# "tv eye" style remote Sky+ extenders HELP



## jampott (Sep 6, 2003)

Following on from another thread where I said I was moving one of my TVs and (hopefully) rerunning the cable - I've now hit a new problem.

My setup is as follows:

Sky+ box downstairs in lounge, coax from RF2 socket into a wallplate. Wallplate cabled to an amp box in the loft. 4 output from this box, 2 (I think) into the kitchen, 1 to bedroom and 1 to study.

I had this box fitted, and TV Eyes placed in the rooms. I only used 1 of the kitchen points, and (interestingly) it was a fresh cable run by the installer to a different place in the kitchen from the house builder's one - and doesn't terminate in a wallplate, but goes directly to the TV Eye and into the back of the TV...

The study is a wallplate, and the bedroom was too...

To resite my bedroom TV, I decided to pull a new cable from the loft and drop it behind the new site of the TV in pretty much an exact replica of the kitchen scenario. I bought a new TV Eye (the old one stopped working a couple of weeks ago) but of a different manufacture.

I pulled the cable through, terminated it properly and connected everything up. Firstly the picture was poor, but I got sound - then remembered I'd forgotten to turn the power back on to the amp in the loft. :roll: Having resolved that, I switched back on again, and the picture was perfect - if anything, better than before. But the TV Eye didn't work...

Nor did the old one.

Nor did the one I nicked out of the kitchen to try.

Nor did it work when I pulled through a completely different cable, made from the reel the engineer left behind.

So I swapped out the amp (which meant reterminating a few of the cables, as it used a different connector type) and put the kitchen TV Eye back downstairs again. It didn't work. Nor did it work upstairs.

So back to the original amp, I now have the TV Eye back working in the kitchen, but nothing in the bedroom. A real shame, because my cabling is all hidden - even the power comes from the loft, so all you see is a TV hovering on the wall above the doors 

I'm going to contact the supplier of these new Eyes, but the problem appears more sinister than that - as the Eye that worked in the kitchen, doesn't work in the bedroom - and I've tried 2 different cables, remember.

If I'd got interference on the cable, or they weren't terminated correctly, I wouldn't be getting a perfect picture (and I am!).

So has anyone come up against anything like this before?


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## mw22 (Aug 15, 2005)

Have you checked the power output on the RF2 out of the sky box?

My set up was some-what more simpler than yours... 1 sky box downstairs, and the eye fed up stairs. 1 day it just stopped working, so I brought a new one and nothing still.
Turned out the setting for the RF power had turned off!!!!

Can't remember how to switch it on, its one of the hidden menus (least it was on a standard sky box).... but I'll try and find out if this could be an option???

Mike


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## jampott (Sep 6, 2003)

mw22 said:


> Have you checked the power output on the RF2 out of the sky box?
> 
> My set up was some-what more simpler than yours... 1 sky box downstairs, and the eye fed up stairs. 1 day it just stopped working, so I brought a new one and nothing still.
> Turned out the setting for the RF power had turned off!!!!
> ...


Cheers Mike - forgot to mention I tried that too...

It is set to "on", and using channel 61 (my preference)

For reference, you go to the Services menu, then 4,0,1,Select


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## nutts (May 8, 2002)

I seem to remember from somewhere that some remote eyes do not like having a connection in-line (Amp) between the Sky box and the TV. Have you tried the remote eye on a cable direct from the Sky box without going via an amp?


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## jampott (Sep 6, 2003)

nutts said:


> I seem to remember from somewhere that some remote eyes do not like having a connection in-line (Amp) between the Sky box and the TV. Have you tried the remote eye on a cable direct from the Sky box without going via an amp?


I haven't... but I have tried the kitchen eye in the bedroom and it doesn't work. If anything the cable is shorter to the bedroom, as the kitchen one has to route all the way back downstairs, so cable length isn't an issue...


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## jonah (Aug 17, 2002)

Have you tried swopping the cabling so the bedroon room lead goes to the output that the Kitchen feed was using on the amp :?


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## jampott (Sep 6, 2003)

jonah said:


> Have you tried swopping the cabling so the bedroon room lead goes to the output that the Kitchen feed was using on the amp :?


Yup. I tried rewiring everything for a couple of hours last night, including swapping the terminals on the amp AND swapping the amp for another which is advertised as safe for use with the SLX extenders. The one in my loft has the 'F' connector, the new one has normal male/femal push connectors - so it was a hassle to swap over and back.

Today, my poor fingers are sore from all the tinkering with cables, and I'm no further on, except the wiring is at least tidy...

Its REALLY annoying!


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## Toshiba (Jul 8, 2004)

jampott said:


> nutts said:
> 
> 
> > I seem to remember from somewhere that some remote eyes do not like having a connection in-line (Amp) between the Sky box and the TV. Have you tried the remote eye on a cable direct from the Sky box without going via an amp?
> ...


you cant use an amp with the eye or any other device between the eye and the RF2 output on sky. I had the same problem.


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## jampott (Sep 6, 2003)

Toshiba said:


> jampott said:
> 
> 
> > nutts said:
> ...


Sorry, Tosh, but that's tosh...

I've had the setup working with THREE eyes perfectly happily for the last year or so...

