Powering a single output LNB from a tuner... (1 Viewer)

[fitzy75]

Hey guys

A friend of mine has recently moved house to a place which only has a single output sky dish (no normal TV aerial on the house) and without thinking I gave him one of my spare DVB-S tuners to use it with as he previously used DVB-T at his old house.

After a bit of playing and thinking, I now realise that the tuner doesn't put out any power to the LNB (maybe some tuners do but this particular Kworld model and my Pinnacle 7010ix don't, as far as I know). In my house, we have a sky box downstairs that powers the LNB, but at my friends house he can't do this with a single output LNB.

Does anyone have any solutions to this problem? His kids are driving him crazy without the TV for them to watch. We are good with electronics and could easily build up a circuit if we knew what was required or had a schematic to work from, failing that, is there such a thing as a 'power injector' that would sit between the tuner and the dish?

He's on a very tight budget so the cheaper the better really. Any advice appreciated

 

[porky996t]

Hi Fitzy,

Just thinking out loud here so bear with me.

It seems odd that a DVB-S card would be produced without powering the LNB, as I understand it LNB's have to be powered. I have heard of some DVB-S cards requiring a jumper lead from the PC's PSU to the DVB-S card in order to provide up to 18V DC that the LNB requires to function.

Is there an empty plug socket on the card - poss 6 pin (2 rows of three??)


HTH,


M.

 

[fitzy75]

Thanks for the reply.

I was expecting some sort of power connector on the card but as neither my friends card (Kworld) or my own (Pinnacle 7010ix) have got these I assumed they didn't put out any power, in my case it's not a problem as we have 2 sky boxes in the house that do the job but at his house he only has a single output from the dish and no sky box to test it with. I have seen cards with power connectors like you describe, I assumed that if it didn't have a power connector it wouldn't put anything out so I may be wrong, either way, his doesn't seem to be picking up any kind of signal and doesn't detect anything during channel scans. Next I guess is to check the dish is correctly aligned, I will be getting a signal meter from someone later in the week to test if we can't get it going before then.

Cheers
Rob

 

[Tallone]

I was expecting some sort of power connector on the card but as neither my friends card (Kworld) or my own (Pinnacle 7010ix) have got these I assumed they didn't put out any power

The internet seems to think that the 7010ix does output LNB power on both DVB-S tuners, so it might be worth a try. From the photos I can find online I think the middle connector on the end of the card might be a floppy power connector - I may be very wrong about that, so check this before plugging in and powering up...

 

[fitzy75]

Thanks for the info, the connection mention turns out to be an audio out connection, luckily I checked it before the most recent rebuild, I was just checking connections before I turned it on and had a floppy connector on there

I'll let you know the model of the Kworld card as soon as possible as this is the most important one we need to get up and running at the moment.

Cheers for your suggestions so far.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi fitzy75

I confirm that the 7010ix does indeed supply power to the LNB, and you *definitely* don't want to connect a floppy power connection to any of those connectors!

Power is generally supplied to the LNB automatically when you tune a channel. If the channel is on a horizontal or circular left transponder then 18V is supplied, otherwise 13V is supplied. Again, this all happens automatically. Extra power connectors are generally only found on cards that need more power than the PCIe/PCI bus might be able to supply. For general operation most cards will work fine without those connectors plugged in, however if you connect a dish motor that is a completely separate situation - you'd certainly need the power connector for that.

In summary, I believe the Kworld tuner should work fine. If it doesn't find channels then I'd be suspicious of other factors (like dish alignment or cable quality) before I suspected the tuner.

mm

 

[fitzy75]

Thanks mm1352000 that's very useful to know

I'll get round to his house with a signal meter hopefully at the weekend and see if we can sort it, with normal signal meters it connects in line between the dish and a sky box, would it work with a tuner instead of the sky box? Does it put out power all the time or only when its needed (e.g. to watch a channel)? Should I initiate a channel scan or something so it's putting out power when aligning it? Never done it before but after another mate of mine just used the compass and spirit level on his iphone to align his dish, I'm sure anything is possible

Also, the kworld tuner is PCI, not PCI express so hopefully the PCI bus can put out enough current for the card

 

[mm1352000]

I'll get round to his house with a signal meter hopefully at the weekend and see if we can sort it, with normal signal meters it connects in line between the dish and a sky box, would it work with a tuner instead of the sky box?

Should do.

Does it put out power all the time or only when its needed (e.g. to watch a channel)?

Varies from tuner to tuner.

Should I initiate a channel scan or something so it's putting out power when aligning it?

Yes.

Never done it before but after another mate of mine just used the compass and spirit level on his iphone to align his dish, I'm sure anything is possible

It takes a bit of practice to get the hang of aligning a dish I think. Be prepared to spend a few hours fiddling. It *really* helps if you can get a TV and STB up on the roof with you as if the meter is a cheap jobbie then it won't cut the mustard for proper fine tuning - only really for initially finding a satellite. Note that I also say "a" - the meter does not guarantee that you'll get the right satellite. With satellites being so closely spaced in your part of the world I would suggest it is even more important to have a TV on the roof with you so you can do a scan and see that the channels you're picking up are from the correct satellite.

Good luck!

mm

 

[Tallone]

Hi fitzy75

I confirm that the 7010ix does indeed supply power to the LNB, and you *definitely* don't want to connect a floppy power connection to any of those connectors!

See, this is what happens when you try and guess from photos of strange hardware on google... glad I pointed out I could be wrong!