Automatic Satellite systems (oyster)

[breakaleg]

Hi All, I nothing on the above, took a look at a couple of web sites, now even more confused.

Spoke to a fellow camper on the Aire at calais the other day (thank you if your reading this) about his auto sat system.

Can anyone advise please, about what equipment is needed in addition to the dish ? or is it all included in the fitting etc.not got sky or anything other than free view at home, so a complete novice.

any idea of cost of purchase and fitting costs.

Many thanks

Pete

[Thai Bry]

Hi Peter

We've had oyster sat on our last vans. The new one fitted is an Oyster 2 system, so no issues with picking up wrong Astra 2 sat.

Should be nothing extra to fit. We had the original 12v sat box removed, so we can use the home box,and now just take the sky box from home when we need to go away.Worked really well in deepest Black Forest in Germany. We had the larger dish fitted as well.

Costs, I've seen vary from 1.5K - 1.8K. Others on here have the "Dome" style dish fitted, don't know these prices, but Dave Newell has fitted some & is an agent for them, so maybe worth while contacting him.

Can't help much more than that. Been a happy user of them for a while now.

Thai

[Mike88]

There's a helpful website here:

http://www.adventuremotorhomes.co.uk/

 

 

[lennyhb]

You can buy the dish as a package with an Oyster receiver - 'Oyster with digital CI Receiver' or as a dish on it's own - 'Oyster Vision'.

 

Have a look at Oyster's own site :- http://www.ten-haaft.com/

 

Can't help with the price on the CI ours was a standard fit on the van but Conrad Anderson charge £2034 for the Vision fitted, Ouch!

[breakaleg]

Thanks all,

I will be talking to Conrad Anderson at the NEC in October, (they have special show prices) and they are local to me, although, I Was given a number for an ex Brownhills fitter, now freelance, who will come to me.

but I am sure there will be others at the show.

What i have read so far, suggests that i need a box (sky etc) as well as the installation?.

As I say, I know nowt.

what I would like, is, all the equipment to be installed in the wardrobe, and the connection on top of the fridge on the opposite side from the wardrobe, just as the Ariel does now, I presume, that there is some kind of conduit already in place across the ceiling? and that they would remove the Ariel, use the hole that's left, and reroute the cabling through the said conduit(if it exists).

Pete

[Rapido-lass]

If you're going to the NEC, then check out Robert Jackson - Total Satellite Systems. He fitted our Oyster a few years ago, and when we changed to a new motorhome 2 years ago, he came and changed it over and we didn't loose any warranty etc. We can recommend his work if that's any help. The initial motorhome hadn't all the pre-wiring and he did a very good job.

[breakaleg]

Thanks for that rapido lass, I will make a note of his stand number

Pete

[Rapido-lass]

breakaleg - 2009-09-29 12:14 PM

 

Thanks for that rapido lass, I will make a note of his stand number

Pete

 

Your welcome

[breakaleg]

I know it may seem a daft question, but what sort of power is consumed using 12 volts, only our lesiure battery is only 85amp.

when we watch tv on 12 volt, we usually only watch for two hours, and never had a problem, would using a satellite system have much more of an impact?

Pete

[dikyenfo]

Good point on the power consumption as many boxes take 60 Watts so quite a load to consider. Connect up to the mains via. a 4-block and check total current flowing with a meter in line . These are a good thing to have to check any time as plug-through operation. I think Maplins stock them.

[lennyhb]

On my Oyster CI box current draw on standby is negligible doesn't even register on the control panel, turned on it's 600ma (approx 7 watts). the Camos 17" TV takes 2.1 amps. Both wired 12v only.

 

 

[breakaleg]

Hi Lenny,

That doesn't sound to bad, the TV we use says 33amps so i guess two hours on 12 volt isn't out the question.

The box you mentioned is mentioned in the adverts, what channels could i reasonably expect?

(warned you, I know Nowt)

Pete

[lennyhb]

33 amps!! hope you meant 3.3 amps.

 

Over 3000 channels most useless or scrambled, British ones:-

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Channel 4

More 4

Film 4

BBC News 24

CNN

 

Radio 1

Radio 2

Radio 3

Radio 4

 

Full list attached.

 

TV LISTE 020409.pdf

[breakaleg]

Hi Lenny

 

Contributor

 

Posts: 330

 

Location: West Sussex: Hymer Tramp 654 SL Gold 33 amps!! hope you meant 3.3 amps.

maybe I did (lol) (lol)

Thats some list Lenny, no channel 5 ?