It was installed this way by the aerial engineer that fitted the extra cable to my kitchen, and included him exchanging some of the wallplates for ones suitable for passing the correct voltage through.

I've connected it back up and the kitchen eye is working perfectly again (through the amp).


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## jonah (Aug 17, 2002)

Has to be the ye then if you've swopped to an output that works and the eye still wont work :?

You sure your remote is working (Batteries) :wink:


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## jampott (Sep 6, 2003)

jonah said:


> Has to be the ye then if you've swopped to an output that works and the eye still wont work :?
> 
> You sure your remote is working (Batteries) :wink:


Except a WORKING eye (from the kitchen) doesn't work in the bedroom. Neither of the new eyes work in any location :roll:

It sounds like I have at least 2 different problems. The fact that the new eyes won't work in any location is a problem which hopefully can be resolved by swapping those out, or talking to the supplier.

The fact that NO eyes work in the bedroom seems to be a different problem altogether.


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## scott28tt (Jul 30, 2002)

I had exactly the same problem with my setup, and still have not got a full and proper resolution.

TV and Sky+ in lounge, with the RF2 feed going up to the loft.

Distribution box in the loft, specifically designed to support remote eye 'return signals' :roll: :wink: , feeding kitchen and main bedroom.

Eye in main bedroom connected directly to distribution box.

Eye in kitchen connected via wall-plate to distribution box.

When I first set it up about 2 years ago it all worked perfectly, then it started playing up intermittently, perfect sound and picture in kitchen and bedroom but no remote control signals being returned to the Sky+.

The quick fix then was to turn off the Sky+ RF2 12V signal and turn it back on again (via the Sky 'not very secret at all' menu). Sometimes disconnecting and re-connecting the connectors to the distribution box was also necessary.

It stopped working totally about 6 months ago, and I tried everything you have also done. Replacing connectors, cabling, swapping the eyes over, etc....

In my situation, I finally came to the conclusion that the distribution box is the problem - hard-wiring the loft cables together to bypass the box was the test here.

I haven't yet got round to replacing the box, so currently have the cables hard-wired in the loft. I can change channels from the bedroom, but it's sound and picture only in the kitchen - the 12V signal is not strong enough on it's own to support full functionality.


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## dee (Jun 3, 2005)

I havent read all the above in with any particular focus, but I dare say I'll be told if I'm off topic.

is the red light on the eye link?

I have Sky+ working on 6 eye links using the 8 way version of :http://www.audiovisualonline.co.uk/dynamic/eshop_products.set/ref/694/tv-link-f140-4-way-professional-amplifier/display.html

I had a problem with one of the feeds for quite some time and was advised to replace the cable. Mine was not buried but it was a pain to do.... It worked a treat - It only needs a strand of the external physical concentric channel strands to touch the central physical channel at the ends or along the cable somewhere (perhaps where its been crushed) to short the curcuit... also used the oportunity to replace it with a high grade sattelite specific cable... yeah I was probably conned.. but it works just fine now.


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## David_A (May 7, 2002)

One other thing, I had simple sky box downstairs, remote eye and tele upstairs. It was really shi* for ages things like the down button not working, the right button only working when it wanted to etc etc and generally crap response. Thought well everyone says they work ok, so changed the cable to new stuff from maplin, reterminated all the end and hey presto signal way way better and it all works perfectly.

It could be the terminals shorting out a little which doesn't affect the picture that much but screws up the remote or crappy cable.

HTH

Dave


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## jampott (Sep 6, 2003)

Thanks for your responses - you'll be pleased to know I finally fixed it, so I can stop whinging on!

I decided to test the eye would work by bypassing the wallplates AND the amp completely, and simply connecting it to one of the cables I'd been using to test with (its about 10m - enough to go across my loft. So I fitted a female plug, and connected the eye directly to the Sky+ box with this cable. It worked first time, so I knew the Eye was ok...

Then I remembered I'd been meaning to replace the cable between the Sky+ box and the wallplate. I'd bought a .5m, gold plugged, interference free (!) cable some time ago, but misjudged the length and it was too short to connect to my box AND the wall. So I swapped my Xbox360 and Sky+ box around on the AV stand, plugged it in and tested the Eye upstairs (I was testing with a spare one downstairs - I bought 3 in case I wanted to rewire the rest of the TVs cos these ones are so much neater).

It worked first time... :roll:

A word about the Eyes themselves - I was using a mixture of types, all of which have a square box with coax terminals front and back, and the IR in a biggish (bigger than thumb) sized unit.

Anyone who has tried to fit one of these to most flat screen TVs (where the coax is usually in a recess, and running parallel to the screen) will know you usually have to make a short connector cable, as you can't get the box into the recess to connect it to the TV.

The ones I've bought are "Vision Link" - they have an 'F' connector on a barrel-shaped box, which is a much more secure fastening than a push-fit, then a fly-lead off the barrel which terminates in a male push-fit plug. This means the whole thing can be connected to a flat-screen TV and then hidden from sight. No need for a fly cable, as its already built in to the unit. Furthermore, the size of the IR receiver is tiny (about the size of my little fingernail) so it is far less obtrusive.

Happy chappy now. All you can see on the wall is the TV  I've freed up the power socket in the bedroom (power now comes from the loft) and its great for watching telly in bed


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