Dreamcatcher v3.02: Feedback Thread

kenbarbi · 2018-03-31T21:01:07.396Z

The LNB’s have pretty closly the same specs, and I did put the Maverick on the end of the line confirming the same LNB input voltage. I did not swap out the LNB on the dish which might become a pointing nightmare if I screw something up… Ken

tylerhoot · 2018-03-31T21:46:29.289Z

then you could get a longer range by having the voltage inserting unit closer to where the lnb is

kenbarbi · 2018-03-31T22:39:07.069Z

Maybe - - you can also use an in-line amp? I don’t need it, but I did use it at one time, and it worked fine. It was overkill for me.
inline
Ken

tylerhoot · 2018-03-31T23:12:41.689Z

where would i get one that might be able to fix my shotty issue and how would i set it up

kenbarbi · 2018-04-01T01:59:52.787Z

I’d go to Sadoun Satellite Sales http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Order/VSAT/Amplifiers.htm and get an in-line amp/signal booster for $5. Don’t get a fancy dandy device - - this one does work. Another option is this $20 unit from Amazon Amazon.com

You put them in the middle of a long cable run. They are powered by the Bias-T voltage and pass it thru to the LNB for its operation. Ken

Konrad_Roeder · 2018-04-01T07:07:34.343Z

I finished the PoE project. My DreamChaser 3.02 is driven by PoE. I made an antenna cone from the martini shaker by cutting the bottom off. It’s given me about 2-3 dB of gain as you can see: The packet error rate is very low, My SNR is -11.5

Screenshot at 2018-03-31 23-58-48

I have not upgraded to Skylark 5.1,

So far, only one problem. My DreamCatcher does not show up on the Status.

Screenshot at 2018-04-01 00-05-42

I will update my Skylark firmware tomorrow morning.

–Konrad, WA4OSH

kenbarbi · 2018-04-01T10:57:17.859Z

Not showing up is very strange because you used to when you were starting the project. I presume your router assigned the DC an IP address? Ken

Konrad_Roeder · 2018-04-01T11:07:35.234Z

Sure, my DC gets a LAN IP address from the router dynamically. And of course, the router translates that IP address into a WAN address on the Internet. My Internet provider bought blocks all over the country. The geographic location of the provider’s IP addresses are known and become your “location” on the map.

–Konrad, WA4OSH

ac8dg · 2018-04-01T11:48:05.498Z

It is a little humorous that my real qth is northern lower michigan but my “bubble” ip address is showing north western Ohio (it moves around). This is related to my internet service provider since I have all the “location” services turned off for my windows computers.

Konrad_Roeder · 2018-04-01T12:22:25.880Z

I’m not sure what you mean by “bubble”. To me, a “bubble network” is a series of interconnected computers that communicate through the Internet using a VLAN

LANs typically use RFC 1918 private IP addresses. These are typically 10.x.x.x 172.16.x.x or 192.168.x.x They are re-used by LANs everywhere. The other side of the router connects to the WAN. The router does the network address translation (NAT) and port address translation (PAT) The WAN IP address is assigned by the service provider from another IP pool. The Google location service has a table of those WAN IP addresses and their rough location. If you should change WAN IP address, your location may move because Google really does not know your location other than the mapping that they have collected.

–Konrad, WA4OSH

ac8dg · 2018-04-01T12:26:51.365Z

To clarify I … I call the “bubble” the balloon on the http://status.outernet.is/

Konrad_Roeder · 2018-04-01T12:32:14.116Z

Your WAN IP address is not revealed, but Google maps location of that IP address. Got it.

–Konrad, WA4OSH

kenbarbi · 2018-04-01T12:45:49.340Z

I’m just wondering if your POE connection (I think you described the nitty gritty of it somewhere, but can’t find it) is not set up to report the DC’s heartbeat out of the Skylark program. Maybe @Abhishek could comment on that. Ken

Konrad_Roeder · 2018-04-01T12:57:11.564Z

DC gets its LAN address, whether over WiFi or Ethernet, from the router. What goes on in my LAN should not affect anything to do with my WAN address.

What may have happened is that my WAN address has changed since I’ve rebooted the router. The whereis service does not know how to translate my new IP address to a location.

–Konrad, WA4OSH

tylerhoot · 2018-04-01T19:01:18.940Z

just wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to fix my frame lock issue i cannot keep a stable lock if you look at the status page my ballon is red and everyone else is green…

Konrad_Roeder · 2018-04-01T19:17:03.007Z

Notice that mine is not showing in the Status even though my DC is actively receiving.

Do you have trees in your path?
Did you get the best possible SNR on your receiver?
I built a horn for my LNB by cutting the bottom off from a martini mixer. It works well, except the wind is blowing everything around.

–Konrad, WA4OSH

tylerhoot · 2018-04-01T19:39:27.541Z

I currently have a pretty clear path.but there is a tree that it could be…

ac8dg · 2018-04-01T19:42:23.304Z

@tylerhoot I show up that way with the orange or red on the lower status screen when I am using the lnb WITHOUT the aid of my reflector dish. But I still get data bitrates of about 2000 or 3000. I am cheating now with the 18" dish.

As long as you are more then 10% valid packets you are doing good but I got up to 40% valid if I point it carefully. In My Option.

maxboysdad · 2018-04-02T18:07:00.359Z

@kenbarbi, @zoltan, @Syed

Here is the result of a hopefully “third world” type of shield placed loosely over the LNB mounting, using a tin can that formerly housed 425 g of kidney beans. The can originally measured approximately 7.7cm in diameter x 11 cm tall. We had to cut approximately 0.2 cm from the bottom to remove the floor of the can. We slotted the sides 1.8 cm wide by 8 cm deep to accommodate the LNB mounting hardware, and used the resulting straps to stabilize the shield, taking advantage of loops in the mounting clamp. Any insects, small nuts, or water will pass right through. This improved the SNR by approximately 2dB, and put the status in a credible relationship. This unit is outdoors in the weather, although so far, I have seen no weather-related deviations in the operation of the DC-measured results. There is approximately 20 feet of RG-6Q between the DC and the LNB. The environment is very rich in 2.4 and 5.8 Ghz WiFi, which I believe is a large part of the SNR issue here.

tin can shield

04-02 TinCanShield Status

Syed · 2018-04-02T18:20:05.719Z

2dB is not bad. I’m curious about the same basic design, but with both wider and longer cans.