Sky Q weird problem

eimco

Two weeks ago I replaced a neighbour's Sky dish (it was rotting away, as they do). We live in Donegal and the neighbour wanted the ITV and Ch5 channels, not available on their SkyQ package.

I fitted a Triax TD65, along with a Labgear wideband/universal hybrid lnb (6 ports in total as you will no doubt know) I added an Amiko Mini Combo box so they could watch UK channels fta and the Irish terrestrial channels without switching back to Sky Q for RTE etc.

It all worked fine, but as they wanted to also wall-mount the TV I left the cables uncut until I had re-routed them for a neater job.

The cables were Webro shotgun, provided by Sky, which I re-used and I added a run of Webro WF100 for the Amiko box, from one of the standard ports.

When I went back last week to move the tv it went well, cables re-routed, TV wall mounted and a wall mounted cabinet beneath it - all tried and tested. Two days later they call me and say "we have no signal, nothing works"...ouch.

When I checked it I first checked the lnb and all seemed good - signal good on the standard ports and a good reading from the wideband ports (although I don't know if I need a different meter for those, been out of this game for years).

Indoors I could see that Sky Q had no signal but the Amiko was working fine, so I switch it off again, and a good signal at the ends of the shotgun for Sky Q.

With the Amiko in standby I refinished the cable ends, and attached cable#1 to Sky Q - picture came back, happy days, I thought. Nope. When I re-attach cable #2 it goes blank and "no signal" warning. Dammit.

I pull out cable # 2 and picture comes back. A real head scratcher.

Next, I switch on the Amiko again to check the lnb is still alive, Amiko still working perfectly. Hmm.

Then, with the Amiko still switched on, I re-attached cable #2 to Sky Q and bingo it works fine....switch off the Amiko and signal is gone from Sky Q and a blank screen again.

This starts to get annoying, so I replaced the lnb with another, same brand/model and no fix. They have to have the Amiko switched on to use Sky Q, not good. Shouldn't be that way.

My next step is to replace the shotgun cable with two runs of WF100, but does anyone else have any thoughts on this? Any help gratefully received....this problem seems illogical to me.

swoofer

Now that is a nice problem! Did it work ok for a week ie with amiko switched off?? Did you try running the new cable to sky Q and one of the shotgun to Amiko? And check connections at f conncectors. Try old lnb on sky q. Could be sky q box or duff new lnb's. Let us know when you get a fix.

eimco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118878504#Comment_118878504

Yep, worked with Amiko off until I shortened back the cabling for the new cabinet, new ends and all. I suspect the shotgun cables but haven't been able to get back to try new cables yet (they are away for a few days from today). Both lnbs give same result so I don't suspect that as the culprit.

My next move when I go back will be to pull in a new run of wf100 to the Sky Q and move the existing wf100 that serves the Amiko to the wideband output and hook that to Sky Q box too - if that cures it then it's the old shotgun cable (I will also try the shotgun from universal outputs to amiko one at a time to see if they upset the Amiko).

It's an annoying problem

raddo

Is the LNB getting power from both boxes at the same time? Or is it only getting power from the Amiko box?

The Cush

Sounds like a damaged cable not able to carry power to the LNB.

Can you test the Amiko on each wideband cable from the LNB individually. You will only see a narrow slice of channels on each working cable, H or V, due to the wider I.F. range of the wideband feed. No channels on a cable could indicate no power going to the LNB.

eimco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118880113#Comment_118880113

Yep, I'll be back with them later in the week, and will try all these suggestions, thanks

eimco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118879365#Comment_118879365

Seems that only the Amiko is powering the lnb - I'll find out later in the week, thanks

pegasuspub

Hi have you any joints on the cable?

i would run out 2 new cables from the sky q box temporarily, even out the door or window and test the working of the amiko and sky q box at the same time, flick through some of the free to air channels and see if there is any change to the sky q picture on the tv, its not exactly the same but i remember seeing a house with 4 old sky boxes a long time ago that complained about bad signal in one of the bedroom tv sky boxes, when i ckecked the signal with an old lacuna meter the signal was grand and the old pace sky box seemed perfect so i left it, two days later a complaint of bad signal in same bedroom, when i checked again the bedroom was fine, lots of head scratching, finally i found when i put on one of the other pace sky boxes inn the second bedroom and selected some channels then the fault appeared in the bedroom across the hall, i changed the old quad lnb to no avail, i finally found it was a cable fault and the two coaxial cables for both bedrooms were running together through the attic and down a conduit, i believe there was a poor earth/screen on one or both of the cable, i found the fault appeared when selecting a horizontal high channel,, i would have a good look at the earth/screening on the outside ends of the shotgun cable, thats my tuppence worth anyway.

eimco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118880706#Comment_118880706

worth checking, for sure, thanks for the input - there are no joints in the cables and the shotgun is coming out, I've decided and two runs of WF100 to replace it - might as well be rid of the older cable for good

eimco

Well, thanks all for your suggestions - problem solved with your collective help:

Firstly I moved the shotgun cables to the legacy outputs and brought in another run of WF100 from a wideband port, moving the existing WF100 that the Amiko box had been using to the other wideband port.

I attached both runs of WF100 to the Sky Q box and it worked immediately, no Amiko box attached at all - 100% signal, 90% quality...then I tried each end of the shotgun with the Amiko box in turn, both worked well, with a slight drop in quality reading to 85%, with signal at 95%. It seems a Sky Q box is very sensitive to cable condition.

Anyway I ended up replacing the shotgun with a single run of WF100 for the Amiko and Sky Q ended up with two runs of WF100. All working perfectly and the Amiko can now be switched off when not in use and Sky Q works as it should - neighbour happy and me very relieved.

Thanks again all !!

swoofer

And that was a nice result and thanks for getting back.