elknice,
there is really no need for guess work. if you have the dish with you (which i believe you should),
then go ahead and just measure the depth and use this formula to calculate its focal length:

f=(D * D)/(16 * c)

where f = focal length

D = external diameter

and c = depth

in case you're wondering, you can measure the depth of the dish by using two tight fishing lines across
the surface of dish and a ruler or tape from where they intersect to the bottom of the dish.

check the attached diagram.

hello abunafiu,
congratulations on your successful installation.i do hope you find the time

to post your pictures real soon.we are all waiting to see them.cheers!

microgiant: George_D congrats on your new acquisition. Hope it is well grounded oh. You know that some capitalist are not happy about bad market. So you should always anticipate an attack and be prepared. Ground that your systems very well

@microgiant,
You bet! I have since grounded the dish - same way I did with the fibre.

Man no dey make the same mistake twice!

@swordswifter,
When adding pictures, use the 'browse' botton and not the image icon at the top.

We're expecting your pictures.

Cheers!

@swordswifter,

Its quite an interesting journey you've been through with your SRT 4910HD. And to think that I nearly
fell for that reciever when it newly came out then! Now looking back in hindsight, I am glad I didn't
make the move to buy.

Kindly post pictures of your modifications so that others can get a first hand example of how to go about
fixing thiers. Also I think the pictures will reduce too many questions from members who want to do this
on their own.

VIVA FTA!

hmmmm! google wants to be a jack of all trades.

very soon they'll be a master of none!

elknice,

the focal lenght of a dish does not depend on its external diameter alone. you need to also know its depth.
for example, you could have two dishes of same diameter of say 2.6m but their depth could be different
and hence they will have different focal lenghts. however, to get around this, if the dish you're referring
to is a brand name commercial type, like strong or eurostar, whose specs are easily obtainable, we could
safely compare like for like and assume that yours will have the same focal lenght. this will not work
if what you have is a locally made dish since different local dish fabricators use different moulds which
have different depths.

i hope this helps?

@Brite02,
Good work there! I can see that ASAS fever has really gripped you to the bones!

However, to add to what microgiant said, you're really under-utilising your dishes.
Apart from that, you could have a much neater set up by collapsing all those smaller dishes
into a single 2.4m motorised set-up. That way you can still recieve all those birds you're
getting now and much more! Plus, your dish farm will be less congested compared to what it
looks like right now.

Just a thought.

olarevo,
congrats for the mppt charge controller. what is the current and voltage rating
of this e tracer?

UncleSmart:
Thanks King George the Last, with one hand the Oromiya TP brings it out with over 80% signal strength. but to my surprise most of the TP i got from Lyngsat are still very very Red. please i need the tp for Orisun TV on this Amos 5/C.
and can anybody help me too with a working tp for intesat 904 @ 60E especially for Channels TV or are they not there again?. thank you all that makes fta a better place.
thanks.

@UncleSmart,
Congrats! That's the spirit of FTA! Now that you got Amos 5/C, just blindscan and all other TPs will come out.
If they don't come out it means either your dish size is not adequate to recieve them or maybe your LNB is not
properly positioned at your dish focal point.

Unfourtunately the Nigerian Mux on Intelsat 904 remains a mirage and so Channels TV, MITV, et al are not yet
available for us on that bird. Maybe sometime later things may change for the better.

abunafiu,
congrats on your relocation to a better site. you should ordinarily mount your solar panels
facing south and using your location's latitude as your reference from horizontal if you want to
get optimal performance from them. however, from experience this may not always be practicable due
to physical limitations on ground. therefore you can always tinker with the horizontal angle
orientation as long as the panels are facing south at the end of the day.

UncleSmart: please gurus in the house kindly help me, i have been trying to nail Amos 5 C-band for some days now but i cant, i am done for the ku band and i am getting most of the channels above 70% signal strength but the c-band i have not been able to do that, with all the tps i got from lyngsat, it all red and red and red or i cant get the C-band in north western nigeria. i am using a motorized 1.8m dish, and i am in north west of nigeria. dont really know what is wrong i tot it was my lnb but i was able to track arabsat with it some days aga, so i dont really know what is wrong please help.
thanks in advance

@UncleSmart,
To get Amos 5/C use Oromiya TP (3626V, 2000SR) or Optima sports (4147V, 5000SR).
You can also use ACBN TP (4136V, 3330SR). The dBW is very high and you can't go wrong.
Since you can already track Amos 5/Ku just take note of that same position and raise your
dish there. Make sure your C Band LNB is at your dish focal lenght and tilted at 2 o'clock
position (very important).

abunafiu,

take my advice and don't stress yourself over your tristar hvd alarm.

when i first started using mine, i was a little worried myself and almost decided to
install a contactor but after so many years of use i'm glad i never bothered to install
any. the hvd alarm is an oem feature built into the tristar and should not really be a problem
for you. for one it is not audible (so no problem of beeping or anything like that). the leds
of the tristar are designed to cycle for a while and after a few minutes it will reset itself
and resume charging from where it left off. it requires no manual intervention from anyone.
however you can always reset it by pushing the reset button if you want it to return to
charging mode earlier.


