CS5000 x 2

[Fizbi]

I now have two Coolsat 5000 boxes working in my house.

The one in the living room controls the motor. The one in the bedroom can only select channels. I now need to figure out how to get the bedroom unit to move the motor.

I may have to try one of those IR/RF transmitters. I have heard both good and bad reports on some models. Maybe someone here can recommend a good system.

The other thing that I noticed is that the second CS5000 has an older version of firmware. Will the newest CS5000 bin file flash into an older CS5000? It would be nice to have both receivers using the same version of software.

 

[Mr Tony]

sure you can load software into it. I've loaded newer and older software into a box with no issues

 

[lumpkin666]

Getting two boxes to move the same motor is going to be an adventure. I suppose you could do it with a hi-frequency splitter that passes power through both ports, but you'd have to be careful to not have both boxes hooked up and sending conflicting voltages - you might toast one/both boxes that way. I'm not even sure that having both boxes hooked up (and one off) is ultimately safe in all circumstances.

If you're open to using an RF transmitter for the motor control, then you might as well just run the video from your main box to the bedroom (either by cable, or a video transmitter) since just having the remote won't give you visibility to what satellite you're changing to.

 

[Lak7]

There is always the 2 Dish option.

 

[lumpkin666]

There is always the 2 Dish option.

Or 4 or 6 or 8 or 12 ... oh, and a bigger back yard!

 

[Lak7]

That's how gardens turn into farms.

 

[Fizbi]

I guess I should provide more info...

Both boxes are isolated from each other.
The first box has a seperate cable that sees the L and C of the quad LNB, and controls the motor.

The second box has a seperate cable that sees the other L and C of the same quad LNB.

I did it this way because it was less work and allowed shorter cable runs.

What's nice about this setup is that if I can get the IR/RF transmitter working and get the same software into both boxes, then I can control both boxes from either room using a single remote. Who wants to get out of bed to change to a different bird?

Anyway, I'm just happy I got this far...

 

[lumpkin666]

Understood. Once you try to connect both boxes to the motor, they will no longer be isolated from each other (unless you put some sort of switch box behind your receiver to physically disconnect it from the cable when not in use).

If you really are only going to watch from one receiver at a time. Easier and cheaper solution probably would be to get the RF video/audio transmitter and RF remote That way you only 1 cable run, and one receiver. I started doing that for tuning my dishes, so that I could leave the receiver inside and watch everything outside on a portable TV. I didn't want to keep lugging the receiver outside (actually I ended up leaving a spare outside in the garage for this purpose) and unhooking the cable from the motor in order to hook in the receiver outside (my sg2100's seem to have connector issues, so hooking and unhooking cables is always touchy)


Of course the RF transmitter solution only works until you start putting HD boxes into the mix, as I haven't seen decent (and cheap) rf video/audio transmitter for HD yet.

 

[Fizbi]

Of course the RF transmitter solution only works until you start putting HD boxes into the mix, as I haven't seen decent (and cheap) rf video/audio transmitter for HD yet.

Plus...there are times when I want to watch a different channel on the same bird.

I suppose when my wife and I start fighting over what bird to watch, we will be forced to grow a true dish farm.

 

[Fizbi]

sure you can load software into it. I've loaded newer and older software into a box with no issues

Thanks,

I'll have to give it a try. I'm also hoping that CM will help me manage both boxes.