I have three exterior coax connections and Dish said none of them are working

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by DougW

What color wires are on the plate in the bedroom with 2 connectors? Knowing that might help determine what goes where.

Getting your own tone generator and tone tracker would be the easiest way to get this figured out, they are about $25 for a cheaper one.

An alternate way to test is with a VOM, just look for continuity (ohms) between the shield and center of the coax, it should show none. Then you put a short on what you think is the other end of that same wire and recheck the VOM reading. It could be time consuming but the results should be accurate.

I've got pictures of the water bay and you can see that I just posted pictures of cables on the back of both wall plates in the bedroom. You can see a cable attached to the front of one of the bedroom plates and it is just a couple feet long and attaches to the pictured television.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by redjet

I have a 2016 cardinal 3850rl and run satellite and wifi into it. Now that everyone has you running in circles lets fix the problem. There is a panel that allows you to access the coax wiring and all sorts of connections behind the water inlet panel. Remove the panel and follow each of the coax cables. One ends (I assume its labeled Cable input) at the cable/OTA amplifier, then splits off to the a bedroom tv and the LR TV. The other labeled satellite will end at a splitter - you know which is the input - the other two go to the BDRM and LR. Do continuity checks to see which cable goes where. Use a straight-thru connector to connect the input to the cable going the direction you want. I punched another hole in the panel and installed another input connection and connected it to the other cable off of the splitter for my wifi input.

Also, Cardinal generally runs a coax from the BDRM to the LR. Check for it (via continuity). It will allow you to place equipment where you have space. On mine I had the DISH Rx and cable modem in the LR near the connectors. I used the connector between the LR and BDRM to connect the Dish Joey in the BDRM. The modem was connected to a router which provide coverage within 50 feet of the camper.

Satellite techs don't like to get into the rigs wiring. This is an easy fix -good luck.

I currently do not have the ability to easily check lines for continuity. I could just try various combinations until something works. It does seem that Cardinal has run a coax from the bedroom hub to the living room. As mentioned, it might not have made sense, but this is a front living room plan and they may just wire them all the same as the rear living room models.

I thought our Joey could receive a signal from the Hopper in the living room via our orbi brand internet router. But it would not connect when we tried it last night. It could be the distance from the router was too great and we should try placing in closer.

You are correct about Dish employees, they have little interest in removing wall plates and sorting out the wiring on campers. After he ran our two cables through two different windows, We discovered the rear window did not have the tolerance to close over the wire. The pressure caused the window frame to separate from the window glass. We repaired it with silicone caulking and will not be running cable through that window again.

One thing is certain, Once we leave this summer location and head off to spend fall in the midwest and then winter back in Arizona, I'd like to buy each of you who helped me figure this problem out a meal, should we cross paths.

[DougW]

My guess would be one of the white wires from the wet bay goes to the white wire on the double plug plate. The other wire on that plate may just be a loop in the wall which comes back to the booster unit on the other plate. Sometimes the circuit board is labeled with what each connection should be so a close look at that might also be useful.

At this point I would connect the Dish receiver to the double plug plate white wire, then connect the dish antenna to one of the white wires in the bay, if it doesn’t work try the other white wire in the bay. Other than that you will need a test light, VOM, or tone set to figure all of these wires out.

Also some of the connectors such as the ones on the wall plates are not of good enough quality to pass a nice clean digital signal. It might be good to go to the local Big Box Hardware and get some digital quality connectors and replace the ones you have. If I remember correctly the good ones will have a blue color in the center.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Ok, I'm rested and well fed. I'm ready to solve this wiring problem.

I have two white colored cables entering the camper from the water bay.

I have white and purple cables hooked to the back of the living room wall plate.

I have white and purple cables hooked to the back of the bedroom wall plate.

I have black, purple and orange colored cables attached to the rear of a second wall plate in the bedroom. This wall plate also has two wires and an LED light with a switch to turn it on and off.

I do not know what cables lead to the roof. I do not know which cables lead from the bedroom to the living room.

The orange and black cables have no matches that I can find, so maybe they lead to the roof ota antenna and the roof satellite dish (optional equipment I do not own).

Someone suggested the satellite signal is coming in on the white cable(s), coming from the water bay to the rear hub and possibly to the living room. If that signal is only going to the rear hub, I might need to reroute it to the living room by connecting that white cable to one of the purple cables that might lead to the living room. From there, I could attach another short cable from the wall plate to the Dish Hopper.

But if there are two white satellite cables coming into the trailer, and there are two white cables inside the camper, one on a wall plate in the bedroom and another on the wall plate in the living room, why didn't the Dish guy just check the continuity of the white lines and discover they both sent satellite signals to each of the two rooms? I don't recall him removing the wall plates to check cable colors, but if he reached inside the living room cabinet and saw two coax connections, even if he couldn't see which was white and which was purple, he only had to test each of them to see that the white one was receiving a signal from the white line coming in from the water bay.

