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External LNB power with the MiniTiouner question please?
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 10:39 am
by Basil
I assume if I do NOT jumper either J3 or J4 on the MiniTiouner I am OK supplying my LNB with 12V from an external Bias T with the Bias T after the LNB feed to the MiniTiouner? In other words I do not need to use the 12V from the MiniTiouner to the LNB? Just wanted to be sure that's OK, I think it should be. Thanks.
Re: External LNB power with the MiniTiouner question please?
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 11:26 am
by radiogareth
That's what I have done/do, not least during my 2 years of using my MT I have 'lost' the internal inductors to magic smoke (DC short-circuit aerials usually being the cause...).
Gareth
Re: External LNB power with the MiniTiouner question please?
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 1:36 pm
by Basil
Thanks, that's set now, but no decode. I am trying for the Oscar 100 wide band DATV beacon, my set up receives SSB from the sat fine, but I am struggling to decode the DATV beacon. The software is a bit daunting on first experience. I have put a screenshot of what i am using on my web server if I can't attach it here. My Bulls Eye LNB has a LO of 9750. I have rotated the LNB 90 degrees from the SSB receive position. Thanks Gareth
http://www.chriswilson.tv/minitioune.jpg
Re: External LNB power with the MiniTiouner question please?
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 2:01 pm
by m1cdq
NB on transponder is vertical 12v lnb supply WB is Horizontal is 18v lnb supply
Re: External LNB power with the MiniTiouner question please?
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 2:31 pm
by Basil
I am supplying an external 12V and rotating the LNB 90 degrees from where the best SNR was for SSB. Do I need to do anything else with the MiniTioune software, I have no jumpers on the LNB A and B pins on the MiniTiouner? Thanks for the reply.
Re: External LNB power with the MiniTiouner question please?
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 4:12 pm
by g4hiz
Basil,
just one thought. Check that you are connected to the LNA A input of the MiniTiouner (furthest from PCB).
Jen
Re: External LNB power with the MiniTiouner question please?
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 4:25 pm
by g0mjw
What Jen said - plus how big is your dish?
Mike
Re: External LNB power with the MiniTiouner question please?
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 4:55 pm
by Basil
Definitely on the correct (A) socket, and the dish is 1.8 meter prime focus with a Bulls Eye LNB turned 90 degrees (tried 90 clock and anticlockwise) from where max signal is shown on Oscar 100 SSB, which works fine into a Pluto and an RTL dongle.
I am not all sure if it's not something to do with frequency offset, but how that works in the Frequency in kHz -- Adapt Frequency box I have no idea. I have fiddled blindly around and not much seems to occur, to be honest.
My other thought is maybe this laptop is underpowered, Windows 7 64 bit Task Manager shows a lot of CPU time quite often (over 75%). Thanks for the ideas, not getting anywhere fast at the moment. The self test programmes in the MiniTioune software all show good.
Re: External LNB power with the MiniTiouner question please?
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 5:54 pm
by G4KLB
Hi Basil,
I couldn't read the settings on your picture, so this is what I have.
LNB voltage settings don't matter as you have a bias tee and have turned the LNB 90 degrees.
You cant be far off now.
This is also a Bullseye LNB on a 1.2M dish.

- qo100.jpg (407.68 KiB) Viewed 6603 times
Re: External LNB power with the MiniTiouner question please?
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 6:07 pm
by g0mjw
What is the level of the NB transponder noise floor relative to adjacent clear spectrum below? With a 1.8m dish it should be 9dB or so, but it's possible to lose 10 dB easily with the narrow beamwidth of a large dish such that the SSB signals are still OK but the DATV ones are not.
If you could post a spectrum analyser or SDR plot of the LNB output it would help. In the old days it wasn't reasonable to expect someone to have a spectrum analyser but Lime/Pluto SDRs and the TinySA have really changed that.
Failing a spectrum analyser, the Scan and Tioune software can do something similar using the Minitiouner.
Mike