WildBlue TRIA nonstandard repair

[AcWxRadar]

A short time back, my WB system lost lock and I could not get it to reset. After leaving it unplugged for hours or even days, it would never get to the RANGING/REGISTRATION mode (where the transmit LED blinks three times rapidly). The transmit LED would only blink twice, slowly.

The weather had been bad, rainy and cold and there had been a storm the night before I noticed that it had lost lock. I thought I would check with WB tech support to verify if any others in my area were experiencing an outage (in order to determine if the problem was only on my end or not). WB tech support informed me that they had no reports from others regarding an outage and they could not see my transmit signal at all. They provided me with a service ticket number and asked me to call them back when the weather cleared to recheck my signal.

The weather was lousy, but I have experienced much worse and had never lost lock like this before. I had a gut feeling that either my TRIA or my modem had failed and I was betting on the TRIA.

When the weather cleared, the problem remained, even when the temperature warmed up to the mid 80's.

I sought out replacement components on E-Bay and was still waiting for for the auctions to end when I decided to experiment a little.

I hooked up my Super Buddy meter to the receiver side of the TRIA and checked my signal. I was detecting 11.7 - 12.3 C/N ratio (a little jumpy, but still good). I tried to peak it better by adjusting the azimuth and elevation of the dish, but it was peaked at its best already (I installed it myself, originally).

Out of my gut instinct, I had a suspicion that moisture had gotten into the TRIA and caused damage to the transmit side. I had nothing to lose, so I took the TRIA off and disassembled it to inspect for any obvious damage. Unfortunately (or actually fortunately) it appeared to be in perfect condition - no corrosion, no signs of moisture and no visibly detectable blown components.

Well, I hadn't proven to myself that the TRIA was at fault and I had nothing to lose, so - since it was already disassembled completely - I placed all the parts of the TRIA in my oven and baked it at ~200 degrees for a few hours.

While it was still warm, I applied some dielectric grease to all the gaskets and reassembled it and put it back on the dish.

When I powered the modem up, it went through its sequence just fine and locked!
It has remained locked and working well ever since. I have even cycled it on/off several times to ensure that it would reboot fine each time and it did. I called WB tech support back and they checked my signal and said that it was good and strong (18 dBm). I have had rain, fog and mist and temperatures from 45 degrees to 80 degrees since then and it is still holding in there.

So, baking it in the oven must have done the trick, at least for now. I thought you would like to know this in case your WB system or someone's that you know happens to act the same. It is an easy and zero cost repair if it works.

RADAR

[neverenderday]

This is actually pretty amazing. Would've never thought of any of this. We've had a lot of TRIA's fail during the winter's here - mainly corrosion, despite dielectric grease on the F-connectors and such. Also, believe the cold effects them - damp conditions, etc. TRIA's mainly fail due to improper peaking, though. If it is not spot on and peaked correctly, there is a sensor inside that will continually search for the signal, even if it is locked, and will become burnt out over time of doing so. Hence, why this system needs to be peaked correctly, and secured so no movement will take place. It will burn out the unit even if the modem is showing a lock. This is great though! If I come across a TRIA that seem to have failed, I will certainly take it apart and bake it. I wanna see how well this works. Great advice