I've had a lot of good suggestions from several people. Now we seem to be at a point where it is necessary to have equipment to test the lines for continuity. I don't have such equipment. But what I do have is free service calls from dish if I request them. I'm thinking I should leave every wall plate left hanging out for them to see and ask them to test the lines coming in from the water bay once again until we get a signal leading to the hub or the plate next to the hub or to the living room plate. Then I want him to get the Joey working again. It worked fine when he ran a cable trough the window and attached it to the Joey mini box, but it should also work without the cable, by way of the internet router, which I did not have installed until one day after the Dish guy made his initial installation. He may just need to sinc the Hopper with the Joey via the router.

Does anyone see any other viable option at this point?

[CHICKDOE]

i agree with the post above. put your dish receiver on the white cable that terminates in that dual plate. plug your satellite into one of the two ports in the wet bar. if this doesn't work try the satellite on the other wet bay port.

the third coax port in the wet bay, the one on the plate by itself closest to the door, is the park cable input. this goes to the antenna booster and from there to all four tv's. this works just fine on our model 3825. i'm sure there are splitters and the antenna booster in this cable so it will not work with a satellite input. but ours works just fine using the park cable input.

i'm still thinking the other satellite input coax will terminate in the cabinet up in the living room.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by DougW

My guess would be one of the white wires from the wet bay goes to the white wire on the double plug plate. The other wire on that plate may just be a loop in the wall which comes back to the booster unit on the other plate. Sometimes the circuit board is labeled with what each connection should be so a close look at that might also be useful.

At this point I would connect the Dish receiver to the double plug plate white wire, then connect the dish antenna to one of the white wires in the bay, if it doesn’t work try the other white wire in the bay. Other than that you will need a test light, VOM, or tone set to figure all of these wires out.

Also some of the connectors such as the ones on the wall plates are not of good enough quality to pass a nice clean digital signal. It might be good to go to the local Big Box Hardware and get some digital quality connectors and replace the ones you have. If I remember correctly the good ones will have a blue color in the center.

Thanks Doug, I was typing my reply just as you posted your reply. I think your suggestion made perfect sense, but it is so obvious that I can't understand why the Dish guy didn't try it. I feel like he told me he did try it, as well as several other combinations and did not get a tone.

My wife just stepped inside the camper to say that she and her brother, working outside with a mini-excavator burying utilities in a ditch next to the camper, just accidentally severed the Dish cable. So until they repair it, I won't be doing any testing for a while.


Edit: I just made an appointment with Dish. A service tech is scheduled to be here Saturday afternoon.

[The Newsoms]

We had a 2016 3825 FL. The satellite in the waterbay runs to the LR. The “jumper” that connects the LR and BR is actually looped on the roof for a rooftop dish.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by The Newsoms

We had a 2016 3825 FL. The satellite in the waterbay runs to the LR. The “jumper” that connects the LR and BR is actually looped on the roof for a rooftop dish.

There are two coax connections on the wall plate inside the living room cabinet. One cable is white, like the white coax cables coming in from the waterway, and the other is purple, like the ones I can see on both wall plates above the bedroom tv.

So you are saying that I can attach my Dish satellite cable to one of the two white cables in the waterway and then attach a short cable to the living room wall plate that corresponds to the white colored cable on the back of the plate, and run it up to the Dish Hopper DVR to get a signal. The Hopper should be able to send a signal to the Joey box in the bedroom via our internet router, but it seems like the purple cable in the living room could be used to send the satellite signal back to the two wall plates above the bedroom tv and then connect the purple cable to the Joey box. So I would need a way to take the incoming signal to the living room wall plate and send it to both the Dish Hopper and also to the second coax connection on the plate to take the signal to the bedroom. Or, since the Dish representative originally added a splitter outside, so he could send a cable through the window of the living room and through the window of the bedroom, I could use both of those cables and connect them each to the two white colored cable connections in the waterway, thus sending the satellite signal to each of the two rooms. There are three total coax connections on two different wall plates in the bedroom, so I'd just need to find the one that is being fed by the white cable coming from the water bay.

Does that sound about right? To me, it sounds like something the Dish guy should have known how to do when he first installed the satellite dish and Hopper and Joey boxes. He sort of gave up on making those connections and just ran two cables through two different windows.

[The Newsoms]

Originally Posted by Wayfaring Stranger

There are two coax connections on the wall plate inside the living room cabinet. One cable is white, like the white coax cables coming in from the waterway, and the other is purple, like the ones I can see on both wall plates above the bedroom tv.

