DiSEqC

DiSEqC (Digital Satellite Equipment Control) is a special comunication protocol for use between a satellite receiver and a device such as a multi-dish switch or a small dish antenna rotor. It is compatible with the actuators used to rotate large C band dishes if uesd DiSEqC positoner. It relies only on the coaxial cable to transmit both bidirectional data/signals and power.

DiSEqC is commonly used to control multi switches and claims to be more flexible than 13/18 Volt and 22kHz tone or ToneBurst/MiniDiSEqC techniques.

The various common switches in use for satellite TV receiver installations are:

• 22kHz tone (DirecTV SW22, StarChoice) – a two-way switch only, a 22kHz tone on the line selects one satellite signal and no tone selects the other
• Tone burst switches send one long 22kHz pulse to select one signal and a series of short pulses to select the other – also a two-way switch only
• DiSEqC 1.0 switches use a serial data stream modulated onto the 22kHz tone, ignoring continuous tone in order to allow them to be used in conjunction with simple 22kHz tone switches or European universal LNBs which employ built-in 22kHz band switches. These allow for selection from (usually) four inputs.
• DiSEqC 2.0 switches follow the same DiSEqC standard but add the capability of bidirectional data communication.
• DishNetwork-proprietary switches (SW21, SW42, SW44, SW64) use a serial data stream modulated by switching the DC level of the 13/18V LNB power supply; these are non-standard enough to be basically unusable outside the Echostar-proprietary Dish Network/ExpressVu DBS systems.
• 12V switches are simple electromechanical relays which operate a switch whenever 12 volt DC power is present on a separate wire.
• A multiswitch is most often used to refer to a device which splits the signal from one dual LNB for use with three or more receivers; in some cases, these are packaged in the same unit as multi-dish switches such as the SW22.

There are also a DiSEqC 1.2 and 1.3 standard, both of which are intended to add capabilities to remotely operate dish-positioning motors.

DiSEqC is a trademark of Eutelsat.

External link

• DiSEqC.org specifications