Complete newbie with zGemma Star H.2S Twin Tuner cabling to the sky LNB

[wolfeerine]

i have set up my zgemma h2s and i'm ready to start using it however i need to now connect it to the sky dish outside. the only thing is i'm not an electrician or trained to mess with sky dishes or LNB's. I just have a few questions and i'm hoping i could get somebody's help to answer some of them:

1) Can i run the F connector cables from the sky dish LNB outside straight to the zgemma box inside the house or do the cables have to be fed into anything else before going to the zgemma for safety reasons?

2) Has anyone got recommendations for F Connector cables or would i be safe using this?
-https://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Satellite-Shotgun-Extension-Connectors/dp/B0044SMPUW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1480002689&sr=8-3&keywords=twin+lnb+cable

3) are there any accessories or products i would need along with the F connector cables.


I really apologies for my lack of knowledge when it comes to wiring up the box to the sky lnb and i know there might be some people reading this while screaming at their monitor right now, but any help would be massively appreciated as i don't know what i'm doing cable wise. Thanks in advance

 

[andymartinn]

You can connect straight to box from lnb, no other equipment needed. Will have to get twin shogun coax cable if your lnb has multiple outputs and relevant f connectors to connect. If you have had sky before it shouldnt be a problem but if its a really old dish the lnb might need replacing.

---------- Post Merged at 12:27 PM ----------

The cable and connectors would be fine using what you have suggested from the link.

 

[wolfeerine]

thanks so much for the quick reply, thats great to know. it is a twin shotgun coax cable i need, and it is a quad lnb so i've two spare outputs. i'll be wiring to one of the bedrooms upstairs as there is a sky+ hd box downstairs. i'll look into the lnb if it needs replacing because i've had the dish from the original standard sky box from before we got the HD one. again thanks a million

 

[yee_har]

Just did this on the weekend. To answer your questions first:

1) Straight to the box - no doohickeys required
2) If it were me I'd double check that cable spec.. From a brief look at the Q&As there seems to be some confusion about the exact spec. of that cable - relating to both thickness ("65" or "100") and quality (copper/aluminium or copper/copper). Those aspects may or may not be a problem for you based on your required cable run length and any hole(s) already drilled to suit. See below.
3) Clips (included in that particular kit) or e.g. zipties if looking to secure to any existing cable.

Here's my recent experience of doing this in a bungalow with a dish mounted about 7' high. Apologies for "War & Peace" and if any "teaching granny how to suck eggs"...
Bottom line - It's easily do-able if dish access is easy; for anyone who knows one end of a craft knife from the other.

1) I used "WF65 CU" shotgun cable from Maplins. The experts suggest not to go over 20 metres with this type of cable. Our run was 11 metres and our eventual "Signal Finder" figures are good. Bum note: every man and his dog says this cable "will pass through an existing standard 10mm hole drilled for a single old-style thick Sky cable". The widest part of the new cable was 11mm. I rolled my eyes and contacted Webro to ask if I'd been sold duff cable. He checked the references and said "It's genuine - but that was never going to fit through a properly drilled standard hole. Just hope your hole is oversized...or start drilling".
2) I bought "WF65" specific F-connectors from the usual auction site. This is important if using WF65 cable.
3) Following guides (and using Vaseline) I terminated both ends of the full length of cable, ran it through an open window to the zGemma and tested it all out before committing to any other work.
4) Knowing all was good so far I took the whole WF65 cable indoors and took the F-connectors off what was to be the LNB end. I checked the existing Sky thick cable was loose in the wall, took it's F-connector off and joined the loose ends of the old and new cables with as little tape as possible. When pulling the cables through from outside it was obvious that I had no wiggle room. F*$%! At this stage I checked that I could feed the old cable back though the hole if needed (she does like her "Strictly..."!). I then nearly bought a masonry drill before finding an old, long, flat bladed screwdriver with just the right size of blade shoulder and...er..."eased" the hole.
5) Reattached old and new cables and pulled through to outside. Wonder why the neighbour thinks it's weird that I'm doing a moonwalk. Run new cable to dish (following exactly the old cable route), re-fit the LNB-end F-connectors and connect to LNB.
6) Made sure there was no power to zGemma and connected new cables to it. Power up and check it all still works. Ziptie new cable to old once you're 100% happy. Apply silicone to outer wall hole.
7) Accept gratitude of missus.
8) If you're not particularly fit, suffer arm-ache for days after.

 

[wolfeerine]

Thanks, i think i'll actually go down to a shop that specializes in cables or DIY stuff because i dont wanna mess anything up. as for the cable length and drilling i think i have that figured out. But thanks for the cable knowledge, you might have saved me a lot of heartache. Sorry for the crappy sketch out in the link below but the original cables still feed the sky dish downstairs (red line on pic) and i wanna feed it to the bedroom upstairs (blue line), which i figured out is just longer in length than the cables they used for the sky box. I think it is just under 9m the sky technician used. but i hadn't a clue about cable width, and that the length could disrupt signal after 20 m, so thank you for that. Really appreciate all the replys

Crappy plan for cables: Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet