DISH Network / Winegard Carryout G2 / VIP211k PROBLEM

[IndyJumper]

Hi everyone!

Had a Winegard Carryout G2 mounted on the roof of our 5er last month, and the dealer told us they confirmed with one of their Dish receivers that it did indeed work. By the time we were able to make it to the service dept, the tech that installed it had gone home for the day, and the box that was used to confirm installation was no longer available. I figured that it couldn't be that hard to figure out the rest and took our RV home. We did not have DISH service at the time, and were planning ahead.

Fast forward to today, and we've switched from cable to DISH at home, and set out with our 5er on a two week trip. We started by taking the Wally receiver that was installed at home which Winegard stated "should" work with the Carryout. After a couple days on the phone and online with Winegard and DISH tech support, and speaking with a DISH retailer, I have surmised that the Wally is intended to be the 211's future replacement, but is not compatible with the auto-tune dish....YET. I then went out and bought a VIP211K receiver.

I am currently parked near a friend's house that has DISH service at their house, and successfully connected the 211 box to their home dish to finish the initial activation. This leads me to the current problem:

I have run the "Test Switch" protocol to clear our the factory designated "switch", without the Winegard unit connected to the receiver. It goes through 38 steps of testing and comes back with no "switch" installed, and no satellites found. As I understand, the next step is supposed to be to choose satellite 119 and transponder 11 in the Point Dish menu and then reconnect the coax cable from the Winegard dish and apply power to the unit. I hear the dish move on the roof and start to search for signal. It will briefly lock onto satellite 119 with a signal strength around 40 (green bar and strong tone), but will not hold the connection. It moves around a little more and lock onto 119 briefly again before once again moving and finishing without a signal lock. According to the setup instruction I'm supposed to run the Test Switch program again to install the SW64 "switch". Tech support tells me that it must have a locked signal at this point in order to install the new switch. I've tried running the Test Switch procedure anyway, and end up right back at "No Switch Installed".

I'm at a loss from here. I've tried all the combinations of power-ups I can think of to force the rest of the setup to work. I've turned the 211 on without coax connected, with coax connected but no power to dish, and with coax connected and power to dish. No matter what I do, I can't get it to lock onto a satellite so I can get SW64.

I'd sure appreciate any help to get this finished.

Thanks!
Seth

 

[richheck]

From whwt I have read, you need to connect the new "Wally" to a home base dish ( not the Carryoit G2) to allow it to update itself with the required software update. This update is not available from the portable dish. Once updated, try to connect to the Carryout G2 and see if this helps. Also, has the Wally been authorized to you account yet? Probably will need to authorize it with to home base dish, not the portable.

 

[Rhyph]

Depending on the age of the 211K, it may need a ground based ODU (outdoor unit - fixed satellite dish, 1000.2, 1000.4, 500, etc) firmware download and programming authorization just like the Wally for it's very first run. Do not get too deep in the check switch stuff as is not a solve all or completely needed yet. It is important to do a check switch on a ground based install initially then get it authorized after it's done all of it's first time set-up. The Wally walks you through all of this step-by-step.

Once you are all past the initial set-up, downloads and authorization, either receiver will then otherwise automagically detect when it's been switched to a mobile ODU after it has been disconnected from power, coax swapped to the mobile then plugged back in. Once hooked up to the mobile and the receiver boots fully, you'll get the mobile set-up screen to select a state, and then do a scan (this is a check switch under the skin). Either receiver with the latest software will trigger the dish itself to do a scan for all 3 orbital locations based on the state you select on the initial scan screen. This may be what you are hearing it attempting to do when you think it's locking on to 119 then tries to move on to something else. The signal meter is not updating the new orbital location on these menus. You have to change it manually, it's just giving you signal strength on the wrong satellite. Any time you invoke a manual check switch on a mobile ODU, it triggers the firmware on board within the mobile ODU to scan for the 3 orbitals.

The Wally is stupid fast on it's initial boot and then scan once you get it to where you see that mobile set-up screen, mine is less than a minute. The 211K will take several minutes to boot before it will reliably let you select a state and scan. My 211K on latest firmware takes about 3-4 mins after initial plug in to boot up, I have to force myself to leave it alone. If you rush it, it will fail silently and act strangely; you'll have to un plug, plug back in to power and start over.

FWIW I do have a brand new Wally running this way as a primary receiver w/external HD for DVR function on a Winegard Pathway X1 roof mounted, and my 211K is now my slave receiver (using both LNB 1 and LNB 2 ports) since we have 4 TV's to feed in our new RW 420.

 

[IndyJumper]

LESSON LEARNED:

Do NOT assume the dealership that installs your dish actually tested the dish....even if they said that they did.

I had not checked the dip switches on the dish. They were still set for DirecTV. Set them correctly and we're in business!

Dealer had told me they connected a DISH receiver and successfully tested the dish. Unless they set them back to DirecTV, even though they knew I was looking for DISH service, it was obviously a lie!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!