Why does the DP21-34 setup work for some?

miguelaqui

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Oct 14, 2004
1,002
28
I have read on here that the combination of the DP21 and DP34 for a 4 sat location will work for some.

It certainly did not work for me. It caused my receiver to power off. When I received a replacement receiver, it would only read the FSS satellite when connected.

I tried configuring that setup several different ways, without luck. As soon as the forth sat was connected, the receiver would power off, even if the sat was not currently in the matrix.

The DP21 worked fine with just 2 sats connected and the 34 works fine with just 3 connected.

I tried connecting and disconnecting the ground, no luck.

When I called and spoke with ATR, they told me that setup is not supposed to work, it pulls too much power from the receiver.

The power issue would explain why the DPP44 would need the power supply even when being used with all Dish Pro receivers.

Could it be the fact that I am only using one single tuner receiver be the reason as to why the setup did not work for me?

THANKS
 
Its a gamble to get it to work for anyone that tries, its not a supported configuration because of the power requirement for such a set up. If you really need the four sat config then go with a dp44, Im sure that others who have tried and gotten this config to work are having issues and wont talk about it.
 
I think it has to do with how many receivers you have hooked up. If you only have 1 receiver it seems to be a problem. When you have more receivers it seems to work fine.
 
Yeah - power might be an issue, but the CSR telling you it's not supported is an idiot.

My 921 shows a switch of "DP34-DP21". The Device line shows "twin, twin, sgl, dual" which is 100% correct. The DP Dual is feeding the DP21s while the DP Single is going to DP34 input #3.

And of course, there's FIVE satellite columns. The ONLY way to do that is with a DPP44 (NOT a DP44 - ain't no such thing) cascaded with DP21(s).

If it were NOT supported, they certainly would NOT have added the code to tell you what you've got.
 
SimpleSimon said:
Yeah - power might be an issue, but the CSR telling you it's not supported is an idiot.

My 921 shows a switch of "DP34-DP21". The Device line shows "twin, twin, sgl, dual" which is 100% correct. The DP Dual is feeding the DP21s while the DP Single is going to DP34 input #3.

And of course, there's FIVE satellite columns. The ONLY way to do that is with a DPP44 (NOT a DP44 - ain't no such thing) cascaded with DP21(s).

If it were NOT supported, they certainly would NOT have added the code to tell you what you've got.
My 501 would show the configuration just fine and would work for a few hours, then it would power off.

Since the 921 has 2 tuners, maybe it works for you because it's just like having 2 receivers; the LNBs will not be pulling too much power from one line.
 
miguelaqui said:
My 501 would show the configuration just fine and would work for a few hours, then it would power off.

Since the 921 has 2 tuners, maybe it works for you because it's just like having 2 receivers; the LNBs will not be pulling too much power from one line.
I had this problem and discovered that I had a RG59 cable connected between the DP34 and DP21 switch. All my receivers now work with the DP34/DP21 & DPP44/DP21 arrangements.
 
boy921 said:
I had this problem and discovered that I had a RG59 cable connected between the DP34 and DP21 switch. All my receivers now work with the DP34/DP21 & DPP44/DP21 arrangements.
I thought of that too. I replaced all the cable. Since you said receiverSSSS I think that it it is true that the DP21-34 setup will not work with just one single tuner receiver.

The DPP44/21 arrangement doesn't pull as much power from the receiver because the DPP44 has a power inserter.
 
miguelaqui said:
I thought of that too. I replaced all the cable. Since you said receiverSSSS I think that it it is true that the DP21-34 setup will not work with just one single tuner receiver.

The DPP44/21 arrangement doesn't pull as much power from the receiver because the DPP44 has a power inserter.
DP34/21 work with my 501 and 510 these are single receivers. Both would not function properly prior to software release P3.01 (This includes DPP44/DP21). They actually wouldn't power up after they remained off for several minutes. The hard drive wouldn't spin. P3.01 corrected this problem with both of mine. Do you have the most current software release?
 
Are you using superdishes with these 4-5 satellite setups? It might be that the superdish LNBs suck a little more power for whatever reason (if they even do that)..

Might also be the distance of the wire from the receiver(s). If you've ever seen a power-over-ethernet setup you'd notice that well, voltage kinda drops off a bit over a distance so you have to pump more down to power the stuff, and that could be causing the overload ;)
 
I went to a conference in Baltimore in August 2003 and got to talk to the designers of the DP setup(of course, I called the SuperDish presenter an idiot when he told me that I didn't have to use stabilizer arms with the SD, but that's another story). They said that the DP setup could power 3 locations just fine, but that the DP+44 switch would require power insertion because the 19.6 Volts of the DP setup is not enough to run 4 receivers properly. Needless to say, I was a little suprised when I heard that they added support for the DP34/DP21 cascade. I would also have to say that it sounds like if you are going to use the DP21 setup, you may beed at least 2 DP21s to make sure that bother switches are powered properly. I've only done it once as a test, and it worked fine. However, I didn't leave it hooked up that way, so I dunno how well it works over a period of time. There seems to be a similar issue with the SW64/SW21 setup with some receivers and they lose the 4th sat as well(which SHOULDN'T be a power problem since the SW64 is powered, but......
 
OoTLink said:
Are you using superdishes with these 4-5 satellite setups? It might be that the superdish LNBs suck a little more power for whatever reason (if they even do that)..

Might also be the distance of the wire from the receiver(s). If you've ever seen a power-over-ethernet setup you'd notice that well, voltage kinda drops off a bit over a distance so you have to pump more down to power the stuff, and that could be causing the overload ;)

Yes, I am using a 105 superdish; I was trying to get 61.5,105,110, and 119.

I thought of the distance, so I moved al of the switches inside. There's about a 15 foot run between the receiver and the switches, 15 from the switches to the superdish, and 25 from the switches to the 61.5 dish.

That is also the reason why I replaced perfectly good 15 year old copper clad Commscope rg6 with Vextra, to try to help with the voltage.
 
boy921 said:
DP34/21 work with my 501 and 510 these are single receivers. Both would not function properly prior to software release P3.01 (This includes DPP44/DP21). They actually wouldn't power up after they remained off for several minutes. The hard drive wouldn't spin. P3.01 corrected this problem with both of mine. Do you have the most current software release?

Yes.

Do you have your 501 and 510 running to the same DP34?
 

811- ota

Does dish still have the $1.99/month warranty?