For all those out there who are trying to hook up a satellite in the bedroom, I have some info to look at. The COAX diagram is posted on the forum, and was somewhat accurate. Well, maybe around 50% accurate.
I have had the satellite in the living area for a while now, you can read about hooking it up here. We finally set up satellite in the bedroom. We have a 2011 Cyclone 3950. There was backing for a tv mount in the entertainment area (verified prior to install by removing the 110V outlet to verify. We mounted it, and hooked up the satellite to the 'satellite' connection via coax. I then took the satellite signal finder to find the correct hookup outside. Amazingly enough, the satellite finder seems to be more useful for troubleshooting the Cyclone's Coax system than it is for finding satellite signals.
So, when the signal finder was hooked up to either the second satellite connection outside or the cable, there was no connection to the receiver. (The signal finder is powered by the receiver the same as the dish is powered by the receiver, so you can tell if you are connected to the receiver by hooking up the signal finder.) So, the next step was to pull the cable connection out of the entertainment area in the bedroom.
Amazingly enough, there was nothing connected to the 'satellite' connection. Great, another thing that isn't hooked up from the Cyclone factory. So, I looked back at the coax diagram from this forum. I have no idea how it makes sense to have the second 'satellite' connection in the docking station go to 'roof prep', but I figured there must be more to this than the diagram indicates. So, I started tracing coax lines. Here is what I found:
From back to front in the docking station:
The first satellite connection goes to the top coax connection in the living area entertainment station. Useful!
The second satellite connection goes to the other side of pass-through storage where you can hook up a tv to use outside. Sounds great if you spend a lot of time at NASCAR races and want to hook up the satellite. However, if you do spend a lot of time at NASCAR races and wanted to hook up a tv outside to a satellite receiver, you can run a line directly from the satellite to the receiver making it ABSOLUTELY USELESS to have a satellite connection from one side of pass-through storage to the other. Here's a better use...HOOK UP THE SECOND SATELLITE CONNECTION TO THE BEDROOM!!!
The cable connection goes to the bedroom where you will find 3 coax cables hooked up to the antenna amplifier. For me, it was in the TV1 position. Only useful if you are at a park with cable. Also useful because this is how I solved my problem.
To get the receiver hooked up in the bedroom, I removed the line from TV1 on the amplifier (cable in docking station) and simply hooked it up to the satellite connection on on below the antenna connection. Works great! Simply hook up the second line to the satellite dish and now I can watch True Blood while the kids watch Nick JR!
Hope this helps.
Welcome to the Trailerhood!
Showing posts with label Satellite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Satellite. Show all posts
Friday, August 27, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Where are the Satellites?!?!
We finally have satellite at the campground after what seemed to be months of the same DVDs and Blu-Ray. Among the most repetitive were Hercules and Tom & Jerry. There were a few lessons learned in setting it up.
We had all the equipment from the house but needed a stand for the dish. So we went to Camping World on a trip to visit family to grab a few things. We went with the Winegard Tripod Mount & Carry Bag (Item # 26276).
Upon our return, I purchased a 50’ length of rf cable and went to work. The first thing that was very helpful was the lack of information in the owner’s manual for the Cyclone. You’ll probably start to see that phrase used a lot. After running the cable and speculating which of the two satellite connections I should use, I turned the system on. Nothing magical and no signal either. I placed most of the blame on the lack of quality in the compass with the satellite stand. I also thought that the problem could be that I was connected to the wrong spot. Drenched in sweat due to the rediculous mid-south heat that seems to be here to stay, it was time to wait until the next day.
Fortunately, Heartland must have recognized that there was a large demand for more information than they provide in their owner’s manuals and posted the diagram for the cable/satellite system on their forum. So, I had originally guessed correctly and was now concerned that the connections may not have been made simliar to the water heater issue that I'll write about some day. There was still a possibility that my ‘eyeballing’ the other satellites in the park to align mine may not be the best method. There was also a tree line that could be causing the problem.
So, I tried three separate dishes with no luck. The problem couldn’t be with the dish. I even bought a little satellite signal detector which I thought would help, but it didn’t do much.
I randomly found a signal and decided to try to better tune it. The speakers in the garage and the set outdoors helped a lot in this. I was able to hone in on a signal from quite a distance while defeaning Katie with constant pinging for a signal. No matter where I went, I just couldn’t get more than 8 transponders out of 32 and that wasn’t cutting it. I tried positioning the dish everywhere that the 50' of cable would allow, even on top of the camper. That one got a funny look from a few campers across the road. I'm always glad to provide a laugh for someone. I bet they thought I was going to set my dish up there and leave it.
Just when I was about to give up, I tried one more time directly connecting the dish to the receiver. With the pinging piercing through Katie's head, I searched in the direction where I knew there were no satellites. BOOM! How is this possible? I had great signal and I’m the only one in the park pointing that direction. It didn’t matter, it worked. I moved the dish and set it up out of the way.
So, now we have officially supplemented our daily dose of Hercules and Tom & Jerry with a little bit of SpongeBob and Wonder Pets. It’s nice to occasionally sneak in some Discovery Channel and perhaps an episode of True Blood.
-Steve
We had all the equipment from the house but needed a stand for the dish. So we went to Camping World on a trip to visit family to grab a few things. We went with the Winegard Tripod Mount & Carry Bag (Item # 26276).
Upon our return, I purchased a 50’ length of rf cable and went to work. The first thing that was very helpful was the lack of information in the owner’s manual for the Cyclone. You’ll probably start to see that phrase used a lot. After running the cable and speculating which of the two satellite connections I should use, I turned the system on. Nothing magical and no signal either. I placed most of the blame on the lack of quality in the compass with the satellite stand. I also thought that the problem could be that I was connected to the wrong spot. Drenched in sweat due to the rediculous mid-south heat that seems to be here to stay, it was time to wait until the next day.
Fortunately, Heartland must have recognized that there was a large demand for more information than they provide in their owner’s manuals and posted the diagram for the cable/satellite system on their forum. So, I had originally guessed correctly and was now concerned that the connections may not have been made simliar to the water heater issue that I'll write about some day. There was still a possibility that my ‘eyeballing’ the other satellites in the park to align mine may not be the best method. There was also a tree line that could be causing the problem.
So, I tried three separate dishes with no luck. The problem couldn’t be with the dish. I even bought a little satellite signal detector which I thought would help, but it didn’t do much.
I randomly found a signal and decided to try to better tune it. The speakers in the garage and the set outdoors helped a lot in this. I was able to hone in on a signal from quite a distance while defeaning Katie with constant pinging for a signal. No matter where I went, I just couldn’t get more than 8 transponders out of 32 and that wasn’t cutting it. I tried positioning the dish everywhere that the 50' of cable would allow, even on top of the camper. That one got a funny look from a few campers across the road. I'm always glad to provide a laugh for someone. I bet they thought I was going to set my dish up there and leave it.
Just when I was about to give up, I tried one more time directly connecting the dish to the receiver. With the pinging piercing through Katie's head, I searched in the direction where I knew there were no satellites. BOOM! How is this possible? I had great signal and I’m the only one in the park pointing that direction. It didn’t matter, it worked. I moved the dish and set it up out of the way.
So, now we have officially supplemented our daily dose of Hercules and Tom & Jerry with a little bit of SpongeBob and Wonder Pets. It’s nice to occasionally sneak in some Discovery Channel and perhaps an episode of True Blood.
-Steve
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