Echostar AD3000IP repair required

[Harper]

I have an Echostar AD3000IP which has stopped working and I would like to have it repaired if possible. Can anyone give me the name, address and telephone number of someone who could repair it for me, preferrable but not essentially in the North East of England?

Regards,

Harper.

 

[Llew]

What's the fault? We may be able to help if you are prepared to have a look at it yourself.

 

[Analoguesat]

Or at least we might be able to tell you where the problem is so you can pass that on to a local repairer. Several of us had Echostars - Ive just put mine back into use to monitor the remaining analogue channels on 19E properly

 

[Harper]

For about two months until yesterday, when I switched it on, it would start to "boot" but would stop before reaching the end and display 800. If I switched it off and on again at the mains power socket, it would try again and after several attempts, it would eventually finish "booting" properly. Now, when I switch it on, it doesn't do that. It makes the click as if to start "booting" and immediately clicks again and again several times until it stops doing that and the display reads 88:88 preceded by two dots, one above the other and further from each other than the colon in 88:88.

I was using it in a motorised system for news channels and anything FTA.

I would appreciate any help you can offer. I could take the top off but I don't have the skills required to test and/or replace any of the components.

Regards,

Harper.

 

[Channel Hopper]

The section below gives some help for those wanting to carry out repairs on their own

The Work Bench and Soldering Station

I doubt very much there will be a specialist around these days, the last one I worked with was JD Electronics, but I believe he emigrated to the US.

 

[Llew]

Something you can easily do is a visual inspection of the power supply board. Two areas are particularly prone to failure - the electrolytic capacitors (the black cylindrical objects in the power supply). If any of these show signs of bulging it will lead to a failure over time and will need to be replaced.

The other problem is a 'hot spot' or burning under a resistor ( about a quarter of the way down from the back of the board and in the middle) which can easily be recognised by removing the power supply - two screws on the right of the board - the one on the left of the receiver - and two screws holding the motor terminal at the rear of the receiver.

Check these points and let us know if you see anything suspicious.

 

[Harper]

I've taken off the top and the two black cylindrical objects look alright to me.
There is a black and yellow cylindrical object and a black and yellow square object next to it, about half way down. The cylindrical one looks suspicious in that the side of it furtherest from the back looks to be layered, like a toilet roll. I don't know of any other way to describe it. I have taken the power supply out and there is a heat spot where you describe however, I did have it repaired almost four years ago by someone who worked at an electronics shop which has now closed and if that was one of the things that had to be replaced to resolve that problem then, it may be still be brown from then.

Regards,

Harper.

 

[Lazarus]

Have you got a camera with macro mode?

A couple of pics might be revealing.

 

[Llew]

It's possible that the resistor or other components around the burnt area have caused a failure again. I can check and mend if necessary the power supply if you want to send it to me, but this will be assuming it is indeed the power supply and not some other fault in the receiver e.g. the EEPROM chip, which will definitely need replacing by an authorised AD3000ip Echostar repairer, of which as stated are probably impossible to find these days.

 

[Harper]

It's possible that the resistor or other components around the burnt area have caused a failure again. I can check and mend if necessary the power supply if you want to send it to me, but this will be assuming it is indeed the power supply and not some other fault in the receiver e.g. the EEPROM chip, which will definitely need replacing by an authorised AD3000ip Echostar repairer, of which as stated are probably impossible to find these days.

Thank you for the offer. I'll send you a PM to make arrangements.

Regards,

Harper.

 

[Montafon Guy]

<which will definitely need replacing by an authorised AD3000ip Echostar repairer, of which as stated are probably impossible to find these days.<


I dont think so - Echostar in the Nederlands are still repairing units.-) -http://www.echostareurope.com/-


Regards Montafon Guy!

 

[Harper]

Followup to say thank you to Llew for repairing the power supply and returning it to me. It's back in the receiver now which is working fine.

Once again, many thanks Llew.

Regards,

Harper.

 

[Gerry55]

Try this they repaired mine some time ago

Eurosat London (Repairs)
Unit 1 Apsley Way
London
NW2:7LZ

Tel 0208 208 4444

 

[Harper]

Try this they repaired mine some time ago

Eurosat London (Repairs)
Unit 1 Apsley Way
London
NW2:7LZ

Tel 0208 208 4444

Thank you for that. I'll make a note of the address and telephone number in case the receiver develops a fault that is in another part of the receiver from the power supply in the future.

Regards,

Harper.

 

[Llew]

Harper's power supply problem was a familiar one. The electrolytic capacitors causing the fault (C16,C17 smoothing the +5V output) had developed a high ESR reading due to ageing. Using an ESR meter in-circuit swiftly localised the problem. A complete replacement of all electrolytics in an old (dead) power supply is usually necessary if no ESR meter is to hand, but I checked all of the other ones, and they were reading OK.

To be on the safe side, I replaced C12 which is too near the primary circuit heat sink and stood the new one proud of the board.

 

[thegoal007]

I have managed to find this fairly old forum page. My dad has the similar receiver.."echostar ad-3000 ip viaccess". Suddenly now when he switches it on he gets the dots going around and around continually. So the problem is slightly different to the reported one above - could this also be a power issue? I will try and get down to him this week to open up the unit for a visual internal inspection. I presume it is fairly straightforward to remove the PSU out of the receiver i.e it's the same as the ad3000ip?

 

[Llew]

A stock problem with these receivers - a faulty batch of EEPROMS were used during assembly at one stage. Not possible to replace without the appropriate, expensive desoldering tools.

No harm in checking the PSU though, could possibly be a low voltage output to the EEPROM. Check the capacitors as mentioned above.

Same PSU as the vanilla AD3000ip.

 

[Vipersan]

Are we talking about U201 ?
The 16mb low voltage flash TSOP48 device ?
If so ..a big job and Id first have to source a blank from the far East ....but I suspect I could do it.
I have a working AD3000IP ...so would have to first remove my chip ..read it ...clone it and then replace both chips.
Like I said ...a big and complex job and a strain on my old eyes..but doable.
the blank chip would be a tenner-ish...and then a whole lot of tricky soldering.
Would it be worth it ?
That would be for the owner to decide...
The kind of job I'd charge £70 + for in my shop ...
Then theres postage of the main board or whole receiver to consider .
and it might take a while to get a chip from China
rgds
VS

..would fitting a blank fix the receiver ? ...I just dont know ...
or does the flash also house the bootloader ?
If so it would have to be cloned.

 

[Llew]

Might be OK with a blank eeprom in, VS (AT498V1614). Needs to be programmed via the RS232 terminal through the bank of 74HCT chips. Bootloader (Echostar's 'Bootstrap') then software. Got the Echostar uploader and bin files somewhere on a PC if you did need them.

 

[Vipersan]

Might be OK with a blank eeprom in, VS (AT498V1614). Needs to be programmed via the RS232 terminal through the bank of 74HCT chips. Bootloader (Echostar's 'Bootstrap') then software. Got the Echostar uploader and bin files somewhere on a PC if you did need them.

Ill take a look in my echostar when I get home ..for a chip with that ID ..
Certainly not U201 then ..which carries a different ID with a pink paper label stuck on top..and is a Hyundai device
HY291V160BT-90V...
Perhaps it's an alternative ..
Do you happen to know the circuit ref of the device you refer to ?