ZINWELL QUAD LNB are they rubbish

[Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 90
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Just fitted one of those eBay specials Zinwell Quad LNB, I believe the model is something like J01 but don’t hold me to that it has the spirit level on it, I live in the south and I replaced the hole dish with one of the Raven dishes which are slightly bigger, but using this Zinwell, I get nothing near the signal strength I get with this LNB if I remember correctly Astra 1a is only a signal strength of 55db where the old small dish using a Skyware SX719QS/S was a lot better quite a few DB higher, done everything 3 or 4 times but can’t get it any better so I have come to the conclusion that the LNB is rubbish any thoughts please

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 726
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    Set up my sisters Zone 1 LNB with a single feed Zinwell, the wobble in the LNB is unreal!! When you put the sh*ty plastic stud in to hold a Thomson single it's solid!! How solid is the LNB when the bainet is pushed home?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 90
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    Set up my sisters Zone 1 LNB with a single feed Zinwell, the wobble in the LNB is unreal!! When you put the sh*ty plastic stud in to hold a Thomson single it's solid!! How solid is the LNB when the bainet is pushed home?

    It feels quite solid doesn’t seem to be a problem like that, I was expecting an improvement in signal strength due to the slightly larger dish but if the LNB’s have a very poor signal to noise ratio worse then the older types then the whole exercise appears to be a waste of time.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,790
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    I have a Zinwell quad LNB, the only thing I found was that I needed more skew than then markings suggested, where I would use setting '3' on the single LNB, my skew is as far as it will go on the zinwell, but seems to be working okay now, just a few degrees of skew makes a lot of difference.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 13,807
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    radioFAB wrote: »
    Just fitted one of those eBay specials Zinwell Quad LNB

    I believe that some of the eBay LNBs are actually Sky customer rejects taken from the skip. (How else can they cost less than the trade warehouse price?) Caveat emptor!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 90
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    I believe that some of the eBay LNBs are actually Sky customer rejects taken from the skip. (How else can they cost less than the trade warehouse price?) Caveat emptor!

    Well I did wonder, there seems to be a lot on eBay they are in boxes, could they also be tested factory ones rejected due to being out of spec I wonder.
    To change the subject slightly which if any is the best Astra Satellite to align to I wonder, Astra 1A seemed quite low if I remember correctly
    I may try and adapt my old LNB to fit the new dish.
  • Nigel GoodwinNigel Goodwin Posts: 58,335
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    radioFAB wrote: »
    Well I did wonder, there seems to be a lot on eBay they are in boxes, could they also be tested factory ones rejected due to being out of spec I wonder.

    Unlikely, they are almost exclusively 'spare' ones that haven't been fitted, so are brand new and boxed.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 19,409
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    radioFAB wrote: »
    Well I did wonder, there seems to be a lot on eBay they are in boxes, could they also be tested factory ones rejected due to being out of spec I wonder.
    To change the subject slightly which if any is the best Astra Satellite to align to I wonder, Astra 1A seemed quite low if I remember correctly
    I may try and adapt my old LNB to fit the new dish.

    Astra 1A went to junk orbit almost 5 years ago :D Most of the European birds are pretty high power nowadays, but you could try some of the lower powered tp's on 16E.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 13,807
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    Unlikely, they are almost exclusively 'spare' ones that haven't been fitted, so are brand new and boxed.

    That sounds like a euphemism for "stolen". :rolleyes:
  • Nigel GoodwinNigel Goodwin Posts: 58,335
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    That sounds like a euphemism for "stolen". :rolleyes:

    Surplus stock, that you haven't used - it depends who's actually selling it if it's 'stolen' or not :D
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 90
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    Well is spent quite some time adjusting the dish, seems pretty spot on now so it’s marginally better then my old LNB but unless it’s me aligning for one satellite seems to make one of the others slightly lower, I assume this is because they are in a line, or am I talking rubbish
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,790
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    I find some of the Eurobird1 channels to be the most problematic, I get 100% signal and quality on most channels, but there's at least one transponder that's less on quality, which is 11222.78H, clubland shows as being 90% signal and 80% quality. No breakup though, if I try to improve just that transponder it seems to take out the others.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 90
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    mikeydb wrote: »
    I find some of the Eurobird1 channels to be the most problematic, I get 100% signal and quality on most channels, but there's at least one transponder that's less on quality, which is 11222.78H, clubland shows as being 90% signal and 80% quality. No breakup though, if I try to improve just that transponder it seems to take out the others.

    Your LNB must be pretty good because I do get a few 99% / 100% on quality but only about 75% on signal no matter what I do, it’s a cheap raven mesh dish and the cheap Zinwell LNB, which LNB are you using.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,790
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    radioFAB wrote: »
    Your LNB must be pretty good because I do get a few 99% / 100% on quality but only about 75% on signal no matter what I do, it’s a cheap raven mesh dish and the cheap Zinwell LNB, which LNB are you using.

