Professional Installers out there....I'm Desperate for Help

[Loric]

The receivers are setting the voltage on the LNB.
2 receivers wired to your LNB without a multiswitch (using just a splitter for example) would cause this kind of problems. In addition, on the long run, this sort of setup (2 receivers trying to set different voltages on a splitter) may be destructive for the tuner IC of any of your receivers.

 

[Bird Finder]

The receivers aree setting the voltage on the LNB.
2 receivers wired to your LNB without a multiswitch (using just a splitter for example) would cause this kind of problems. In addition, on the long run, this sort of setup (2 receivers trying to set different voltages on a splitter) may be destructive for the tuner IC of any of your receivers.

Uh , I think your on crack dude, Phase 3 dish has a built in multi-switch and Golden Rule #1, you do not, I repeat, DO NOT use a splitter in the line from dish to receiver.
Every other xponder huh, I do about 3 installs a day and see this quiet often. Either you have a braid wrapped around a conducter (visually inspect all ends for little strands wrapped around the conductor), a staple peircing the cable somewhere in the line, a splitter, or LOS. You mentioned you did some trimming, do some more. 45 degrees gets up there in a hurry. Watch out for branches above the dish as well as in front

 

[dragon002]

again,
he is getting ALL tsp on the 101 on the same coax, cant be a ground problem or the 101 would be showing only half the tsp


dragon

 

[camachinist]

Not having read the other thread, I'm assuming the OP's installer measured the voltage at the LNB. Yesterday, when troubleshooting my install, I got ~18.2VDC, both with my jumpers and with the actual install cabling. As noted, the equipment and wiring worked flawlessly; the problem was with the installer

Pat

 

[uboatcmdr]

I actually had to do this today, and did use my RV TV as a monitor out on the patio with the DTiVo set up next to it. In my case I had some gross azimuth errors, due to my boy scout compass , so once I cabled up and discovered my error, I left everything in place and was able to quickly maximize signal strength solo. I then hooked the primary cables back up and tested with the inside televisions. No problems nor degradation. I'm using the 3 LNB oval dish with the built-in multiswitch.

God how I hate attics

Pat

You don't know how many times I have been helping an new installer and see them trying to use their nice new $150+ compass as they were standing directly under a power line, right next to the meter base or on top of a buried power line. This can throw your azimuth readings way off.

 

[camachinist]

You don't know how many times I have been helping an new installer and see them trying to use their nice new $150+ compass as they were standing directly under a power line, right next to the meter base or on top of a buried power line. This can throw your azimuth readings way off.

Heh, been there done that. In this instance I forgot to allow for magnetic declination. Oops..

Pat

 

[Bill1955]

Thanks for all your wonderful ideas...........tried them all this weekend......NOTHING WORKED......we even moved the dish all over......got up to a 98 on the ODD transponders of 119 BUT NOTHING ON THE EVENS.......dropped a line directly from the dish to the receiver bypassing all existing wiring....didn't change a thing......checked the voltage at the dish.....18v and higher.....checked all the ends of the cables did not see anything amiss.......ANY OTHER IDEAS??? We'll try them......Could there be something wrong with the dish itself........ever heard of that? Maybe we should ask them to replace the whole dish........what do you think? This is so frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[camachinist]

I'm assuming the installer has tried a different LNB, yes? Oops, the last sentence of your post presumes not.. Might be a bad multi-switch in there.

They're gonna kick themselves ....

Pat

 

[dragon002]

no his first post said they replaced the lnb

in my opionion, line of sight

dragon

 

[camachinist]

no his first post said they replaced the lnb

in my opionion, line of sight

dragon

Sorry, my mistake...

Set up equipment in known clear location for test? I'm a bit confused by his report that things worked for a short period of time.

Pat

 

[dragon002]

what ird(s) do you have??

 

[uboatcmdr]

Thanks for all your wonderful ideas...........tried them all this weekend......NOTHING WORKED......we even moved the dish all over......got up to a 98 on the ODD transponders of 119 BUT NOTHING ON THE EVENS.......dropped a line directly from the dish to the receiver bypassing all existing wiring....didn't change a thing......checked the voltage at the dish.....18v and higher.....checked all the ends of the cables did not see anything amiss.......ANY OTHER IDEAS??? We'll try them......Could there be something wrong with the dish itself........ever heard of that? Maybe we should ask them to replace the whole dish........what do you think? This is so frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!