again, forget about the contactor and just go ahead and let your controller do its thing.
like akanniade said, most high-end charge controllers like your tristar were built with a
hybrid setup in mind. they are designed to work with multiple charging inputs including solar,
wind, geo-thermal and direct public power all charging your battery bank at the same time.
if working with multiple power sources were a problem for charge controllers then nobody
would be installing a hybrid system as of today.

i have studied most hybrid inverter and charge controller wiring diagrams online and never once
have i seen anywhere a contactor was installed between the inverter and charge controller.

you too can take your time to go online and verify this.

akanniade,

you are very much on point.

and, its good to know that your system is firing as usual.

however, i suggest you still take time to monitor your system (whenever you can)

so as to be on top of any abnormally should it occur.

loluc90,

i do receive hispasat, hotbird, badr and nilesat for now. later i will try out other birds
when the time permits.

loluc90,

i already posted enough on the general fta thread.

what more would you like to know?

abunafiu,
sorry i'm just seeing your post for the first time. i guess i must have skipped it when replying akanniade.

ok, so the issue of your tristar not getting into 'bulk' mode is exactly as total green has explained. for
tristar mppt charge controllers, 'mppt' takes the place of 'bulk'. you only get to see bulk mode with ordinary
tristar pwm controllers.

hvd alarm in tristars usually comes up when your system voltage gets higher than the solar array output voltage
and this usually happens when charging simultaneously with phcn and solar panels and when your battery voltage
begins to rise as it becomes full. this is a safety feature with tristars and you don't have to worry about it.

however, if you still want to avoid this alarm entirely, you either don't charge with phcn and solar
simultaneously (in which case your system will no longer be a hybrid system) or maybe you could install either
a normally open (no) or normally closed (nc) contactor. this is not my field so i cannot expatiate on the fine
details. your suggestion of using a changeover (or knife switch - as you call it) may not cut it as it will be
too cumbersome to operate since it will require continuous monitoring by someone who needs to be constantly
on standby to switch it on and off.

hope this helps?

odilibe: What part do you disagree with.. if you have done a test, you can give us the experimental results of these lnbs you have listed ..the point was that inverto red classics c120 lnb, beats other lnb on experimental results done previously!!

true talk. we don't deal on theory here.

even on my 4m pan recently installed, inverto red classic still carried the day.

Akanniade: Hello George D.

akanniade,

its been quite a while. how's your set up performing?

abunafiu,
lol! cutting wire technology indeed!

ok, i know this is just a temporary fix to enable you test the performance of your
mppt charge controller. going forward try and get a piece of meter board on which you can
screw the tristar firmly to the wall. it will save you from accidentally damaging the
charge controller should that wire eventually give way. just a thought.

@olenyi,
The added support from the tripods gives the dish better stability.

It is now even more stable compared to when it was carrying the old lighter 3m fibre

that didn't have the tripod.

olenyi,

thanks for that piece of good news! we look forward to the day when solar panels become
as common place as ordinary glass on our window louvres!

williams85: @George D, we are patiently waiting for u set up signals, thank you

hello williams85,
i already uploaded pictures in the general fta thread. please check them out.

cheers!

hon1977: @George D What is a jack axactly and how does one use it?Why i am asking is there is some dude here in Vic falls,Zimbabwe who is disposing his something like 8-10 metre dish like the one in that picture you posted and i want to try to use it caz he is disposing it for free. What i want to knw is, if i use it can i nail out of footprint birds with our ordinary lnbs or i need some special equipment to make use of it. You can email me at honestmuchena@yahoo.com

@hon1977,

From the above pictures, I guess you shouldn't have any difficulties identifying a jack anymore.

To help you further, a jack (technical name: actuator) is a piece of mechanical device used to move
a dish from one position to the next. It works in conjunction with a positioner which transmits the
impulse or signal to the reed sensor in the jack and tells it by what fraction or amount it can
extend or retract.

You can check out the youtube video below for more info:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBrLkbb2bag

Done!

Jack now firmly in place. Ready to move anything!

Connecting the jack:

Dish brought down. Changing out the under-powered 24inch jack.

36 inch jack ready for action (thanks to obnelly in Lagos)

The inverto red classic sitting pretty now replaced by the stargold quad (for experimental purposes)

@odilibe,
@I Hacked,
@all,

As promised, I worked on my 4m dish over the weekend changing out the underpowered 24 inch jack with a
heavy duty 36 inch eurostar model bought for me in Lagos by my good friend obnelly.

I also changed out the inverto red classic LNB replacing it with my old Stargold quad as a way of experiment
and the results are, well, not too surprising. The inverto beat the stargold lnb by just about 2 percent
difference in signal quality at BADR 4,5,6 (26E) where I tested them.

Unfortunately, the wall of the house is blocking the east so I could not go below 28.8E to Hellas as
suggested by odilibe

Pictures below.