How I converted our old C-Band dish into the world's largest C320WS monopod

Our 1960's-era home came complete with one of those big C-Band satellite dishes. When we moved in almost 25 years ago, I bought a new controller box, and had the dish cleaned up and in working condition. I found a local service company that actually had a guy on staff who worked with them and he enjoyed the challenge of getting it working again.

 

Fast forward about 25 years, the C-Band dish hasn't been used in probably 20 years, supplanted initially by DirecTV and over the past 10 years streaming and internet content. The big dish was essentially useless. 

 

At some point, I had an idea for a project - I'd mount a couple of C320WS cameras high up on the dish and they would provide 24/7 video coverage over a good portion of our property. The two biggest challenges to work out:

 

1. How to get power out to the dish?

2. How to get a network connection or wifi signal out to the dish?

 

The dish is maybe 50 to 75 feet from the garage side of our home. There was an outlet in the yard another 20 feet past the dish, but at the time it wasn't working, so that was not an option. As I thought more about it and what I had to work with, I thought of the cable that was already there - it ran from the controller box in our family room, buried underground, right to the dish. It was a 5 or 6 wire bundle and since the controller box was making the motor drive the dish movement, a few of those wires had to be for power. I stripped the wires in our family room and the power lines were easily identifiable. They were also a good thickness, so I wouldn't need to be worried about possibly overloading them, none of the components in my setup would be drawing any significant amount of power.

 

I spent a few days coming up with a plan of everything I'd need to purchase, and the steps to bring everything together. The key to making it all come together was safely running power over the existing C-Band wire bundle. I'd need to put male and female outlet plugs on each end of the existing cable (effectively making a very long extension cord) and outdoors have it in a weatherproof box able to withstand the elements.

 

As far as the network connectivity...the wifi from inside our home was not strong enough to reach the dish. After this project, a few months later we replaced everything with a Deco mesh configuration which was getting a weak signal out to the dish, and I could have purchased an X50-outdoor node to easily reach the dish, but at this time it wasn't what I was working with and hadn't considered upgrading the wifi. I was still running powerline ethernet for a couple things and had an adapter not being used, so it became clear that this was the best route to go. The powerline connection might not have as much bandwidth as a good wifi solution, but it would be very stable and be plenty fast enough to handle streaming video from the cameras.

 

I mounted the Tapo cameras as high up on the dish as I could safely go on the 8 foot ladder I have. I attached the camera mounts to the metal mesh screen on the dish with zip ties. The screen has a honeycomb type of mesh, so the zip ties worked wonderfully.

 

The critical piece of the design, the power running out to the dish, turned out to be straightforward - no problems whatsoever. I put everything together, plugged everything in at the dish, and then went in to the family room to plug in to the house outlet. I plugged it in - there were no sparks or smoke, so that was a good sign. I went outside, and I was beside myself - everything was working, first shot! Everything was powered, I had good activity LEDs on the powerline adapter, and the Tapo app was showing views from both cameras. Success! I got back up on the ladder and fine-tuned the direction the cameras were pointing. I additionally wrapped the wires from the cameras in wire loom/sheath to provide extra protection from the elements and critters that may find the wires delectable.

 

It's been almost 6 months since I installed the cameras on the dish, and they've been running wonderfully the entire time. I've been extremely impressed with the 24/7 recording, the resolution, and the thoughtfulness that went into the design of these cameras as well as the functionality within the Tapo app.

 

 

 View from the back side with the two C320WS cameras highlighted. Wires running down the beams inside of wire loom.

 

 Small weatherproof junction box in the foreground connecting satellite wire bundle to female electric plug. In the larger weatherproof box along with the (closed up) junction box is a TP-Link Litewave 5 Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch with plastic casing, mini powerstrip, powerline ethernet adapter, and incoming network cables from the cameras. Inside the house, we have another of these small weatherproof junction boxes at the other end of the satellite wire bundle with a male end that plugs into an outlet in the family room.

 

 After everything was working, the big weatherproof box closed up and buried in cheap riverbed stones to make it look pretty.