Hmmm, you say you checked the voltage at the dish and it was 18v and higher??? How much higher one or two volts, or more? It should max out at 18.*V (if anything it should be a tad lower, allowing for line drop). Do your receivers have two or three prong power plugs? If it has three prongs, try using a two prong adapter to eliminate the ground post of the plug, then recheck the voltage. Another thing to try is to plug the receivers into different circuits than they are presently using (use an extension cord if need be, just be sure its truly plugged into a different circuit). We had one tech blow up four receivers on one job. Every time he plug one up the sparks flew and smoke poured out of them. He didn't think there was anything wrong with the circuit because the customers sound system was using it with no problems (sound system had two prong plug, receivers all had three). When the tech used the two prong adapter the receiver worked fine.

A line of sight issue will not cause the loss of even transponders and still give you odd ones. These things usually occur because of problems with either 1. wire, 2. LNB, or 3. receiver. The dish itself can't cause it unless it is out of line. If you are getting the odd transponders then you should be getting programing on some of the channels sent out by the 119 sat. Are you getting both odd & even transponders from the 101 & 110 sats? What are the signal strengths there? And on the 119 what transponder are you actually getting a signal from?

 

[Bill1955]

what ird(s) do you have??

I'm sorry...I have no idea what an "ird" is......Is this something I've missed?

 

[Bill1955]

I'm assuming the installer has tried a different LNB, yes? Oops, the last sentence of your post presumes not.. Might be a bad multi-switch in there.

They're gonna kick themselves ....

Pat

I have no idea if they actually replaced the LNB or not........The installer SAID he did and he came off the roof with a triple LNB attached to a funny looking piece of equipment that had dials on it.

 

[Bill1955]

Hmmm, you say you checked the voltage at the dish and it was 18v and higher??? How much higher one or two volts, or more? It should max out at 18.*V (if anything it should be a tad lower, allowing for line drop). Do your receivers have two or three prong power plugs? If it has three prongs, try using a two prong adapter to eliminate the ground post of the plug, then recheck the voltage. Another thing to try is to plug the receivers into different circuits than they are presently using (use an extension cord if need be, just be sure its truly plugged into a different circuit). We had one tech blow up four receivers on one job. Every time he plug one up the sparks flew and smoke poured out of them. He didn't think there was anything wrong with the circuit because the customers sound system was using it with no problems (sound system had two prong plug, receivers all had three). When the tech used the two prong adapter the receiver worked fine.

A line of sight issue will not cause the loss of even transponders and still give you odd ones. These things usually occur because of problems with either 1. wire, 2. LNB, or 3. receiver. The dish itself can't cause it unless it is out of line. If you are getting the odd transponders then you should be getting programing on some of the channels sent out by the 119 sat. Are you getting both odd & even transponders from the 101 & 110 sats? What are the signal strengths there? And on the 119 what transponder are you actually getting a signal from?

Yes the voltage readings are over 18........one at 18.6 and one was 19.5. We'll try the two prong adapter. Although, we tried an other receiver(a Samsung) and that only had a two prong and had the same problems.

We get both sets of transponders on 101 only the evens on 110(but I think that's because they only use the evens). 101 gives us signal strengths in the 80's,90's, 100................We only get 65 signal strength on all the 110's. And the odd transponders on 119 are 70's, 80's, 90's. We get all the odd's 23, 25, 29 and 31.

 

[Bill1955]

no his first post said they replaced the lnb

in my opionion, line of sight

dragon

Dragon, Even though we dragged the dish all over and got a 98% signal on the Odds???

 

[Bill1955]

Sorry, my mistake...

Set up equipment in known clear location for test? I'm a bit confused by his report that things worked for a short period of time.

Pat

We do intermittantly get some signal on the evens........very low(30's) and very intermittant(like the signal will register briefly on the meter then go away)

 

[dragon002]

ird = reciever

 

[uboatcmdr]

Yes the voltage readings are over 18........one at 18.6 and one was 19.5. We'll try the two prong adapter. Although, we tried an other receiver(a Samsung) and that only had a two prong and had the same problems.

We get both sets of transponders on 101 only the evens on 110(but I think that's because they only use the evens). 101 gives us signal strengths in the 80's,90's, 100................We only get 65 signal strength on all the 110's. And the odd transponders on 119 are 70's, 80's, 90's. We get all the odd's 23, 25, 29 and 31.

Remove the coax of the 19.5v from the LNB and see if you get the both set of transponders on one receiver. If so then the problem is with the receiver that has the higher output. Please keep in mind that the higher voltage could have damaged the internal mutliswitch of the triple LNB, and the LNB may need to be replaced before it will actually work with the 18.6v receiver.
Another thing to test is the voltage out at the back of the receivers (before you change the plug setup and again after).

 

[Bill1955]

ird = reciever

Oh my goodness....that was dumb of me, huh?

we have a RCA DTC210 (but we had a replacement sent, The Samsung, which didn't work either so we sent it back, I like the DTC210 much better)