An LNB failure

Tony1A

Tony1A

Never going back to Sky TV. Ever!
My Satellite Setup
Humax HDR1100S Freesat Recorder. Octagon UHD satellite box with Gibertini 1m motorised dish. Triax TD78 for Freesat. Triax TD64 for Freesat to 3 rooms. 2 Panasonic Freeview+ HD recorders.
My Location
North-East England, UK
HI EVERYONE

Yesterday was an eye-opener. I changed the box in the kitchen to a Freesat HD box and discovered that channels were missing so I swapped it back for the Sky HD box to find the same channels were missing on there too. Strange. I then checked the other boxes connected to that dish and they ALL had the same channels missing. I knew the dish had not moved so that only left one thing....the LNB. A 3 year old Smart Blue Cap had failed and it affected every output on the LNB. I always keep new ones to hand for such an event and I replaced it with the same one. All was well again. It proves one thing that LNB lifespan is variable. Some last years, some may give up after less than a year or so. As for these 5 year guarantees I think they mean nothing. Ah well.... :)
 
Yes, I had a few Black Ultras fail on me too - mainly in an intermittent fashion whereas I would get a momentary loss of signal every few seconds. Others have died outright. Will need to start trying out new LNBs..
 
Seems to be the nature of the beast! :D
 
Tony1A said:
As for these 5 year guarantees I think they mean nothing. Ah well.... :)
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Well, in theory, the manufacturer should replace these if they fail within 5 years... Not really worth it for the price they cost.
 
Very true, Jack! I'm looking towards buying an Inverto Black quad to try one really. The single one on my motorised is quite good. Another good quad LNB is GT-Sat and I have one of those connected to my main Freesat TD78. Lots to choose from but I don't fancy any that are made in China. I prefer quality over cheapness any day.

UPDATE: I have just bought two of these from Amazon :)
 
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My MTi Octo on my Philips Bisat dish only has 3 usable ports left on it, each one started with intermittent failures before giving the dreaded "No Signal" on screen.

Just got a cheapo HD-Line octo lnb off eBay for £14 as its only for 28e so it should be fine to go with the Thomson quads on 13e and 19.2e. along with 3 new DISEqC dishes my house system should be all ok again for the winter :D

To be honest Tony I've used some elcheapo lnbs which i have had good results with and have given a good life span. Sometimes its worth trying the cheaper lnb alternatives, you may well be surprised with the results. I've had good results with Maclean branded lnbs, no idea where they come from but they have performed no worse than some of the branded ones i have tried.
 
The converter tested in all weather conditions and carefully selected from converters branded by the Luxembourg company Inverto.

Application:

1. Inverto IDLB-QUNL40-ULTRA-OPP is particularly suitable for HDTV DVB-S2. Clearly written on the package: HDTV DVB-S2 compliant and HDTV Ready.

2. converter Inverto Black Ultra is characterized by a very high frequency stabilization (converter not 'floats', which is important for receiving broadcast MPEG-4 / DVB-S2 SD and HD) and high separation polarization (when the frequencies coincide with both polarizations).

The converter has extended to 5 years manufacturer's warranty. The converter has a black plastic converter housing - white is just the tip heater and the security F-type connectors in the form of a sliding cover is black.

Parameters IDLB Quad LNB Inverto Black Ultra:

- The noise factor / Noise figure: 0.2 dB typ.
- Gain / Gain: 62 dB
- Power consumption / Current consumption: 149 mA;
- The diameter of the handle / diametr of holder: 40mm;
- Weight / Weight - 339g;
- Handle length LNB - 50mm.

Supplier: Inverto (PESI- made in China)


Konwerter Quad Inverto Black Ultra - Hollex.pl - największy polski sklep internetowy ze sprzętem TV-SAT oraz DVB-T

Translated with g00gle translate


Regards
 
I've had a few LNBs fail on me in Finland, I guess the extreme temperatures not helping. An Invacom QDF-031 on a dish that was hardly used and left idle for a few years and is now behaving erratically with frequencies badly out and some missing plus a couple of very old white Sharp LNBs that failed totally but one of them was damaged after it started to take in moisture. Not had any issues with any of the ten or so Black Ultras I've got though.
 
Is there anything that isn't made in China these days? Jeez!
 
Tony1A said:
Is there anything that isn't made in China these days? Jeez!
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Yes, but you don't want to pay 120 GBP for an LNB made in Canada, do you? (Which will, however, last 20 years.)

Don't mean to play the devil's advocate, but the (un)reliability of these things just reflect that they are made as cheap as they can be while still being competitive.
Some of them may last long, others, well, not so long.
Just make sure you have a couple of replacements ready, as they do tend to wear out just when Champions League is coming on etc.

TBH - if they're as cheap as, say, 10 GBP for an LNB - you can buy 12 of those in the same span as the 120GBP one.
Plus - technology have a tendency to become obsolete. I have a SMW Ku-band which must be 25 years old. It's single-band, single-polarity. I have no use for it, even if it does work...

The old adage still apply: You generally get what you pay for.
 
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st1 said:
TBH - if they're as cheap as, say, 10 GBP for an LNB - you can buy 12 of those in the same span as the 120GBP one.
Plus - technology have a tendency to become obsolete. I have a SMW Ku-band which must be 25 years old. It's single-band, single-polarity. I have no use for it, even if it does work...
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Reminds me of light bulbs these days. I'm throwing away (OK, storing in a box) working bulbs because there are better ones in the shops now (LED) although the old ones won't die they take too long to warm up!!
 
timo_w2s said:
although the old ones won't die they take too long to warm up!!
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Just like my grandfather's black and white TV, which is still sat on top of his wardrobe in Russia. It must be over 40 years old now but it still worked 5 years ago when I tried it and see no reason why it wouldn't work today. You can barely see what's happening on it but the picture is there and the sound is perfect. Been told there are ways to "recharge" the ray gun to bring the picture brightness back up but I won't be trying it! Goes in contrast with my plasma Panasonic TV, which I loved to death, whose PSU died with no guarantee of a fix so had to almost give it away (thankfully it lives on after someone DID fix it).
 
Captain Jack said:
Just like my grandfather's black and white TV, which is still sat on top of his wardrobe in Russia. It must be over 40 years old now but it still worked 5 years ago when I tried it and see no reason why it wouldn't work today. You can barely see what's happening on it but the picture is there and the sound is perfect. Been told there are ways to "recharge" the ray gun to bring the picture brightness back up but I won't be trying it!
Click to expand...

There's another dying 'skill'....tube boosting/rejuvenating. :)
 
Captain Jack said:
Been told there are ways to "recharge" the ray gun to bring the picture brightness back up but I won't be trying it!
Click to expand...

You would be using something like this :

bk-490_02.webp

When I was as TV engineer we used this equipment a lot. It did shorten the CRT life more than somewhat though. I thought these would have fallen into disuse during the 1990's...
 
Vacuum tubes will make a comeback right after a very very very big Solar flare hit's us and sends us back into the stone age.

I still have an old Motorola transceiver with tubes in it, I might be the only one on air after it hits.

I tried explaining vacuum tubes to a couple of junior engineers one time, they looked lost.
 
I still think old Valve amps sound nicer than there modern counterparts, theres a certain warmth to the sound given out by old valve amps :D

Not exactly the same thing but along the same lines
 
Macintosh still makes tube amps, the best sound around.


I wonder if I could come up with a vacuum tube LNB????

I still have a few grain of wheat tubes from some US army 1950 field radios.
 
Think I've mentioned it before but valve/tube amplifiers are much preferred by guitarists.
 
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