₦airaland Forum

faithchild:
@all thank u very much.learning is sweet.like i said earlier i realy want to do the right thing now.i will make sure it is plumb and all other neceessary things arevput in place .as regard the lnb. have been looking for dat samson lnb for long now.pls halla me to assist on how to get it.im planning of using other cheap lnb.like ordinary strong lnb.i saw on pauxis two ways. know this time i will get it right.GOD bless u all.im grateful to all.oga obnelly u too much.to stay up still dat time.GOD will greatly reward u.oga odilibe u three much.ur advice and all.oga george d.three gbosa for u.and all of u i twale for u all

@faithchild,
You can take a look at the base of my own 4M dish. The tripod should be something like this or even better.

Akanniade:
Thanks GeorgeD.
The north side roof holds the remaining 6 panels.
Kudos to Richmond74, he did a fantastic installation.The harvest on the north roof is just as good as the south.

akanniade,
nice to see but have you thought about possible wind loading on your roof structure occasioned by the stepped angles of the panels?

tshirt2,
congrats on your achievements and welcome to the club. suddenly you have become a solar ambassador in that estate all because you chose to think differently from others. you did not allow their 'generator mentality' to discourage you.rather you pressed on and inspite of all the odds you were able to breakthrough.now imagine when you eventually upgrade to a much bigger system where you have 24hrs all round power? Hmmmm! they may make you estate chairman before you know it!

@faithchild,
If he tells you not to use fuji stargold then I will be very surprised except maybe I'm missing something here because it is the same fuji stargold we both used to track my own dish and got excellent results.We only later changed to inverto red classic when I insisted that I wanted to compare the performance of the two.Kindly get back to him and confirm his instructions. Maybe it is you that did not understand him.

Happy tracking!

odilibe:
probably before then you may end up getting another lnb better than inverto red classics c120 lnb..even the tiny inverto black pro c120 single flange lnb...outperformed red classics lnb on nilesat and tp 10992_7.3west!still a weak lnb!

@odilibe,
Bro, I can't agree more with you.Technology keeps changing and what used to be the rave two, three years ago becomes obsolete very fast.
Hmmmm! As a pacesetter that I am, and in keeping with the trend maybe I just might move on to the C120 afterall. But the lack of a quad would be a deal breaker for me.

@faithchild,
I'm glad your learning fast.Indeed if a dish is not plumb it goes a long way in affecting it's tracking abilities most especially if it is a polar mount dish like yours. As for the lnb, truth is that you don't really need all those sophisticated lnbs you are mentioning for now.Just get a normal fuji gold lnb and track your signals first of all.You can always change lnbs later after you get your desired results.

@faithchild,
Yes I changed my lnb from the inverto red classic back to fuji gold because after series of tests I discovered that although the inverto performed better than the fuji but it was just slightly with about one or two percentage points difference.So I reasoned that since the fuji was still ok why throw it away when I can still use it for a while.It was the same lnb I was using on my former 3m fibre so I just wanted to maximize it's useful life before moving on to the inverto lnb.And of course after over two years the red classic still remains on the queue waiting patiently for its turn.

@faithchild,
Don't be too quick to condemn that dish.Although you didn't mention the name of the guy who fabricated your dish but I suspect he may be the same person who made my own 4m dish. Curiously, I had almost the same kind of problem with mine which came about also during transportation.Seems to me that those drivers who run that route are too careless and do always rough handle goods put in their care.My own dent affected almost two or three of the segments and were so big that I instantly lost confidence in the dish ability to track even DTH signals not to talk of out-of-footprint ones. However, when I talked to my man he assured me there was no problem.Also luckily for me I had taken the proactive step of asking him to come over so we could do a joint installation. So I waited for him to arrive. When he came, what he did was to use a small hammer to gently tap all the affected segments in order to straighten them out.After that we repainted the entire dish and allowed it to dry.The second day we started coupling and proceeded to tracking. And the rest is now history as they say.
Two years and counting, the performance of the dish has never dropped apart from the occasional issues with weather which affects about every other dish.
I don't know the full extent of your dish dent but you can learn from my own experience and try similar methods to remedy the situation.
Goodluck and happy installation.

bode4real,

your new improved solar set is rather tempting for me. i think your trying to force me to jettison my old locally
fabricated brackets in favour of these cute railings. the more i look at your pictures, the more i think of taking
the plunge. maybe richmond will have another in-house customer soon enough.

congrats to you and more happy upgrades!

akanniade,

wao! what a set up you have there. you have turned your new house into a virtual solar hot spot!

as for space, even with your old set up, i think it was only a matter of time before you moved roof-wise
and i see you have finally made the plunge. of course except for those fortunate enough to have a large
spacious compound (like a football field) the only ideal place to mount your solar panels remains the roof
of your house.

congrats and happy harvesting!

and, talking of time, below pix shows my old 200ah zenith batteries that were used and abused for over 5yrs
before i upgraded to zenith 260ah. they have been lying abandoned for over two years now.
although i expected them to be stone dead by now, i still decided to check out their individual voltages last
december and was pleasantly surprised. each was still putting out over 10v! this, after over two years without
a single charge! zenith, i hail oooooo!

ok, so there you are. as the above readings indicate its now three years and counting and not a single drop in performance!
hmmmmm! i'm beginning to think that the zenith batteries were a wise choice afterall. time will tell though

all,
as promised, these are nominal voltages of individual batteries takes during my yearly turn-around maintenance carried out
on my battery bank last december. compared to the results of the year before, it's very heartening to say there were no
major surprises. in fact overall string voltages returned same.

i tried posting them directly earlier on but was banned by spambot. apparently it was not too happy with all the symbols
and numbers being thrown around. so this time i've made them into an attachment.

also, i seized the opportunity to replace the bls (battery life saver) which was damaged in a lightning strike early
last year. and yes, more importantly, the midnite solar lightning arrestor now finds a place in my set up!

after rotating the batteries, i took nominal voltages of each batteries before connection. details will be in subsequent
posts.

more pics

all,
ok so i did a turn-around maintenance on my battery bank last year shortly before christmas. basically what i did was to
rotate individual batteries within their strings. luckily for me, each separate strings of 48v batteries share equal distances
to the inverter so that left me with lesser problems to worry about.

