Switchs and signal loss

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drhydro

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Oct 19, 2004
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Picked up some multi switchs and some diseqc switchs for setting up all my stationary dishs and multiple recievers. I meant to get 4x4 switchs but screwed up and got 3x4 switchs. Oh well, they will still work lol. Below is a pic of how it is set up. Everything works well, but I am having a problem with signal loss. For most tp's it is not a problem, but on g10 11720 it is a bad problem.

Here are some sq readings with various switchs installed/ not installed.

straight from lnb to reciever-~50%sq
lnb-diseqc- reciever- ~35%sq
lnb-4x3 switch- reciever~35%sq
lnb-4x3 switch-diseqc switch-reciever- 17-20%sq

Anyone have any idea what i can do to get rid of some of this signal loss?
 

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Doc
I havent heard of 4x3 switches. I know of 3x4 (2 inputs and a OTA). I assume you are doing the "one LNB is H and one is V mixed together in a multiswitch" like I have in my setup?
G4 H
G10 V
Nimiq1 V
SBS6 H together in a 4x4 multiswitch
 
You could try one of those inline amplifiers that give 8-10db gain. I have played around with one and it does boost the signal and does not affect the quality.I have looked at it on a spectrum analyzer as well and will also raise the whole noise floor but the signal ramains proportional, guess its good if the signal is at receiver threshold of -65dbm or less and put it in the usable range.

Dave
 
Iceberg said:
Doc
I havent heard of 4x3 switches. I know of 3x4 (2 inputs and a OTA). I assume you are doing the "one LNB is H and one is V mixed together in a multiswitch" like I have in my setup?
G4 H
G10 V
Nimiq1 V
SBS6 H together in a 4x4 multiswitch
Yes, I meant 3x4 switchs, same as the ones you have.
 
This is getting wierder and wierder. Apparently the diseqc switchs i picked up do NOT play well with multiswitchs. I have blown ports on all 4 switchs i just picked up. Off course I am remembering to power down every reciever in the system before doing any changes. The funny thing is the one older Pansat diseqc switch i had laying around is working fine, no problems at all. I guess I am going to have to get some higher quality diseqc switches, any recommendations folks?
 
I have had one DMSi DiSEqC switch for the past two years, its open to the elements and works perfectly!
 
Not sure why I am having problems with these diseqc switchs, but I am. Could it be i have a bad multiswitch that is blowing ports on the diseqc switches?
 
My apologies for being off topic :D

Dr Hydro are your dishes grouped together? I would like to see a picture of all that hardware if possible.
 
LordAlex said:
My apologies for being off topic :D

Dr Hydro are your dishes grouped together? I would like to see a picture of all that hardware if possible.
As soon as I get the glitches figured out, pics will be coming of the switch setup. My dishs are all over the place, 4 on the roof (ku band), one on the side of the of the house and one in the woods (c band). Still trying to figure out where to put the 48" p* I picked up a few months ago :)
 
k, here are some dish pics. the dish pointed at 91 isnt visible, sorry no cam here to take a pic of it.
 

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Dr., great pics! How far is the cable run in from your C-band in the woods? Looks like you're set up well to pick up multiple satellites simultaneously :)
 
Dr., great pics! How far is the cable run in from your C-band in the woods?
The cable run to my 6' dish is about 100 feet. Although you cant see it in the pic, that dish looks down a power line "cut", I wont ever have to worry about trees growing in the way. Luckily I only want one sat with that dish, its LOS is pretty limited, i would guess from 87 to 101 degrees. Of course if I ever need a better line of site I have a "FTA hobbiests best friend", otherwise known as a chainsaw :D
 
Ok, I figured out part of the problem. Seems as if I have a bad multiswitch, whenever I hit a sat on that switch I burn out a diseqc port. Bummer.

Also it seems as if the switches get kind of confused as to which receiver is supplying power to the LNBs. If i have two recievers on the same LNB, when I turn the first reciever tuned to that lnb off, I lose signal on the second reciever. Also the switching is kind of sporadic, most of the time it works, but some times it doesnt. When it doesnt work, sometimes changing to a different lnb and then back will bring in the signal. Things that make ya go hmmmmmmmmmmm lol
 
Pic of switch setup

Here is a pic of my switch setup. Right now I only have 3 multi switches and 3 diseqc switches with a total of 5 LNBs hooked up. As soon as I can grab some more f connectors, another diseqc switch and another multiswitch I will have the whole system up. I am holding off on ordering more switches until I get the bugs figured out lol.
 

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Hey Iceberg,
Still going nuts trying to figure this out. I am having problems consistantly getting signal to all recievers, all the time. It seems as if the 4x3 switchs are having a problem properly selecting the lnb power source.

For example:
Tune master bedroom tv to pbs- good signal
tune front room tv to pbs-good signal
change master bedroom to g10- loose signal on pbs in front room

another example:
tune front room tv to nasa- good signal
tune kids room tv to nasa- good signal
tune front room to g10- loose signal to nasa in kids room

I am starting to think that the 4x3 switches are not going to work properly in this application, and that I should grab some 4x4's like you and I were originally discussing. What do you think?

I hate to go ahead and custom cut all the cables to length etc to finish the install untill I have all the problems figured out. The pic i put up earlier is still my "test setup" to be cleaned up when i am all done.
 
shoot Doc. I dont know what to tell you. It looked good on paper :)

I can try my setup in the next couple days and see if it reacts differently. I dont have any diseqc switches in my setup. Just a 4x4 multiswitch...and that works great :)
 
Iceberg said:
shoot Doc. I dont know what to tell you. It looked good on paper :)

Your right, it should work the way you had it laid out. Your drawings make perfect sense to me and things should work that way. I might have screwed up when i used 4x3's.

I subbed the 4x3s for the 4x4's when i realized i had screwed up and ordered the wrong switches (meant to order 2- 4x4s and instead ordered 2- 4x3's). Since I had a couple of 4x3s laying around :) thought i would try that route as it would still give me a total of 8 lnbs to use.

I think I am going to grab some different switches and give it another try. I see some of the switches out there do "power injection" should i try those and dc blocks instead?

Also, with the 4x4 switches, is the 22 khz tone used?
 
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