S9 losing signal

[baz007]

curiouser and curiouser......

I found an interesting fact on t'internet this morning, and it may be common knowledge, but I'd not come across it before.

Some LNB's aren't compatible with sky minidishes. turns out that due to the eliptical shape of a minidish, the internal horn of the LNB has to be eliptical too, in order to "catch" the rebounding signal from the box.

The new quad LNB I've been struggling with recently is, after I'd prised off the white cap, a round horn, and so will not be getting as much of a signal as it should (because the dish isn't round). I guess if someone is getting a strong signal it doesn't make any difference, but if I'm only getting a weak signal, then this could have been the reason the channels were cutting out.

Did I read somewhere that the Openbox now reports "No Signal!" if the strength is below 50%? Or did I dream that...!

I dug out the "other" quad LNB I'd tried as it's branded Sky, and I've now been getting most channels since 11am!



I know the dish is out of alignment because its as wonky as f*ck, but I was getting some channels with it at that angle!! So I'm going to persevere with the latest set up & will no doubt report back in again soon.

Glad you're getting progress with your situation. Please keep the thread updated as the signal loss seems to be common with the s10 nowadays. Cheers

[swanside]

curiouser and curiouser......

I found an interesting fact on t'internet this morning, and it may be common knowledge, but I'd not come across it before.

Some LNB's aren't compatible with sky minidishes. turns out that due to the eliptical shape of a minidish, the internal horn of the LNB has to be eliptical too, in order to "catch" the rebounding signal from the box.

The new quad LNB I've been struggling with recently is, after I'd prised off the white cap, a round horn, and so will not be getting as much of a signal as it should (because the dish isn't round). I guess if someone is getting a strong signal it doesn't make any difference, but if I'm only getting a weak signal, then this could have been the reason the channels were cutting out.

Did I read somewhere that the Openbox now reports "No Signal!" if the strength is below 50%? Or did I dream that...!

I dug out the "other" quad LNB I'd tried as it's branded Sky, and I've now been getting most channels since 11am!



I know the dish is out of alignment because its as wonky as f*ck, but I was getting some channels with it at that angle!! So I'm going to persevere with the latest set up & will no doubt report back in again soon.

Mate, Even on my forum, how many times have I said, Get a new dish with LNB!!

Here is a few for you.
80cm with LNB
80cm Satellite Dish High Gain Astra Hotbird Polsat Lnb | eBay

80cm with Motor and LNB
80cm BASIC MOTORISED SATELLITE DISH 1.2 MOTOR & 0.2 LNB | eBay

43cm Sky Dish
Latest MK4 Sky Satellite Mini Dish with Quad LNB | eBay

60cm Sky Dish
Zone 2 Sky Satellite Dish Quad LNB Freesat PVR HD Plus | eBay

If the box works OK on your mates, it should work OK on yours, and I am not dodging the question of returns either, just trying to help you out!!!
swanny.

[citygent1911]

Mate, Even on my forum, how many times have I said, Get a new dish with LNB!!

Here is a few for you.
80cm with LNB
80cm Satellite Dish High Gain Astra Hotbird Polsat Lnb | eBay

80cm with Motor and LNB
80cm BASIC MOTORISED SATELLITE DISH 1.2 MOTOR & 0.2 LNB | eBay

43cm Sky Dish
Latest MK4 Sky Satellite Mini Dish with Quad LNB | eBay

60cm Sky Dish
Zone 2 Sky Satellite Dish Quad LNB Freesat PVR HD Plus | eBay

If the box works OK on your mates, it should work OK on yours, and I am not dodging the question of returns either, just trying to help you out!!!
swanny.

I know, I know.... Wasn't ignoring your advice mate, but my Mrs was giving me grief about wasting money on it, so tried to do it as cheap as possible. Just shows - buy cheap, buy twice.....

I just figured that the dish is in perfect nick, and a new LNB would help.

Anyway, I left the box on all last night WITHOUT the cooling pad running, and this morning I've lost all channels again - everything is back to 45% / 10%, so it seems as though it was a combination of both.

My guess is this: The old LNB packed in for whatever reason (it was well over 9 years old). I bought a 2nd hand dish/lnb, which didn't improve things (sky dish with sky quad lnb) but the dish was dented, so rather than use that, I took the LNB/arm off it, and swapped them for the broken LNB/arm off my original dish (LNB was glued inside or something so couldn't get it out).

Received some channels, but not all, and they were breaking up frequently. Replaced cable - no difference.

Bought a brand new LNB and swapped it for the sky LNB - same situation.

Managed to get the old LNB out of the arm, so put the arm back with the right dish, and the brand new lnb - no difference.

Bought a 3-fan laptop cooling pad to run underneath Openbox in case it was overheating as reported elsewhere. This stopped the box losing signal, but was only receiving about 25% of channels.

Swapped the new LNB for the old Sky LNB - receiving all (well, most) channels - with cooling pad running had no problems for 12 hours.

turned cooling pad off overnight, and this morning - no signal.

My conclusion is that I've finally sorted out the mess of my dish/lnb combinations, and the dish now needs tweaking to get a decent signal for all channels again.

