DiseQC Setup/Installation

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Stickman779

18 posts

Geek

#102027 14-May-2012 21:51

Hi all,

Basically 2 sats, one getting freeview and one getting intelsat5 beams (NHK World, RT) etc.
After some research I ended up buying a diseqc switch that gets to into one. Great Idea. Wrong.

I am stumped on how to install the thing (settings on decoder wise) and any help would be much appreciated. DishTV S7070

mthredgo

80 posts

Master Geek

#625254 15-May-2012 09:01

Presumably you meant Optus D2 and not Intelsat 5, if you think you are going to get NHK and RT.

In fact you'd have Optus D1 Horizontal for Freeview and Optus D2 Vertical, so you'd have 2 single LNBs on the same dish, one offset (or two dishes). The DiSEqC switch would be for generating a tone on a universal LNB to switch between Vertical and Horizontal, and therefore not applicable for your situation. Get a small multiswitch instead. Then your receiver will handle it.

(caveat: I only think I'm right. Someone else can jump in if I am wrong about any of it. I haven't played with a Universal LNB before. I understand they have the 1 coax output and use DiSEqC switching to choose between the polarities. This is opposed to a single LNB with one coax output that will be setup for H or V, and a dual LNB that has two coax outputs and is setup for both polarities. Also a 4x4, or 5x4 multiswitch might be a bit more expensive than another option for combining 2 signals going to the one receiver, but I haven't experience of any of them.)

silverlake

142 posts

Master Geek

#625352 15-May-2012 10:48

mthredgo: Presumably you meant Optus D2 and not Intelsat 5, if you think you are going to get NHK and RT.

In fact you'd have Optus D1 Horizontal for Freeview and Optus D2 Vertical, so you'd have 2 single LNBs on the same dish, one offset (or two dishes). The DiSEqC switch would be for generating a tone on a universal LNB to switch between Vertical and Horizontal, and therefore not applicable for your situation. Get a small multiswitch instead. Then your receiver will handle it.

(caveat: I only think I'm right. Someone else can jump in if I am wrong about any of it. I haven't played with a Universal LNB before. I understand they have the 1 coax output and use DiSEqC switching to choose between the polarities. This is opposed to a single LNB with one coax output that will be setup for H or V, and a dual LNB that has two coax outputs and is setup for both polarities. Also a 4x4, or 5x4 multiswitch might be a bit more expensive than another option for combining 2 signals going to the one receiver, but I haven't experience of any of them.)

I agree that you would get NHK and RT from Optus D2.
Intelsat 5 would give you BBC World and Australia Network.
Your DiSeqC switch should enable you to switch between the different LNB's from a single STB and you would be able to access all the channels from both Horizontal and Vertical transponders on both satellites. However, I'm not familiar with your Dish TV STB so can't help with that.

As it happens there are no longer any FTA channels broadcasting to NZ on the Optus D1 vertical transponders, and the 2 channels that you mention are on Optus D2 Vertical transponders. A multiswitch would support multiple STB's accessing a Vertical LNB and a Horizontal LNB, so if you attach your D1 dish to the Horizontal port on the multiswitch and the D2 dish to the Vertical port, then when a STB switches between horizontal and vertical it will also be switching satellites.

The up side of using a multiswitch is that it will support multiple STB's (or twin tuners - recording from D1 while watching D2). The down side of using a multiswitch would be that if a good channel were to start up on Optus D1 Vertical or Optus C1 Horizontal you wouldn't be able to tune in to it.

The up side of your DiSeqC switch is that you can access all of the channels from both polarities on both satellites. The down side is that if you have more than 1 STB, then they will all work only when they are all tuned to the same satellite and polarity.

silverlake

142 posts

Master Geek

#625357 15-May-2012 10:55

BTW.. BBC World and Australia Network are on Intelsat 5 Horizontal, so a multi-switch would not work if you are accessing Intelsat 5 and Optus D1......
unless you rotated one of the LNB's though 90 degrees to turn Horizontal into Vertical!

mm1352000

1149 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#625441 15-May-2012 13:36

mthredgo: The DiSEqC switch would be for generating a tone on a universal LNB to switch between Vertical and Horizontal, and therefore not applicable for your situation. Get a small multiswitch instead. Then your receiver will handle it.

