Satellite Dish set up in Voltage 3970 - Dutchmen Owners
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Old 04-14-2015, 06:37 PM   #1
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Satellite Dish set up in Voltage 3970

I really have appreciated all of the great information and help that this forum has provided. Even with some minor issues, the Voltage 3970 is just great! We are still getting used to it and setting it up to our tastes.

Even after reading through all of the comments and threads on this site, I am still lost on how to hook up my Satellite Dish to the Voltage.

I have a VCube Flex that I have hooked up to a Directv receiver that I pull out of my house. Since we are not full timers, we didn't want to spend a small fortune on a roof top system and separate receivers. The Flex automatically seeks out the satellites so I don't have to worry about positioning the dish. The only downfall is that I do not get HD, something we are willing to live with when we are camping.
Out of the Flex dish, there is 1 cable that connects to a small Flex receiver box that is in the Voltage. The cable provides both signal and power. The receiver box then connects to the Directv receiver.

Right now, I have the system working with the 30 foot cable running out the window to the Flex dish outside and the Directv receiver connected via the HDMI cable to the back of the main living room TV.
I really need help on how to eliminate the stupid cable running out an open window.
1. What is the connector in the outside wet cabinet for - satellite or cable?
2. There is a white cable that is connected to the back of the living room tv on the rf1 connector- what is it connected to on the other end?
3. Our tv connectors are not near the TV - they are in the cabinet in the hallway (???). In the cabinet below the main electrical/light switch panel, there are three connectors for the tv system. I know the top one is for the on air antenna and has the on/off switch for the antenna booster. The next one down is a jumper for ???

The next set of connectors down appear to be connectors for the bedroom, garage, and outside tvs. However they say satellite in - are they meaning that the satellite connector would connect directly to these? Keep in mind that this is in the hallway closet.
A couple other questions I have are:
4. How can you access Directv and Cable?
5. How do you access Directv on all TVs?

I have attached pics of the dish, and the connectors in the closet and the connector in the exterior wet area.

Any recommendations are really appreciated!

Thanks!

CJ
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Old 04-14-2015, 07:45 PM   #2
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Aztex
I got tired of trying to make it work, so I ran another wire from the wet area to the Direct Box, then I ran a cable from the box to a switch, which then goes to the TV....I took off the cable from the TV and ran it to the switch...Now I can have both Direct TV and Camp Ground TV..Switch back and forth...now I'm going to see if I can sent photos, there is a guy who works on Sat TV on here and he has Sat on all his TV's...Maybe he will see your post and add in? Now I do like the area, you have for the Sat Connections to the other TV's, I don't have that...
Rich
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Old 04-14-2015, 08:04 PM   #3
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I think the photos are there
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Old 04-15-2015, 04:43 AM   #4
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Thanks, Rich. I am still trying to figure out the great wisdom of the Voltage Gods in the design of the system and their definition of "satellite ready."

I may try and call Dutchmen and speak with the Voltage product manager to see if he can point me in the right direction.
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Old 04-15-2015, 04:52 AM   #5
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We just finished setting up our satellite TV in our 2015 3970. It is setup the same way with the satellite hookup in the coat closet. I called voltage and asked who had this bright idea and they couldn't help. They said they would talk to the engineer and call back. Well big surprise they haven't. I ran a new coax from the demarcation point in the wet area just like in the picture above right to the open space behind the fireplace. I opened the air vent on the left side and was able to run the wire and actually mounted the satellite receiver and an xbox one behind the fireplace and ran a power strip down there to power everything. I didn't use the cable hookups in the closet and didn't have to drill any holes. It worked great. The other rooms hook right up to the plate outside and work as advertised.
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Old 04-16-2015, 04:29 AM   #6
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WifiDan,
I'm still a little confused.
I understand running a new coax to the receiver through the air return/vent.
Did you hook the receiver directly up to the living room tv or did you run it to a switch like RVNevada did?

No sure what you meant that the other rooms hooked up right to the plate and worked as advertised. Can you please explain?

Sorry for being so confused on this.....I do appreciate your help. This cabling is certainly not my forte.

You were right about Dutchmen/Voltage. I spoke with a customer service rep. at length. When I asked him for a copy of the cabling schematic he lied and said they didn't have any. When I challenged him and asked them how did they build the Voltages without any schematics, he stumbled around and changed his tune, saying they never released schematics to customers and for me to contact my dealer.
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Old 04-16-2015, 05:08 AM   #7
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No problem at all! This type of wiring was my last profession. I ran a short coax from the "wet" area to just behind the fireplace. There it plugs into the satellite receiver which I left in the huge space behind the fireplace. Then I ran the hdmi cable between the satellite receiver to the TV. There are several openings between the two places so you will never see the wire. 2 I hooked the second port on my dish to the port in the wet area labeled "bedroom" and the bedroom receiver works great. This way if I can switch over the air stations, park cable and satellite at any time. Please let me know if you still need any help and I will be happy to take some pictures as well.
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Old 04-16-2015, 09:14 AM   #8
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Since I was only able to get STD reception with my antenna, I bought one of the "old" STD definition DirectTV receivers from Camping World. $99, you don't own it, as per the contract once you hook it up it belongs to DirectTV.

