Advice Needed Smart priority switches?

[jeallen01]

Having a bit of a rethink about how I will connect the TM 5403 and the Vu+ Solo 2 to the 4x cables from the dishes at the end of the garden and that might mean using Smart Priority Switches.

I already have a very old Global one but I think I will need another one - so any suggestions as to what is now available and where to get it from would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Captain Jack]

There's this - Digiality Smart Priority Switch

I use them but I find that I have some signal quality degradation when going through them. @Vipersan will have more insight.

 

[jeallen01]

Alex

Thx - will check Pulsat out when I get a chance. All switches have losses so no surprise there.

 

[Vipersan]

Indeed ...use use them in a daisy chain arrangement ..and can confirm the losses and that they do multiply ..
3 in a chain is useable ..4 is borderline ...and forget 5 ..
from experience roughly 2db loss per insertion..
rgds
VS

 

[scopus]

Could you not use a Diseqc switch? e.g. 4in 1 0ut.

 

[davemurgtroyd]

Are the 4 cables from 4 lnbs or 2 lnbs? If from 2 then a 4 in 2 out DiSEqc switch would work - EMP-Centauri 4/2 S.166-W 4 to 2 DiSEqC 2.0 Switch with weather protection

 

[Vipersan]

smart priority switches are only really useful when you want to share a dish/lnb/or even a motor between more than 1 receiver ...
not multiple lnbs on one or more dishes to a single receiver..
As Dave says ....for this you use diseqc switches.
Basically SPS is designed to electrically replace manual A/B switches ..
horses for courses.
rgds
VS

 

[a33]

When I google 'sat priority switch' I find cheaper priority switches than when I google 'smart priority switch'.

just a hint... ;)

Greetz,
A33

BTW I guess you can modify a 4/1 diseqc switch to a A/B/C/D-switch. Not easy, but it can be done. That way you don't have as much losses as when cascading 1+2 priority switches.

 

[jeallen01]

VS

Effectively sharing the dishes (or some of them at least) IS what I now want to do because it looks like I will have to do most of the Rx setup work from our upstairs bedroom/office before transferring the Rxs to the living room (where my wife and/or I actually watch TV) - but I would like switches down in the garden so that I can leave the cables to the bedroom in place to enable me to easily take one or more Rxs back upstairs to "play with".

Smart switches would seem to be the way forward, and diseqc would not be an option, in this case - OTOH, given the likely low frequency of switch usage, I would probably be fairly happy to even use manual switches in a weatherproof enclosure in the garden (it would certainly be simpler and I already have at least one enclosure that would be big enough) if I could find those manual switches at a reasonable price (no luck last time I looked a while ago).

 

[jeallen01]

A33 - thanks for the tip and I found a few that might do the job. OTOH, so far the only one that so far gives the insertion loss is the Digiality one (4d on the Pulsat site

 

[jeallen01]

A33 - thanks for the tip - found a few more, but the only one that gives the insertion loss is the Digiality one on the Pulsat site - that is 4dB. Will keep looking though.

 

[a33]

I'm not quite sure whether the insertion loss is on signal quality or signal strength.
I believe the last?
In that case if you have enough signal strength to begin with, the insertion loss is not very important.

If insertion loss would be on signal quality, you would lose on bad weather reserve, of course...

BTW: A priority switch is in fact a splitter, usually, with only a switching part for the LNB-control. That's probably where the insertion loss comes from.
At the non-deciding port you therefore have the same frequency block satellite signal as at the master port....

Greetz,
A33

 

[jeallen01]

A33

Thanks and, when I asked about the spec on a unit on Amazon, someone appears to confirm that he gets TV signals (I think he meant sat TV!) on both output ports at the same time, regardless of which receiver in control of the switch, but that on the secondary Rx he only gets channels from the range chosen by the Master when that is switched ON.

Now I understand a little better, but it still does not help on deciding which type to get, but I hope I'm getting there. "Funny" thing is that the prices range from about £6 to about £26 - depending on what you buy and from where - and yet it is difficult (so far) to ascertain whether there is any real difference in performance between the cheapest and most expensive ones! However, I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that there probably is not much except w.r.t. to "quality control" and consistency (but then there was that problem with those cheap "BEST" diseqc 2.0 switches which did not work properly in anything but a basic 4 to 1 configuration, and that makes me suspicious of the cheap priority switches which might not be all that they appear to be).​

 

[Vipersan]

To help you decide ..
Keep in mind the objective ..
Only one receiver can control the dish/motor/lnb at any one time ...according to which receiver has priority A or B ...
There is no connection to the dish/lnb/motor of the receiver with the lesser priority if both receivers are turned on ..
The SPS is a device to use more than one receiver on a priority basis giving absolute contol and priority to whichever receiver is turned on ..
thus either or ...not both ..
hope this helps..
..so it should never been seen as a device to share or split the signal..
rgds
VS

 

[jeallen01]

VS
Many thx for the explanation - that should help a lot.