Loop Through to TT3200?

[Lone Cloud]

Although I am actually making progress with my TT3200, there is one major annoyance- The peaking of the dish is much easier and better on my Sonicview HD receiver.

Instead of phsically disconnecting and reconnecting the RGB cable, it sure would be better if I could utilize the loop through connection on the SV.

Has anyone done this successfully? maybe with another receiver?

 

[B.J.]

I have used loop thru connections to my 3200 with varying success. I can't remember the initial experiments, but I think I tried with my Fortec Ultra, and it worked on some S2 transponders, and didn't work on other transponders. I think I also tried my Coolsat 8100, also with varying results, however the negative results COULD have been caused by the hot swap reboot issue I mention below.
Now, however, on C-band, instead of using the passthru, I'm instead using a splitter. Ie I have a splitter that passes power to my analog receiver, and sends one coax to my Coolsat, and one to my 3200. This seems to work fine on most transponders. There is signal loss associated with the splitter, however although the passthru connections generally have amplification, they also seem to introduce noise. Ie using the passthru isn't a signal problem, but rather a noise problem, and the Ultra and Coolsat seem to be noisy.

On Ku, however, rather than doing the splitter thing, I AM using the passthru of my Diamond 9000, and it seems to be fairly good quality on qpsk transponders at least. On DVB-S2, I've mainly been trying to get the LaPTV channel on AMC21, and haven't had a lot of success, however I haven't had much success with this transponder direct to my STBs either. There aren't that many DVB-S2 feeds on Ku, so I haven't really had much chance to experiment with sats that I'm not viewing through tree limbs.
So basically I can't remember if I've ever found a Ku S2 transponder with the 3200 through the passthru, but on C-band, I had better results splitting the signal than going through the passthru.

One thing about the 3200, however. I've found that 90% of the time I've done a hot coax switch, the 3200 will still work fine on DVB-S transponders, but it won't work on DVB-S2 transponders. To get S2 to work again, I have to reboot the computer. I still do the hot switch, however, because sometimes I AM able to get it to work and it saves the time wasted by rebooting. So if you ever have trouble locking an S2 channel, but are lockind DVB-S channels fine, try rebooting.

 

[brentb636]

I am using the loop thru connection on my Merc II , to feed the TT-3200. It works just fine for me, so long as I remember to put the Merc II in standby mode, so the tt-3200 can control the lnbf. Bear in mind that the Merc II doesn't tune DVB-S2, so I haven't successfully locked any of those signals in this configuration. I have locked them , when using the CS8000 to aim the dish first.

 

[Lone Cloud]

Thanks Brent.

Just a few questions if I may impose.
Which splitter do you use and how is it wired?

I assume pass through is Dish coax into STB, then loop through to TT3200?

By "hot coax switch" I assume you mean disconnecting and reconnecting the RGB cable while viewing - with lnb power on. . If not could you advise what you mean?

I'll have to look for standby mode on my sonicview, then on my Viewsat HD and then on my Viewsat Ultra- or maybe even dust off my Viewsat Xtreme and see if that's any good for pass through.

I have been all over the menus of these receivers and have never seen a standby option though.

Thanks again.

 

[brentb636]

Standby mode is when the stb is turned off at the remote, rather than at the rear switch or unplugged.

 

[Lone Cloud]

Just for reference, the simple hint of turning the stb off did the trick (in part) The loop through allowed Transedit to scan in the channels, but not display them all , (AE and Hist on 125w, for example) but the other unencrypted S-2 channel did display.

So apparently I am having results similar to Brent.

I wonder what it is about loop through that selects out certain transponders?

Thanks again - a partial solution is better than nothing, and at least I can peak the dish using the Sonicview and then go to the TT3200 without manually disconnecting cables.

 

[Pismire]

Polarity. If your stb is on vertical then loop out will only tune vertical and the same for horizontal.

 

[B.J.]

Polarity. If your stb is on vertical then loop out will only tune vertical and the same for horizontal.

I think that depends upon the receiver, since the OP is turning off the STB. Ie some receivers maintain LNB voltage when turned off via remote, and other receivers cut off lnbf voltage. My old analog receivers keep LNB voltage on, except for the pre-VCII receivers, however most of the FTA receivers I have cut off LNB voltage. If the receiver cuts off LNB voltage, there is no way that it is controlling polarity.
I've communicated with people who have done that loopout thing and sucessfully controlled polarity via the slave receiver, but it may not work with some receivers, as it depends upon how the circuitry in the loop-thru passes both LNB voltage, signal and DiseqC signals. These loop-thru things often have amplifier stages, and feeding voltage back through an amplifier circuit could generate issues, such as reduced voltage getting to the LNB, perhaps giving only the 13V polarity. One other issue however, is that if you want the slave receiver to control polarity, you can't use a DC-block between the two receivers, and most people think that this could be potentially harmful to the receivers if both are on, so it's a good idea to be sure to only have one on at a time if you try this.
I prefer to use a DC-block, and leave the STB on when I use a loop-thru. And this DOES mean that the slave can only view the polarity tuned by the STB.

 

[B.J.]

BTW, just yesterday, I relocated my Primestar that I use for AMC21, and now I'm getting fair reception of the Lousianna DVB-S2 signal on my Diamond-9000. It kicks out into a no signal condition every once in a while, but pops back in pretty quickly with a good signal.
However I decided to try the loop-thru into my 3200, and it has been absolutely solid, no errors at all after hours on the transponder. The strange thing is that the SNR is only about 8.2, and on C-band, I've had a hard time with transponders that give me less than about 10 dB of SNR. I haven't tried going direct to the 3200 yet for a comparison. So it seems like the 3200 is more sensitive than my Diamond for this transponder, which is strange, because in the past I've found that the Diamond has been just as good as my Coolsat on everything I've tried, and the Coolsat was much better than the 3200 sensitivity wise in the past. So there is something about using the passthru of the Diamond that seems to help this transponder.
I am using a DC-block at the passthru.