That may be a blessing

Pete

[aljen]

Hi Breakaleg

 

I have an oyster system fitted, came with van. It has the control unit fitted in the rear wardrobe and the link has been routed through the wall units onto the cabinet complete with cable to connect to the receiver, only thing i need to get things going is a scart lead from the receiver to the telly, i hide the cable behind the sofa, all depends on your layout. I use a satellite receiver from maplins and works ok, as Lenny says you get plenty useless channels, but lots of english channels too. I had a bit of bother with mine not finding the right satellite, but i met up with Robert Jackson at Malvern and was very helpful, in fact if i had the van there he would have sorted out the problem there and then. Nice guy and very helpful, knows Oyster inside out and will also advise on set up re cables etc. I find mine doesnt use much battery power after powering up and locating the satellite, usually takes about 3minutes and if on hook up shouldnt be a problem, maybe be helpful if away from hook up is to install a bigger battery or 2 and you shouldnt have any problem given casual usage

[Guest JudgeMental]

channel 5 is still encrypted I fink so only available with a sky box?

 

There seems to more domes coming out NETA and MAXVIEW have new ones and there is KVH TRACVISION & CAMOS as well..........

[Clive]

We have an Autosat2 system which came with our van. It will recieve all the channels listed above except channel 5. But the previous van owner had an aditional SKY box fitted which works when the Autosat2 system is put on standby. Then the picture fills the TV screen and channel 5 is available. Had to spend £20 on a free to air card for the sky box though.

 

Had a frustrating time until I read the Autosat2 manual, some satellites are DIGITAL (like Astra 2) and some are ANALOGUE (Like Hotbird). I wondered why we could only decode Bloomerg from Hotbird but nothing from Astra. But I know now!!

 

C.

 

[lennyhb]

Sorry to correct you Clive.

 

Hotbird is a group of 10 satellites transmitting both analogue & digital Hotbird 1 & 2 are no longer ative.

 

Full channel listing for Hotbird 6/8/9 the main ones is here:-

 

http://en.kingofsat.net/freqs.php?pos=13.0E

 

Hotbird 3/4/5 have been reallocated to Eurobird & Atlantic Bird

 

Hotbird 10 is at the moment being used to support Atlantic Bird 4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike88]

Channel 5 is not encrypted. Oddly enough on my free to air box it shows up on the menu as BBC News 24.

 

The Maxview and Neta domes looked identical to me when I saw them at Shepton Mallet.

[Guest JudgeMental]

Mike88 - 2009-09-29 5:14 PM

 

The Maxview and Neta domes looked identical to me when I saw them at Shepton Mallet.

 

yes I did think that when looking at them online...even the receiver which comes with them looks identical. maxview have a good reputation and warranty don't they? So if they have taken it on it could be OK??

[Randonneur]

JudgeMental - 2009-09-29 4:54 PM

 

channel 5 is still encrypted I fink so only available with a sky box?

 

There seems to more domes coming out NETA and MAXVIEW have new ones and there is KVH TRACVISION & CAMOS as well..........

 

We have a cheap Maplins box and get Channel 5, it just says Five, tuned in no problem.

[Big Momma]

breakaleg - 2009-09-29 3:36 PM

 

no channel 5 ?

That may be a blessing

Pete

 

I have a Camos Dome with a Zhender 'Free To Air' receiver. Having managed to re-tune this just recently I now receive all the channels you can get on Freeview including Channel 5, More 4 etc, etc. managed to pick up all channels whilst in Biarritz (Southern France). Radio stations the same, all Radio 1,2,3,4 as well as the sport channels 5 Live and 5 Sports Extra.

[lennyhb]

One downside to the Oyster is as far as I am aware you can not retune for new channels you have to download a firmware update from their site then upload it to the box via the serial port.

 

The download is only on the German section of their site but comes with good English instructions and only takes a couple of minutes.

 

If you email them they will email you a link, I've emailed them with questions a couple of times they have replied within an hour.

 

 

[davenewellhome]

To Breakaleg, you will need a receiver as well as the base satellite dish installation. If you're only interested in UK TV channels then I'd suggest you look at the Freesat units as they're available in native 12 volt form, in fact I'm watching BBC2 now at home on one (we take this unit away with us in the van). A great advantage of the Freesat unit if you have a HD ready tv is that they are HD compliant and you get BBC HD and occasional programmes on ITV in HD, the picture quality on HD is nothing short of wondrous in my opinion. The other benefit of the Freesat unit is you get the full seven day electronic programme guide whereas with a free to air unit you only get now and next programme listings.

 

Channel five is now free to air and is available with either a free to air receiver or a Freesat receiver. The only real downside of the Freesat unit is it will only work with Astra 2 UK channels (mainly, there are a couple of foreign channels) so cna be limited on the edge of the footprint.

 

D.

[Rapido-lass]

breakaleg - 2009-09-29 1:02 PM

 

I know it may seem a daft question, but what sort of power is consumed using 12 volts, only our lesiure battery is only 85amp.

when we watch tv on 12 volt, we usually only watch for two hours, and never had a problem, would using a satellite system have much more of an impact?

Pete

 

Hi Pete,

 

We have watched tv via the Oyster satellite system on 12v many times while away admittedly not all for too long at a time. We have only had a low battery in the morning (not flat) when we fell asleep watching tv and only turned the tv off onto standby without thinking and leaving the oyster turned on. Having said that it started off with a fully charged battery as we had been travelling all day, and we were moving on again that morning. This might not be the technical answer you required, but its only from our experience.