The Openbox is definitely overheating. I've switched it off this morning with the fan on to give it chance to cool down. I'm going to run it from 8am with the fan on continously to see how long it works.

[citygent1911]

Ok , another update.

Before I go buy a new dish/lnb, I thought I'd move the dish round the back of the house where there will definitely be no line of sight issues.

Did that a couple of days ago, but it was so windy I didn't bother aligning the dish.

Done it this morning, using the S9's signal meter as my guide, and set to SS1 HD which has been a tricky channel for me since these problems started back in August.

Obviously the box has been switched for a couple of days, so nopossible overheating issues to worry about.

I started at 10:08 this morning when the box was switched on, and at about 10:17 I had 87%/71% strength, which is brilliant for me.

I then went through channels, and I'm getting all movie channels, all kids channels and all sports channels. That'll do for me!!

Worst signal is 85% / 45%, but still a good picture, so not too worried.

Excellent -all channels being received loud & clear. Until now.

Over the last 10 minutes, SS1hd, SS2 hd & SS4hd have all gone (all 43%/10%), disney cine hd, sky prem +1, sky showcase hd, Csky classics hd, sky indie hd....you get the idea.

The strange thing is, they're all H polarised channels. All the V channels are still working at 71%.

Does this still suggest the dish/lnb/cable are to blame? And if so, why were all channels ok for 1 1/2 hours before anything went wrong?

EDIT: I just turned the LNB off, and straight back on using the S9 menu, and all the lost channels are back at 70%!! No doubt they'll go again, but I'm timing it again from 12:30.....EDIT: Yep, they all went before 14:35, so seem to last 1 1/2 to 2 hrs. No good if I'm watching a film!!

This is seriously wierd - I don't want to waste ?30 on another dish/lnb + cable if I don't have to - can hardly afford it anyway, but I need to get this sorted soon, cos I'm going mental!

Cheers CG

[nibblitz]

You got a multimeter? If you have, when the signals dropped, dont turn off your box, unplug the cable from the lnb, use your meter on the feed and test the voltage coming out of the box.. If it reads zero volts then I guess it should be proof that your box is faulty.. I believe you should read 13v & 18v for vertical & horizontal polarisation channels if the box is working as it should.. If as you said above you lost horizontal but verticals remained, then it could be the voltage controller failing to output 18v at that time... A meter testing the voltages on the feed will help identify this Im sure..

[citygent1911]

You got a multimeter? If you have, when the signals dropped, dont turn off your box, unplug the cable from the lnb, use your meter on the feed and test the voltage coming out of the box.. If it reads zero volts then I guess it should be proof that your box is faulty.. I believe you should read 13v & 18v for vertical & horizontal polarisation channels if the box is working as it should.. If as you said above you lost horizontal but verticals remained, then it could be the voltage controller failing to output 18v at that time... A meter testing the voltages on the feed will help identify this Im sure..

Thanks nibblitz, that sounds like a great idea! I can pick up a multimeter tomorrow - is this one ok?

Analogue Pocket Multimeter | Screwfix.com

Which "prong" on the multimeter do I use (or do I use both?!!)

Cheers pal

[nibblitz]

Thats not a lot of meter for the money, but it'll do the job, I prefer digital ones myself.. On that meter you would turn the dial to the right onto 50 and put the red probe on centre copper core, the black probe to outer core/sheath... Be careful you dont short the inner/outer when prodding about with your probes, that could really do damage to your box

[citygent1911]

Thanks mate, I know its a bit cheap & nasty but I don't need it for anything else and I'd like to get this nailed this weekend. Having said that, Maplin have this one UT30B Palm Sized Digital Multimeter : Multimeters : Maplin which is a bit cheaper but only cos its in sale!

Excellent advice, and hopefully it'll help establish if the box is playing up or whether its my dish setup.

[nibblitz]

I'd go for the maplin one myself... Good luck with it...

[citygent1911]

Well, that didn't prove anything!!! Or maybe it did?

When I got back from Maplin, I'd lost all H channels, and a lot of premium V channels. The interesting thing is, before I went out, I turned off the cooling pad. I was only out 2 hours, and when I got in the box was warm.

Used the multimeter as suggested, and the voltage was fine, and definitely switching when I changed from an H channel to a V channel.

I left the box switched on showing "No Signal!", and turned the cooling pad on. After a while, not sure how long as I wasn't watching it, the picture came back.

Any ideas?!

[smirnoff_rules]

sounds like a ~~~~ed tuner to me m8

[Dub12Dave]

citygent I have been following this for quite a while now and I have to agree with with smirnoff_rules I also think your tuner is knackered but I hope I'm wrong.

[hooley]

Ya, the tuner is crocked for sure.

[baz007]

Can't you return the box to the seller? or have you had it for a while now? Save up and get another box as it seems yours is faulty, maybe bad tuner as said above

[citygent1911]

Thanks everyone - you've all pretty much confirmed what I'd been hoping against!!

Having said that, I bought the box from one of the guys on the forum here, and he seems like a decent guy so should be ok for an exchange.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice getting this sorted (or not!). Will keep the thread updated to let you know the outcome.

Cheers