Satworks 3618 Coax Port

[Diamond Jim]

The purpose of this thread is to warn Satworks 3618 owners that the out to TV coax port is very flimsy. They only thing securing it is the wire sodered to the port and the port its self sodered to the frame. If the port starts to rotate in a complete circle, the soder has come loose from the frame and you will loose video, since that is the ground for the port. This has happened to mine twice. The first time I just sodered the port back to the frame. This time the whole port came off so I went and bought a new one. Soddering the new part on was no picnic, it is very hard to get to, I spent right at 3 hours doing it.

I will admit I had a case of dumb ass the last 2 hours. I couldn't get it to work, so I kept taking it off and putting it back on, with no results. I then realized that it has a channel 3/4 button on the back. When I took the unit apart I hit the button to channel 4. I switched it back to channel 3 and everything was fine. So I had it right all of the time. Sheeeeeeeese.

Anyway, I just wanted to let people know that there is a potential problem with the unit.

 

[drhydro]

Thanks for the heads up Jim, I will be very carefull with mine.

 

[Mr Tony]

Jim
I wonder if thats part of the issue on mine. When I use btoh rca & coax out the picture looks like crap and is really dark

 

[drhydro]

I would check that first Iceberg, the pic quality i get out of the coax and RCA is excellant.

 

[Diamond Jim]

When this happens the screen goes to snow on the coax TVs, perfect video with the RCA hook ups. Let me check with my satellite guy and ask him if he knows what is making the picture dark. The video was kind of dark with heavy color on the QS 1080 so I just knocked the color down and raised the brightness on the TVs. Looks fine to me.

 

[Mr Tony]

nah it aint that. All my other boxes work fine

The picture will flicker (on the RCA plugs) and go really dark

 

[Diamond Jim]

Man, I don't know. When the port went out, I still had great video on the RCAs.

 

[Diamond Jim]

Well, it happened again. Once the port comes off you can't get it back on as secure as it was from the factory. The weight of the cable hanging on to it will pull it off. This time I couldn't fix it, tried for about 3 hours again, no case of dumbass this time, the wire that it connects to came off the board and I couldn't find the connection. I need it run with coax so I can watch stuff in the garage, so I picked up a channel 3/4 modulater, plugged the RCAs into it and everything is fine. I got one at the store, $19.95, employee discount, $10.13. Beats a couple of hundred for a new receiver.

 

[partyharty]

Well, it happened again. Once the port comes off you can't get it back on as secure as it was from the factory. The weight of the cable hanging on to it will pull it off. This time I couldn't fix it, tried for about 3 hours again, no case of dumbass this time, the wire that it connects to came off the board and I couldn't find the connection. I need it run with coax so I can watch stuff in the garage, so I picked up a channel 3/4 modulater, plugged the RCAs into it and everything is fine. I got one at the store, $19.95, employee discount, $10.13. Beats a couple of hundred for a new receiver.

Unfortunatly mine did the same thing today, only instead of the Coax out port (which would not have been that big of a deal) the LNB in port came off .

So that means no workie until I break out the soldering iron.

I have gotten the thing apart and all I need to do is go to the store and buy some electronic solder (all I have is the huge general solder and it wont work on this connection), Then after I get the electrical connection repaired I am going to either take a small piece of plexi (to put between the coax ports and the back of the frame, should help stiffen it up a bit) or I am going to just super glue the ports to the back of the frame.

It was made somewhat cheaply because the only thing holding the solder point on mine was the coax nut. If the nut came loose then it allowed the entire port to spin (until the connection was broken and the port fell out).

I have noticed that my loop out port is getting ready to go also so I need to fix it also (ASAP). Because its going to be a pain if one of the bottom ports go (like the tv out :up

Oh well, at least it looks to be a quick fix.

Chris

 

[Diamond Jim]

What surprised me was that there was no support behind the back of the receiver. When you screwed the nut on the port, instead of thighting it to the back all it did was pull the port away from where it was sodered. That's the reason it keeps coming off. I wished I would have thought of super glue the first time. I figure that if the LNB port comes off that will give me a good reason to buy a new receiver .

 

[partyharty]

I hope the super glue will help it to stay on like it should. I am considering leaving the nut off of it and putting a bead of solder (on both sides of the backplain) to hold it to the backplain (with the added superglue of course). I noticed what you were talking about (the nut pulls the port out of the tuner setup when it's tightenend). Thats crazy.

I am hoping to get this going good because I am trying to wait to buy another receiver for a while (since I have had this one for about a month now :>)
Although that traxis 3500 is looking pretty good........

c-ya
Chris

 

[rainmaker]

forget the super glue use jb weld it will hold anything.

 

[partyharty]

forget the super glue use jb weld it will hold anything.

Great Idea, That sounds a bit more permanent than the superglue would be. I think thats what I am going to use (I have some in the tool box also). I cant believe that I didnt think of that.

c-ya
Chris

 

[Tron]

Epoxy shoud also do the trick (or is that what JB weld is?)

 

[rainmaker]

yeah jb weld is a 2 part epoxy. fixed a boat motor cyl head with it once. this stuff is tough.

 

[Diamond Jim]

I am considering leaving the nut off of it and putting a bead of solder (on both sides of the backplain) to hold it to the backplain (with the added superglue of course).

I tried that (without the super glue) and all I managed to do was get the solder all over the place, make the hole smaller and the port wouldn't fit. I spent most of the time trying to get the hole cleaned out. I just found out about these channel 3/4 modulators or I would have gone that route the first time it happened. Much to my surprise the video is just as good or if not better going through the modulator than it was straight form the port. I am satisfied.

 

[partyharty]

Well I fixed it tonight, I took the backplane off, applied quicksteel (think JB Weld in a putty form) on both sides of the backplane. When that hardened I put 2 part epoxy over the top of it. I dont think I will ever have this problem with any of the coax ports ever again (I went ahead and did this to all 4). Of course by that same token I dont believe I will ever get the backplane off of it again either (unless I get REALLY creative with a dremel).

Diamond Jim I wish I had read where you said the solder didnt work before I tried it. I ended up with solder all over the place. I would get it to stick and then it would come back off with the slightest touch. So I took the route above.

The biggest problem I had was soldering the pin back to the connector. It took a few minutes (and I screwed it up a couple of times and had to unsolder/resolder the connection). I just didnt have much clearance to work the solder and the iron. In the end though it worked out pretty well.

My wife just rolls her eyes when I break out the soldering iron (esp. since many of our friends dont have a clue as to what a soldering iron is). Tonight was no exception to this.

And for the results, it added 4-10 points (depending on the TP) to the signal quality. I am guessing it has been ready to go (or pretty close) for quite a while now.

So I guess no new receiver for me (unless I win the contest) :>

c-ya
Chris