2 STB's from one dish

Galaxie390

Hi,

Just wondering if it's possible to feed 2 set top boxes from one dish?

I've a 65cm dish coupled to fortec star beta STB, which, after loads of help from this board, is now working fine.:D

My next door neighbour would like to do the FTA thing after mine turned out ok. He currently feeds from a cable box up the soffit board at the front of the house. This connection is about 50cm from a coupling on my satellite feed.

It seems a bit mad to spend time installing a new dish and cable run, if i can hook his cable into my satellite feed.

Can it be done, or does it cause hassle with settings and 12v feeds to the dish?

Thanks,

Tony

For safety reasons two houses should not be connected to the same dish unless a multiswitch is used with appropriate earth set up.

Galaxie390 wrote:

Hi,

Just wondering if it's possible to feed 2 set top boxes from one dish?

I've a 65cm dish coupled to fortec star beta STB, which, after loads of help from this board, is now working fine.:D

My next door neighbour would like to do the FTA thing after mine turned out ok. He currently feeds from a cable box up the soffit board at the front of the house. This connection is about 50cm from a coupling on my satellite feed.

It seems a bit mad to spend time installing a new dish and cable run, if i can hook his cable into my satellite feed.

Can it be done, or does it cause hassle with settings and 12v feeds to the dish?

Thanks,

conax

A bonded multiswitch in this situation would offer no greater protection for either user as it would have to be referenced to one of the houses.
Unless you can guarantee that both houses are on the same phase, neutralised, same ground potential and no electrical faults and that either user is not going to do anything stupid (electrically) the risk of a problem is on par with having two boxes in the same electrical home. However I would agree with Tony that this is a No No and should be avoided.

steveon

Should be possible with a dual or quad lnb but it may be difficult to find one that may fit into the bracket holder on your dish..Simply run a cable from the cable from the dual or quad lnb and hey presto.

conax

steveon wrote:

Should be possible with a dual or quad

missprint there i'd say, should be Twin or Quad.

Tony

steveon wrote:

Should be possible with a dual or quad lnb but it may be difficult to find one that may fit into the bracket holder on your dish..Simply run a cable from the cable from the dual or quad lnb and hey presto.

Possible but very dangerous

weeder

us and our next door neighbours share a dish, the house is attached to us, the sky installer did it when fitting us with sky and sold the next door neighbours with a FTa box never been a problem for us

conax

and the chances are that it will never give a problem, it's just not good practice, and there are circumstances where it could be deemed unsafe.

Tony

weeder wrote:

us and our next door neighbours share a dish, the house is attached to us, the sky installer did it when fitting us with sky and sold the next door neighbours with a FTa box never been a problem for us

Nor will it be until something goes wrong. Electrical safety regulations are there for good reason, try asking your insurance company how they feel about it.

Galaxie390

Hi Folks,

Thanks for the feedback. I guess, everyone has sort of confirmed my concerns. On the face of it, it's a 'no-problem' set-up with no problems. However, as Tony said it's never a problem until somthing happens!!

I think, I will leave it.

Thank you all for your valid and much appreciated views.:)

5h4mr0(k

What's so different between what the OP wants to do and the "Sky Homes" package for communal dishes?
http://www.skyhomes.ie/communal.aspx
Or do they have the same potential problems?

L1011

5h4mr0(k wrote:

What's so different between what the OP wants to do and the "Sky Homes" package for communal dishes?
http://www.skyhomes.ie/communal.aspx
Or do they have the same potential problems?

These kind of installs are insulated properly; what the OP is thinking of won't be - note Tony's mention of a proper multiswitch...

weeder

any examples of possible consequences?

mustang68

I presume that if one of the boxes has a complete failure it is possible that the failure will cascade through the cable -> lnb -> cable other house. Think of a major electrical fault/fire in the first house starting a fire in the other house.

(random uninformed guess)

Tony

weeder wrote:

any examples of possible consequences?

why?

conax

5h4mr0(k wrote:

What's so different between what the OP wants to do and the "Sky Homes" package for communal dishes?
Or do they have the same potential problems?

Communal systems are protected electrically by their own RCBO and each subsequent multiswitch in different areas are matched electrically to each block. All apartments are wired to a known code of practice and the blocks are tested as a single unit and the multiswitch system in installed according to EN50083. the difference with a dish connected between to homes (even with a multiswitch) is that an electrical ground difference or phase difference where as both houses may operate safely independent to each other coupling the homes may introduce a fault.

Edit:just to clarify RCBO is connected to the landlord supply,

weeder

Tony wrote:

why?

cos id like to know just how dangerous it is

Tony

its as dangerous as messing with any electrical appliance. I dont understand why you cant just accept the advice given thats its a bad idea

weeder

ok well fair enough i just find it a little hard to believe that a licensed sky installer did it for us if its so dangerous

Agent Smith

i'm not sure i understand.

I've sky, in my room and in the sitting room.
now, say, if my neighbour wanted sky, whats the difference with rnning the cable and extra 20ft?

Tony

weeder wrote:

ok well fair enough i just find it a little hard to believe that a licensed sky installer did it for us if its so dangerous

Unfortunately some dont take much care with installs.

mustang68

Ok, I'll bite

Houses are isolated electrically from each other by fuses, space and earths. Sometimes the electrical supply is not just an extension of your neighbours supply, it may in fact be doing different things (voltage, phase...) as you may be getting it from different transformers.

By using the same dish, even though there is very little power, you are in effect electrically connecting the two houses together.

Now, why is this a bad thing? Lets go through what actually keeps your houses isolated from each other and what may go wrong:

Earths: Imagine the earth in your house is fine, but your neighbours is old, and holds at 30Volts (I'm just pulling figures & examples out of my a$$ here) now the difference between your stb and the neighbours box is 30v, which is a bad thing.

Fuses: There is a small fire/major electrical issue in your neighbours house and the earth/all his AV stuff goes live, so does you stb, (resulting in fire/electrocution/loss of hair/dryness in the mouth) thats because there is a direct link to your neighbours house.

Its ok to use a few stb connected in your own house, but not to someone elses, even if a sky technician put them in it does not make it right.

watty

Electrocution. Or destruction of your sky box or TV.

Same risk if you ran a audio/Video cable between your HiFi/DVD and his Home Cinema.

The electric has 3 phases, the houses connect to each phase in turn. So the "live" between two plug sockets in your house is ZERO and 220V to earth or neutral. The voltage between his "live" and your "live" is 380V!!!

The earthing and filtering on ordinary equipment is designed for 220V, not 380V.

So you need properly "certified" electrician installed earthing on a properly designed barrier connector between the two premises.

You also need a Quad LNB as you can't split the signal.

A Multiswitch is about €100+ and many work with Quad or Quattro LNB and can feed up to 16 receivers (or 8 PVRs). The multiswitch is designed to have a single common safety earth (via plug socket actually INCREASES risk!).

So at least you wreck a lot of gear, at worst one or two houses burn down and people killed.

conax

watty wrote:

A Multiswitch is about €100+ and many work with Quad or Quattro LNB and can feed up to 16 receivers (or 8 PVRs). The multiswitch is designed to have a single common safety earth (via plug socket actually INCREASES risk!).

exactly!. Thats the point I was making about the bonded multiswitch isolating the two houses, you are referencing the multiswitch to one of the houses.
multiswitches and digi boxes and the like "float" above earth, you have to be very careful when you introduce a reference. Mains voltages just like DC voltages are all "pie in the sky" without a point of reference.