Disabling R15 2nd tuner input.

[AntAltMike]

Can it be done through either the visible or hidden menu?

A couple of days ago, I connected satellite input #1 of an R15 to a stacked LNB line, but it couldn't figure out what it was connected to. Then, I went into the hidden menu ("action" and "right arrow", I believe) and set it to "stacked" LNB mode and successfully ran through the set-up.

While I was doing some work elsewhere in the building (large MDU), but before I went to my truck to get a high frequency splitter for the second input, the receiver would display a message indicating that there was no satellite signal on input #2 while allowing the tuned program to be viewed, and it would eventually go into "screen saver mode" (bouncing blue DirecTV logo). Once I installed the splitter, that annoying symptom went away, so I never had to poke through the menus looking for a way to disable the second satellite input.

Today, a DirecTV installer tried to install an R15 in another MDU in which I installed the master antenna system, but this time, it is a simple Sat A multiswitch system, with just one home run per apartment. The installer was unable to make the "searching for signal" notice go away, and he told the customer that he was not allowed to leave the receiver there if the installation was unsuccessful, so he took it with him.

Tonight, I found a way to run a second coax to allow the system to fully support two tuners, and so the DirecTV installer will be bringing the receiver back once I confirm that the second wire has been run, but for my future edification, how does one deliberately disable the second tuner? In a related thread it was reported that the receiver automatically disables the second tuner if it sees no signal there during setup, but that was not the case in either of these installations.

 

[Dknow]

If you reboot the r-15 with only one line plugged in it will sense that it only has one line and shut the other tuner down without displaying the SFSS message. That is only if the line is a direct run from either a correctly configured multiswitch or LNB (in other words...splitters do not work for satellite...ever).

 

[AntAltMike]

...splitters do not work for satellite...ever).

Splitters work fine for stacked, single LNB systems. DirecTV has been supporting this technology since about 1998 , but they don't tell residential customers about it.

Cal Amp made the first, DirecTV compatible "stacked LNBs" that took the even transponders and mixed them with a 575 Mhz oscillator to boost them above the odds transponder frequencies. Sony receiver models A/B 3, 4, 50. 55 and HD100 had hidden service screens accessed by pressing menu and down on the receiver panel at the same time, which allowed the receiver to be put into "stacked" mode. In fact, the A/B 3s allowed the frequency offset to be incrementally adjusted, because there were other companies, like Global, making stackers that shifted by a different amount. With the Sony GAEBO GAEBOA, and Hughes A/B 65, 65A,the destacker was accessed by pressing the "fav" button on the remotes when the yellow cursor was on TEST.

I think that with subsequent Hughes standard receivers, they got rid of the "fav" button but the screen was accessed the same way using the info button, and there were software upgrades that made the existence of the destacker visible in the set up, and if you ran a check switch, they eventually would discover that they were connected to a stacked LNB system and reconfigure themselves appropriately.

Hughes even made a software revision not available to the general public that used 13v/18v voltage switching between Satellites A and B, but that was only available to their largest MDU system operators.

Cal Amp stopped making them around 2001 or 2002. Holland Electronics made an inexpensive stacker but they discontinued it because of customer dissatisfaction. Sonora Design has been the largest and most reliable producer of DirecTV approved stacking hardware., Their model SAL 20-24 even has automatic gain control in it. Winegard started making a stacked LNB two or three years ago, but I don't think it is sold through their residential distribution channels. I know that Pace sells it.

I just switched a D11 into stacked mode today, and installed a Sonora "microstacker" in the cable junction box, , so that the DirecTV installer will now be able to return with the R15 and source both of the inputs with a splitter. Regrettably, in my limited experience at setting up the internal destackers in the "DirecTV brandless receivers, the receiver is pretty slow to respond to my selection of "stacked" mode. I have now done this in three receivers, and in each case, the receiver failed the signal test right after I initially selected stacked, but after pecking away for a few minutes, it smartened up and found the 1,525Mhz to 2,025 Mhz even transponders.

But I digress...

 

[tengu79]

Menu, select settings, select setup, select satellite, select repeat satellite setup ... select the dish/sat that is selected although when you get to 'tuner' or sat1/sat2 uncheck sat 2 and you are all good. if you are in an MDU and cannot upgrade you dish (which is free with DTV) and have a 1 LNB that a splitter (sat ready) will work fine. if you are pulling from sat 99 or 119 then i assume you know the function of the multiswitch (sending the receiver the signal from the correct LNB).

 

[AntAltMike]

I think what happened at this busted installation is that the customer probably was pushing hard for the installer to find a way to run a second coax to her unit. As luck would have it, her kitchen is the only one of fifteen apartments on her floor in her wing that abuts the junction box, and she was hoping he would drill a hole in the back of the "D" box and then run a perimiter wire to the area where her receiver is. He probably was just looking for an excuse to get out of there.

When I showed up to do that for her, she had second thoughts about having this 200' wire running all over the place, so she instead paid me $300 to put in a Sonora microstacker. Good deal for both of us.

I left instructions for the installer to put the R15 in staacked LNB mode hen he returns