Technomate TM6800

[ed731pdh]

Er indoors started griping, the satellite box wasn't receiving anything, the box in this case being a four year old Technomate TM6800HD receiver unit. I said I'd have a butchers later and carried on with my day of woe.

Once I finally got command of the remote control for the TV it was off investigating. The box was sort of powering up ok but would be spurious in accepting remote control commands. Once into the menu settings it became apparent that the signal strengths/quality on *every* available channel was 0%. A factory reset failed to restore normality so I steeled myself towards getting the unit on the kitchen table and getting the lid off.

A quick look around inside found no issues on the main motherboard, pity the same could not be said for the switch mode PSU which was displaying a touch of Skyitis . A 2200uf 10v electrolytic cap, the only 105c one in the whole set, sitting next to a heatsink, had domed off and was obviously unhappy. The rest of the caps looked physically ok but after a quick call to Dennis (who incidentally has the same model box) the advice that the other caps were almost certainly on their way to retirement was a dead cert. I was however lucky in that the damage was caught before something major blew, as is the case with switch mode supplies.

So, this afternoon, soldering iron in hand, a pile of spare caps to hand and my best reading glasses on, went about repairing the board. One moment of high drama with a damaged track on the cheap STRP fibre based board and that was it. Plug in fingers crossed, power up and no miniature mushroom cloud spelling death and destruction. Full operation restored, just a case of sitting there for the afternoon and re-programming the 20 odd available satellites back into the box due to my factory reset. Mrs H now happy, BBC HD back on air.

[tiv48]

the SMPS units in a lot of set top boxes are badly designed and built to a price in yours even they used a 105c cap they stuck it next to a heat sink! and why were the rest only 85c? i used to hate the early pace recivers when they came in dead .
rob t

[Refugee]

I had a knock on the door a couple of days ago. It was a media center with a tape bomb on the output lead from the wall wart where it goes into the case.
The output was very low and did not vary when the lead was handled.
After changing the cap across the output and testing it I took it back and showed him the culprit and his face almost scrunched up at the thought of the kids moaning all evening that they could not watch the thing. I then told him that I did have the spare part and watched his face light up again as I handed it back to him.

[ed731pdh]

Just spent the afternoon in the rain with a walkie talkie, compass and sig meter, setting up the dish for the remainder of the satellites while er indoors done the honours on the remote setting up the menus. I'd normally do this sort of thing at the box with a portable telly, long extension lead and a short length of coax but me, electricity and water just do not mix. I'd also use the USALS if it was reliable (but it isn't) so it's back to good old Diseq 1.2 and a lot of motor nudging.

I agree with you on stuff being made "to a price" and power supply units are a case in point. The PSU in the TM box was made in Essex, but the quality of the layout was not exactly on the best to say the least. It will be interesting to see how long the unit lasts now with the new parts installed. One scary, I didn't change one particular cap (68uf 450v) because it was sited on the board well away from the action, but a replacement part, just one, was retailing in the order of £6. My blood might be rich but not that rich.

[Refugee]

That 68uf will be the mains smoother and will be having an easy 50hz life in there.

[dennishoy]

Glad you got it sorted matey.

If you give the thing a factory reset, it reads and stores the pre-programmed data from permanent memory from the time the system was new, so will be four years out of date. By data, I do not just mean the channel information, but also the transponder settings. You really need to update these before you do a channel search.

First download and install the Clarke Tech Editor Studio v3.18 from here.....
http://www.sat4fun.co.uk/showthread.php?128303-Clarke-Tech-Editor-Studio-v3-18
(you'll need to register on the forum).

You can find the transponder information on the KingOfSat website here....
http://en.kingofsat.net/

The next bit assumes you can exchange files between the satellite receiver and PC using a serial port and the Clarke Tech Editor Studio.

Open the Clarke TechEditor Studio and got to File --> Import --> Web --> Import
Select the first satellite you want to store and the url should automatically appear and information should download into a table which you can save as a .ndf file as you add more satellites.

When you've finished, send it to the satellite receiver using a serial port and a null modem cable. Finally, download the lot back from the receiver and save it as a master .ndf file in case you need to do another factory reset at some time.

Works for me every time, and all the updated transponders and dead ones are taken into account.

D.