This is not accurate. A DiSEqC switch doesn't generate tones - it interprets them, connecting one of the LNB inputs to the receiver output according to the interpretation. The tones are a modulated 22k signal... [edit: generated by the receiver]

A "universal" LNB (universal in Europe mostly) has a built in 22k switch (which is not a DiSEqC switch) to switch between two bands of receiving frequencies (low band = 10700 MHz - 11700 MHz, high band = 11700 - 12750 MHz). Has nothing to do with polarities (horizontal and vertical).

Almost all LNBs are capable of supplying horizontal or vertical (or circular left and right if we were in other parts of the world). The control for switching between polarities is the voltage in the cable: 13 V tells the LNB to supply vertical signals, 18 V tells it to supply horizontal signals.

Technically multiswitches should be able to supply either polarity from any input satellite to any connected receiver. They are a combination of switch and splitter. Cheaper "multiswitches" like this (http://www.freeviewshop.co.nz/input-output-satellite-multiswitch-p-51.html) are only able to supply one polarity from each satellite and switch on voltage rather than 22k tone or DiSEqC logic. They're basically like what could be found inside an LNB that has multiple independent outputs. They definitely have their uses, but I don't really consider them a multiswitch.

@Stickman779: I too am unfamiliar with your receiver, but if you connect the satellite feeds to the inputs of the DiSEqC switch and the switch output to the receiver that would be a good start. Somewhere in the setup menus it should allow you to select the "port" or "input" (maybe described as "AA", "AB", "BA", "BB" - option and position). The correct selection depends on which inputs you connect on the switch.

Good luck! :)

xarqi

727 posts

Ultimate Geek

#625502 15-May-2012 14:59

mm1352000:Cheaper "multiswitches" like this (http://www.freeviewshop.co.nz/input-output-satellite-multiswitch-p-51.html) are only able to supply one polarity from each satellite...

Perhaps I'm not following you too well here, but this is the multiswitch that I use, and (back in the day when there was something unencrypted from Optus D1 on V-pol, namely SBS), it was quite happy to supply V-pol to one output and H-pol to another. It is fed by a twin output LNB, if that is relevant.

mm1352000

1149 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#625516 15-May-2012 15:07

xarqi:
mm1352000:Cheaper "multiswitches" like this (http://www.freeviewshop.co.nz/input-output-satellite-multiswitch-p-51.html) are only able to supply one polarity from each satellite...

Perhaps I'm not following you too well here, but this is the multiswitch that I use, and (back in the day when there was something unencrypted from Optus D1 on V-pol, namely SBS), it was quite happy to supply V-pol to one output and H-pol to another. It is fed by a twin output LNB, if that is relevant.

If you connect only one satellite (ie. vertical and horizontal feeds from a twin output LNB pointed at D1, which I guess is what you have done) then it can supply H and V for that satellite to any output. It would be like extending the LNB with additional independent outputs - a splitter if you will. However, if you connect D1 to one input and D2 to the other then you either get D1 H and D2 V or D1 V and D2 H - can't get all four polarities.

mthredgo

80 posts

Master Geek

#625518 15-May-2012 15:13

Yeah I knew I didn't know enough about it all.

I had a 5x4 multiswitch with a dual polarity LNB on D1, a single LNB to D2 Vertical and a single C-band LNB Intelsat 5 Horizontal and that worked

then I upgraded to a 9x4 multiswitch with a dual polarity LNB on D1, a dual polarity LNB on D2 all in diSEqC Port A, and a single LNB on Intelsat 8 Vertical, and the single c-band LNB on Intelsat 5 Horizontal and a dual C-band LNB on Asiasat3C all on Port B and that works too.

