New LNB

DDC1990

Bought a Satellite Dish and Box in Lidl about 5 years ago.

Dish was shíte so bought a 80cm Mesh dish about a year ago, but used the same LNB.

Dish went a few weeks ago, 30% Signal, 10% Quality.

Thought it was the Box, but after a bit of moving around etc. I came to the conclusion that its probably the LNB. (Mainly because after disconnecting everything the box still showed 28% Signal :P )

No clue about what sort of LNB i'd need to replace it. I want to use the dish for BBC, ITV etc. in HD if possible.

I'd appreciate any help or advice anyone would have

Atlantic Dawn

Better to go with a new dish with LNB included, cost around €50, the likes of Power City have them. You will have problems finding an LNB to fit your exusting LIDL dish and cost is likely to be close to €40.

Might be worth first checking the cable isn't loose going in your existing LNB, that coul be causing the problem.

DDC1990

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Better to go with a new dish with LNB included, cost around €50, the likes of Power City have them. You will have problems finding an LNB to fit your exusting LIDL dish and cost is likely to be close to €40.

Might be worth first checking the cable isn't loose going in your existing LNB, that coul be causing the problem.

Checked Cable etc.

I replaced my dish with a decent 80cm Mesh one a year ago, and would prefer to use that if possible.

Had no problem fitting the Lidl LNB to that dish so didn't expect any difficulties in that deparment.

Peter Rhea

Any 40mm, non-Sky lnb will do to replace the Lidl one. Lnbs rarely fail btw, but if you think that's the problem it shouldn't cost you anywhere near €40 to get your hands on one.

zg3409

I you want to change the LNB on a Sky dish the cheapest place to buy a quad LNB for a mesh dish with both bypes of brackets is Amazon. I got a Sky quad for 10 euro delivered with both types of brackets.

DDC1990

Peter Rhea wrote: »

Any 40mm, non-Sky lnb will do to replace the Lidl one. Lnbs rarely fail btw, but if you think that's the problem it shouldn't cost you anywhere near €40 to get your hands on one.

Right so by non Sky you mean any LNB except for a Quad LNB is it?

Im just a bit confused by KU and KC and Tri/Quad etc.

As far as I can tell the Lidl one just has one and looks pretty much exactly like this:



Loads of cheap ones around, bit do some not come with HD capacity or will they all do the job?

Thanks for your help.

Peter Rhea

You say you fitted the Lidl lnb to an 80cm mesh dish: is this a round* dish or did you just make it fit a Sky dish?

The Sky lnbs are designed to suit the eliptical shape of their dishes, the Lidl lnb & most generally available 'universal' lnbs are intended for round dishes.

*might actually be slightly taller then it is wide, the eliptical Sky dishes are wider than they are tall, as in your picture above.

DDC1990

Think that pic is just skewed.

AFAIK, its properly round, I was just showing the LNB, and what shape it is, as there seems to be a million different types :P

Peter Rhea

If you have a round dish, you're better off with an lnb to suit. An lnb for a Sky dish would probably work ok & save you a few quid, but you're always better off going for the best signal quality possible.

Maybe you could post a link or a picture of your dish just to be sure of what you actually have.

xxyyxx

An 80cm dish would rule out a Sky minidish

DDC1990

Peter Rhea wrote: »

If you have a round dish, you're better off with an lnb to suit. An lnb for a Sky dish would probably work ok & save you a few quid, but you're always better off going for the best signal quality possible.

Maybe you could post a link or a picture of your dish just to be sure of what you actually have.

I'll do that when I get the chance today.

Thank you.

Peter Rhea

xxyyxx wrote: »

An 80cm dish would rule out a Sky minidish

A zone 2 dish is about 80cm across (I would never refer to it as an 80cm though).

xxyyxx

I always thought they were 60cm. We learn every day

zg3409

Take a close photo of where the dish arm meets the bottom of the LNB. If it is a plastic bracket does the plastic go inside the arm, or does it fit outside the arm. For mesh (performated) style dishes there are generally two bracket types. One type goes inside the arm and the other type does not go inside the arm.

Most elyptical dishes use a Sky type LNB. The number of connections for receivers does not really matter, however I would only every purchase a quad (4 conenctor version) in case you want to ever add a second receiver or a box that records. It's only a few quid more.

See here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/VISIBLEWAVE-QUAD-With-both-Brackets/dp/B003UAHMWG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1343298454&sr=8-4

However it if very rare for these to break. Your dish may have moved or a cabling problem. Or your receiver could be faulty. Try the receiver on a dish in another house. If I was to bet it would be more likely a receiver fault than an LNB fault.

Another thing to try is to get another box and try it on your dish.

DDC1990

Ok, sorry to drag this thread back up, I never got round to taking a photo, but it turns out that its actually an Eliptical Dish! I was told when I bought it that it was an 80cm Mesh dish, but thats more then likely bullshít :P

So Its a Lidl LNB on an Eliptical dish, which could explain why its acting up.

Should I get a SKY LNB, and re-cable it just in case?

Or should I re-cable and try with this LNB?

From what you guys are saying the chances are the LNB is fine. The reciever isn't the problem, because I have 2 recievers, one from Lidl, and the other is a DVB-S box connected to my PC, which is then hooked up to the TV. They both seem to show no signal.

Would a cable failure be more likely than an LNB failure?

Thanks again!

zg3409

I would say your dish probably moved slightly in the wind. If you have spare cable you could try running a new cable even out the door to eliminate the cable as a problem.

DDC1990

zg3409 wrote: »

I would say your dish probably moved slightly in the wind. If you have spare cable you could try running a new cable even out the door to eliminate the cable as a problem.

I think I've eliminated that as a problem, by loosening the Bolts and shifting the dish around in every direction, without the signal changing significantly. Will try the cable this evening when there is less wind.

Thanks!

Peter Rhea

Unless the cables have suffered impact or waterproofing has failed on both at the same time, it would seem a bit odd that everything would stop working just like that.

Dish alignment has been mentioned already, also have you thought of looking for physical obstructions in the signal path, new buildings etc.?

DDC1990

Peter Rhea wrote: »

Unless the cables have suffered impact or waterproofing has failed on both at the same time, it would seem a bit odd that everything would stop working just like that.

Dish alignment has been mentioned already, also have you thought of looking for physical obstructions in the signal path, new buildings etc.?

Out in the country really so could only be trees :P

Liameter

Trees are bad new if leaves are in the signal path.
http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/signal_problems.htm