No signal from Satellite dish.. does it have a fuse or something that might have "blown"?

mrcheez

Had a bit of an issue at my junction box last week which resulted in all the plugs/lights buzzing and flashing sporadically for around an hour till the ESB came around to fix it.

Nothing got damaged that I can see, but for some reason my Freesat dish is no longer sending a signal to my box.

I power cycled the box just to be sure that wasn't the issue. The box seems ok and can still play all the recordings it has, but 0 signal coming through when I go to settings.

Makes me think perhaps something got blown in the dish itself?

Perfect timing with the World Cup n all!

L1011

It is more likely that the box is damaged; however the box does provide power to the LNB on the dish and if it did go significantly over-voltage, could blow that.

Borrow someone else's box first to check.

mrcheez

ah crapola... a big job so as the box and wires are a chore to access

Don't know anyone with a box.

Guess I'll have to look at it in the new year when I have more time

mrcheez

Mother of God.. I don't know how you did it @L1011 but you somehow magically got it working through some quantum consciousness mechanism!

I just turned it on to check if there were any "LNB power settings" and... well.. it's all working perfectly as if nothing had changed, despite being down for over a week up until 1 hour ago?!!?

L1011

Box could have protection circuitry that turned off the LNB power when the input power was unstable. Would be unlikely but...

mrcheez

the box might be on its last legs and perhaps the fluctuating current triggered it.

It's 8 years old.. HUMAX HDR 1000S

I know they don't make them anymore, but is it possible to source a replacement one anywhere?

The scheduling functionality doesn't seem to work any longer so it seems to be dying a slow death

Lorddrakul

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119960564#Comment_119960564

I dunno, I got a second had Vu+ Duo that's heading for 15 years old and it works just fine. Remarkably durable, these appliances.

andy1249

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119960564#Comment_119960564

I got 5 years out of mine , there is a known fault with this series of Humax boxes that stops the mainboard being able to recognise a hard drive.

It starts with scheduling problems , then no access to recordings , then no hard drive is recognised , etc. etc. A long lingering death , note that the box still works , just no recording facility , as no hard drive will work , there is nothing wrong with the actual hard drive , I pulled that out of the box and its been working fine in a PC ever since.

It is fixable , some tiny component on the mainboard needs to be replaced , but financially not worth it.

You would be better off replacing the box. Thats what I did.

Humax lost the contract for the freesat boxes , so these were discontinued years ago , and any unrepaired existing ones are very likely to have either already developed this fault or are very close to it.

The Cush

This happened mine last week, doesn't see the hard drive.

I see Digirepairs up in Fermanagh do a fixed fee repair for this issue. I'll probably look into it in the New Year.

mrcheez

Yeah I'd kinda like to keep the existing one.. just as it fits in so well into my entertainment centre (size and style-wise).

I'd pay whatever to get it fixed. So it'd be financially viable for me.

The scheduling thing has gone about a year for me, but the HDD still seems ok.. granted I only use the HDD once in a while since I got Kodi on FireTV so it's not terribly pressed at the moment.

I usually use it over Xmas though to record movies... hopefully Dune will be on BBC in HD

gazzer

new cable and connectors and connected it to the LNB (only 9 months old as I replaced it earlier in the year). Still cant get any signal.

 

The dish hasn’t moved, the LNB is in the correct place. I used the Satfinder app just to double check the dish was aligned properly and it is. I cant figure out what is wrong. I got number for 3 different satellite people to see if they had the time to come out to check it but none of them have gotten back to me.

 

Its not the end of the world but its annoying me now 😊 Is there anything I am missing in terms of some setting on the TV that I should check for. Both the box and TV are configured for Astra 28 so im at a loss.

 

Thanks

L1011

Box not sending LNB power, or a dead LNB again?

You should be getting 13 or 18 volts at the LNB

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120025250#Comment_120025250

So you've tried the sat finder at the dish end see if you get the same result connecting it in place of the main box at the end of the cable run. If nothing then you know its the cabling or connectors.

gazzer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120025262#Comment_120025262

Sorry. I should have clarified. Its just the app I used. I don't have a satellite meter gadget for connecting the cable to see if a signal shows.

gazzer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120025257#Comment_120025257

Even if the box was kapput I would have thought by connecting the cable to the TV directly from the dish that the channels would come up. Perhaps the LNB is faulty as you say.

The Continental Op

I'm not an installer but when people have dish issues locally I often get called, probably because I don't charge neighbours.

Biggest issue I find is the dish has moved, followed by cabling and connectors. If you have any spare cable to play with at either end of the run cut off about 15cm and remake the connections. If the shielding looks damaged (sometimes on cheap cable it can rot away to nothing near the ends) keep cutting back till you get to some good clean shielding to connect to.

LNB issues are fairly rare. People disconnecting stuff trying to fix it and reconnecting up the wrong connections is another issue.

mrcheez

My signal has gone again.. something makes me think a mouse nibbled away at the cable outside or something.

Will investigate in the new year as I'm busy now, but hella annoying considering this is the only time of year I actually make an effort to record movies :(

cnocbui

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120026323#Comment_120026323

I can highly recomend getting a Sat signal strength meter (finder). I got one in Lidl for €9 many years ago and it's €9 very well spent, as my dish gets blown out of alignment almost every year as I'm on an exposed hillside. Though you do need to comfortable accessing and fiddling with your dish.

The sat finder is powered by the box, so it will at least tell you if the cable is intact and if the LNB is getting power.

mrcheez

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120026385#Comment_120026385

interesting, might get one on Amazon

decor58

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120026385#Comment_120026385

I got one of those, probably about 20 years ago now, I don't know how many times it has been used by family and friends. Powercity sell something similar for 10euro, certainly worth having.

mrcheez

Just reading online about the HDR-1000S on Humax forums and a guy suggests that power-cycling the box might get it working again.

I did do this a few days ago.. left it off for 1 minute, but maybe that's not enough. Will try leaving it off for an hour... and if nothing maybe a full night :)

There was also a suggestion that water-ingress might be at fault, which does match the pattern of when these issues first started when the weather changed.

mrcheez

So I finally got around to checking out the satellite dish today. Cables didn't seem to be loose but I pushed the two cables into the satellite dish regardless...

and it worked!

Fml..must have been birds or something