That sounds like a good idea. He could buy a Hopper3, then schedule the installation, but have the installer hook up the two Hopper 3's he already has, and then return the purchased Hopper 3 to get his money back.
Multiple Hopper 3's?
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Why all the machinations? Buy a new H3 from a third party, return the possibly dodgy unit to Dish, and then have dish install their own new H3 and the new owned H3.
I'm probably missing something.
I'm probably missing something.
The expense of buying the H3? If there is a cheaper way of doing it, and if jkmoon23 is willing to live with the possibility that the old H3 might crash again, then I say go for it.
True. I just don't think that Dish billing will allow for it. Worth a shot.
Thanks for all the great responses, but I'm still a little confused as to what to do. I'm okay with keeping the dodgy unit knowing it might fail again. The plan is to use it for the kids shows anyway. The replacement unit arrived so should I just contact Dish to see if they'll let me keep the old one and come install it (will they do that), or should I purchase the items needed and attempt the install myself?
Hang it up. You’re not going to get Dish to basically “gift” a presumed defective H3 to you. You REALLY don’t want it. Take a new/refurbished H3, and if you really want another, buy it.
If you wish, you can buy the suspect unit, but they won’t lease it to you. Second H3 must be owned. And you’d be far ahead to buy a new one than to buy the one you have now.
If you wish, you can buy the suspect unit, but they won’t lease it to you. Second H3 must be owned. And you’d be far ahead to buy a new one than to buy the one you have now.
Not looking for any "gift". As I stated in my earlier post, I have no problem buying another unit. Bottom line is I'd like to have two Hopper 3's in my home. I'm willing to pay for whatever is needed to make that happen but was trying to get help from this thread to ascertain the best way to make it happen.
When I first got my H3, I was told by Dish that it wasn't technically possible to have two H3's (like it was with the two H2's that I had previously). This post makes it seem like it is now technically possible which is why I was trying to figure out the best way to go about it. If someone is willing to tell me the best way to go about it, I would be greatly appreciated. I see the diagram in this thread and am more than willing to purchase the parts needed and attempt the install myself, but was hoping someone could help clarify to a novice. I only have one line coming from my Dish to the hybrid solo hub. If I purchase the hybrid 42 switch and another solo hub, do I need a different dish/LNB and/or do I have to run another coax cable from my existing LNB to the switch? Thanks in advance!
You need a 1000.2 DPP LNBF, Eastern or Western Arc, whichever you're on, which seems backwards, but the 42 Switch converts it to Hybrid. The cabling from the LNBF to the switch is important, as the diagram shows. 3 lines from a Western Arc, 2 from an Eastern Arc with a solo hub for each Hopper 3
The best way is to buy an H3 from a third party then call Dish and keep calling them until you get to a person that agrees to the dual H3 installation. At that point, exchange the dodgy unit for a new one that you will lease. Schedule the install and pay the $100 that they may charge. Let Dish do the rest. They'll bring the right pieces and parts and put it all together for you. I've been very happy with my setup.
Just out of curiosity, why the need to go with 2 H3 receivers? Are you just wanting more than 16 tuners or is it for the processor speed on the 2nd tv? I've considered running another H3 on my 2nd television just because I really hate the lag on the Joey!
Just curious what your reasoning is.
Luckily I know how to install these a little so I know I can figure out the proper way to run the 2nd H3.
Thanks and GL
For a lot of us the reason of having two Hopper 3s is about redundancy and the separation of Hoppers for organizational reasons in the household.
For me it was that the HWS units were getting too slow. And because I need to run two simultaneous Dish Anywhere sessions pretty frequently, I had to have two H3's.
For me it's to add additional recording space. I've had bad luck with external drives in the past and don't like that it's a manual process managing recordings on the external drive. Plus, it's hard to find a 2TB or smaller drive these days. I also don't like the Joey lag, although I got a 4k Joey recently and so far it seems much better.
OK, I upgraded to Hopper 3 in Nov 2016, and loved it so much I had a planned an install of a Hopper 3 unit to my RV spring 2017. I bought all the parts and worked off of a guideline on RVseinormoments.com for a hopper 3 installation the guy did , he wrote up a schematic and listed out the parts. I bought a second hopper 3, the Hybrid Node, I bought a roof mount tripod setup custom made from an ebay seller, I specified it come with the Hybrid LNBF, I ordered the 1000.2 reflector, I bought water proof connectors, a few 90's , built a box for the Node to keep weather off of it, i bought all RG6U cable, (and my coach came pre wired in RG6U so no incompatability issues there) so when I called dish to add on the second Hopper 3 is when i found out they wont activate two hopper 3's. Bummer. So I sent back the second Hopper 3 ,and turned around and activated my previous Hopper 2. I ordered a second Hopper 2 and put that on the account.
I finally did the setup for the Rv last weekend. First setup and point took 6 hours 22 minutes. Was uber successful bringing in 67% signal, the picture is just beautiful, flawless really. I installed 1 Hopper 2, 2 Wireless Joeys, and 1 Wireless Joey Access Point in the RV, and it is flawless and working correctly.
In short the use of the Hybrid parts eliminates the need for 3 coax that previous Nodes setups required for the hopper system. The hybrid Node only needs 1 line, it feeds from PORT 1 on the Hybrid LNBF to the ODS port on the Hybrid Node. This one line feeds 110, 119, 129 arcs at once. Pretty nice. Then you only need to feed it from there, we run Wireless Joeys, so we capped off our CLIENT(which are the ports for the Joeys) ports on the Hybrid Node and the only feed left to go out was the feed from HOST to the Hopper. IN our case we ported from HOST on the Node to our outside hookup on our rig.
We pointed using the 1000.2 book numbers and it was off a bit so we had to move stuff around, the sat finder we had was some 6$ and was a broken sat finder, only we didnt find out it was broken until hours had past and we realized we had all three arcs coming in inside the rig when the sat finder told us there was no signal while we were standing outside trying to figure out why we were dead on the money with no signal.
We bought 1 50ft white RG6U Gold tipped, 2 6ft RG6U, 2 3ft RG6U, all at home depot. We bought our Node from a shop on amazon, (6$) . The Hopper 3 will not work with the previous Nodes or LNBF's they require the Hybrid versions, I am guessing due to their 16 tuners. Hopper 2's will work with either, our initial install was done with the Hybrid version of all of these and for me , I copied my residential Install right off the side of my house when first moving to make my own RV setup (as they have no official support for us RV people-who really have no interest in their Portable Versions of satellite equipment)
I hope down the road they will remove the ONE HOPPER 3 Restriction from the account and I can once again have a Hopper 3.
We have bought all of our own equipment for our home and Rv install as of now. Long ago now I sent back the following to dish once we decided we loved our service: The orginal Hopper 2 they leased to us in the initial Installation, the original wireless joey, the original access point, the HLNBF, the Hybrid Node . All of the things dish told me they would ask us for back if we ever moved or left service. Just to be clear we want the service, not their equipment. It was not hard to replace with our own equipment. Its all avail online.
I can add though that when I took my Hopper 3 offline and replaced with Hopper 2 they were VERY curious as to WHY I wanted two Hopper 3's on my account. For real? Maybe I dont want my kid having access to my recordings or vice versa. Maybe I want to load up my Hopper 3 and roll to the beach for the weekend and leave one at home for my dad. Really Its a limitation of the LNBF's I think , so really I will just have a second reflector as is the case I have now, one on the house and one for the RV, I dont see the issue if you DIY your own reflector setup for the second Hopper.
Here's Hoping for a way to have 2 Hopper 3's down the road .........Love to find a way to accomplish this.