I'll look at my settings tonight (I have a DishTV receiver) and try to supply real info to help out rather than the dud stuff I said above.

That 3x4 multiswitch does look like what I'd call a multiswitch too.

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xarqi

727 posts

Ultimate Geek

#625520 15-May-2012 15:19

mm1352000:
xarqi:
mm1352000:Cheaper "multiswitches" like this (http://www.freeviewshop.co.nz/input-output-satellite-multiswitch-p-51.html) are only able to supply one polarity from each satellite...

Perhaps I'm not following you too well here, but this is the multiswitch that I use, and (back in the day when there was something unencrypted from Optus D1 on V-pol, namely SBS), it was quite happy to supply V-pol to one output and H-pol to another. It is fed by a twin output LNB, if that is relevant.

If you connect only one satellite (ie. vertical and horizontal feeds from a twin output LNB pointed at D1, which I guess is what you have done) then it can supply H and V for that satellite to any output. It would be like extending the LNB with additional independent outputs - a splitter if you will. However, if you connect D1 to one input and D2 to the other then you either get D1 H and D2 V or D1 V and D2 H - can't get all four polarities.

That's what I did indeed. I'm still a bit puzzled though. Is there a device, what you call a multiswitch, that with a single lead from an LNB can supply both H and V simultaneously? I thought that that was fundamentally impossible as the switching was by voltage, yet it seems to be what you are implying to be a shortcoming of what I call a multiswitch, such as that specific one discussed here.

xarqi

727 posts

Ultimate Geek

#625528 15-May-2012 15:30

It's possible my posts have come across as trying to "pick a fight", but I promise that isn't so. I'm just trying to figure out what it is that the more expensive multiswitches referred to can do that the cheaper ones can't.

mm1352000

1149 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#625530 15-May-2012 15:34

xarqi: That's what I did indeed. I'm still a bit puzzled though. Is there a device, what you call a multiswitch, that with a single lead from an LNB can supply both H and V simultaneously? I thought that that was fundamentally impossible as the switching was by voltage, yet it seems to be what you are implying to be a shortcoming of what I call a multiswitch, such as that specific one discussed here.

I guess my idea of a multiswitch is a device that can supply both polarities for more than one satellite. Multiswitches aren't always used that way so I guess technically the unit in question is a multiswitch. I continue to think of it more as a splitter.

As for single cable distribution of H and V: yes, it can be done... with unicable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicable

Unicable is built on top of DiSEqC. The LNB has extra smarts in it. Basically, there are 4 or more nominal slots in the cable. Each slot is dedicated to a receiver. The idea is that the polarity requirements of one receiver should not dictate the polarity that other receivers can get. Especially since each receiver can only demodulate one transponder at a time. A constant voltage is supplied to the LNB to power the logic etc., and DiSEqC signaling is used to tell the LNB which transponder(s) the receiver(s) want access to. The transponders are downconverted by the LNB into the required bandwidth slots. Quite a cool system I think, but not yet widespread.

mm1352000

1149 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#625531 15-May-2012 15:36

xarqi: It's possible my posts have come across as trying to "pick a fight", but I promise that isn't so. I'm just trying to figure out what it is that the more expensive multiswitches referred to can do that the cheaper ones can't.

Not at all! It is just an opinion on my part as stated in the previous post - for me, a multiswitch has at least 4 inputs so it can receive both polarities from two satellites. Totally an opinion.

Stickman779

18 posts

Geek

#631117 27-May-2012 18:31

Sorry to revive an old thread.

BUT. After a "hiatus" I decided to try again, doing a factory reset with the box.
Used the "Toneburst" option listed in the Diseqc section and scanned each satellite. Worked like a charm. D1=A and D2=B.
Now I have my international channels (Bvn, RT, NHK etc) alongside freeview.

Thankyou for your replies.