Rainier’s Mighty Mini Tracker Review

Rainier Satellite is pleased to share a review of our new Mighty Mini Tracker from a happy Rainier customer. This was submitted by John C.

This is a review about Rainier Satellites new product, the Mighty Mini big dish mover. I ordered the standard model, mmbdt-s. It replaces their Pansat AP-600 I was using. The AP-600 has served me well, and still works fine. Though being the kind of guy that likes to be on the cutting edge of technology I needed to check out Rainier’s latest achievement.

 Unboxing the Mighty Mini I was surprised at size of the unit. Anyone who used trackers back in the day were always greeted with a large boxy unit, this is not the case here. The Mighty Mini is slender but long. Its height is approximately a half inch taller than Rainiers D9865 receiver. Don’t let the small size fool you this thing has some serious guts. Sitting next to the D9865 it takes up less space than the 4DTV or an analog IRD’s did. This is great since it easily fits in rack space you had allocated for a IRD such as the 4DTV. You don’t need to spend hours figuring out where you’re going to install it. I can see Rainier did their homework with the units sizing making it a great match for your entertainment center and to work nicely alongside their D9865 receiver.

Hooking up the unit is simple. As with most mover installs you have four wires. Two heavy wires for the motor itself and two for the sensor. I use Rainiers 36 inch Venture actuator with my 10 foot Winegard dish. Venture uses the most common reed sensor.  So four wires are only needed. The paperwork states the unit can work with all three type of sensors. Reed, hall effect and optical. There’s a 5 volt terminal for 5 wire optical setup, something you don’t see usually. It’s great Rainier made this option available without additional accessories required.

The terminals on the rear are spring clip type for easy connection. I would recommend stripping your wires down to get some clean strands then twist them well before inserting them. If you want to go that extra mile and know how to solder, tinning the leads will keep the strands together. This is what I do. Make sure your connections are firmly seated inside the spring clips. The top center and right are for motor 1 and 2. The bottom center and right are for your reed sensor. The other two terminals top right supplies 5 volts for optical sensors. Bottom right is ground for your shield or drain wire if needed. From my experience, this may or may not be required. Sometimes counting accuracy is better with it connected or disconnected. Your mileage may vary. My past installs of movers always works better without the drain wire connected. This too was the case with the Mighty Mini. Some claim to connect the drain wire at the actuator itself. I never needed to. Your install could be different. Do whatever works best for you. At this point I stress double checking your connections to make sure you have no stray strands shorting or touching what they shouldn’t. If when you try to move your the dish first time the dish goes the wrong way all you need to do is reverse M1 and M2.  

The next step I did was to go out to the dish and remove the cover at the actuator itself. I recommended to clean up the connections there if it’s been a while. Clip the wires strip and twist the strands then reconnect them. This can go a long way with avoiding electrical problems because of dirty connections. Make sure nothing is shorting or any stray strands are showing.

The following step is very important so don’t ignore it. You will need to set your mechanical limit switches at your actuator if not done already. Rainier includes instructions for the Venture actuator with the Mighty Mini. You can use this as a guide or contact your arm manufacturer for specific instructions. The reason this step is so important is because you don’t want your dish driven into a wall, ground etc. It’s better to be safe than sorry. 

To set the mechanical limits go to the mighty mini plug it in and power it up. Using the arrow keys on the bottom of the remote press them to see if the dish moves, and in the right direction with the corresponding arrows. East (right) West (left) is what I used. If it works backwards reverse M1 and M2 on the Mighty Mini. If you get a E2 error or something else you have something connected wrong. Recheck all connections and try again.  At this point the dish should be moving. Move the dish to where you want your east and west travel to stop, then set the cam inside the actuator motor to disconnect the electric. Once your satisfied button up the cover and make sure its weather tight.

