Lidl Satelite and old Sky Box no signal.

ekevosu

Hi all,

Hoping someone here might be able to help guide me.

We moved into a house where there was an existing satellite dish (lidl) as shown in the pictures below. The satellite cable is coming into the living room (single cable). The guy who previously lived in the house mentioned on handing over keys that all we needed was a box to connect and we would have all the channels so I'm guessing he had it all working when he was here.

I, probably wrongly, assumed that if I connected an old sky + HD box to this then we would get all the freesat channels. There is no aerial outside the house for saorview. When I connected up the sky box I get no satellite connection. I tried this on two sky boxes with same result. I have a card in one of the sky boxes.

Am I wrong in thinking that the box will make no difference and the issue is with the satellite, cabling, lnb or would there be a compatibility issue or something else?

Is there any other steps I could take to troubleshoot this where no specialised tools are needed? I'm hoping to solve it myself without having to call someone in and that it might be something easy.

Any advice appreciated and apologies if information is scant, new to this as haven't had tv in about 5 years.

https://imageshack.com/a/img923/3448/oTe5oC.jpg
https://imageshack.com/a/img923/9323/T70AOL.jpg
https://imageshack.com/a/img921/296/oxqbqQ.jpg
https://imageshack.com/a/img923/7313/5FnORC.jpg
https://imageshack.com/a/img923/3958/K10dRT.jpg

swoofer

there are 2 cables from the dish but only cable by box may mean they have combined cable somewhere. When you plug cable into sky box it needs 2 cables for twin feed and if only one feed will say no satellite signal. You could try box on single feed.

https://skyepginfo.co.uk/HowToGuides/Single-Feed-Mode.php

A pic of the front of lnb could be useful as well but you really need to know if dish is pointing at 28east. with a smartphone you can get an app called dishpointer.

also check the lnb it may have 4 outputs so run another cable.

ps where does the second cable go to and have you tried it?

Former Former

I presume it's a rented house? And if so, were the previous tenants from abroad?

If they were, then the dish is probably pointing at the wrong satellite (maybe 13E when you need 28E). If that's the case, it's an easy job to move the dish, youtube will help you.

ekevosu

Its not a rented house, we bought it recently. The guy who sold was an electrician so did a lot of stuff in the house himself I think. He was Irish but his partner was from abroad so possibly satelite is going wrong direction but he did say bbc etc should come up, i.e. uk channels.

I was totally unaware of the single feed option, will try that when I get home, great to know and cheers for link and app suggestion.

I know the cables go up into the attic but its an absolute mess up there with cables everywhere so I can try and trace where they are going exactly. I'll also post a few more pictures when I get home of LNB. It looked like a dual LNB, not Quad.

Great advice, I will try those suggestions when I get home from work and update. Much appreciated

Edit: Here are a few more photos of LNB that wife took at home.

https://imageshack.com/a/img922/6121/VRWAsu.jpg
https://imageshack.com/a/img923/1484/msUWJ7.jpg
https://imageshack.com/a/img922/5160/669sFi.jpg
https://imageshack.com/a/img924/6563/oxqXjM.jpg
https://imageshack.com/a/img923/2773/0PFdH8.jpg
https://imageshack.com/a/img924/9666/eWpgtR.jpg
https://imageshack.com/a/img924/6180/BSTH9b.jpg
https://imageshack.com/a/img922/6058/NU5tyE.jpg
https://imageshack.com/a/img923/6238/Nhnfc5.jpg
https://imageshack.com/a/img921/4726/UYqodO.jpg

Thurston?

You could just about tell from the 1st set of photos, but the 2nd confirm the problem is the LNB is lying back at a funny angle.

Looks like a 'repair' has been attempted on the holder too, with tape.

punisher5112

Get a new dish.

jhegarty

Try manually adding an astra 1/hotbird channel to see where it is pointed.

Edit:
Correction , just looked at the second photo. That lnb is way off.

lawred2

That dish looks crocked. Get one off donedeal or adverts

ekevosu

Thank you everybody.

I tried the suggestion about the single feed last night and that didn't work and just saw the replies this morning so it sounds like I will have to look into replacing the lnb (and possibly dish). They do look very old. I might try seeing if I can get the lnb positioned correctly first though as a temporary measure just to see if signal works.

The previous owner of house sounded certain that it was all working and all we needed was a box which is why I was confused. From touching the lnb it was slightly loose as in it could go up about 2 cm or so when moved but I didn't realise the positioning was wrong.

Cables should all be reusable I guess?

punisher5112

While your at it just replace the whole lot. For an electrician it looks terrible.

Water in the cables can also be a issue.

Those sky dishes can be got very cheap and not too hard to install.

If lining it up bring TV and receiver outside and line it up on the signal strength bars that are in the settings.

swoofer

Dont give up yet and doint touch lnb yet. It is old but if they said it was working lets assume they meant it. The dish and lnb it about 14 years old and the lnb did look wonky as opposed to a sky one that was more upright. The dish is sheltered so I doubt if it moved.

