Signal Weirdness

[eyeofthebeholder]

Hi,

We fitted an Octo-LNB (purchased from SatCure) a few months ago and run all the cabling ourself as part of a major electrical work we were having done.

We already have Sky and have been using it with one standard box. We got Sky out to fix a Sky+ box on Wednesday. On playing around with it, we found that the signal 2 wasn't showing anything and unlocked - even if we swapped the cables round on the box - it still showed signal 2 not working - ie the fault didn't follow the cable. Pulling the power seemed to cure the problem.

Just came home tonight and found a similar issue. This time Signal 1 had nothing and unlocked. I went to pull out signal 2 to swap them round again and found that when I pulled it out, signal 1 came on. Push cable 2 in and singal 1 goes off. Did this several times and the same thing. Another pulling of the power fixed the problem.

I have noticed other posts stating that some of their recordings do not work sometimes if they are trying to record at the same time etc. This might be a related issue??

Anyone else seen this?

Thanks

Adam.

[Smithy99]

Chances are you have a faulty receiver, you may need to get Sky back out to swap it.

[eyeofthebeholder]

Chances are you have a faulty receiver, you may need to get Sky back out to swap it.

I am kind of hoping this is the case, rather than the LNB.

Do LNB's go wrong often. If I call Sky, will they try and suggest it is the LNB instead?

Out of interest. The shielding/outer core. Does this carry any signal at all? If there is an inline connector on both cables and they are touching, will this case any problems?

[eyeofthebeholder]

Have now emailed Sky Support to see what they say.

I fear this is going to be a long drawn out problem :-/

[Smithy99]

Did the Sky engineer call for this fault, if so then he should come back and do whatever is needed to repair it or swap out whatever parts FOC, including the LNB. although it does sound more like a receiver fault.

Both the inner and outer core carry signal, they must be connected to work, if you have a couple of back to back inline f connectors this should not be a problem if fitted correctly.

I would ring them, eaiting for them to respond to a e-mail over this may never happen.

[eyeofthebeholder]

Hi,

Sky didn't come to look at the fault, they came to actually install the Sky+ box. All other cabling was in place and tested seperately.

The outer shielding I was asking about. I have two cables coming from the LNB to the lounge and both of them have inline connectors on them at the same point. So basically the shielding on both cables are touching. I can't see it being a problem - just a guess

I will call Sky today.

Thanks for your comments

Adam.

[Sam Radford]

You forgot to state the make and model number.
Sky plus model numbers

If it's a Thomson, my money's on the PSU capacitors. See
http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/page10.htm#miss

[eyeofthebeholder]

Hi,

The model number is: Amstrad 4F2117.

I think I may have found the problem though. I have plugged in my old Standard box into another Sat port in another room and the signal seems to be now up to normal again. When I turned off the LNB power on the standard box the signal went down again.

So I think the fact its an Octo LNB means it requires more power.

I've heard there may be a problem with ground potential differences?

Thanks

Adam.

[eyeofthebeholder]

OK - maybe that didn't work after all!

It seemed to be OK for awhile, but now it had dropped BBC2 first off and then the other channels. After a switch off and on BBC2 is still off, as well as BBC 3 and 4 (at a quick scan) - this with good signal (50-70%) on both ports.

I have checked the standard sky box and that is receiving BBC2 without problems.

Through all the testing I have done, the standard box has always had a near one full signal.

Phone call back to Sky me thinks for box replacement, unless anyone else has any ideas?

[eyeofthebeholder]

Had Sky out today to look at the problems and they have replaced the box with a Pace one instead.

Signal quality is a lot better - about 60% to 90% on both. Have tested recording two channels and all looks to be well at the moment

The engineer saw I had put silcone around the cables going into the LNB, and said that they do not put it on now as they found the cables start to rot after about 10 years. I though this was the reason to put the silcone on in the first place?