    It's a Zinwell J04 (quad LNB with plastic shroud over the connectors) , I think, the dish is a triax zone1 minidish.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 90
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    mikeydb wrote: »
    It's a Zinwell J04 (quad LNB with plastic shroud over the connectors) , I think, the dish is a triax zone1 minidish.

    I had a lot of break up today so I can’t be spot on QVC, Yesterday, Gold+ Bio, Dave to name a few there must be a few channels to line up on for generally best results
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 10
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    I've just taken the plunge to Freesat from Freeview. Ordered a 40quid 60cm dish and quad LNB from an Ebayer, and a humax foxsat hdr from Dabs. The dish came with a Zinwell J4S, and so far I've not managed to get the setup to detect a signal.

    I've confirmed the Humax is OK, by plugging it into a neighbours Sky dish, the 25m of Twin Coax seems fine, no shorts, drops about 3-4 Ohms over the run. I'm pretty confident I've got the dish pointing in the right direction for the Astra 2D. I'm fairly technically minded, and from what I'd read it reckoned I'd be able to set all this stuff up myself, but no matter where I point the dish (even if I point it North, I stay outside Edinburgh), I only ever get about an 80% signal strength, but the quality never goes above 0%, apart from the odd blip to 100%.

    So I'm coming to the conclusion that the Zinwell LNB is the problem. Though perhaps I'm wrong in thinking that the strength should drop away towards 0% as I point the dish at the ground/north etc, and that the quality should fluctuate as I get nearer to the exact satellite position.

    Perhaps I should give in and get a professional to do the job. Though I'm tempted to try a different LNB.

    Neil
  • ProDaveProDave Posts: 11,398
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    What are you using to align the dish?

    If using the inbuilt meter of a satellite receiver, a lot of them don't update the strength and quality display until they are actually receiving a signal, some sky boxes are particularly bad at that.

    If you have not aligned a dish before, you are almost certainly trying to just wave it around like a tv aerial hoping to get a signal. It needs to be a lot more precise than that. very small and very slow movement, leaving a pause in between to let the receiver / display catch up.

    Have a look at www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk for lots of info on aligning dishes.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 795
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    I had a suprise today... I noticed a 2 year old Zinwell single LNB gave 3% better quality than a new Thompson single!!!!
    (i was re-siting a dish for someone and had thought to replace the LNB to be on the safe side....I decided to leave well alone!!!)
    I will be doing further tsest as i have a cupboard full of Zinwell LNB's that i had put aside as being 'inferior'???!!!???!!
    The Skyman
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 212
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    The Zinwell J4S have a problem with the internal connection in some instances. Especially if using twin cable because the inner core doesn't make contact with the LNB outputs.

    If you experience this problem remake your F connections but ensure there is at least 5mm EXTRA inner copper core protruding from the F connection. When you tighten the F connector, the inner core will bend inside the output and will make a nice secure connection.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 10
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    ProDave wrote: »
    What are you using to align the dish?

    If you have not aligned a dish before, you are almost certainly trying to just wave it around like a tv aerial hoping to get a signal.

    Guilty as charged. This is the first time I've tried to install a satellite dish. I used the google maps app page to point it in the right direction, elevation was a problem, not knowing the offset of the arm on the dish. I was up a ladder, shouting down to the kids "what does it say now". Not the most scientific method. Anyway ...
    MrFreeze wrote: »
    The Zinwell J4S have a problem with the internal connection in some instances. Especially if using twin cable because the inner core doesn't make contact with the LNB outputs.

    By co-incidence I had decided to remake the F-connectors with a longer core showing, I'd also read somewhere that the body and skew on these J4S can be out, so I was messing around this those too. I then got a shout from the kids that I was getting 80% quality (on the STB), so I tightened things up and made some more very small nudges and now I'm up to 90-100% strength and 100% quality.

    So it was probably just my inexperience that was the problem, though perhaps the longer cores helped too. Anyway, I'll know better next time. And going back to this original thread. I now don't think there's any problems with the J4S :)

    Cheers,

    Spiral
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,790
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    I have to add that after my dish was blown out of alignment by a freak storm a few weeks ago, I found another issue with the Zinwell, not a major one, but I found that the way the LNB sits in the 40mm collar seems to have a significant effect on the received signal too, with the collar loosened I was able to re-position the LNB slightly (as if it was pointing slightly left of centre, and the signal reception increased more than I've ever seen, so I took a file to the collar to achieve this new position and padded the LNB with tape. Much better.
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