Adex70:
@ODILIBE AND OLASON ,EMMERITUS, I HAVE finally acquire the 4mt dish see the pics from olason post got it very cheap but the owner refuse to let the pole and motorized neck go provision have been make for new ones @ GEORGE D AND OBNELLY guys iam at your back i got a old c band lnb called drake with input of 3.7- 4.2ghz with ready made feed on i have not see such l n b before also got 2nos heavy duty jack on it totally def rent to the one we use to see sky uk nilesat hot bird and the rest we shall see mmmm

@Adex70,
Congrats for finally acquiring the 4m dish. Now you are really in business!

abunafiu:
Longest time sir ,

Wishing you a prosperous 2015.
the thread really missed ur input.

prof,

top of the weekend to you. its been quite a while indeed.

figures from my battery bank nominal voltages taken during my
last turn around maintenance are quite startling. you'll see what i mean
when i upload figures.

all,

happy new year to all the good people in the house.
2015 is promising to be a sun-filled year already as my system keeps smiling
on float everyday.

wao! so much to catch up on and so much updates to deliver

will upload details of my yearly turn around battery maintenance carried out last
december in my next post.

i thank you guys for keeping the renewables flag flying all this time.

cheers!

MiCasa:
@George_D
Pls, how can I get couple of Battery Life Saver, like the one you have and a lightning/surge protector. I think the BLS should work on a 96v system like mine.

hello micasa,
the battery life saver (bls) was purchased for me by totalgreen (one of our good members here).
you can contact him through this tread if you need one.
for the lightning protector, i am still in the process of procuring one. but if you'd want a fast track
process, i suggest you contact richmon74 - another good member of this thread.

note: for a 96v system, you'd need two bls of 48v connected to the battery bank in series.

microgiant:
@GeorgeD, kindly help a brother locate the shop where you got that underated wonderful Ku LNB.

@microgiant,

I got the pauxis lnb at Harry's satellite shop off link road by avenue.

Sorry I've not been able to call you as promised. Will do that before the day runs out.

durodee,

kindly check your mailbox.

durodee,

I got your mail and will reply soon.
meanwhile I'm glad some of your questions are already being answered.

odilibe:
Test result on Digisat twin lnb vs mti ak54xt2n quad lnb on 3m dish pointing at nilesat_7west... with no conclusive winner

digisat
11747:32%
11938:36%
12284:28%
11824:37%
12015:37%
11977:35%
11785:36%
11766:37%

mti
11747:32%
11938:34%
12284:30%
11824:34%
12015:37%
11977:34%
11785:36%
11766:41%

both lnb locked frequency 12418 h 27500 and 12360 27500 @ 7.3 west with freezing pictures!
more details coming soon!

@odilibe,

These results are not very impressive at all.
Two things: Firstly you'll need a bigger dish maybe up to 4m for nilesat at that location.
Second I think again you should give pauxis 0.1db twin lnb a try.You wil be pleasantly surprised.

odilibe:
I was using inverto black ultra quad lnb on my 3meter dish in enugu then replaced it with MTI high-line ak54xt2n quad lnb which gave more signal on BBC on nilesat 201 compared to inverto.."someone picked up eutelsat at 7.3west ( MENA BEAM) with 3m dish with an lnb in Onitsha.."he will deliver the lnb to me this weekend for test. if the lnb performs better on my current set-up..then it will be recommended "
cheers!.

@odilibe,
I think you should also give pauxis 0.1db twin lnb a spin and lets see what gives. After my twice pleasant experience with that gem I have a mind to
try it out on my 4m pan and see how it will fare on nilesat. But yours could come in faster as I don't have time on my hand right now.

snapshot of solar harvest. hmmmm! not bad at all!

ground pics. i had to modify them to enable me install the sukam on the magnum e-panel:

at last, the much maligned 'brackets' have found a new lease of life - in the e-panel!

all,

a while ago, i decided to put my sukam to the test just to confirm it is still in good working condition. i hadn't really had the
chance to try it out ever since the faulty cooler fan was replaced. results? well, i was quite impressed that the old work horse
was back and kicking! needless to say, it is a welcome relief to know that i can always fall back to its use should in case the
magnum decides to behave funny.

i ran it over a week without any issues before putting it back in the cooler.

pics below:

@all,

For all those who may be having difficulties downloading the word document containing tracking frequencies that
I posted yesterday, especially those browsing from mobile devices, this is a screenshot version for your convenience.

I tried copying and pasting directly but the spambot banned me for a whole 24hrs! Apparently it doesn't like all the
percentage symbols being thrown around like that.

Ok, consider this a scoop as it doesn't get better than this. A whole month's tireless work thrown at your laps!
It is every satellite installer's dream come true!!!