Hopper - Joey Communication

[Lotus_Eater]

Hi Folks,

I’m trying to figure out what Dish uses to make the Joey’s and hopper talk to each other. Is it just a standard satellite splitter or something else? The items my installer used here don’t say splitter on them and instead of “in and out” ports they have “node, to client and to host” marked on the ports.

I use my hopper in my RV when we go camping, and I’m trying to figure out what I need to use the Joey on the other TV without moving the “splitter” (or whatever it is) every time I go out.

Thanks in advance for your help.

LE

 

[Brussam]

In the RV your are going to need a Solo with two coax connections to the dish, either tripod, or roof. That will be your first challenge. If a roof dish, the two coaxes are usually split with one going to the living room are a and the other to the bedroom. If a ground tripod, then you need two input coaxes.

I chose to extend the bedroom coax to the living room where the Solo was located. The "to Host" cable ent to the Hopper also located there.

For the Joey, I disconnected the coax cable that went from the Batwing Antenna amplifier (also located in the living room) that took the antenna cable to the bedroom TV. That cable was connected to the "to Client" on the Solo. In the bedroom, the Joey was connected to the previous antenna cable.

If you want to have OTA for the bedroom, connect an OTA adapter to the Hopper.

 

[Lotus_Eater]

Thanks Brussam,

I already have the hopper working from the auto-dish I have on the roof. The RV is pre-wired for satallite in all rooms, right now I just move the hopper from the inside TV to outside TV & coax but it's a pain in the ass. If I can just split the main incoming line to the 2 locations (Hopper and Joey) that will be perfect.

Just need to know if it's a splitter or something else.

Thanks,

Mark

 

[JM42]

What I think you mean is called a "tap" It is not a simple splitter, but they are pretty cheap, try dishdepot.com or search "dish tap" on ebay. A tap looks like this:

"Node" is the cable that goes to the solo/duo node connected to the dish. "Host" is the Hopper. "Client" is the Joey. Anything downstream from the "client" port can then use standard splitters to support multiple Joeys.

I assume you already have a solo node for camper? I think the Hopper will work without it, but you will be limited to two tuners. The node should sit between the Dish and Hopper. A node looks like:

 

[Lotus_Eater]

Thanks, that's exactly the info I needed!

Does the node prevent the hopper/Joey from working or does it just limit it to 2 tuners. 2 Tuners is plenty for the RV if so.

Thanks again.

 

[Bobby]

The Joey needs to communicate with the Hopper, and it does that through the Node, via MOCA...

 

[JM42]

Thanks, that's exactly the info I needed!

Does the node prevent the hopper/Joey from working or does it just limit it to 2 tuners. 2 Tuners is plenty for the RV if so.

Without the node, Hopper will only see two tuners. It has been reported to work, but I can't say what, if any, issues/annoyances may come up long term.

Theoretically, Hopper<->Joey communications should be OK using a tap without the node, but I haven't seen any reports of someone actually doing this.

A solo node can be had for $20 or so. I would go ahead and install one if you can it placed between the dish and hopper without tearing the RV apart. You would connect two of the feeds from the Dish to the node, then the "host" port to the Hopper.