Satellite Hookup does not work

Cimriver

Well-known member
It appears that the connection between the docking station and the Living Room TV is not working. I have replaced coax connectors on both the satellite and cable connection on both ends. I know the satellite system (antenna and receiver) are working as I get reception when I run a cable directly (through the door) from the satellite dish to the receiver everything works great.

I am curious if anyone can provide me with a little more information on the routing of the cable from the docking station into the living room TV. The entertainment center is in a slide so I am wondering if there is a connection where the cable is routed into the slide or if it is a single cable run start to finish.

Perhaps someone from the factory can help with this.
 

TahoeCamper

Founding Nevada-North Chapter Leader-Retired
Cimriver,

When we got our 2010 Sundance 2900MK, they had the connections in the UDC switched. The sat was cable and vice versa. We did as you did and ran a cable thru the window and everything worked when we hooked directly to TV. Had dealer swap the cables in the UDC and we were fine. Hope it's that simple for you.
Happy camping!!
70 this past Saturday, snow yesterday (1" on yard this AM), and we are to hit 80 this Sunday. Goofy spring, but praise God that we are not having the tornados or flooding. Our prayers for those folks.
 

Cimriver

Well-known member
Unfortunately it's not going to be that easy. I tried both of the connections in the UDC. Neither works.
 

gratton

Active Member
I am having the same problem with my satellite connection on my Big Country. Had it at the dealer for some things and had them look at this, which they did no resolve they thought they did. Going to take it back again for some other things and we will try it again. The connection works fine to the bedroom, but not the living room.
 
B

bwwalczak

Guest
There could be a couple of different reasons why it is not working. Lets start with the easiest. Check your power booster - you can find this in the bedroom, a small red button on the cable jack plate with a red light. If the red light is on, then the amplifier is on.

The amplified signal MAY interfere with raw satelite reception. So turn it off for satelite. You will notice when running regular cable or air reception how much work this power amplifier actually does by turning it on and off.

This is just a start, but our service folks have several other quick fixes. Don't pull any wires apart until consultation with Heartland service department or a local dealer who is familiar with this brand.
Heartland service number is: 877-262-8032.
 
I am no pro when it comes to this, but I had the same yet different problem with my 2009 BC 3490RB when I brought it home in January this year. My problem was that the bedroom did not work, but the living room did. So ok, the 1st thing I would like to say, is that the TV amplifier is not in the system for the satellite wiring. Turning it off will not affect your problem at all (sorry Bryan) as the Sat wiring is directly run from the jacks in the UDC to the wall plate in the living area or bedroom.

So with that being said, there are a couple of things you can check. If you know someone who has a signal tone generator, that would help the most. You just need to trace the sat wiring to find out what is going on.

My BC had two different color cables running in the unit for sat and cable/tv wiring. The sat wiring is white and the cable/tv wiring is black. If you take the wall down in the basement you will see what I am talking about. The cable wiring comes into the unit in the UDC then goes to a few splitters. It runs to the wall plate in the bedroom and then back out to the rest of the unit to provide cable where it needs to go. The wall plate will not have Sat wiring running into the same part as the cable wiring, so it should be easy to see. The white Satellite wiring is not hard to trace. With your living area not working, just look behind the wall and trace it from Sat 1 input as far as you can and see if it ends up in the right place. I don't know for sure if your unit is pre-wired for a roof antenna or not, but if it is, then you will have Roof 1 and 2 inputs in the UDC as well. Make sure your wiring is not going up there are well.

You can contact Steve Kennel at SKennel@heartlandrvs.com. He helped me greatly with providing me the satellite wiring and plumbing schematics for my unit when I had my problems. Mine was just a faulty end on the wire and it's been working fine since the dealer repaired it.

Good luck and let me know what you find out.
 

Cimriver

Well-known member
Well I contacted Customer Service. They provided me with a wiring diagram. Unfortunately the wiring diagram doesn't match my RV. I have requested more info, but haven't heard anything back yet. I did send an email to Steve Kennel, but he reffered the case back to Cheryl, whom I guess haddles Colorado. The last advice I got from Customer Service was to take it to a qualified dealer. I already took it to a dealer in Colorado Springs who IMO lacked the knowledge to troubleshoot the problem. I called my dealer in North Denver who didn't give a lot of confidence either. I would really like to figure this out myself as the dealers are 60 miles one way.

Hopefully Heartland can provide me with an accurate diagram to start with. I will be ringing out the lines later this week.
 

Cimriver

Well-known member
Well found the problem last weekend. On the advice of another Heartland owner on the forum, I dropped a section of the underbelly where the wiring goes into the living room slide. I reach up under the insulation and pulled down a bundle of wires. Amongst the wires were two splices where the satellite and cable coax goes into the slide. Pulled the tape off of both of the splices and found a couple of poorly terminated connectors. Replaced all four with good compression connectors and I now have a satellite connection at my living room TV.
 
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