Sky HD magic eye

[crystal ball]

I wired my neighbours TV system a few years ago, using magic eyes to change channels in the two bedrooms, all been ok till last week when both eyes stopped working, the power is switched on RF2 and the leds are lit, nothing has changed, no new boxes etc anyone experienced this before?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Not an ELECTRICAL problem

You are in the wrong forum. You should be asking in Audio Visual.

Lets ask you to be moved……

 

[swampy2]

If tv beside sky box has an analogue tuner, connect rf2 to tv aerial and scan for channel to see if rf2 is faulty, also connect up bedroom with main aerial to see if bedrooms can receive digital channels(temp remove magic eyes).

 

[RF Lighting]

Do the magic eyes go via a booster / splitter / distribuiton unit somewhere?

I had it at home where the magic eyes stopped working. The feed from RF2 went to the distribution unit in the loft and then from there to each outlet in the house.

Swapping out the distributor cured the problem.

 

[crystal ball]

Both rooms are getting signals and good pictures, yes it does go through splitter, might be next step to bypass it, been working fine for 5 years but strange both eyes stopped working

 

[Sam Gangee]

See http://www.The-Cool-Book-shop.co.uk/satellite_freeview.htm#magic

 

[m5kgk]

I take it it's a powered splitter/amp?

Sounds like the internal DC bypass has gone and not sending back the control signals to the uplink.

Bypass the amp temporarily and connect one tv directly to the rf2 and test

 

[Lucid]

... but strange both eyes stopped working

If all the appliances stopped working at the same time on a ring main, would you spend time changing the plug top fuses or would you go check the consumer unit first? It's the same here. Think about it.... both Sky Eyes stopped working, and at the same time. That would be an extraordinary coincidence. Go look for the common fault instead.

As well as bypassing the distribution amp, I'd ask if someone has wired up a new RF lead somewhere or if they changed anything in the system. It never ceases to amaze me how customers get selective amnesia until prompted. "No nothing has changed. Oh but we did unplug some wires when we had a shift round in the living room to put up the Christmas tree."

A single stray filament of the shielding braid touching the centre conductor will stop the control signals from being received by the Sky box. If you or someone else made up coax cables and the lead has been on the verge of intermittent for a while then it might just have reached its tipping point. Go check.

 

[ericmark]

Will be interesting to see what you find. I have a 6 way splitter on mine and dinning room and two bed rooms the eye works A1 but one bedroom the eye fails to work tried all sorts it did work then stopped but TV works A1.

I know the eye is OK it's something to do with wiring I would guess a plug of socket has some aluminium corrosion acting as a diode I know if I run a new cable it will work tested by swapping to satellite cable (free to air) which runs different route but to same points.

In my case my wife in other bedroom selects what she wants to watch on pay for channels if I don't like it I use free to air or DVD so have not bothered to correct the fault. However as a result I do know cable and sockets can develop a fault to stop the eye working.

As a PS in my case the LED on the eye works and volt meter shows current. Also when setting up I used the fact that the LED worked to believe the DC path was all OK. However I found the DC was supplied from the active splitter and there was no DC link between sky box and splitter. In my case found it was due to a wall socket having a band pass filter built in. By putting a capacitor in the wall socket it stops during atmospheric storms you getting a nasty belt when plugging in the patch lead but for eye these need shorting out I did it by twisting them around so two wires touched very easy for bad connection to arrive at this point latter but it would not stop RF.

 

[m5kgk]

Actually, before all that malarky I wrote before, check that it's actually plugged into RF2 on the sky box!

Probably knocked it out plugging/unplugging something else and put it back in RF1.
The eyes will always be lit if its a powered amp regardless of the source connection.

Also, if they've had a new box recently swapped by sky there is no RF2 on the WiFi enabled boxes and you need an I/O link adaptor

 

[crystal ball]

So an update at last, disconnected the amplifier and directly connected the bedroom TV to the sky box, still not working, the cable from the sky box is connected to RF2 and it is switched on. Can sky have altered software and stopped the magic eyes working?

 

[m5kgk]

Connect the magic eye directly to the back of the box. Try the remote with the eye at the back of the box so the box receiver doesn't pick up the remote

 

[Sam Gangee]

It always amuses me that people would rather waste their valuable hours messing about and getting nowhere, than spend a measly £1.45 for a booklet that has the answers and a money-back guarantee.

 

[crystal ball]

connected eye direct to sky box and placed some cushions between box and remote, worked fine, using a male adaptor connected direct through to bed tv worked fine, tried a new amplifier, stopped working again red light is on though