GT-Sat unicable lnb died after 3 years

[satteliter]

My GT-Sat GT-S2DCSS24 died just 6 days short of reaching it's 3rd birthday. Got 0% signal in openvix and 0% reading with SF 2500 PRO sat finder.
Boot protector cover was down and wires weren't corroded. No signs of water damage or intrusion.
Swapped in the old sky lnb and changed config in openvix. connected a cable direct and signal worked so safe to say the gt-sat lnb was at fault.
One cable going into attic and then split 3 ways powering vu+ duo 4k se and 2 Gigablue UHD Trio 4K.

Did some research and some other people also just had that GT sat unicable lnb die at the 3 year mark. So, i'm thinking of switching to Inverto-UIILNB32UB.

Anybody got experience with the Inverto? works out about 20 euro more expensive.

 

[twol]

My GT-Sat GT-S2DCSS24 died just 6 days short of reaching it's 3rd birthday. Got 0% signal in openvix and 0% reading with SF 2500 PRO sat finder.
Boot protector cover was down and wires weren't corroded. No signs of water damage or intrusion.
Swapped in the old sky lnb and changed config in openvix. connected a cable direct and signal worked so safe to say the gt-sat lnb was at fault.
One cable going into attic and then split 3 ways powering vu+ duo 4k se and 2 Gigablue UHD Trio 4K.

Did some research and some other people also just had that GT sat unicable lnb die at the 3 year mark. So, i'm thinking of switching to Inverto-UIILNB32UB.

Anybody got experience with the Inverto? works out about 20 euro more expensive.

So I am marginal for 28.2E reception and in that environment Inverto are not great.
Both GT-sat and Gigablue unicable are better

 

[satteliter]

thanks. My reception is pretty strong - never had an issue previously. i put a red dot for my location on the coverage map for astra 28.2e(uk spotbeam) (map from https://en.satexpat.com/coverage/east/28.2/):



may just go with the GT-sat for ~€32 again so. gigablue unicable hard to source. not the end of the world if it ony lasts another 3 years!

 

[twol]

thanks. My reception is pretty strong - never had an issue previously. i put a red dot for my location on the coverage map for astra 28.2e(uk spotbeam) (map from https://en.satexpat.com/coverage/east/28.2/):
View attachment 68442


may just go with the GT-sat for ~€32 again so. gigablue unicable hard to source. not the end of the world if it ony lasts another 3 years!

Well I am at the tip and a bit of right hand curve

 

[satteliter]

spent the extra 20 and got the inverto IDLU-32UL42-UNBOO-OPP which luckily local shop had in stock.


signal readings:

cnn hd: 85% snr 71% agc
bbc 1 se hd: 100% snr, 72% agc


lets see how long this one lasts!

 

[bmitie]

out of interest what does it mean when it says programmable? I use a duraline 24 with legacy ports.
What size dish are you using?

 

[Huevos]

spent the extra 20 and got the inverto IDLU-32UL42-UNBOO-OPP which luckily local shop had in stock.


signal readings:

cnn hd: 85% snr 71% agc
bbc 1 se hd: 100% snr, 72% agc


lets see how long this one lasts!

I have this lnb since years ago. Works fine for me.

 

[Huevos]

out of interest what does it mean when it says programmable? I use a duraline 24 with legacy ports.
What size dish are you using?

Programable if you have the optional programmer. Allows sending the lnb number... so you could have several lnbs on a single cable. Also allows static programming allowing an infinite number of users to share.

 

[satteliter]

hmm strange one. installed lnb and updated the VU+ Duo 4K SE UHD 4k and the two GiGaBlue UHD Trio 4K UHD boxes. everything worked fine etc..
did some reading and saw it might be better to power the lnb separately to take load off the gigablue (if a single one of them is the only box turned on, it may hit upper limits and stress it)

so, as i got the plug included with the ivnerto lnb and had a spare 'out' port on the all ports power pass splitter, i'd hook it up.
gigablue box only got signal on the last sat channel it was on before i rebooted box. (this happened regardless of 'externally powered' being set to yes or no in the tuner config.
vu+ worked as normal when i powered it on.

after a bit of googling, it seems the 19v 'out' power supply on port splitter (all ports power pass) may be sending power back to all the out ports and in essence drowning out the gigablue commands.

now off to get the inverto power inserter and put that between the splitter and lnb (and the 20.4v cable going in to that instead of the splitter)

weirdly as a sidenote, all boxes are on latest openvix. the gigablue boxes present option in tuner settings for 'externally powered' but the vu+ box does not?

red taped cable is power from inverto item num 5639 (stated output of 19.0v, 1a). measured 20.4 volts at f-plug. no continuity between outside metal and inside.

 

[Huevos]

Universal lnb must see the correct voltage 12 or 19. For unicable it doesn't matter because the control signal is superimposed on a 22kHz carrier.

 

[satteliter]

Universal lnb must see the correct voltage 12 or 19. For unicable it doesn't matter because the control signal is superimposed on a 22kHz carrier.

hmm. that makes this even more bizarre. also, i'm not entirely convinced that the power pass isnt just from out to in for all the outs. i.e. the out sending 20v is just going to the IN port, not the other OUT ports. still hard to figure out what caused the issue.

 

[twol]

I hve 2 unicable lnb,s (19.2E and 28.2E) connected via splitters to 10+ boxes - no fancy power inserter or other extras - all work fine

 

[satteliter]

hmm. that makes this even more bizarre. also, i'm not entirely convinced that the power pass isnt just from out to in for all the outs. i.e. the out sending 20v is just going to the IN port, not the other OUT ports. still hard to figure out what caused the issue.

After looking in to this a but more and still not 100% on facts of what happened. turns out putting the 20V power source into the splitter was a bad idea and could have risked damage.
those splitters seem to have a common DC rail (despite the marked lines indicating otherwise):

OUT1 ─┐
OUT2 ─┼── DC common rail ── IN
OUT3 ─┤
OUT4 ─┘

which means voltage across all devices was likely raised to 20.4 V.

luckily, no immediate damage done (all boxes kept working as normal).

 

[satteliter]

I hve 2 unicable lnb,s (19.2E and 28.2E) connected via splitters to 10+ boxes - no fancy power inserter or other extras - all work fine

yeah, was just worried about the combination of the Gigablue box(es) and the inverto lnb. intent was to reduce any power stress on gigablue as inverto has higher power requirements than others i guess