SWM question
- Thread starter johndsparks
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 68
- Views 7K
- Status
Feet. One of the reasons I put my PI behind my AV stack with IRD#1 was to get it far enough away. It's a good 20' to 25' (feet) of cable from there to the SWM-8. I'm still thinking you didn't power up your units in the right sequence though. Work just one SWM-8 at a time until you figure it out.
Why is it necessary to have 15' of cable between the PI and the SWM1 output?
As far as powerring up I should power up the board with the switches and 2 SWM8 then connect the cable to the receiver, plug it in and turn it on? Do this one receiver at a time?
As far as powerring up I should power up the board with the switches and 2 SWM8 then connect the cable to the receiver, plug it in and turn it on? Do this one receiver at a time?
I can't give you the engineering reason for the 15', it's buried somewhere in the instructions and threads about installing SWM-8 but it's there. As to powering up the system. Yes, power up the SWM-8's then plug in and turn on the receivers. One at a time works only because it was be hard to do them all at the same time. 
Plus I wanted to watch each one come up and start running before I went to the next just in case there was a problem. I already had the cable installed so I don't think that's an issue, just the power plug needs to be out until the SWM is powered up. Your HR22 should handle all of the settings for you though you do have to check to see if the receiver is set to dual tuners. I made that mistake on one of my HR20's and it took me awhile to figure out what I'd done wrong since I was only seeing one tuner. I'd been running that one DVR with just one tuner until I got SWM so it had set itself up that way. There's no selection for the SWM-8 on the receiver as the firmware in the SWM module takes care of that once the receiver is powered up.
Plus I wanted to watch each one come up and start running before I went to the next just in case there was a problem. I already had the cable installed so I don't think that's an issue, just the power plug needs to be out until the SWM is powered up. Your HR22 should handle all of the settings for you though you do have to check to see if the receiver is set to dual tuners. I made that mistake on one of my HR20's and it took me awhile to figure out what I'd done wrong since I was only seeing one tuner. I'd been running that one DVR with just one tuner until I got SWM so it had set itself up that way. There's no selection for the SWM-8 on the receiver as the firmware in the SWM module takes care of that once the receiver is powered up.
The PI (power inserter) does not have to be within 15'. More likely, 150'. For example, my PI is in my living room, the SWM-8 is in the attic and ther is about an 70' run between the two.
it has to be *at least* 15' away, not within 15'. The max distance between the PI and the LNB or switch is 100-150'
Ok I am going to put in a 25 ft run between each PI and SWM and let you know what happens.
Thanks again guys!
Thanks again guys!
Hmmmm just happened to have the paper work for the SWM-8 and the PI-29 at my desk this morning. No mention at all of a minimum distance (nor logically, can I think of a reason) between the two. The max distance is actually 200', irrespective of splitter use. I suppose too, it could be even farther away if the cable were high quality (you loose power due to cable resistance) or or was RG-11 instead of RG-6.
It's in the reviews (and even explained why) both here I think as well as the other DBS forums. People have had it working at less than 15'. It has to do with the wavelengths at some of the frequencies used by the SWM.
Might add that the instructions that come with the SWM-8 and PI, at least the ones I got, are pretty slim. If it weren't for the discussions here, threads on other DBS forums, and the DirecTV install guide it would have been difficult to install properly.
Ok guys one SWM working great. The other no signal out> I noticed that the working SWM is warmer than the one with no signal so I am going to start with trying the PI on the working SWM with the one with no signal. Then I guess I will try the SWM and then check the splitters last unless someone has a better idea?
Also can the SWM support 8 new tuners and 3 legacy or just 8 total? M legacy port doesn't seem to be working.
Also can the SWM support 8 new tuners and 3 legacy or just 8 total? M legacy port doesn't seem to be working.
Sounds like you might have a bad PI or SWM-8 on the module that's not warming up. Of course that's assuming you've got it connected properly and you've checked all the cables, splitters, etc. The SWM-8 doesn't get hot but it does get warm to the touch. On the legacy port question I can't help as I only use the SWM side but I thought/think the tuner count of 8 is only on the SWM output and that the legacy wasn't counted.
It's supposed to, I can only vouch for up to 2 legacy and 8 SWM tuners. Are you saying you get nothing out of all three of the legacy ports?
As I understand it, the SWM-8 can support a total of 8 tuners. If you used 2 legacy ports, you'd have 6 SWM connections left.
Regarding the SWM issues above, did you confirm the original PI was a PI-28?
PI-21 is for a SWM LNB.
Regarding the SWM issues above, did you confirm the original PI was a PI-28?
PI-21 is for a SWM LNB.
This is not true from my understanding. Even if you use the legacy ports you still have 8 SWM connections to use.
I went back and looked through DirecTV's install guide. It's pretty clear that the eight tuner count only applies to the SWM side and, in fact, a setup is diagrammed that clearly shows using all eight SWM channels and at least two of the legacy outputs.
JosephB - For future reference where do you get only a total of 10? The SWM-8 has three legacy out ports so I always assumed you could use all three. Are you saying if you use all of the legacy outs, which would account for three tuners, that you can only then support seven tuners on the SWM side? I'm not trying to be difficult but I don't see that anywhere in the written literature. Is that something folks have discovered from experience?
I'm sorry, I was wrong. You can support 8 total SWM tuners and 3 total legacy tuners for an absolute total of 11 tuners. Keep in mind that the legacy ports do NOT pass Ka signals, so you will not get 99/103 on the legacy ports (no HD)
The two SWM ports can only support 8 between them--think of them as a single SWM port with an internal splitter.
The two SWM ports can only support 8 between them--think of them as a single SWM port with an internal splitter.
- Status
Similar threads
