Got Hopperized!

[PokerMunkee]

1 Hopper and 2 Joeys. DISH tech took about 3hrs. The Hopper had to be hard reset after it stayed on step 3 of 6 for a hour. After the reset, it moved along and took another 20 minutes to finish.

So far loving the speed and UHF remotes. Haven't had much time to figure everything out. Enabled PTAT.

I saw after the tech left he didn't ground the dish. Do I just connect the ground to the Solo Node? The Solo Node is grounded but the little ground wire that runs with the two coax cables going to the dish is just hanging there connected to nothing.

I'm bummed my new RG6 runs did not fix my microwave issue. When my microwave is in use, the picture on the screen is distorted. The dish is mounted on the side of my house, 5' from the microwave. They scheduled to pole mount my dish for next week, which they think will fix it. Crossing fingers!

 

[3HaloODST]

It's pretty typical for Hopper to need resets upon install. The initial firmware on the Hoppers is really crappy. Dish needs to put newer firmware on the new Hoppers they manufacture. They currently come with some really old S051 version with the 922-like interface (the latest is S212.)

Grounding really doesn't matter, IMO. However there are rare instances in which no grounding can become a safety concern. It's kinda like with the old houses, when people replace the 2-prong outlets with the 3-prong outlets, without actually running a proper ground. In most cases it will be fine however if there was ever a problem (say a cord shorts out on a device with a metal chassis,) well without a ground then whoever touches that chassis is now the ground. Rare, but possible.

Is your picture distorted on all TVs? Have you checked your signal strength while using the microwave?

 

[navychop]

Or maybe S213, if you're among the lucky (rumored) few.

In all the places I've lived, I've never had a dish or OTA antenna grounded.

I'd get a meter and check out that microwave. Meters are cheap.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Funny, I installed my hopper and two joeys myself and it took about an 1/2 hour to rewire the coaxes to the node and remove all the old 211ks and 722ks and the separators and excess coaxes in each room. Then it took about another 1/2 hour to get the hopper to take all the software and to be ready for authorization. I read on this board how to do the installs and I already had the diagram from when the hopper was first talked about last year, so it was pretty easy to connect everything. I called DISH with the receiver and smart card numbers of the joey and the hopper and the hopper was authorized right on the phone. The joey took 5 minutes from when I called to finish up and authorize. The second joey I didn't get for another 5 days ,due to a screwup on the shipping from dishdepot.com. But that one took about 5 minutes as well. So in all it took me about an hour and 15 minutes to get everything installed and up and running. I laugh when I read the posts about DISH installers taking 3 hours to get it installed. Of course I don't know if that includes the dish and the cables run to each room. I had all mine already in place and have had DISH for over 15 1/2 years ,so my install was a simple plug and play of the receiver and the joeys. But the information on this site from many, helped me to be able to do a easy install. Maybe the DISH installers should read up on some of the tips here to be able to do a fast,easy , install.

 

[Rorshach85]

Funny, I installed my hopper and two joeys myself and it took about an 1/2 hour to rewire the coaxes to the node and remove all the old 211ks and 722ks and the separators and excess coaxes in each room. Then it took about another 1/2 hour to get the hopper to take all the software and to be ready for authorization. I read on this board how to do the installs and I already had the diagram from when the hopper was first talked about last year, so it was pretty easy to connect everything. I called DISH with the receiver and smart card numbers of the joey and the hopper and the hopper was authorized right on the phone. The joey took 5 minutes from when I called to finish up and authorize. The second joey I didn't get for another 5 days ,due to a screwup on the shipping from dishdepot.com. But that one took about 5 minutes as well. So in all it took me about an hour and 15 minutes to get everything installed and up and running. I laugh when I read the posts about DISH installers taking 3 hours to get it installed. Of course I don't know if that includes the dish and the cables run to each room. I had all mine already in place and have had DISH for over 15 1/2 years ,so my install was a simple plug and play of the receiver and the joeys. But the information on this site from many, helped me to be able to do a easy install. Maybe the DISH installers should read up on some of the tips here to be able to do a fast,easy , install.

It has nothing to do with reading up on anything. I'm an installer and am on the forums everyday. The reason it didn't take you as long as it takes us is because you didn't have to follow Dishs installation "code" that we all have to follow. And the three hours is including putting up new dish, running cables, setting up receivers, and educating the customer how to operate the system. Which in many cases customer Ed is the longest step. Believe it or not, not everyone out there is as educated on technology as most the members here.

 

[joshua.mcglothlen]

+1

 

[PokerMunkee]

The dish was already mounted on the house, but he had to run new cables form the dish to my distribution panel. He also put F connectors on 10 ends. The 3 hrs also included the Field Manager coming out and inspecting his work. He also had to spend about 20 minutes explaining the Hopper and the services DISH does (mount TVs/speakers, alarm systems, blah). Also had to take a few fresh air breaks due to our cats, his throat was swelling up Nice young kid, knew his stuff. He was excited to hear about the Joeys working over the network, and I recommended he come to this site. I gave him $10, told him lunch is on me.

 

[3HaloODST]

3 out of 3 Hoppers I have here required a Factory Defaults to even get past step 5 of 5 and get into the installation wizard. Then, each Joey (2) would throw a hissy and refuse to connect to a Hopper until it was reset and powered off a few times. Consider yourself lucky if you didn't have to do any of that, because even though my sample size is small, 5 out of 5 receivers is a pretty bad rep for initial install. Since they downloaded the new software they haven't had any such issues. So I blame it on the ancient initial firmware.

