Dish 500 system will not see SW21

[David Taylor]

Interesting development. Got up first thing this morning and decided to run a temp cable from 508 to sw21. It recognized it and it all worked! I thought I'd try cable already in place once more to make sure I wasn't having a brain fart. It didn't work so I switched back to temp cable. Then IT wouldnt see the sw21! Grrrrr. Now it has been raining lightly the whole time. Could a little moisture affect it? I hooked it up to one LNB and brought the switch in to dry out. I'll try again later when everything is dry. Comments?

 

[garys]

Yes, if the coax wire gets wet it will interrupt the signal.

 

[David Taylor]

Tried it again with everything dried out. Maybe the new switch is bad. :-( lots of people are recommending a new LNB with the switch built in. Maybe I will go that route. The problem is that the house is hours away and I do t get there that often. I just hate to go through another iteration of guessing whe. It could be the receiver itself. May I had better try to replace both. What receiver should I get to replace the 508 if I dont want a DVR but want it to be compatible with the new technology?

 

[David Taylor]

Let me ask one question: if the 508 has problems with the switch because it can't send a certain freq signal any more will it still not work if I replace my Dish 500 LNBs with a unit that has the switch built in (so I don't need the sw21)?

 

[TheKrell]

I've been reading up on DiSEqC and it appears that it too uses a 22kHz tone generator, but in bursts with digital data encoded thereon. (I suspect my memory of 19kHz for legacy equipment is wrong.) So... I think it's a long shot to suppose that a new DPP twin would magically fix a problem in the receiver. It most certainly would fix a problem with two bad SW21s since you could no longer use them.

If I were you, I'd replace the SW21 and legacy dual LNBs with a single DPP twin. Then you're ready for your 512 if it turns out that the 508 went bad. I strongly recommend going for the free upgrade to a 512. You can't beat free.

 

[David Taylor]

I've been reading up on DiSEqC and it appears that it too uses a 22kHz tone generator, but in bursts with digital data encoded thereon. (I suspect my memory of 19kHz for legacy equipment is wrong.) So... I think it's a long shot to suppose that a new DPP twin would magically fix a problem in the receiver. It most certainly would fix a problem with two bad SW21s since you could no longer use them.

If I were you, I'd replace the SW21 and legacy dual LNBs with a single DPP twin. Then you're ready for your 512 if it turns out that the 508 went bad. I strongly recommend going for the free upgrade to a 512. You can't beat free.

That sounds like a pretty good plan. Thanks for the advice. I guess I'll see if I can find a twin on eBay. It'll mount right up to my existing Dish 500, eh?

 

[David Taylor]

Looking at DPP Twins on eBay. I see 2 ports plus a line in. Is the line in only for an extra dish (like if I was pointing to 129 or whatever that other sat is)? This means that I go from the port on the twin directly to the receiver right? Just making sure. Haven't installed a Dish in years. All the stuff at my house was done professionally.

 

[TheKrell]

Correct. A DPP twin has two outputs (which could feed two dual-tuner receivers), and one input port. You cable up your 508 directly to one of the output ports, do a Check Switch, and you're done. If you get a 512 or any other Dish dual tuner receiver, then you go direct from the DPP twin via a single cable to a separator (comes with duo receivers) and from there through two stubby coaxial cables to the two tuner inputs.

The input port is used for a wing dish, usually for 129, but it could be used for any other sat that you don't already get with a twin, e.g. 118.5 or something from EA. If you do use the input port for a wing dish, the only thing it will accept is a DishPro (bandstacked) LNB, not the legacy duals that you have now! You can't mix legacy switches and LNBs with DishPro equipment.