Satellite coaxal wiring from EDC goes nowhere

[Tanniegirl]

Satellite coaxal wiring from UDC goes nowhere

Today we connected our Dish playmate satellite to the TV1 connector in the UDC. It was a fail. We then unconnected it from TV1 and connected it to the Bedroom TV connection and moved our wally to the bedroom, it was a fail too. My husband tested with a ohms tester from the EDC connection (TV1) to the cabinet satellite connector and there was no continuity, it appears that it isn't connected to anything. He did the same on the bedroom connection. We have struggled with this for 2 days. We have traced all other coaxial down and found a splitter behind the wall in the basement that is for the exterior tv. Everything is labeled now. We even hooked the dish up to all 4 outlets (one at a time) in the UDC thinking that maybe when it was installed it was crossed. No luck.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[danemayer]

Hi Tammiegirl,

Before trying the RV coax, it's a good idea to run coax through the window or door directly from dish to receiver. Get everything going with a direct connection and then try out the UDC connectors.

In the bedroom, likely in the closet, the coax jumper may have to be moved from cable/antenna to satellite.

 

[Tanniegirl]

Re: Satellite coaxal wiring from UDC goes nowhere

danemayer: Thanks for the info. Yes we had already done all of that. It worked great with a direct hookup both in the livingarea and in the bedroom.

 

[EEdawg]

Some comments.
1. I have found loose connections on the back of the plugs at the wall.
2. If you have the style with 4 connections in the UDC for satellite, I have found the back side connections to be loose there also.
3. In my new landmark they actually had two of these cables swapped internally. You might try hooking up to the "wrong" spot and seeing if this works. Edit. I see you already tried this part.
4. You can have too much cable. It works with your direct connection but when you hook up to the trailer, the cable run is now longer and may not work.
5. Good high frequency cable is important.

 

[Tanniegirl]

Some comments.
1. I have found loose connections on the back of the plugs at the wall.
2. If you have the style with 4 connections in the UDC for satellite, I have found the back side connections to be loose there also.
3. In my new landmark they actually had two of these cables swapped internally. You might try hooking up to the "wrong" spot and seeing if this works.
4. You can have too much cable. It works with your direct connection but when you hook up to the trailer, the cable run is now longer and may not work.
5. Good high frequency cable is important.

Yes, we checked all connectors on all cables. However from the UDC to the main TV is impossible to follow the cable. It leads up, over basement and into a wiring harness, then who knows where. We check ohms on all 4 cables at the UDC then went to the interior of rig and opened plates and checked ohms at that end of cable. There is no reading. It’s like each end of the cable leads to no where.

 

[EEdawg]

Apologies in advance if this is too basic.
Undo your external cable completely.
Then place a short on one end of the external cable, with it still not connected..
Go to the other end of the external cable. Measure across the center to outer connectors with the ohmmeter and verify you get a reading of just a few ohms.
If you did get a low ohm reading ,this tells us your external cable, your ohmmeter, your short, and your operating technique are probably good. Leave the external cable undone for now.
Note you must have the meter set for ohms, the meter leads plugged into the right spots on the meter, and a correct scale selected on the meter.

Now check the cable from the udc(universal docking center) to the wall near your receiver. With your receiver not connected, place the short you used earlier across the cable connection at the udc.
In the inside of the trailer at the connection from the wall, make a similar measurement as you made earlier. You should get a low meter reading again If your cable is good.

If it reads low, put everything back together and try your setup again.
Just make sure you don't use a short with a receiver connected.
With care you can make your short by having someone hold a screwdriver or a metal paperclip from the center conductor to shield of the cable.

 

[Tanniegirl]

Apologies in advance if this is too basic.
Undo your external cable completely.
Then place a short on one end of the external cable, with it still not connected..
Go to the other end of the external cable. Measure across the center to outer connectors with the ohmmeter and verify you get a reading of just a few ohms.
If you did get a low ohm reading ,this tells us your external cable, your ohmmeter, your short, and your operating technique are probably good. Leave the external cable undone for now.
Note you must have the meter set for ohms, the meter leads plugged into the right spots on the meter, and a correct scale selected on the meter.

Now check the cable from the udc(universal docking center) to the wall near your receiver. With your receiver not connected, place the short you used earlier across the cable connection at the udc.
In the inside of the trailer at the connection from the wall, make a similar measurement as you made earlier. You should get a low meter reading again If your cable is good.

If it reads low, put everything back together and try your setup again.
Just make sure you don't use a short with a receiver connected.
With care you can make your short by having someone hold a screwdriver or a metal paperclip from the center conductor to shield of the cable.

Any advice is welcome basic or not, thank you. I printed this out and handed it to my frustrated husband. He says he has done exactly what you are describing and still no ohms. The neighbor who is a retired electrician has been helping him and he is at a loss as well. We did find a solution, he put a switch on the cable in the basement that is setup for an external TV, this line is after the booster runs to a splitter that runs to main TV in LR , so we connected the satellite to this antenna cable and seems to work fine for now. We will need to work more to find solution to installed satellite wiring and why it is not working. Thanks again.

 

[avvidclif]

Look closely at any splitters. In my rig the splitters were plainly marked CATV to 900 MHz. Satellite is much higher.

Also after much frustration I bought a cable tracer similar to the one below and mapped out all of the cables in my RV. FWIW The supplied schematics were very close to worthless.

https://www.amazon.com/Advantage-AD...ords=tv+signal+tracker&qid=1591571127&sr=8-11

 

[Lou_and_Bette]

Is your entertainment center in a slide? If so, find where both OTA/Cable wire and Satellite wire exit through the frame, join with other wires and enter the bottom of the slide. They will be contained inside a corrugated plastic protective sleeve that has a split in it so you can gently open it to identify the wires are in there. I believe the Satellite wire is grey. Around the hole in the frame will be some expandable foam. Clear the foam and gently pull both wires out, should be enough slack to do this. There will be connectors on both wires, make sure they are tight. I lost signal and finally tracked down mine had come completely apart. Had to remove a couple of screws along the edge of the Chloroplast to access the loose end of the wire and was able to reconnect. Replaced screws and stuffed the wad of expanded foam back in the hole and “all was good in Mudville.”

 

[Thunderbolt]

I have basically the same problem. Factory wiring diagrams were not even close to the 2018 Cyclone 4005 we have. If you have the four connection satellite ports in your UDC, be aware two of them may go to a coil of wire under the roof for the addition of a roof satellite antenna. In ours, the connection closest to the front of the trailer went to the master bedroom. It is orange in color. The next port (according to Heartland) runs to the roof antenna coil. The next one is supposed to run to the lower plate in the living room. (it does not). We tested it and have not figured out where it goes. The last port (one closest to the rear of the trailer is supposed to go to the roof antenna coil. We did find a splitter behind the speaker grill in the living room near the ceiling above the tv. We traced three of the six wires to the port in the cargo area, the living room, and the port in the garage. We know there has to be another splitter somewhere, but where is the question. It is a PIA to remove the television in the living room but it is next to see if there is a hole behind the backing board where the cables can be accessed. I took off the wall panel were all of the light switches, generator controls, and so on are located but found only the two cables that go to the roof antenna coils. I have spoken to Heartland several times but they seem to be in the dark on how it is wired for satellite. The online diagram for the Cyclone is not correct as it does not show the satellite connection in the cargo compartment. I will keep you advised of what I find out. I really know how you all feel!