PDA

View Full Version : one of my D11s pixelates or loses signal

BecTech
11-11-06, 05:02 PM
I have 3 D11's with normal round dish. For some reason, I continue to have inconsistent signal problems with only one of them.

Last week with a whole day of rain I totally lost signal on this one (0%).. even a reset would not bring it back. But the other 2 receivers ran fine that day (80-90% signal strength. The receiver finally just started working later that night so I chalked it up to the rain.

cut to a couple of days later.. sunshine, clear skies.. 1st this receiver starts glitching like you would see with rain fade. Finally it cuts out altogether. After the 2nd reset it finally came back.

To add to the mystery.. the next day my wife plugged in a portable space heater in the next room while I was watching TV, the receiver immediately started pixelating and glitching - turn off the heater, glitching stops. (they are on the same circuit in the house (bedroom and master bath).

I was wondering if anyone has had any symptoms like this before. It seems like a power draw is affecting the power output of the receiver ?? The receiver drives the power to the lnb correct ? I'm trying to figure out my options here. The receiver has always been plugged into a surge protector (Monster) but I'm wondering if maybe I need to get some kind of UPS to try to stabilize the power fluctuation on this circuit ? or at least some kind of coax surge protector ?

Any theories or suggestions ?
thanks

Bec
Jhon69
11-11-06, 07:55 PM
Since you have 3 suggest switching receivers to trouble shoot your problem.If after switching you still have the problem it would point to bad connections or coax.If the receiver you were having problems with is still having problems it could
be the receiver.Good Luck!:)
BecTech
11-19-06, 08:28 PM
just an update on the situation in case anyone has this type of problem. I've never seen these particular symptoms but I was able to figure out the problem.

The problem is the power draw and subsequent voltage drop on that particular circuit in my bedroom. I connected a multimeter to the outlet and started measuring as I turned things on.
With nothing turned on it was reading around 117 V
Then I started turning other lights on.. masterbath light/fan - down to 115v
2 lights in adjacent regular bathroom - down to 112 v
Then the directv receiver and tv, and a couple more lights in the bedroom - down to 110 v

When I turned on the hair dryer in one of the bathrooms it went down to 108 V and the receiver started to crap out (pixelating/losing signal). Turn off hair dryer -> back up to 110 and the receiver started acting normal again. I'm not really in the mood to open up the walls and re-wiring so instead I bought an APC UPS to plug the receiver, tv, dvd player and my dvr. The battery backup (for receiver and dvr) maintains a steady 115V.. everything has been fine since then (even with the hair dryer turned on) :)

Bec
litzdog911
11-20-06, 12:47 AM
Nice troubleshooting! Thanks for the followup.
rirwin1983
11-20-06, 11:48 AM
i wold of checked to see if the reciever in that room's line/feed was hooked up to the first port of the multiswitch (if one is in this setup) and just moved it to another port and take the one from tat and put it in port 1. could be because the reciever in that room was on port one that it was powering the lnb, but when all the outher stuff was powered on that circuit, that it could still power it for the outher 2 ird's it couldent pull a strong enought signal to not pixilate itself.
BecTech
11-21-06, 09:05 PM
i wold of checked to see if the reciever in that room's line/feed was hooked up to the first port of the multiswitch (if one is in this setup) and just moved it to another port and take the one from tat and put it in port 1. could be because the reciever in that room was on port one that it was powering the lnb, but when all the outher stuff was powered on that circuit, that it could still power it for the outher 2 ird's it couldent pull a strong enought signal to not pixilate itself.

Yes, there is a multiswitch (Zinwell 3x4) in my setup
So your saying the the receiver connected to port 1 on the multiswitch is the one responsible for powering the entire lnb ? really ? I'll take a look just for kicks. I had wanted to get a battery backup for that receiver anyway so it's no huge deal.

Bec