It was now time to come inside and begin programming the mover. Move your dish to the west till it stops. Now perform a reset of the unit. This is performed by pushing the reset button on the remote and holding. A countdown will commence. 10.. 9.. 8.. etc …. 2 .. 1 then two dashes will show. This shows the reset was successful. This flushes the internal counter and wipes any old or corrupt data Rainier’s tech support told me. Power off the Mighty Mini with the remote then on again, a small zero will show on the display. The first satellite I wanted in there was 133 west. I entered into my D9865 to the parameters for EWTN as shown on lyngsat. Then slowly moved the dish to the east till I got a lock. I then bumped the dish east and west for maximum signal quality. It was now time to store Galaxy 15, 133 west in the mover. To do this you press and hold store for 2 seconds the display on the unit rotates to the right, press a key 1 to 32 to store. I picked 1 for 133 west. The 1 flashed then went steady. This told me It was successfully stored.  I then proceeded to the east using the same method for all the satellites I needed. 131 was 2, 127 was 3, 125 was 4 and so on. Once I got to 87 west I was done programming since I don’t need anything east  of that. If you want to you can continue till all 32 direct presets are full. Now came the fun part seeing how accurate it is. I told the Mighty Mini to go to preset 2, 131 west. This was done simply by pressing the number 2 key on the remote. The unit clicked and the dish started moving to the west as indicated by the 4 lines moving to the right on the display. I confirmed by eyeballing the dish itself. The unit stopped and the number 2 appeared. I told the D9865 to acquire my preset for NESN. It was a success and checked my quality. The number was high and steady so she accurately returned to what I stored. NESN started playing with a Red Sox game showing. Before becoming too involved in the game I decided to check to see that all my programmed satellites were targeted well. I was happy to see they were. I stepped through them one at a time pulling up the Rainier channels checking quality. That told me the Mighty Mini is accurate.  If I ever need to touch a satellite position up (which can happen from time to time I seen over the years) all I need to do is bump the dish position to peak the quality number and resave that preset.

One nice feature of the Mighty Mini is if for some reason you need to stop the dish in mid travel just hit any preset key. This will abort movement. To continue just hit the desired key you want.

All in all I’m very satisfied with the Mighty Mini. Rainier has a winner here. I sent Rainier a copy of my review before posting here at DR Sats forum. They asked me if they could use it to help advertise the Might Mini. I told them sure, anything to help you guys out. I want to see Rainier succeed. They are the underdog doing it right trying to make it work with many adversities from what I would call jealous children of the web  doing all type of mean things to stop them from succeeding. In spite of this Rainier continues to grow. Something to be said for doing things right. I commend Rainier for all the hours of hours of hard work they put in. I wish them continued success and I tell all I can about my good experiences with Rainier. Best of luck Rainier with the future and continued success.

You can view the original post at Dr Sat’s forum here

You can get your own Mighty Mini here

Mighty Mini Technology Just Got Better! Introducing The Mighty Mini Heavy Duty Tracker!

By now many folk out there know about our Mighty Mini Tracker (big dish controller). But thats been only half of the story. We spoke about two models being available. With that said  Rainier is pleased to  announce the other side of the story with the introduction of the Mighty Mini Heavy Duty Version. The Mighty Mini’s BIG BROTHER!

Our new Heavy Duty version is designed and built for installations where a basic mover just won’t do. Our HD Plus model includes Rainer’s Proprietary PPPT eight element Power Punch Plus circuit with thermal overload shutdown. It’s designed for cold climates and installs where an extra start-up punch is needed.

Utilizing the experience of Rainier’s highly skilled personal from our engineering department with over 40 years electronic engineering experience we came up with a unique small design that packs the punch needed that no other consumer grade mover can compare with. Our proprietary PPPT circuit utilities military grade specifications and redundancy standard in the design. Its designed, built, assembled, then integrated into the basic Mighty Mini at our facilities in the U.S.A. Units are individually tested by qualified Rainier personal to insure each unit meets the demanding specifications Rainier requires. It’s Top Quality from the ground floor up.

HD Features:

  • Heavy Duty Model (MMBDT-H) for Cold climates or adverse conditions.
  • Compact Design. (sits next to our D9865 receivers)
  • Super Simple Installation Setup.
  • One Button Direct Satellite Tuning.
  • 32 Direct Entry Satellite positions.
  • Non-volatile memory.
  • Powerful 36 Volt DC for M1 M2.
  • PPPT Boost High amperage design.
  • PPPT Military spec components.
  • Eight element Power Punch Plus circuit with thermal overload shutdown.
  • Designed for cold climates and installs where an extra startup punch is needed.
  • Compatible with any Actuator including H to H using a reed, hall, or optical sensor.
  • 5 volt rear terminal for optical sensor.
  • Power Punch for fast startup.
  • 10 Amp 110 VDC rated dual motor relays.
  • Electronic Overload Protection.
  • Anti-miscounting design.
  • Large “easy to read” Green LED Display.
  • LED bars show dish movement direction.
  • Full Size Remote and buttons, 37 Keys. Easy to use.
  • Countdown memory clear reset function.
  • Full Function IR remote control.
  • Dimensions 3.75″ L, 11.0″ D, 3.75″ H.
  • AC Voltage in, 115v 60 Hz.

Large LED Display:
The Mighty Mini makes it is Easy to see what Satellite your on even across the room with its large green LED display.

If you been looking for the best high quality mover for your big dish your search is now over. Grab a Mighty Mini HD! Only From Rainier Satellite. Were dedicated to rebuilding C band satellite TV.

ORDER HERE!

The time has come to make a change! Welcome Mighty Mini Tracker!

Still using that clunky old 4DTV, analog  receiver, or other problem prone  poor choice mover to move your big dish? Well the time has come to toss that old boat anchor overboard.

Move up to the NEW small size power packed Mighty Mini Tracker only from Rainier Satellite. It features a simple setup, one button direct entry satellite control, large LED satellite display, and other fine features to simplify your satellite TV viewing.

The New Mighty Mini Tracker from Rainier

A product such as our Mighty Mini has long been needed for the big dish user. Rainier has made it a reality.

Its the perfect mate for our highly acclaimed D9865 satellite receiver series and C band subscription television service.

Small footprint takes up a minimum of space.

Wow! Check out some of the choices of programming available for your big dish only from Rainier Satellite.

Cable TV Programming is here for your Big Dish only from Rainier.

Sales of our New Mighty Mini has begun. Treat yourself today! Grab one by itself or with our 9865 satellite receiver and New Variety Pak and bring back the good old days of the big dish.  Only from Rainier Satellite. We continue to work hard to make c band a success again.

Grab the New Mighty Mini HERE

Learn more about Rainier Satellite HERE

The wait is over. The Mighty Mini is Here!

Rainier Satellite is pleased to announce the Rainier Mighty Mini is Here!

With the sunset of the Pansat AP-600 mover there was a void that needed filling. With the continued growth of the ONLY C band based Subscription Television service available in the U.S. Rainier Satellite must be able to keep up with the demand of hardware needed for its current and future subscribers. Dish movers (controllers) are an integral part of the C band dish system. All sources for good mover products has dried up so Rainier acted fast! With many big name network contracts continuing to be acquired Rainier needs good movers for our full arc system. We sat down a few months back with product designers / manufactures and our experienced technical department to work out the details for the mighty mini product. Rainier is pleased to announce the Mighty Mini’s are now here at Rainier. We’ve taken Delivery. Sales will begin at our Webstore very shortly.

A quick note from the president of Rainier.

“ With the launch of our Variety pak,” says Robert Scharmann, Rainier’s president. “ there’s been an in rush soon of new subscribers to Rainier. Many have dishes that were idle for years that need new hardware upgrades to grab all those new HD signals Rainier has and launching soon. I’m  pleased that Rainier has taken delivery of our first shipment of the mighty mini’s quickly to help move these folks systems into the 21st century.”

Take a look at the Combo… The Ultimate Satellite Experience from Rainier.

Rainier receiver / mover combo. Its small profile fits in less space then the 4DTV did.

Sales of the Mighty Mini will begin in our store in the next few days.

For more information Call Rainier at 509-486-4137.

Where do you buy your TV Entertainment from?

You shouldn’t buy your TV entertainment from where you buy your meat, but many do.

If you buy from the above mentioned providers (and many more) you’re not getting what you pay for, and probably don’t even know it. Let us inform you.

You don’t settle for LOW Quality meats so why should you settle when it comes to your TV viewing. Let Rainier Satellite come to your rescue. GET HIGH QUALITY ULTIMATE HDTV! With Rainier you get 100% of what you pay for, not 20%!

Got a HD or 4K TV? Then Rainier is essential!

Give us a call at 509-486-4137 to find out more. Once you get HIGH QUALITY HDTV from Rainier you’ll never look back!

Visit our website HERE