys im pretty sure on this TV its mains all the way in (i dont remember a transformer in the box!)
But i will check the weeken.
However as dowtchaboy eluded to there is typically a transformer built into the TV itself which can be bipassed.
If you are electronically minded and dont mind doing a bit of soldering you could potentially use your 12V to drive the TV.
After the transformer in the TV there will be a an AC-DC convertor (couple of diodes...or an IC) a bit of smoothening (usually a few capacitors) and then a regulator which will ensure no more than 12V are seen from that point forward.
However youd want to open up the TV and dick around with a multimeter first to ensure it actually is 12V...it may be 16 or + and - 12V or something that a car battery cant supply readily.
I could rip mine apart and tell ye whats inside but i dont have the time!!!
Cheers,
Marty.

dowtchaboy

Well I wasn't even suggesting getting inside the TV - though it had crossed my mind. What I had heard was that maybe "household" TV's that had outside power supplies (ie 22v to 12VDC converter bricks) might not be suitable for cars and vans 'cos the nominal 12V can vary all over the place, especially up to 14v if the alternator is running at full belt and the battery is almost fully charged. I just wondered if anyone out there had any real hands-on experience?

Macspower

well sort of hands on....

bought a TV/dvd combo which had a AC/DC converter to power it and hte output from the transformer was written as 12v... So I just cut the cable and installed a cigarette lighter plug and no problems so far.. I have since picked up a regulated 12v supply from Maplins which is probably safer..

Ahh feck it..... here a picture will prob do a better job of my trying to waffle/explain it..

killalanerr

Macspower wrote: »

well sort of hands on....

bought a TV/dvd combo which had a AC/DC converter to power it and hte output from the transformer was written as 12v... So I just cut the cable and installed a cigarette lighter plug and no problems so far.. I have since picked up a regulated 12v supply from Maplins which is probably safer..

Ahh feck it..... here a picture will prob do a better job of my trying to waffle/explain it..

macs power i am at the stage where i have cut the the cable and have found what is like coax cable no color code which cable do i use as the positive and which is the neg- ,i have smoked one tv all ready trying this i use it now through an inverter direct from the batt this means i have wire running all over the van i am keen to run it from the 12v plugs which are fitted in my swift but cant afford to blow any more tv,s,

any direction would be grate

also got my lidl sat/tv going on sat night ,it was pissing rain where we were and a bit cold so came inside about 10pm spent about 10 min setting it and spent the rest of the evening watching a film , its a good job

Macspower

"DISCLAIMER" blow it up at your own peril

I used the outside/screen/silver bit of the coaxil cable as the negative and the centre as the positive..

Get some one to do it for you if in doubt or better again get a made up cable for it

killalanerr wrote: »

macs power i am at the stage where i have cut the the cable and have found what is like coax cable no color code which cable do i use as the positive and which is the neg- ,i have smoked one tv all ready trying this i use it now through an inverter direct from the batt this means i have wire running all over the van i am keen to run it from the 12v plugs which are fitted in my swift but cant afford to blow any more tv,s,

any direction would be grate

also got my lidl sat/tv going on sat night ,it was pissing rain where we were and a bit cold so came inside about 10pm spent about 10 min setting it and spent the rest of the evening watching a film , its a good job

killalanerr

Macspower wrote: »

"DISCLAIMER" blow it up at your own peril

I used the outside/screen/silver bit of the coaxil cable as the negative and the centre as the positive..

Get some one to do it for you if in doubt or better again get a made up cable for it

thanks for the reply and roger to the disclaimer

i have been on the lookout for a made up one cant seem to find one
any one er know where i might get one mine has a 4pin plug on