Satellite hookup question

[wayneroe]

The guide for setting up satellite tv says, if using RV setup where the antenna coax is connected to the outside cable/Satellite port, connect the receiver to the internal electronic cabinet. Does anyone have a good suggestion about where to start looking for the internal electronic cabinet in an ACE 30.3. Tried to contact Thor to get wiring layout, but, of course they are closed until Monday.

[Laco]

Don't know on the Ace, on ours its a small cabinet above the refrigerator. See if you can follow a lead from one of the TV's to see at least what direction its going. Any Ace owners out there that might already know?

[wayneroe]

Originally Posted by Laco

Don't know on the Ace, on ours its a small cabinet above the refrigerator. See if you can follow a lead from one of the TV's to see at least what direction its going. Any Ace owners out there that might already know?

What should I expect to see when I find it? In a cabinet above my refrigerator, there is a faceplate with a coax connector. The blueray player is also in that cabinet. I can't tell just where that coax runs to, it goes out the back of the cabinet along with a couple of other wires and I think the cable from the blueray to the TV.

[wayneroe]

Originally Posted by wayneroe

What should I expect to see when I find it? In a cabinet above my refrigerator, there is a faceplate with a coax connector. The blueray player is also in that cabinet. I can't tell just where that coax runs to, it goes out the back of the cabinet along with a couple of other wires and I think the cable from the blueray to the TV.

That faceplate with the coax connector also has a green light on it.

[Laco]

What it sounds like they want you to do, is put the satellite box between the cable run from the outside connector and the connector to goes to your TV sets. If your dish, guess you plan to use a portable, connects to your external coach cable connector, instead of the park cable, connector, seems it should work. So you are looking for a cable coming in from outside and going to some sort of distribution connector, exactly what depends on how many TV's you have.

[wayneroe]

Originally Posted by wayneroe

What should I expect to see when I find it? In a cabinet above my refrigerator, there is a faceplate with a coax connector. The blueray player is also in that cabinet. I can't tell just where that coax runs to, it goes out the back of the cabinet along with a couple of other wires and I think the cable from the blueray to the TV.

That faceplatewith the coax connector also has a green light on it.

[wayneroe]

Originally Posted by Laco

What it sounds like they want you to do, is put the satellite box between the cable run from the outside connector and the connector to goes to your TV sets. If your dish, guess you plan to use a portable, connects to your external coach cable connector, instead of the park cable, connector, seems it should work. So you are looking for a cable coming in from outside and going to some sort of distribution connector, exactly what depends on how many TV's you have.

Yes, I think that is right. I have an external coax connection for cable/satellite. I am thinking that if I run the coax from the portable antenna to that external connector then unhook the current cable from the back of the TV, run it to the receiver, then my HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV then that should work. I will try that tomorrow afternoon. I plan to run two TVs from the portable satellite dish. I have a dual coax on the dish and two receivers.

[wayneroe]

The more I read, the more I think that external coax connector can be either cable or satellite, depending on how the wiring inside the motorhome is connected, but can not be both, so I think I will have to get the diagrams from Thor to find out how everything is wired. In the meantime, I have a coax running from my satellite dish directly to the receiver (through an open window) and that seems to work OK.

[Laco]

Seems like a coax cable is a coax cable, and should work for either, just not simultaneously. As long as you have it working, so its all usable, that's the main thing. Since I had a permanent roof mounted dish installed, its all dedicated cable runs, separate from the cable connectors on the side on the motorhome. Good luck getting anything in the way of detailed electrical drawings from Thor. I got all the electrical drawings for ours, but they were not detailed as to where the wire runs were, only showed a line from the switch to the light fixture, kind of thing.

[wayneroe]

Laco, I took a picture of the faceplate with the coax connector. By zooming on the picture, I can read what's on the faceplate (it's upside down, of course, so is tough to read even once it is zoomed. Here is what it looks like.

[Steve70605]

Not sure on your unit, however, on mine the "green light" indicates that the digital antenna is "on". Should be a push button on the faceplate. I had to remove the side panel to get to back side of this switchplate to access the cable. Mine had a splitter where I hooked the cabe from the splitter to my direct tv box from ceiling mount.

Hope this helps......

[wayneroe]

Originally Posted by Steve70605

Not sure on your unit, however, on mine the "green light" indicates that the digital antenna is "on". Should be a push button on the faceplate. I had to remove the side panel to get to back side of this switchplate to access the cable. Mine had a splitter where I hooked the cabe from the splitter to my direct tv box from ceiling mount.

Hope this helps......

Thanks, Steve.

