Surprised Masthead Amplifier Powered by Vu+Duo2?? - any issues with this?

liamtech

Just looking for some intel on this. I finally decided to upgrade my crappy UHF Aerial, and provide Saorview to the bedroom. The cables were already in the walls so, all that was needed (as far as i was aware) was the aerial itself, a power suppy, and a masthead Amp with 2 outputs. In did the installation in steps starting with mounting the aerial, and using my living room Vu+Duo2 as a signal meter.

Once i alligned and installed the Aerial, i connected the masthead amplifier - the surprise for me was that it Lit Up Immediately without my adding in the power-supply - my only assumption is that the Vu+Duo2 is actually providing the power for the amplifier - this suits me down to the ground as it means i dont need to waste a mains socket for the separate power supply.

Are there any issues with this - effectively my Duo2 is powering the amplifier - my worry is taxing the Duo's PSU, or reducing the STBs lifespan - the configuration of my DUO2 is as follows

-2 x DVB-S2 Tuners

-1 x DVB-T2 tuner

-2.5" HDD (500gb)

-OpenATV 7.3

Any opinions on this are greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance

liamtech

PS - Not sure this makes a difference but im also using 2 UHF/Satellite Combiners/splitters - one near the aerial, and the other in the bedroom - thanks again

banie01

AFAICR the Vu + and similar boxes provide 12v DC over Coax, the terrestrial tuners probably do the same.

swoofer

I have the DUO 2 and if you look under the setup for DTT tuners ii has an actual setting to turn on and off that feature, enable 5v for active antenna etc.

That DUO2 is some box. Rock solid for years

TAFKAlawhec

As @swoofer says, If you go into the tuner config on your relevant Enigma 2 image for the Vu+ Duo 2 (usually Tuner C for terrestrial/cable, but not always), there should be an option to enable +5V DC on the coax cable to power a masthead amp. Years back it used to be 12V DC that was commonly used for masthead amp powering, supplied by a separate AC-DC power adaptor that had the inbuilt bias-t, but 5V DC supplies built into receivers has been more common since DSO.

As for the Duo2 receiver, it's been a very good receiver that's served me for a number of years but its age is now starting to show for general day-to-day use for me - no UHD/4K, no HEVC/h.265 video decoding & no support for multistream satellite transmissions being the main ones for me. Another issue I also had was that it seemed to struggle to provide enough power via the LNB outputs whereby using a USALS/Diseqc motor took longer than expected to move when changing satellites on a motorised dish, as well as having issues when at the extremes of the arc where the dish would fail to move back towards the centre as not enough power was being supplied - using different receivers showed a notable improvement in such performance, presumably they could supply more current? (I don't have a motorised dish in place ATM). I did have a look at the Vu+ Duo 4K SE, but its inability to blind scan on satellite (apparently a side-effect of the FBC tuners), general expense and a lack of notable support activity from Vu+ over the past couple of years as well as being unsure about the USALS/Diseqc motor issue I had with the Duo2 being resolved with the Duo 4K SE has put me off getting one. Sticking to an Octagon SF 8008 4K for now, the one with two DVB-S2X tuners with terrestrial support provided by an xBox DVB-T2 tuner connected to a USB2 socket.

STB.

Short answer Liam is No the 5V being provided wont task the CPU, the same way the 5v provided to the USB ports wont either. Its designed to do this.