RTE Announce FTA Saorsat service

I had no problems with the Saorsat signal even when it was,chucking it down with rain and no picture loss either.

watty wrote: »

I'd guess they want as little in Mainland

Yep would not be good if it reached the Netherlands or Belgium.

I think that's Classified

I can never understand why anyone posts information on a public forum and then, when questioned, claims the information is privileged.

Thanks Sam

sesswhat wrote: »

Sorry Tony, but can't see the problem myself. If any administrative area is divided by water, then mainland is just a relatve term to describe the largest or more populous land mass. Whether it is an island itself is completely irrelevant.

Watty is an old friend, you need to lighten up . If you take a look you will see he thanked me for the post.

sesswhat wrote: »

Fair enough, but you're the one who keeps bringing it up.

Watty is well able to speak for himself.

Tony wrote: »

Watty is well able to speak for himself.

True, but then I'm not defending Watty, I'm defending the terminology. Any point of view expressed on a public forum is open to challenge.

I've (politely I think?) said why I consider 'Mainland UK' to be a valid term. You may think it is not and so we may have to agree to disagree.

Apologies to the mods. All this waiting around for something to happen on the Saorsat front has reduced me to arguing about geography .

Hi all,

I have managed to get tooway internet working with Saorsat TV receive at the same time. However I noticed some glitching on the received TV most noticable on the testcards, and on the normal looped TV signals.












For those watching Saorsat, do you notice glitching present on the signal every 2 or 3 seconds most noticable on the testcards? Or is it a problem with my setup?

Anyway for those thinking of doing this

a) Try to get tooway to install the two cable version of the indoor box. (Model RM4200N-010) This is easier to modify for saorsat use.

b) Setup is different to two cable version

---

So basically this is the working setup:

1) Tooway dish professionally installed with single cable between dish an indoor box. Indoor box is model RM4100N-010. You need to be living in Republic of Ireland, or very close by and during installation the installer needs to get you up on "purple" beam.

2) Splitter model: Philex 3 way BZT G687 659D. I don't think this model is sold anymore. Note: The VAST majority of splitters will not work. They will not allow the internet to work. Any splitter with a red line with an arrow on it will not work. The model that works seems to be obsolete. Ideally a 2 way splitter would be used. I will include more information in next post.

3) Upconverter modified by hand. Information posted below

4) Power blocking adapter fitted after upconverter (Not needed if you follow the full modification)

5) Perform a blind scan on satellite receiver

A better photo of the splitter that WORKS. It may be hard to purchase this model.



A Close up of the inside of the working splitter. Not the red inductor on the right. If this is not inside your splitter it will not work




A version which DOES NOT work. Note the "arrows" on the red line.



Inside of a version which DOES not work. Note the "arrows" are actually rectangular diodes fitted.

OK. Now details of the upconverter. This took MONTHS of work.

This is only needed for 4100 model (not 4200). However tooway seem to be only installing 4100 model in Ireland. The problem lies in the way the indoor unit talks to the dish (tria)

An upconverter is needed. This cannot be bought pre-modified. I figuired out how to modify one with the help of people from the USA, UK and of course Irish on boards.ie

The modification requires soldering, and quite fine soldering. I would suggest if you have never before soldered then get someone else to do it. I may modify a few for those on boards. I currently have one spare. If a few people are interested I can bulk purchase from the USA. Send me a private message if interested.

Also regarding modifying them yourself I would suggest buying a few at a time as postage from the USA is as much as the unit. Some are for sale for as low as $5

The unit needed is a DIRECTV upconverter Model SUP-2400 also called a "B band converter module/BBC module" described as "for Ka-Lo band upconversion". These were used in the USA system but they are mostly obsolete now. Ebay and google are your friend.

Once you have it, warm up the iron, get out the snips and crack it open.



There are two mods.

One is to remove the power going up/down from the converter LNB side. This involves removing a black metal item with wire wrapped around it.



The next mod involved either lifting pads of a chip or cutting the legs of the chip nearest the chip itself. Then the wires that were connected to the pads are pulled high by wiring them directly to the 5V regulator onboards.



Cut/lift 3 of the pins of the 18pin chip and add 2 wire links.

Pins 14,17,18 need to be cut from the chip or lifted up from the board and the pads where they were attached need to be connected to +5v from the regulator. Pins 17/18 are joined on the pcb already so that's why only 2 wire links.

Lift the three pins marked with arrows away from the pads.. Not very easy but possible !!
A fine tipped soldering iron will make it much easier to just heat and bend them up over. Alternatively using a very small snips cut the leads very close to the black chip body.

Then fit two wires from these pads in green to the output from the 5v regulator.
For pin 14 you can alternatively solder the wire from the regulator to either side of the resistor marked with '0' just above the chip in the photo if it is easier... pin14 pad is very small.


Finally it looks something like this:


Connect the black lead right into the back of your HD satellite receiver. Connect the other side to the splitter with an F-F lead. Connect the dish end to the IN side. Connect the indoor tooway box to the RED OUT side. Power up the tooway box and wait 5 minutes. Confirm the internet still works. Then perform a "blind scan" on the satellite box and it should find RTE etc.

Remember this is still a test system, no live feeds are being sent, the test cards may stop at any moment, so beware!

I must stress how none of this would be possible without the help of others, thanks all, and share your ideas/comments.

I agree with Watty's comments. The only reason I have this is for 24/7 Emergency backup of a life critical comms link.

I am only advising this if

1) You happen to already have the service installed

AND

2) You want to play with an experimental system BEFORE it launches officially.

Even if the average person has this installed already I would suggest they wait until there is something to watch before fitting a splitter and upconverter.Also if you are within range of Saorview Terrestrial then this is live now and will probably, in most cases, be better solution than this. The whole TV guide via satellite MHEG 5 issue is not clear so no-one can recommend the best box for combined Saorsat and Freeview/Free to Air.

Regarding cost if you get tooway from digiweb it'll cost you a miinimum of €1149 for 2 year contract. You can buy new dishes from ebay now:
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/toowaydirect/?_trksid=p4340.l2559

But I would not recommend anyone to do this. Wait for proper LNBs, dishes will be cheaper, smaller and work perfectly.

This may have been ask before , but I have a satellite box I got fro Aldi or Lidli,I have motorised dish with a Universal LNB can I get a soarsat . if so how do set up the receiver, I can get Astara 28.2 Hotbird 13, Astra 19 and Sirus 5.

Most of the Aldi / Lidl boxes are MPEG2 SD only. An HDMI cable isn't enough.

Unless you can get BBC HD with your present gear even adding the correct LNB won't work.

Still NO testcards.....just carrier !!!