SLX Booster and magic eyes not working, help please

[happyhero]

Hi Can anybody guide me here please I have a SLX 8 way Booster and about 4 rooms with magic eyes. I am taking the AV feed from my Sky HD box from connection RF2. I just switched Sky boxes from a Sky+ box to a Sky HD box but I know that is not the problem.

I have had this problem a while ago and fiddled with everything, you know connect/disconnect, switch on/switch off and got it working before, with no real clue as to what was wrong at the time when it suddenly started working again.

Anyway having been an electrician before I retired, I have a multimeter and know how to use it so I thought I would go a bit deeper.

Basically every time I mess about with things, ie change boxes etc I get these problems now and I would just like to prove what is at fault and then buy what I need, ie new booster or cable etc, to stop this irritation.

The signal to RF2 is switched on and I have proved it works by connecting direct to just one cable to one of the rooms and then all was controllable from there. I have also proved I am getting just over 9v out of the cable coming from RF2 at the bedroom end. This drops to about 8.6v on the SLX outputs.

But one odd thing I found that does not help is that even if the cable from RF2 is not plugged into the SLX booster I notice you still get 8.6V out of it, I suppose that is part of its features/boosting or something, but obviously that is making it difficult to prove what is getting through.

I do get good pictures from RF2 throughout the house and all the magic eyes light up like they are supposed to but none of the eyes will react to my pressing any buttons on the remotes in any of the rooms apart from obviously the room that the Sky box is in.

I know it is not a problem with the amount of eyes etc as this has all been working fine in the past for several years so what can the problem be, basically I bypass the SLX box and connect to one room and it all works on that one room but put even just that one room through the SLX and it gives a picture but no control.

So it seems like the SLX is playing up but if the picture and the 9V are getting through what can be wrong, I dont want to go and buy a new box only to find it does the same thing. What else could I test on the SLX and how?

Any ideas, any help appreciated.

 

[ChrisFrost]

If you're using the old Sky+ remotes with the new HD box then that could be the problem. They can be programmed in a way so that they don't conflict, but that then means that a HD box won't respond to a Plus box remote. Satcure has a really comprehensive section on programming Sky remote features. Here's a LINK

Check for shorts on any self-made cable ends. Just one braid filament touching the centre conductor will stop things working.

Recheck that the 9V signal really is enabled for RF2 out.

If all this checks out then try bypassing the SLX completely. Link the cable from the RF2 feed directly to each room one room at a time and then test. Through a process of elimination, you'll either find the single room that's a problem, or if all the rooms are affected then you know it's the feed from the Sky box to the SLX.

 

[flameport]

But one odd thing I found that does not help is that even if the cable from RF2 is not plugged into the SLX booster I notice you still get 8.6V out of it, I suppose that is part of its features/boosting or something, but obviously that is making it difficult to prove what is getting through.

The SLX booster contains it's own 9v power supply. Therefore 9v will always be present on the outputs, regardless of what is connected to it.