Direct TV

sporlan

Member
Wow! Heartland needs to learn how to wire satellite wiring. I just recieved my Winegaurd satellite system. I contacted Tim at the factory. He was more than helpful but I can not believe how screwed up the cables are. I informed Tim that in order to hook up more than one Direct TV box you need to run a cable for EACH reviever. Heartland ran a cable to the family room and the cargo area. To top it off they used coaxial splitters! Holy cow! you can NOT use spitters for sattelite! Man, you would think these guys would know this. I have had to re-wire the entire sattelite system. What a pain! At least when I am done it will be right. Oh yeah, the video and right /left audio inputs in the family room above the Sirius satellite system was NOT even wired. Another thing, the TV video output on the TV would not work thru the Jenson head unit. I had to purchase a new Sony TV and hook it up to get the sound to play thru the Jenson head unit. By the way I have a one week old 2009 Model 3950.
Other than the wiring mess I love the layout.
 

fjspinelli

Common Sense Jake
Great news:rolleyes:

I just got back from my first voyage with our 3950. I was trying to figureout how to get the tv to go through the Jensen unit, almost thought it was me. I did plug the satellite into the counter face plate and get a picture, but the audio only went to the TV. The only place I have satellite hook up is the livingroom and the bedroom. The garage is simply cable/antenna.

Guess I am pulling the plate off the Jensen in the not too distant future.

Thanks,

FJ
 

pslincs

Member
I guess we are all in the same boat. I too have an 3950. month old, and have the same problems, I need to soon, pull all the wires off the entertainment center and start over from the "factory" mess. It just seems it would be easier to have a diagram for the wiring and have it actually tested, BEFORE it left the factory. It seems that pretty much the trailer is put together but nothing actually is checked to see it it works. Forget about the PDI, especially in the SO CAL area.
 

Delaine and Lindy

Well-known member
We have had terrible luck with 5th wheels being wired for Sattelite systems the RV industry is 3 to 5 years behind in Sattelite systems. So for our MS seems to be wired ok. It has two systems one for Sattelite and Cable also. I wired our house for the Direct-Tv and the Hughes net system. It isn't such a big deal, you can go to Lowes and get all the nessary tools that the Direct-Tv installers use. When doing the PDI, I suggest you take you Dish system with you. We took ours with us to do the PDI, and of course the person doing the PDI didn't have a clue. Another suggestion is go and buy a system from Best Buy and have them install the system. Good Luck. GBY....
 

sporlan

Member
Here's the wiring diagram. Note the splitters???? I removed the ENTIRE satellite wiring system. I mounted the new auto satellite to the roof. I ran 1 control wire, 3 coaxial wires. One wire went to the family room. Another wire to the master bedroom. And the third wire to the front cargo area. Wow! what a pain. I romoved the entire fan in the bedroom and bath. Removed the hallway light and cut a bigger hole. Removed the bathroom access door. Removed the elec. panels and coax panels in the family room. Removed all the access doors in the cargo ares. Needless to say after all the cuts, blood, sweat, splinters and curse words the system works great! The automatic dish system looks like a military device, cool.:D
 

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JimandSina

Active Member
Actually you can use Splitters, Diplexers, Multi Switches, and Signal Combiners with Satellite, they are readily available and if they are of the correct frequency and properly installed work very well. the problem is you need a receiver for each port for the schematic shown for the Cyclone and can only use one at a time and of course you only get Satellite in the Livingroom and ??Cargo Bay???
 

truknutt

Committed Member
sporlan,

Thanks for the schematic; this will be an invaluable aid whenever I get around to tackling this project.

Got any pics of the "military device"?
 

sporlan

Member
Jim, I am curious as to what frequency splitters you can use. I have been told by several people they can not be used. I would like to try. Also I guess it would'nt help me much in the Cyclone seeing that I need to be able to whatch 3 different programs with 3 different boxes at one time.
Truknutt, I will take some pics and post them.
 

Bob&Patty

Founders of SoCal Chapter
Sporlan, they have them at Lowes. I have checked them out and they will work. I feel for you, cause I ran all new cables in our BH also. Took me about a day to do but have great satellite now. Bob:D:D:eek:
 

JimandSina

Active Member
The correct frequency is 950 to 2300 Mhz, and you can get them online, or, places like Lowes, Home Depot, Radio Shack and etc. but as you pointed out so well with the cyclone wired as it is the splitter is kind of a pointless item, I may look into designing a system into my 3950 for sat wiring that would better serve my wants and wishes and If I do, I'll share the schematic on this forum.
Jim
 

beasleyrl

Well-known member
Splitters

While you can use a splitter, to route your cables to multiple locations if you want to move a receiver between the 2. However, if you plug 2 satellite receivers in, you WILL fry a receiver if you are using DirecTV systems. Dish Network works slightly differently.

SPORLAN has it right - you have to rewire to make it work with multiple receivers.

One other thing to think about if you use an automatic dish on the roof... At some point, you may need an external dish because of tree locations. This happened to us recently. I too have a dish on the roof that works well about 90% of the time.

I did things a little differently in that I ran both signal cables from the roof dish to the entertainment center. I also replaced the factory wiring from the external satellite connections and routed them both to the entertainment center also. I then ran a 2nd cable from the entertainment center to to the MBR. I keep a receiver at the entertainment center and a 2nd receiver in the MBR. With this configuration, I can easily move from the roof dish to the external dish by simply swapping a couple of patch cables from within the coach.
 
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