coolsat 6000 bit the dust

[Techfizzle]

my cs6000 was working fine last night (legit fta) and this morning i turn it on, theres static on my tv and a purple screen flashes. I asked coolsat what to do and they said to reload the factory file on it. I did and its still doing it. I dont want to spend another $100 for a fre to air receiver. What can i do to fix this one?

 

[Lak7]

Try changing cables from Box to TV.

 

[gabshere]

whats it doing power cycling ?

when you load the filmware is it loading.

if its power cycling ( the unit turns off and on) then its a timing thing you have to load the filmware at a certain time. ( when it powers up ) and you actually have to start the load right before it powers up.

 

[Mr Tony]

short in cable probably..my pansat does the same thing

 

[Techfizzle]

i unplugged it for 2 hours and now it wont turn on at all. I noticed a little capaicotr is swollen, does this mean its blown?

 

[Lak7]

Looks like a trip to RadioShack.

 

[Larry1]

i unplugged it for 2 hours and now it wont turn on at all. I noticed a little capaicotr is swollen, does this mean its blown?

If any of the capacitors are swollen or buldged, they need to be replaced. Are these the capacitors on the power board? Look carefully, as there are probably more that need repalced as well. Remember that if you are going to replace them, keep track of the negative marking or line on the capacitors. Make sure you do not reverse the polarity. Always replace the capacitor with the same value and same or higher voltage rating, never lower voltage rating.
Please note that there are lethal voltages inside the satellite box, and some parts can hold a charge even with the unit unplugged. If you are not qualified to replace them, then make sure you take it to someone that is.

 

[Techfizzle]

lethal voltages?!!? hhahaha ive been shocked by 120 plenty of times, im built like a beast, so this only feels like sticking your toung on a 9 volt battery.
Anyhoo the stock capacitor was a 1000 uf 6.3 volt. I installed a 1000 uf 35 volt. Seems to work okay. I think the cap was bad when i bought it, the lights on the led would flicker.

 

[tracker1998]

Teckfizzle, There is just no way that you can stuff the smoke back into an electronic component to make it work... LOL.

 

[FTABman0]

My Coolsat 6000 dead Too!!

My Coolsat 6000 died the other day also. Not even 4 months old.

I was changing the coax out and turned the box off and I must have hit the power button twice for it was still on when I tried to reconnect the coax and I got that little spark and nothing. I should have checked it! My fault! The box will not power up at all, dead front display! I have power on the AC side of the power board but on the DC side no power at all but small voltage ripples on the multi-meter. I sent Coolsat an email and got back that they suspect that the STB is a clone but it has the hologram stickers on it and it has all the right parts in it according to their website picture on how to spot a clone one from an authentic one. I am not sure on what to do with it as yet but I think if I trouble shoot the parts one on one I will find what went out in the power supply. Coolsat told me that there was no fuse in the box but there is.



An AC fuse off the tail cord going in. To my surprise there is nothing that looks burned out or no bulge in any caps. I just did a fast look at it and really have not had the time to trouble shoot it yet. I believe that the problem is simple when I find it. I asked Coolsat for a schematic on the box but they never answered that question for me. I guess that takes away from their service department. I am planning to fix this box and get rid of both of them for standard DVB CNX Mini boxes. I have had my eye on the CNX brand for awhile and I like the design of the little Mini.

I expressed my frustration to the Coolsat people in my email for the fact that my boxes were manufactured in October of 2007 and are fairly new as STB's go and yet they discontinue the support for them and replace them with the Private. I wanted one of the 6000 since I got into the hobby 3 years ago. Now when I buy two of them they drop the line and stop the support for it and warranties! Not right in my book. I was going to go with a Coolsat HD STB this year but not now. I am looking at one HD box over in the UK right now that looks really sweet! Coolsat has let the consumer hobbyist down with this model! Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the box when they worked! They worked fine for the first couple months then my main box started to restart all the time, green screen and loose scanned birds. Frustrating I must say. It got to the point I was scanning 5 birds at a time them saving the list to the computer so I will have them for when I started again I was sure to loose the list to the memory write and the FFFFF across the screen!

I was lucky that only one box did this but now the one in the bedroom does the same thing and I look for it to go down soon. Mini's are in my future! I will look for problems in the power supply in the next couple days. Right now I have my Fortec Star Lifetime Classic NA back in line, my first STB. It has been working flawlessly after about 4 months not plugged in after I took it out of line for the new Coolsat. I had to rescan some birds again but I am back up. I guess that says a lot about Coolsat! The 6000 is a great box for Blind Scanning though I have to admit that! I will let you guys know if it becomes a door stop or not!

 

[Anole]

FTAman - that's some of the best close-up photography I've seen in a while.
The 2000x1500 pix would be great for trouble shooting.
Have to tell us your secrets.

Maybe get a little fill light on the opposite side , though.

 

[Techfizzle]

capcitors can leak to. check for swollen caps and orange gunk around them.

 

[Corrado]

My old Fortec Lifetime Ultra was tough. I had accidentally hot swapped cables and LNBFs countless times with it on and never a problem.

It took a lightning bolt to kill it.

 

[FTABman0]

Camera Secrets Reveled!

FTAman - that's some of the best close-up photography I've seen in a while.
The 2000x1500 pix would be great for trouble shooting.
Have to tell us your secrets.

Maybe get a little fill light on the opposite side , though.

Anole, use any camera that can do Macro and get as close as you can get. The trick is to turn off your flash and use an alternative source of light. I used a 25 watt appliance bulb in a goose neck computer stand light in these shots to get the light in over the STB. Careful though, going past a 60 watt incandescent light might wash your picture out! Make sure your F Stop is low but not too low.

Lower the ISO is for lower light pictures. My favorite setting for film speed is always 400. In film cameras you to use 400 ISO you had to have 400 speed film, but in digital cameras you can take outside shots in 400 and it works just as well as 100 or 200 ISO. I guess digital is better for obvious reasons.

Use a camera that can go out of factory program to manual, the F Stop in these pictures was at 2.8 1/30 at 400 ISO low light. Also the bigger the megapixel you can go can't hurt here! The pictures above were at 3 MP. I am used to the big lens SLR film cameras though and am still learning digital. I am an amateur photographer (my first hobby) for years now. These pictures were taken with a cheap $75 Samsung S630 Digital camera but has very nice user adjustable features like a film SLR.

No secrets, now you know how! Happy to share!

Maybe get a little fill light on the opposite side , though.

I would have if that was what I was trying to take a picture of. I was just showing the power board or certain parts of it in those pictures I wanted to show. :up

 

[gabshere]

FTABman0
from what i understand about the coolsat warrenty if you bought it before Nov. 2007 from an authorized or official coolsat reseller they would honor the warrenty (5 years)

now when i shipped my 5000's back to them ...... my only problem was the expense to send it in and pay for the return shipment.... so now you could almost buy one off e-bay for the return cost.

hopefully you will be able to find out whats wrong with it .
or maybe someone has a broken one to swap parts with.

 

[rv1pop]

sounds like another reason to go with Fortec --??

 

[Techfizzle]

pic of my unimesh before it was chopped up into many bite-size peices

now my maciva has a marco setting, but here are some super closeups

 

[voomvoom]

That dish looks pretty good, I still can't believe you cut it up......????
What a waste...!

 

[rv1pop]

That looks like the dish I just rebuilt --- Mount and all!

 

[Techfizzle]

i was putting it on the pole, i slipped, the dish landed on the pole, and the pole put a big-a** hole in mesh. i wasnt going to doctor it.