EDIT: Also, I KNOW it's not just me as Dish has official documentation on 1303 issues and 015 issues ( http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachment.php?attachmentid=75410&d=1332038141 & http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachment.php?attachmentid=75409&d=1332038141 .) It says 1303 is only caused by plugging in the Joey too soon but that is not the case at all.

 

[MikeD-C05]

It has nothing to do with reading up on anything. I'm an installer and am on the forums everyday. The reason it didn't take you as long as it takes us is because you didn't have to follow Dishs installation "code" that we all have to follow. And the three hours is including putting up new dish, running cables, setting up receivers, and educating the customer how to operate the system. Which in many cases customer Ed is the longest step. Believe it or not, not everyone out there is as educated on technology as most the members here.

Like I said I didn't know if that included the dish install ,running the coaxes etc. I now Know it does include it. I stand corrected and you are right, not everyone is as educated as most members on this board. Maybe DISH ought to include a link to this site to help their customers get more familiar with their satellite equipment. I've learned more Here, than from any thing I ever got from the DISH techs or csrs over the phone.

 

[MikeD-C05]

3 out of 3 Hoppers I have here required a Factory Defaults to even get past step 5 of 5 and get into the installation wizard. Then, each Joey (2) would throw a hissy and refuse to connect to a Hopper until it was reset and powered off a few times. Consider yourself lucky if you didn't have to do any of that, because even though my sample size is small, 5 out of 5 receivers is a pretty bad rep for initial install. Since they downloaded the new software they haven't had any such issues. So I blame it on the ancient initial firmware.

EDIT: Also, I KNOW it's not just me as Dish has official documentation on 1303 issues and 015 issues ( http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachment.php?attachmentid=75410&d=1332038141 & http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachment.php?attachmentid=75409&d=1332038141 .) It says 1303 is only caused by plugging in the Joey too soon but that is not the case at all.

I think you're right about the old firm ware. I didn't have to hit factory default at all. The little wizard came on and step by step it download the software and got all the way to authorization . I had already called in the receiver and smart card numbers to DISH , so when it got to authorization step it was already in the system and it hit and went to live tv.

 

[n0qcu]

So I blame it on the ancient initial firmware.

Why do you think the factory firmware is ancient?

 

[Rorshach85]

Why do you think the factory firmware is ancient?

Because it is. When a hopper comes out the box it's running s051. Only after download and activation does it catch the newest software version.

 

[Hall]

Because it is. When a hopper comes out the box it's running s051. Only after download and activation does it catch the newest software version.

That's intentional and is the same on ALL Dish receivers, I believe. The factory software is limited by design. It's job is to boot the boxes up, acquire satellites, do the basic installation walk-through, and then download the current software.

Mind you, that doesn't mean a s/w v S052 or S068 could be pushed to them at the factory to handle things better.

 

[3HaloODST]

If it's intentional for Dish to place old temperamental software on their Hoppers then they must enjoy torturing their techs.

 

[n0qcu]

Its NOT old, it is a special firmware to initialize new/refurbished receivers. Factory firmware has always been a version number that is less than 100.

 

[3HaloODST]

Old or not, it sucks. What would lead me to believe that it is old is the fact that it has the 922 color scheme. I even saw in another thread where someone's receiver got messed, and it sent him back to the installation wizard. THAT installation wizard had the Hopper color scheme. I BET YOU that the installation wizard is STILL in S212. So seems pretty pointless to me to have "special" (old) firmware that sucks coming out of the factory.

 

[towboy123]

Over the last 2 weeks I have had many hoppers that would not allow the factory reset. You would go through the steps to do so and confirm but it would never happen. Where this sucks is when you are installing an EA it continually looks to 119 for a software download and the only thing to do at this point is a check switch. The factory software is the pits I have done a new install in 2hrs I also had a 2 hopper install take 7. You never know what you are in for with these. I have some techs that flatly refuse to do these jobs. As far as the this forum goes I started with dish 4 months ago and have since been promoted to Assistant FSM I owe alot of that to this forum. I don't post often here but read constantly. This put me far ahead of the curve. This forum really does rock

 

[PokerMunkee]

Interesting how hot these Joeys run!

 

[3HaloODST]

Yeah, that was the first thing I thought when I got mine. Apparently there's a header to supply power to a small fan, but they neglected to add the fan.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Over the last 2 weeks I have had many hoppers that would not allow the factory reset. You would go through the steps to do so and confirm but it would never happen. Where this sucks is when you are installing an EA it continually looks to 119 for a software download and the only thing to do at this point is a check switch. The factory software is the pits I have done a new install in 2hrs I also had a 2 hopper install take 7. You never know what you are in for with these. I have some techs that flatly refuse to do these jobs. As far as the this forum goes I started with dish 4 months ago and have since been promoted to Assistant FSM I owe alot of that to this forum. I don't post often here but read constantly. This put me far ahead of the curve. This forum really does rock

I'm on eastern arc dish and I knew that when I got the hopper I would need to have 119 in the matrix or we would never get the software download. The same thing happened with my replacement 722k I got a month or so ago. Same thing happened when I got my first 722k and I had eastern arc back in 2008. DISH says it will supposedly download the software off of 72.7 on eastern arc ,but I 'v never seen it happen yet. I had a side sat (old 1000.2 dish with triple lnb holder) run into my eastern arc 1000.4 sat dish. I just plugged in 119 instead of 110 and the hopper downloaded everything very quickly. I just wonder what installers do on eastern arc ,who don't have access to 119 sat with new hopper installs?