First I want to be sure that the cable you are using is wired correctly and that it actually goes direct to the dish, you did say there is a mass of cables in loft, and the other black cable have you found that and tried it.

To fix sat cable to sky box you need an F connector and then you have to strip cable so you have an inner core and outer braid. That white cable may be an old tv coax.

here is a vid on f connector, ignore the gadget it will give you the idea. same applies to the f connector at dish end, may have rusted so you can cut bit off and re do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sksyX32PPMc

Can you post a pic of that white cable with f connector. And can you trace black cable may be in bedroom. The inner core is usually copper coloured and you need a bit extending beyond the end.

And did you get that app for smartphone to check dish direction? If you get it working as is it costs you nothing.

If you are handy and can lay your hands on some sat cable you could run it direct from lnb but as its old us wd40 and it may either not budge or break.

If you have given up than all you need is a dish with lnb, that wall bracket looks good and sky dish will fit on it. The latest lnbs are quads ie 4 outputs.

if you opt for dish look here and they have good videos as well.

https://www.freetv.ie/satellite/dishes/

but give it one more try if you have the time

ekevosu

Thanks Swoofer.

For the cable coming into the sitting room, he had it connected to another cable to extend the length and joined the two cables together with an old plastic connector yoke....forget the name. When it didn't work initially I disconnected this extended cable, took the F connector off it and attached it to the wire coming directly into the sitting room after stripping it etc but got the same result.

I'll have a look at the attic again when I get a chance and try and see what is happening with all the cables and where the second one is going. I think he had a tv in the bedroom upstairs too and there is a socket in the wall up high but the F connector doesn't seem to fit in it, a bit too big for it so not sure if its for something else. He has this type of socket connection up high in the kitchen as well. Possibly he has it going to these sockets via some sort of splitter in the attic (excuse my ignorance if that sounds ridiculous).

swoofer

aha, as an electricain he will know all the bits and bobs, you can actually get a converter that turns an f connector into a coax connector!! look here.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2Pcs-F-Type-Male-Plug-Connector-Socket-to-RF-Coax-TV-Aerial-Female-RF-Adapters/32900749442.html?spm=2114.search0302.3.28.114e79d6B54WIs&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_0_453_454_10618_536_10890_317_537_319_10059_10696_10084_10083_10304_10546_10887_10307_321_10548_322_10902_10065_10068_10103_10884_10820,searchweb201603_0,ppcSwitch_0&algo_pvid=c0c27ddc-6f13-4ecf-9a82-981aacd654f7&algo_expid=c0c27ddc-6f13-4ecf-9a82-981aacd654f7-3

they screw together.

to join sat cable properly you use an f connector adaptor !! look at first image. real sat cable looks like second image, when you join sat cable ie strip it and twist together you have to join the other braid as well but in reality its never done like that. that cable in living room may be a dud, try and run a cable from dish if you can.

did you get smartphone app. or do u have a smartphone?/

ekevosu

He had an F-connector on the cable coming through hole in the wall in sitting room but originally he had that cable connected to another short coaxial cable via a simple old plastic terminal connector and the F-connector was on the end of that extended cable. This was to reach the tv box further away from the wall I guess.

https://www.globalsources.com/si/AS/Zhejiang-Jinghong/6008830435221/pdtl/Plastic-Terminals-plastic-Terminal-Connector/1091800909.htm

I was expecting a more specialised connector than the one he used to connect them but I guess he must have had lots of them lying around as he seems to have used them on lamps and stuff we have found.

I disconnected the extended cable, took off the F-connector from it and attached it to the coaxial cable coming from the wall after stripping the cable back etc. ala https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i-YWTmC-l8

I think he was watching tv here so cable should have been working. I have yet to get into the attic again but will do at the weekend hopefully and see whats going on.

I tried downloading your app suggestion but it was costing €21 to get on ios so I went with another free one (satelite pointer) and did a rough look last night. The direction the dish was facing seemed to be where there was a cluster of satelites but I'm not sure how exact the direction was. I tightened the lnb so it no longer went up and down a cm or two but the whole setup, dish and lnb looked like it was fairly solidly connected and not liable to move in wind. Where exactly should I be pointing the app to see the satellites, from middle of dish where lnb is pointing at it or somewhere else? It will only be very rough anyway without specialised equipment. I need more research on that I think.

swoofer

oops messing with lnb at this stage not good, my mistake on the app, its called dish align, that one you got can be discarded, i just tried it and its rubbish. so get dish align its fairly intuitive, go slow, basically you select 28.2 east, then u click on icon at bottom of screen and what happens is the phone emits a beep and has a line and when its facing satellite it will turn green. once u see it working you will be surprised, i assumed it was dish pointer but its DISH ALIGN. U PUT PHONE ON LNB ARM etc

i am back home now for rest of day, cud u get a cable to dish bypassing the loft, that would be neat.

any probs with the app just ask.

here is a pic for you, its a while since I used it but its good. thats it pointing at 28 east from my location as of now