[wayneroe]

Originally Posted by Steve70605

Not sure on your unit, however, on mine the "green light" indicates that the digital antenna is "on". Should be a push button on the faceplate. I had to remove the side panel to get to back side of this switchplate to access the cable. Mine had a splitter where I hooked the cabe from the splitter to my direct tv box from ceiling mount.

Hope this helps......

Steve,

That button was so small I couldn't see it from outside the cabinet. I only saw it once I took a picture with my cell phone and zoomed in on it.

[Laco]

What was connected to that box? Did it go to the TV's? If so, that's were you put the satellite box, connect the input to that connector, the output to whatever it is that goes to your TV sets.

[wayneroe]

I haven't removed it from the wall yet to look behind it, will do that tomorrow. All I saw just looking in was exactly what I had in the picture I posted. All you could really see with the naked eye looking in the cabinet door was the coax connector (nothing connected to it) and the lit green light. I finally stuck my iPhone inside the cabinet, took a picture, then zoomed in on it. That's when I first noticed the wallplate was upside down because I had to read everything on it upside down and backwards. I could barely make out it said "on" and "off" and then saw the button and figured that's what the "on" and "off" were depicting. Tomorrow, I plan to pull it away from the wall and explore what's behind it using the pictures/diagrams a couple of others have sent. The button with the green light is exactly as you described - when I finally realized it was a button and turned it off, the feed to the TV from the antenna died. I turned it back on and the antenna feed came back. The satellite works fine when I run the cable directly to the Wally receiver from the dish. Next step is to be able to run it from the cable coax on the outside through the cabin wiring and make the satellite work that way. The next step is to find out how to make my second receiver hookup to be able to watch different channels on two Tv's. My dish has two coax connectors and I have two Wallys, but I'm assuming I need to find a way to run the second coax from the dish to the second receiver. Not deep enough into my research yet, but I'm beginning to fear that might require cutting a hole and adding a second coax connector to the outside of the unit.😩

[dcbenny]

Originally Posted by wayneroe

I haven't removed it from the wall yet to look behind it, will do that tomorrow. All I saw just looking in was exactly what I had in the picture I posted. All you could really see with the naked eye looking in the cabinet door was the coax connector (nothing connected to it) and the lit green light. I finally stuck my iPhone inside the cabinet, took a picture, then zoomed in on it. That's when I first noticed the wallplate was upside down because I had to read everything on it upside down and backwards. I could barely make out it said "on" and "off" and then saw the button and figured that's what the "on" and "off" were depicting. Tomorrow, I plan to pull it away from the wall and explore what's behind it using the pictures/diagrams a couple of others have sent. The button with the green light is exactly as you described - when I finally realized it was a button and turned it off, the feed to the TV from the antenna died. I turned it back on and the antenna feed came back. The satellite works fine when I run the cable directly to the Wally receiver from the dish. Next step is to be able to run it from the cable coax on the outside through the cabin wiring and make the satellite work that way. The next step is to find out how to make my second receiver hookup to be able to watch different channels on two Tv's. My dish has two coax connectors and I have two Wallys, but I'm assuming I need to find a way to run the second coax from the dish to the second receiver. Not deep enough into my research yet, but I'm beginning to fear that might require cutting a hole and adding a second coax connector to the outside of the unit.😩

That is exactly what I did I found the matching ones on Amazon Installed 2 on the outside of the MH directly coax directly to the satellite boxes works perfect

[wayneroe]

Originally Posted by dcbenny

That is exactly what I did I found the matching ones on Amazon Installed 2 on the outside of the MH directly coax directly to the satellite boxes works perfect

Don, where did you place it at and how did you go about it? I haven't done anything like this and really don't want to mess anything else up drilling holes through the wall of my motorhome.

[dcbenny]

Originally Posted by wayneroe

Don, where did you place it at and how did you go about it? I haven't done anything like this and really don't want to mess anything else up drilling holes through the wall of my motorhome.

On my front TV in was able to drill thru the side of rv where my propane tank is and up thru floor into my dineete bench. From there up wall into my cabinete where all my tv hook ups are into satellite box. On rear tv drilled thru coach wall into wardrobe cabinet adding a coax wall plate

[dcbenny]

Here is pic of outlet I added to for front TV

[wayneroe]

Originally Posted by dcbenny

Here is pic of outlet I added to for front TV

That looks good. My main TV is under the window on the passenger side and is recessed into the kitchen counter, raises up into position using a switch in the entryway, right at the end of the kitchen counter. I also have a TV in the bedroom and an outside TV, also on the passenger side. I might do what you did with a coax connector just beneath the kitchen window to run directly to the receiver for the main TV, then exactly what you did for the bedroom since there is a storage cabinet right behind the bedroom TV and that is where I had planned to put the receiver anyway.