These STD def boxes have both a coax in / out. I believe most of the "new" HD boxes use an HDMI output to the TV. The advantage of connecting this STD def box is that if you have a cable/air coax connection into a splitter that feeds all the TVs you can run it through the cable in on the box and replace the TV out coax from the receiver to the splitter. This will feed all the signals (satellite, cable, over air) to all the TVs. My splitter was behind the main TV and accessible by removing the 4 corner screws in the bathroom wall cabinet.

My coax comes from the roof mount antenna, through the roof, directly to the box in the main entertainment center. I couldn't use the pre wire in, my unit only has one coax in located in the wet cabinet marked Cable TV.

The dealer installed my antenna and at first I had some issues with the signal quality. They made a mistake by putting a two out splitter between the box and main four out splitter. #1 out to main splitter, #2 out to the main TV. I improved the signal quality by putting the main TV on the unused loft TV connection and running the TV out from the box directly to the main splitter, getting rid of the extra splitter.

My antenna has two coax out and I want to get another box to hook up to the bedroom TV. If I cannot back pull the coax from the bedroom to the main entertainment center, I'll have to run the coax down from the roof directly into the bedroom entertainment center.
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Old 04-16-2015, 10:04 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aztex View Post
WifiDan,
I'm still a little confused.
I understand running a new coax to the receiver through the air return/vent.
Did you hook the receiver directly up to the living room tv or did you run it to a switch like RVNevada did?

No sure what you meant that the other rooms hooked up right to the plate and worked as advertised. Can you please explain?

Sorry for being so confused on this.....I do appreciate your help. This cabling is certainly not my forte.

You were right about Dutchmen/Voltage. I spoke with a customer service rep. at length. When I asked him for a copy of the cabling schematic he lied and said they didn't have any. When I challenged him and asked them how did they build the Voltages without any schematics, he stumbled around and changed his tune, saying they never released schematics to customers and for me to contact my dealer.
If you start trying to track wires on the units you will find out they DON'T have any schematics. Dealers can't get them either, I know two dealers and several technicians and they all tell me the same thing. Airstream used to put out a series of manuals that contained schematics, don't believe they do any more. They have gone the way of rest of the industry. FWIW I am in the process of making up my own for my Coleman

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Old 04-17-2015, 05:13 AM   #10
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Thanks to everyone for the responses. We had a lot of chores in town today, so we will resume our working on this tomorrow. I know that I can hook up the main TV directly via HDMI- it works like a charm; however, I also have stored away an old Directv box that has cable in/cable out that I would like to try and get working so I can use all TVs on Satellite. With just the two of us ( and the occasional grandkids), we don't care if the TVS all have the same TV signal/show.
When we had our Class A, we had a switch box that had buttons for dvd, cable, antenna, and sat for all three TVs. All you had to do was push the button and you were good to go. Sorta missing that now.

Believe it or not, I found an old Dutchmen satellite wiring blueprint from 2010 online somewhere. I may test it out tomorrow and see if it accurate. It looks like it may have come out of the toyhaulers, since one output is for a loft TV.
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Old 04-23-2015, 05:21 AM   #11
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Satellite hookup in Voltage 3970

I have tried various scenarios and have taken everyone's input on how to hook up the satellite dish in our 3970. Since we weren't concerned too much with getting HD since our King Flex wouldn't get HD from DirecTV, we found one of our older spare DirecTV receivers that had coax in/coax out and started trying out configurations that would allow the broadcast to go to all 4 TVs ( even though the same broadcast). Also, this receiver has coax in/coax out.

I think I finally figured out how to use the existing cabling in the Voltage and get picture on all TVs. All cabling is SAT grade, so the one coax in the wet area can handle cable or SAT input.

I still have to track down all of the splitters ( still can't find them) to upgrade them, as I think
they are degrading the picture a little.

I tried so many configurations that I started getting myself confused. So, I did a quick schematic on how it is set up and working. I've attached it in case somebody else can use this setup. It will also help DH when he goes to set it up. It seems that Dutchmen has changed the cabling and setup many times , so I can't confirm this will work for anyone else. Our 2015 Voltage was made late last year.

