I have a new Crazy Project lined up. It’s aimed at fixing my Sky dish, which I think has been pushed back against the wall by the wind we’ve had. It’s now about 20-30 degrees out of alignment. The aim of the new Crazy Project is to get the Sky dish pointing back in the right direction. I have 3 options there :
This will involve me on a ladder outside moving the dish and a mate telling me when the signal strength and quality are nice and high again.
There’s a Skydish across the road that I could peek at to see what compass direction it’s pointing in. One problem – I don’t have a compass handy.
This would take a few steps to set up :
1 – Webcam connected to laptop again. Not used my webcam for ages.
2 – Laptop has streaming video software installed to get the webcam piccys on to the network.
3 – Ipaq (currently my satnav machine) gets connected to the wi-fi.
4 – Ipaq gets pointed to the video from the laptop.
5 – Telly and Skybox are set to the signal strength/quality page, webcam points at telly.
6 – I go up ladder with Ipaq and wiggle the dish until the meters are high again.
The telly is out of line of sight for where I’d be standing on the ladder, which is why I’d need a remote view of it …
I’m discounting Option 1 cos it’s just plain boring. Plus CK’s away for a week so I’d have to pressgang a different person. Option 2 goes because it involves lurking suspiciously around someone else’s Skydish and the dish next door to the one I have in mind is broken.
It has to be Option 3 really. That involves poking new pieces of software, crazy positioning of a webcam, abuse of 4 different pieces of electronics and precarious perching on a ladder. It’s nuts enough that it just has to be done.
Pictures will follow if it works but not today – going out soon.
PS Pain free today for the first time since last Wednesday 🙂 Although my knees are still persuading me that it’ll be a good idea for me to acquire new knee supports tomorrow.
PS2 Having the webcam wired in like that would let me view it over the internet if I chose to make that happen …