Multiswitch Question

[mgill]

Hello,

I have a Zinwell WB68 in my attic with four signals coming in and seven going out. I just installed a multimedia cabinet in a room upstairs in my house and when I moved the WB68 this afternoon to the box it stopped working. Moving it back to the attic (it still works up there) proves that the WB68 is not faulty, so Ive done something I dont understand.

The multimedia cabniet is almost directly below the location of the WB68 in the attic. I cut a bunch of RG6 cable runs, each 8ft, and used those runs to get the singals down the wall and into the box. There are two things different for the WB68 when its in the multimedia box:

1. An additional 16 ft added to the overall run of the cabling (in and then out) and
2. All runs are connected to the connectors in the attic with Perfect Signal double female connectors

So why wouldnt this work? Are the double female connectors disruptive enough to stop the WB68 from working? I can join the cables directly to each other in the box and get individual receivers to work so the signal is getting there.

Should I be upgrading to a powered switch to aleviate this problem?

Any grand ideas what is happening to me here? The set ups seemed so similar I figured this would be a no brainer but I'm stumped.

mark

[veryoldschool]

Hello,

I have a Zinwell WB68 in my attic with four signals coming in and seven going out. I just installed a multimedia cabinet in a room upstairs in my house and when I moved the WB68 this afternoon to the box it stopped working. Moving it back to the attic (it still works up there) proves that the WB68 is not faulty, so Ive done something I dont understand.

The multimedia cabniet is almost directly below the location of the WB68 in the attic. I cut a bunch of RG6 cable runs, each 8ft, and used those runs to get the singals down the wall and into the box. There are two things different for the WB68 when its in the multimedia box:

1. An additional 16 ft added to the overall run of the cabling (in and then out) and
2. All runs are connected to the connectors in the attic with Perfect Signal double female connectors

So why wouldnt this work? Are the double female connectors disruptive enough to stop the WB68 from working? I can join the cables directly to each other in the box and get individual receivers to work so the signal is getting there.

Should I be upgrading to a powered switch to aleviate this problem?

Any grand ideas what is happening to me here? The set ups seemed so similar I figured this would be a no brainer but I'm stumped.

mark
[Dumb question] Have you mixed up the four feeds from the dish with the outputs from the receivers?
Adding 8' of cable to each feed/run from the dish with "barrels", should have "zero" effect on how the WB68 functions.
If the 8' cable "jumpers" are defective, then this would give you problems.
Are all outputs from the WB68 dead?
Can you get any signals from any SAT/transponders?
From what you've posted [so far], the questions above seem to be where you need to look.
Recheck your work and post back here.

[carl6]

Double check all of your connectors, make sure you don't have a single thread of shield touching the center conductor someplace. Easy problem to have, hard to find.

Carl

[David MacLeod]

Double check all of your connectors, make sure you don't have a single thread of shield touching the center conductor someplace. Easy problem to have, hard to find.

Carl

lol, very hard to find. I had one with bad center. pita!

[Grentz]

That's why it is always good to test cables one by one as you finish them! ;)

I just use a small TV connected to a wall jack and patch in new cables to check them.

[mgill]

Ok, I must update my process to test before I pull new lines. Thank goodness I pulled an extra line!

I'm back to a working state, although I'm still a bit puzzled as to what happened.

I was able to narrow my problem down to 2 of the 4 input lines into the multiswitch. They just plain wouldnt carry the signal. I assumed that my connectors were shorting but I redid both ends on both lines and that didnt fix the problem.

What really puzzles me is that my all my RG6 pulls were double line wire from a 1000ft spool and the line has been extrememly reliable through the first 500ft or so. Somewhere in two of the lines on the input side of the multiswitch something broke the line. Its amazing to me that the two lines that broke were both one line of a double and they were both on the input side of the switch out of the 14 total that I pulled.

I can only guess that it was something in the way I pulled the lines down into the wall - but who knows!

Thanks to all for the guesses and the encouragement. Other than my two dead lines running to my box everything appears to be working now!

mark:sure: