Cables? Switch? What's the problem?

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pjcl

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Nov 9, 2008
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I have been having issues with my setup. I just bought an Openbox S10 to take the place of a Coolsat 8000HD, which was having issue with moving my 90cm KU dish. I use an Ecoda to switch between my KU and C dishes, and I find it to work well. The Coolsat was having issues and make me constantly reset my HH motor. The Openbox seemed to be doing better, but I've noticed that when I turn it on, I get signal on my C-band channels, but not from my KU dish! I have a feeling this happens when it's colder... so, I'm thinking connection problems? Or switch? Would any of those issues cause me to lose signal *completely*? The light on the HH motor is solid green (so, not showing "low intensity"), unlike what I found out to be occurring when I had the Coolsat attached. Has anyone experienced these particular symptoms before? Thanks, guys!
 
IMHO it's a poor connection to the motor betwwen the receiver and the motor, or degredation of multiple connections. If the motor pulls all the power available to it, the brains of the motor starves for voltage and it has memory loss. This causes the need for resets. This may also be because of wear and tear on the motor causing the need for more energy to operate. I've fought this kind of problem for years and finally stopped having the problems when I rewired the motor to use an outside power source to move the dish. I've replaced the motor again with a new SG9120b and still have power issues.
 
IMHO it's a poor connection to the motor betwwen the receiver and the motor, or degredation of multiple connections. If the motor pulls all the power available to it, the brains of the motor starves for voltage and it has memory loss. This causes the need for resets. This may also be because of wear and tear on the motor causing the need for more energy to operate. I've fought this kind of problem for years and finally stopped having the problems when I rewired the motor to use an outside power source to move the dish. I've replaced the motor again with a new SG9120b and still have power issues.

Yeah, that makes sense - but losing signal completely??
 
I have been having issues with my setup. I just bought an Openbox S10 to take the place of a Coolsat 8000HD, which was having issue with moving my 90cm KU dish. I use an Ecoda to switch between my KU and C dishes, and I find it to work well. The Coolsat was having issues and make me constantly reset my HH motor. The Openbox seemed to be doing better, but I've noticed that when I turn it on, I get signal on my C-band channels, but not from my KU dish! I have a feeling this happens when it's colder... so, I'm thinking connection problems? Or switch? Would any of those issues cause me to lose signal *completely*? The light on the HH motor is solid green (so, not showing "low intensity"), unlike what I found out to be occurring when I had the Coolsat attached. Has anyone experienced these particular symptoms before? Thanks, guys!

OMG!:eek: ...and here I was thinking the unthinkable! I have similar problems. The funny thing is, I don't have this issue when I hook up my VS Ultra or Coolsat 5K. After almost 2 months of testing. I strongly think the S10 doesn't handle 22khz, and switches very well. I have tried Chieta, sadoun, SatAV, and even the ecoda switches and still have the same results.
 
An FYI that may or may not be related: The S10 puts out a voltage that is not really up to standard for Vertical switching. It is 14VDC and above under little to no load. It really should be closer to 13VDC. It is high enough that I got no vertical out of a Terk DirecTV switch that has worked fine with a dozen or so satellite boxes over the years. When I changed to an old Spaun switch, vertical switching worked again.

If you turn on your system with too little load on the S10, your switch may think you want H polarity (typically 14.5 - 18VDC or higher). The max for vertical should be 13.5VDC for 99% of switches out there (typically 11.5 - 13.5 VDC).

A forum somewhere in Europe fixed it with just an in-line diode reducing the voltage by a mere 0.7VDC. They put it in a tin with 2 F connectors in line with the switch or LNB. Other more adventurous souls have replaced some resistors on the tuner boards, but those tiny surface mount chips are beyond my skill level.
 
An FYI that may or may not be related: The S10 puts out a voltage that is not really up to standard for Vertical switching. It is 14VDC and above under little to no load. It really should be closer to 13VDC. It is high enough that I got no vertical out of a Terk DirecTV switch that has worked fine with a dozen or so satellite boxes over the years. When I changed to an old Spaun switch, vertical switching worked again.

If you turn on your system with too little load on the S10, your switch may think you want H polarity (typically 14.5 - 18VDC or higher). The max for vertical should be 13.5VDC for 99% of switches out there (typically 11.5 - 13.5 VDC).

A forum somewhere in Europe fixed it with just an in-line diode reducing the voltage by a mere 0.7VDC. They put it in a tin with 2 F connectors in line with the switch or LNB. Other more adventurous souls have replaced some resistors on the tuner boards, but those tiny surface mount chips are beyond my skill level.

My S9 does that and I put a DC blocking splitter inline between my powered multiswitch/diseqc and the S9. Solved the problem.
 
I had the same problem switching to V with my pansat 9200 a couple of years ago. Two F connectors and a diode in a aluminum box fixed it. Same problem with the S9, so the box is still inline. (posted about it a couple of times here) A power pass splitter would do the same, but I would think there'd be a nominal 3db loss.
 

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My S9 does that and I put a DC blocking splitter inline between my powered multiswitch/diseqc and the S9. Solved the problem.

What make and model of DC blocking splitter did you use? Can you provide a diagram of the setup?
 
I had the same problem switching to V with my pansat 9200 a couple of years ago. Two F connectors and a diode in a aluminum box fixed it. Same problem with the S9, so the box is still inline. (posted about it a couple of times here) A power pass splitter would do the same, but I would think there'd be a nominal 3db loss.

I am glad you posted that, as it would be useful to some folks around here. And, yeah, losing half the signal (3db) with a splitter would not be great for finding the weak signals, but it would work in a pinch (and prove what the problem was and how to fix it). I read somewhere about someone cannibalizing a power passing splitter to use just the diode (power passing) part and eliminating the splitter parts.
 
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