Op deze pagina ...
Digital Satellite Equipment Control - developed
vby EUTELSAT and Phillips. The purpose was to define a standard
enabling satellite recievers to control aad-on equipment like rotors,
LNB switches, etc.
The most common use would be to switch, for example,
between two different satellites that are received by 2 different
LNB's or dishes, and hook it up to one single reciever.
Older satellite recievers started to create their own
little standard and solution for several switching purposes. This started
to confuse customers (which works with what?) so it was time for a decent
Some satelliet recievers use a 14/18 Volts currency
to switch between the Horizontal and Vertical polarisation.
Another thing to switch, often done by using a 22Khz tone-burst,
is switching satellites (2 LNB's either mounted on 1 or 2 dishes).
Now-a-days the upper frequency range (11,7 to
12,75 GHz) becomes more and more of interest for use in
digital programs. The LNB's used for this purpose are universal LNB's
(10,7-11,7 and 11,7-12,75 GHz) which use the
22kHz-Signal to switch between these two frequency ranges. This however
is in conflict with the original use of the 22Khz Tone-Burst: siwtching
between two satellites.
Using DiSEqC changes this for the better. In our digital
world, we can send digital commands to the add-on equipment. DiSEqC is
downwards compatible, so older equipment should work just fine with newer
DiSEqC equipment. It's true that a DiSEqC 2.0 compatible receiver kan
work just fine with a DiSEqC 1.0 LNB-switch.
The otherway around might or might not work, it all
depends on the switch. Most of them do listen to DiSEqC 1.0 commands,
TIP: Make sure that you can return the
switch if it's not working properly.
The concept of DiSEqC continues to use 14/18 Volts and
22Khz tone-burst concept. DiSEqC additionally uses digital commands to
control equipment (naturally, both receiver and switch must be DiSEqC
DiSEqC is of use for both analog, digital and analog/digital
Uses the 22Khz Tone-Burst (= Mini-DiSEqC), being
able to switch between two individual universal LNB's (for both
digital and analog satellite reception), where the switch always
has only one of the two LNB's active. This switch is a specific
DiSEqC compatible switch using both the 14/18 Volts cuurency and
the 22 kHz Tone-Burst for control purposes.
DiSEqC Version 1.0 allows you to connect up to 4 receivers
to your receiver, where the receiver (master) controls the switch (slave)
by sending digital commands for selecting the desired LNB.
These signals are used:
- low or high band frequency
- vertical or horizontal polarisation
- which LNB should be activated
DiSEqC 1.0 uses:
- reception of 1 satellite (using 1 LNB) - 14/18 Volt
- reception of 1 satellite for both digital and analog reception - 14/18
- reception of 2 satellites (using 2 LNB's) - 14/18 V + Tone-Burst
- reception of 4 satellites (using 4 LNB's) - 14/18 V + Tone-Burst + Loop-Through
Special LNB's allow you to use the Loop-Through signal,
where the 2nd LNB's signal is being routed through the 1st LNB. This works
with DiSEqc 1.0.
Can additionally be used for automatically control of
DiSEqC 2.0 adds a return channel, used for getting information
on the connected add-ons. It will inform the reciever, after sending a
particular signal, about the amound and type of LNB's available and how
they are interconnected.
Particular 2.0 applications (Next to the 1.0 applications):
- Reception of up to 4 sattelites
- Two way channel (info on what's connected to the receiver)
Adds the ability to control up to 64 LNB's, I can't
imagine what my house would look like with that many dishes, but hey,...
you can if you want to (sent me a picture!).
Which DiSEqC version do I need?
When using only one dish, with 1 LNB for only one satellite:
basically any equipment will do just fine.
If you want to receive 2 satellites, for example
the Astra and the Hotbird (EutelSat), your reciever should at least be
able to control one switch, using any DiSEqC version. Actually
a Tone-Burst ability should be sufficient.
When using 3 or more dishes, you will definitly
need at least DiSEqC 1.0 or higher (depending on what your setup
When using a rotor for your dish to change position,
you should go for DiSQeC 1.2 or higher.
Note that almost ALL LNB switches support DiSEqC 2.0,
but often they are able to work with lower versions aswell. At least that
is what is said... only experimentation will show if it works, so make
sure you can return the switch if it doesn't work.
Most LNB switches sold in Europe are inteded to work
with the Astra and the Hotbird (Eutelsat). This implies they should work
with the receivers for these satellites aswell. Most modern receivers
support at least DiSEqC 1.0 anyway.