Tips from experienced installers please!?

[strunch]

I have been wanting to ask some experienced installers a few questions for awhile so here goes.

1. Is there a way to detect if a cable in a prewired home is going through a splitter or not using a multimeter or other magic tool?

2. Your method or a good way to find studs on various roofs.....there has to be something better then a hammer..some high tech device that will go through three layers of shingles or something.

3. Best tools and methods of determining line of sight. I seem to have trouble visualizing the exact space I need for a SuperDISH sometimes.

4. also have run into alot of problems with the electricity is some houses. Whats the best solution with houses that have reversed polarity or neutral ground issues....

and why did i get a huge jolt when i had one end of a cable coming from the dish in one hand and was about to hook it up to the receiver and i touched the outside of the receiver and got a massive shock that may have knocked off a few IQ points....or added?

Thanks for any help fellas

Smokey

 

[techdood]

That last one could have been RF interference, when a transmitter is located nearby installed home. Could have been prevented by properly grounding lead before it gets into the home. Telecommunications techs go thru that shock scenario many times before realizing the potential hazard. Some even etch their names onto tel-co poles using the floating conductor against the wood.
As for your other inquiries, detecting a splitter or switch could be as simple as making a "piezo" tone. One end has a battery and the other a "piezo" buzzer. If the known cable has no tone...then cable is either split off or open. Others might use an ohm meter, splitters show up as shorts if they have band passing properties.
Shooting birds using line of sight generalities, i don't know of a better tool than a compass with inclinometer. Hopefully this post will spark up answers to your inquiry.

 

[Cougar]

Some answers to your questions:

1. Easiest way I know to check for a splitter is to short one end of the cable and see what the resistance is on the other end. If something is in between, you will not see the short on the other end if it was showing a open before putting a short on it.

2. A good electronic stud finder should be able to handle this, though I have not done it myself. Some are able to work through concrete so shingles should be no problem.

3. Here is a link to look at some compass/inclinometer combinations. I have the Suunto SU-51. The Brunton model looks real nice also.

4. If the wiring in a house has reversed polarity it needs to be fixed at the source of the wiring error by a qualified electrician pronto. As you apparently found out the hard way what will happen. The case of the receiver was hot with respect to earth ground and the antenna end was probably tied to ground potential. You got in between the circuit and YEOWEE. A dangerious situation. The owner of the place should be notified of this immediately if this is really happening. Hopefully all the AC connections have polarity plugs on them so things are not connected the wrong way and causing this.

 

[CablerMN]

3. Don't have one, thought about getting one to "toy" around with:

http://www.alignasite.com/

 

[Wayd Wolf]

I have been wanting to ask some experienced installers a few questions for awhile so here goes.

1. Is there a way to detect if a cable in a prewired home is going through a splitter or not using a multimeter or other magic tool?

Not really. Some toners detect splitters as a short by beeping but some don't. Some splitters are self-terminating, some aren't.

2. Your method or a good way to find studs on various roofs.....there has to be something better then a hammer..some high tech device that will go through three layers of shingles or something.

You need one of those stud finders with the deep scan. Dish in-house (DNSC) uses them with a piece of corrugated cardboard right underneath on tar shingles and they can work just fine through ONE layer of shingles and ONE layer of roof cladding. If another layer of plywood and another layer of roofing has been laid over an older layer, you're out of luck.

3. Best tools and methods of determining line of sight. I seem to have trouble visualizing the exact space I need for a SuperDISH sometimes.

You need a combo inclinometer and compass such as that from Suunto. All professionals should have one and if anyone inducted you into the business without telling you this, I'd like to slap them. This is the most basic tool for DBS work.

4. also have run into alot of problems with the electricity is some houses. Whats the best solution with houses that have reversed polarity or neutral ground issues....

Don't do the install, tell the customer why, and tell them to have an electrician correct the problem before it can be done, and get out. NEVER install with unsafe electrical conditions.

and why did i get a huge jolt when i had one end of a cable coming from the dish in one hand and was about to hook it up to the receiver and i touched the outside of the receiver and got a massive shock that may have knocked off a few IQ points....or added?

Thanks for any help fellas

Dish Pro receivers put out 18VDC and slightly higher amperage than the old legacy units. If you short it accidentally, you might get a shock. Of course, if the dish was grounded correctly and there's a ground fault in the house, it might leak back to the receiver on the line and OUCH.

Also, many TVs tend to have ground faults and can shock your arse good. If you get a zap when hooking up coax to a TV, don't install to it.

 

[95yj]

You answered your own question regarding getting shocked. You said that you keep running into reversed polarity on the electrical. A three prong outlet has a hot (black), a common (white), and a ground (usually green.) The common and ground take two different paths to get to fundamentally the same point, so putting a voltmeter between the hot and common or hot and ground should both show about 120vac. The hot connection in the outlet is the small tip where the wider tip is the common. A lot of electrical devices take the common to the outside shell of the device, although this is usually done with devices that don't use a three prong plug. If the common is run to the case, but your household wiring is backwards and it is really the hot, touching the case while holding on to something that is grounded, like your RG6 will run 120vac through your body. Buy a $5 outlet tester and check all your outlets. If the outlets you are checking aren't grounded, use a grounded extension cord plugged into a properly wired outlet, then use a volt meter between the smaller prong on the outlet and the ground on the extension cord. If the outlet is properly wired, this test will show 120vac. However, if the common from the outlet (the large prong) and the ground on the extension cord shows voltage, the outlet is backwards or else you have a problem with your ground. Having the common and hot backwards is the mark of a very amature electrician and can be very dangerous. Running 120vac through your body is usually just startling and annoying, but under the wrong conditions it can kill you.