So you are saying that I can attach my Dish satellite cable to one of the two white cables in the waterway and then attach a short cable to the living room wall plate that corresponds to the white colored cable on the back of the plate, and run it up to the Dish Hopper DVR to get a signal. The Hopper should be able to send a signal to the Joey box in the bedroom via our internet router, but it seems like the purple cable in the living room could be used to send the satellite signal back to the two wall plates above the bedroom tv and then connect the purple cable to the Joey box. So I would need a way to take the incoming signal to the living room wall plate and send it to both the Dish Hopper and also to the second coax connection on the plate to take the signal to the bedroom. Or, since the Dish representative originally added a splitter outside, so he could send a cable through the window of the living room and through the window of the bedroom, I could use both of those cables and connect them each to the two white colored cable connections in the waterway, thus sending the satellite signal to each of the two rooms. There are three total coax connections on two different wall plates in the bedroom, so I'd just need to find the one that is being fed by the white cable coming from the water bay.

Does that sound about right? To me, it sounds like something the Dish guy should have known how to do when he first installed the satellite dish and Hopper and Joey boxes. He sort of gave up on making those connections and just ran two cables through two different windows.

Yes. That’s what we did to get signal to the BR. Our Cardinal was totaled this winter during the south’s hundred year snow so I can’t go out there and look but you’re right about the colors. Make sure the connections are tight at the back of the plates and behind the water panel. I think our colors were orange(antenna), white, gray, and brown.
The window thing sucks. I’ve done it but it looks tacky.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by The Newsoms

Yes. That’s what we did to get signal to the BR. Our Cardinal was totaled this winter during the south’s hundred year snow so I can’t go out there and look but you’re right about the colors. Make sure the connections are tight at the back of the plates and behind the water panel. I think our colors were orange(antenna), white, gray, and brown.
The window thing sucks. I’ve done it but it looks tacky.

It was worse than tacky. That style of bedroom window, when closed over the cable, creates pressure on the frame. Opening and closing the window caused it to fail after a couple of weeks. The glass separated from the metal frame along the bottom of the frame. I repaired it and removed the cable from the window and done without tv service to the bedroom tv. My wife will be glad when I get the camper wired appropriately. Sorry to hear you lost such a beautiful Cardinal trailer. We really like the floorpan and the space.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Victory!

This morning I went outside and rerouted one of my cables from the Dish to the water bay and discovered it successfully sent satellite signal to the living room television. Shortly after, I attached another cable to the second coax connection in the water bay and it successfully sent satellite signal to the bedroom television.

All is well.

The lesson I learned is to trust people here on the Forest River Forum for advice over what I was being told by a Dish company technician. I doubted the solution could be so simple, otherwise the Dish tech would have quickly solved it himself. People who own campers and have knowledge and experience working on them are to be trusted over someone who is not invested in this lifestyle and doesn't have the time to problem solve before he moves on to his next appointment.

I want to thank everyone for their valuable contributions to helping me get out satellite service working as it was intended to work. Have a great weekend. I'm off to Bald Eagle Day parade and celebration.

J. Daniel

[The Newsoms]

Great!

[Scrapper]

I know I'm late to the party but attached is a pdf document if anyone needs a way to trace or test their coax cables.

[CHICKDOE]

And I have to believe that purple cable simply runs between the front tv and the bedroom tv. Is good to know it was that simple.

[DougW]

Glad you got it figured out.

[The Newsoms]

Originally Posted by CHICKDOE

And I have to believe that purple cable simply runs between the front tv and the bedroom tv. Is good to know it was that simple.

It goes from LR, to roof, then loops to BR. For hooking up a rooftop dish, but useful for other things too.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by The Newsoms

It goes from LR, to roof, then loops to BR. For hooking up a rooftop dish, but useful for other things too.

Good to know. I walked the dogs through a campground this morning and saw a motorhome with an auto-seeking satellite dish on the roof. I had one of those on a previous camper and really liked it. Once we begin moving the camper around, we will need to invest in something like the Dish playmaker, Dish tailgater, or the more expensive Traveler.

[CHICKDOE]

A comment about the traveler antenna (or the other brand - I think it is mogul).

These use the SWM technology. There is only one coax from the antenna to the receiver, plus a control cable from the antenna to the antenna control box. We have a wireless video bridge in the coax. We use it to broadcast the video signals to the remote tv’s. The remote tv’s do not require any coax connection. Each tv can watch any show I dependant from the other tv’s.

[The Newsoms]

Originally Posted by CHICKDOE

A comment about the traveler antenna (or the other brand - I think it is mogul).

These use the SWM technology. There is only one coax from the antenna to the receiver, plus a control cable from the antenna to the antenna control box. We have a wireless video bridge in the coax. We use it to broadcast the video signals to the remote tv’s. The remote tv’s do not require any coax connection. Each tv can watch any show I dependant from the other tv’s.

My understanding is that this only works with Direct TV?

[CHICKDOE]

it certainly appears that dish has similar wireless remotes that do not require actual coax connections. look up their wireless joey devices.