remote eye problems

[jonhind]

Hi All,

I am new to working with tv wiring, I have made a mistake with the wiring of the tv's in my house and was hoping one of you guys may be able to help me out.

I initally wired my tv sockets similar to a serial radial circuit.

I have one socket in the living room with 2 co ax cables connected inside, one goes to bedroom 1 the other to bedroom 2.

The feed to bedroom 1 is then connected to bedroom 3 also.

So the idea was I can connect either terrestrial tv or sky tv into the socket in the living room and it will be displayed upstairs.
This works fine at the moment with terrestrial and sky tv and the picture is perfect for both.

The problem is when I try to use the remote eye (on the rf2 output) upstairs the led does not illuminate on the sky eye in the bedrooms.


I realise now I should of used a 4 way amlifier in the living room and sent all the cables out from that individually.

Is there any way I can get around this without rerouting all the cables and still be able to use the remote eye in one of the bedrooms.

thanks in advance,

Jon

[BGonaSTICK]

Hi Jon.

I have to say that I've not had that many hands-on dealings with routing TV around the house myself, but your final comment about how it should have been done is correct.

Take the RF feed from RF-Out 2 into a 4-way amplifier/splitter and route 4 cables to their destinations. You would also chuck your terrestrial TV into the digibox RF-In (loopthrough) to route that alongside the satellite TV down the single cable.

I take it you've enabled RF-Out 2 output power in the digibox secret setup menu. If you need to do that, just ask.

Other than the possibility of there just not being enough power down the cable to operate the remote-eye, I can only think of two other reasons that it wouldn't work in bedroom 1 or 2. Bedroom 3 is a different case if I've read your description correctly.

The two reasons?

1) The TV eye is faulty
2) You have introduced an incompatible 'joint' into the cable. This could simply be the socket that you've used.

Bedroom 3 may just have introduced an extra break in 'TV-eye continuity' because it's piggy-backed.

Have a read of this page at Satcure. It explains most of this, rather than me re-typing it all.

You might still be able to introduce a compatible amplifier in the lounge instead of the 'twin' coax socket, which may have to come out anyway.

Have a think and a read, and let us know if you need anything else.

STICK

[jonhind]

Thanks for the advice stick,

I thought i had powered the rf2 output then i realised that I changed to a new sky plus box. please can you remind me how to access the menu to power rf2.

cheers,

jon

[dohouch]

To acess secret menu :Service>4>0>1>Select.

You will need special splitters/amplifiers that would pass on the remote eye signal that is if the system you have doesn't work. Just got a digi-eye myself last week, and it has a little LED on the box part that lights when it is receiving power along the coax.

[jonhind]

Thanks for that,

I just powered up rf2 and disconected the piggy back from bedroonm 1 to bedroom 3 and it works in bedroom 1.
Any advice on a splitter I can use between bed 1 and bed 3 to enable the eye in both. I have seen a couple on ebay does it have to be a certain type?

Cheers,

Jon

[BGonaSTICK]

Yes it does. Have a look at the Satcure link I gave you above. They have some, and also compliant amps.

[hallii]

Not that I know much about satellite systems, but RF frequencies are subject to their own physical laws.

A length of co-ax can be a dead short at a certain multiples or sub multiples (1/2 wave) of of the wavelength of the frequency in use, it can also be an open circuit. Both conditions subject to the load across the end of the co-ax. If you shove enough signal down the cable there will be enough to run most things, but just unplugging something can cause a change in the electrical characteristics resulting in a signal loss.

I could bore you with more intricate details but I have tried to keep it simple, but as a rule, any "t" or other coax connection that is open ended could be a dead short at RF!

Geoff

[BGonaSTICK]

Sorry, putting that into my own words... are you saying that if you tune the length of the coax with regards to the frequency of the RF signal it transmits, and push enough power down the core that you can create a dead short between core and screen, or only if you have a some sort of load connected at the end?

I've never heard of that, but I do find RF a fascinating topic.

[hallii]

No, sorry, I tried to be clear but failed...

The short or open circuit is an electrical one, it relates to the RF waves (voltage and current) on the cable, so although there is no mechanical connection between inner and outer, the RF behaves as if there is, (and as far as the RF goes there really IS!). In reality there is always some load (impedance) from the cable so there is never a complete short, but its pretty close to it!

So, simply put, open unterminated cable can be an electrical short if its the right (or, I suppose) wrong length.
Higher power will overcome the losses, but a simple terminator load (resistor) might do the job if put in the right place.

Geoff

Then we start going into standing waves and reflected power, now thats a 1 hour lecture on its own!

Geoff

[BGonaSTICK]

LOL, yes. I've done my RAE