[garnold56]

I have the Winegard Trav'ler SK-SWM3 for DirecTV. All parts of the dish work great but the ODU will not pass signal through the circuit. I am looking for a replacement ODU. Winegard does not support this product that is only 6 years old. They have no ODU's and do not plan on making any. Is there a source for replacement or repair?
Thanks, Gary Arnold

 

[west99999]

All you need is an LNB. There are no other parts of the dish that pass signal.

 

[harsh]

In order to aim, the Trav'ler uses the LNB to dial itself in and that won't work if the LNB is bad. If the Trav'ler is going through its aiming routine and ends up pointing the in the right direction, the problem is probably not with the ODU but rather with the cabling between the Trav'ler and the receiver(s). Specifically what error indication(s) are you getting?

 

[garnold56]

Dish finds satellites. No signal to tuner.
If I bypassing the ODU by connecting the In and Out coax together signal is good.
I removed the ODU board and I can see one component is burnt (black and broken)

 

[harsh]

Dish finds satellites. No signal to tuner.

That's both good and bad. Good because the LNB is working. Bad because the problem is going to be difficult to fix.

I removed the ODU board and I can see one component is burnt (black and broken)

Know any good electronics repair technicians? This may be your only hope of not having to replace the board (since the dish won't aim without it being in the loop).

Can you identify what the charred component was (i.e. capacitor or chip)?

 

[P Smith]

I can see one component is burnt (black and broken)

Can we see it on good picture made by you ?

 

[garnold56]

Here is the burnt chip. You can see it on first picture bottom center. Second picture is entire board.

 

[detuch254]

Yep, that would have done it. Definitely not the easiest thing to fix as a DIY’er (if you are one). I suggest, unless you feel comfortable trying to fix the issue, that you consult a pro or see if you can get a replacement board on eBay or elsewhere. I’m sure they resell those boards for around $150. Obviously, though, this $150 is just my guess based on the Winegard boards I’ve bought in the past to replace other similar units.

 

[P Smith]

U1801 ..umm, need to know what it is, then find a reason of its burning. Tough case, I would find good one and (if no schematics available) and check components around the chip

 

[harsh]

Maybe you can convince Winegard to tell you what U1801 should be (since it is burnt beyond recognition). Surface mount ICs can be tricky to replace if you don't have the appropriate tools and experience (and you would know if you did). Otherwise, it is probably better to have someone repair it for you. The cost will likely be whatever the technician's minimum charge is plus the cost of the IC (probably pretty cheap -- perhaps some sort of voltage regulator). It may be the same kind of component as U1804.

 

[P Smith]

But first he needs to find a reason. If there is still burned other component, then replacing U1801 will end up same way.

 

[harsh]

But first he needs to find a reason. If there is still burned other component, then replacing U1801 will end up same way.

Regardless of when you replace the IC in the repair process, you're ultimately going to need to know what the device is. With any luck, that's only a phone call away and doesn't require picking up any probes.

If you don't know what the device is, how do you know where to start your diagnostics? Having the pinout of the IC is likely to save a lot of backtracking and guessing which pin does what.

It is not unlikely that the cause was external to the box (i.e. an overvoltage condition being too much for a regulator to handle) and cannot be identified by reverse engineering the entire circuit board.

 

[old eng]

I had the same problem and there is a easy work around for it. If I understood from your post when assembled the dish will search and lock on to the satelittes. If this is the case. All you need to do is use a splitter on the line from the LNB. One would be towards the ODU board and the other port goes to the line down to your receiver.

There is two ways to do this. One is external on the turret using one of the other two ports. This sends the signal through the mechanism and out. I opted to do it internally. I put double side adhesive on a two way splitter placing it on top of the ODU board internally.

Either method make sure you use the DC Passthrough port for your receiver line.
I hope this is helpful.

 

[harsh]

All you need to do is use a splitter on the line from the LNB.

Assuming that the splitter is installed appropriately (with the power-passing side connected to the box), this sounds like a great workaround in principle.

 

[garnold56]

Thanks to old eng post #13.
As you described, I was able to install a splitter under the turret. This router the signal around the ODU and now everything works GREAT!