In the future, I may investigate hdmi to coax converters or wireless hdmi to see if that would work to get closer to HD...it appears they are fairly expensive so it can wait.


cj
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Old 04-23-2015, 05:26 AM   #12
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With the layout this time

Sorry, it didn't upload the photo with the last post. Hopefully it takes this time.

cj
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Old 04-25-2015, 02:20 AM   #13
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My late wife was a real "TV junkie" so I installed the Weingard Traveller HD dish on our 2007 Hitchhiker and then again on our 2008 Monaco diesel pusher. It is an excellent unit and can be installed by a competent DIYer. The unit weighs about 50 lbs. but once you get it installed you will love it. The newer models have 3 outputs for three separate DVR's so you could just connect those to the small F-connector panel labeled MAIN, BEDROOM, and GARAGE. Once you level your trailer, you just hit the power button and it finds the satellites automatically and provides an excellent HDTV picture.
Hope this was helpful.
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Old 05-24-2015, 09:21 PM   #14
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I had the same question when I saw the sat hookup in the coat closet. Why isn't this in the wet area???? I have a Wingate and I supposed to run the 2 cables out the door?? Going to wait til Tuesday and call my dealer to see if I can relocate it.
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Old 08-06-2015, 03:35 PM   #15
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Smile Direct vs. Dish?

Which satellite server do you recommend? Direct vs. Dish? Why?
We are wanting to satellite to our list of to do's, and want to invest wisely.

Thank you!
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Old 08-06-2015, 03:41 PM   #16
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What satellite server do you use, Direct vs. Dish? We are wanting to add satellite to our list of want to adds, and want to invest wisely.

Thank you!
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Old 08-25-2015, 03:58 AM   #17
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Thanks for the questions Windjammer. I have been doing alot of research to no avail. I am curious it is worth the extra dollar to have the permanent dish installed or if I should do a "tail gater" style. I think the "tail gater' can only support 1 receiver. I have yet to find one person to ask to answer all questions.
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Old 08-25-2015, 04:05 AM   #18
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What satellite server do you use, Direct vs. Dish? We are wanting to add satellite to our list of want to adds, and want to invest wisely.

Thank you!
I work for Directv. If you are interested, I can get you a $100 Visa gift card, free Genie system for up to 4 rooms, free NFL Sunday Ticket for 2015, and 3 months free HBO, Stars, and Cinemax. Click on the following link for details
DIRECTV - Best Offer Ever | 1-800-657-9921

Mention promo code 463048
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Old 08-25-2015, 05:02 AM   #19
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Our portable king for Directv supports 2 lines coming out of it.
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Old 08-25-2015, 05:19 AM   #20
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CJ, I bought all the hardware to do the HDMI over coax to the other three TVs in the Voltage. It doesn't work. For some reason the picture on all three TVs was a combination of pink and lime green. Tried the set up in the house with same result. Worked with the tech people for two weeks and finally figured out it wasn't going to work. So returned it all...on threat of credit card dispute.

What does work is upgrade to a DirecTV Genie HD DVR...then add a DirecTV "wireless video bridge" and "wireless mini-Genie" devices for the other TVs. Me, I bought two. One is permanent in the bedroom, the other can be moved from the Garage to the Outside TV.

I bought all the hardware at www.solidsignal.com you can purchase extra power supplies, remotes, etc. To my disgust, DirecTV will not allow you to have more than one Genie HD DVR per account. So we have to move it from the house to Voltage when we travel. Not that big a deal as I purchased an extra power supply that stays in the Voltage. The set up works just great!!!

We have DirecTV. My folks have Dish. We have so much more content than they do its pathetic. So I doubt I'll be leaving DirecTV.

Now another thought...if you stay in RV parks that have a really good WiFi, consider getting a ROKU device. Its amazing how many movies, programs, specials and channels are available for no cost. We also have Netflix. But you can't use a Verizon "hot spot"...streaming ROKU content will break ya!!

If you're going to go with DirecTV or Dish...think about having the Slimline dish mounted on the roof of your rig. Yeah, its about $2700 for the dish and the labor. But it is so nice to get set up, press the Power button, the dish rises, finds the three satellites for HD, locks in and you turn on the TV. Ready to go...push the power button again and the dish folds down and stows itself. Awesome!!

husker gary...I believe what you are looking at are one or both of the:
SWM Power Inserter
4 Way Splitter
When my dish was installed they cut a 4" x 8" opening up in the passenger side of the loft and that's where the cable comes down from the antenna. Guess they needed that to get the cable inside the walls. The two components I listed, in our Voltage, are mounted behind the circuit breaker panel. I can get to them by taking out the fireplace so I can get behind it. That's why yours is probably in the closet. Wish mine was, would sure be easier to work with.

hayden, you can split the signal coming from a "Tail Gater" antenna, but you have to have a DirecTV or Dish receiver at each TV. Before we had an HD antenna, and moved to the Genie receiver. We had two DirecTV HD DVR receivers. Each was $6/month. But with the wireless Genie...you can't have but one receiver per account. So that doesn't work. My solution above works and its how we do it with great success.

I've had the old, move the antenna, holler at each other, and finally get a signal. Then to a non-HD self aligning dish. Worked OK until there were trees in the way or someone with a big 'ol RV pulled in and blocked the signal...then you have to move it. The one on the roof...no problems at all!!

Just a whole bunch of thoughts...and I think I can answer most questions...been there, done that!!

Pirate
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