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Ljwt330 · 02-24-2019, 09:38 AM

Sorry for the long post, I hope you'll bear with me.

My new to me 2004 Alpine 36 FDDS came with all the video equipment disconnected from the front passenger side overhead cabinet. Inside are the ends of 7 coax cables, two of which are connected to the "Antenna" (marked with white tape) and "Cable TV" (marked with red tape) inputs of a 3-button diverter switch. The main TV is connected directly to the output of that diverter switch.

Here's my problem. The bedroom TV has a cable with a blue identifying tape, but none of the remaining cables in front have a blue marking and some have no markings at all.

I've looked at the cable wiring diagram from Alpine, and the PO gave me the list of which colors match which cables but, as stated, some cables don't have any markings.

I went ahead and bought a coax continuity tester to try and find which cable in the front matched the cable in the bedroom. I connected all the "receivers" to the free cable ends in the front and used the "sender" at the bedroom end. None of the cables showed continuity with the bedroom cable!

I checked my testing device and it worked fine on a sample cable length at home. I simply cannot find where the bedroom TV cable terminates.

Is there a connection point somewhere along the route from the rear to the front where the cable might be disconnected?

I am completely stumped. The only thing I will add is that all testing was done with no AC power to the coach, but I can't imagine that would have a bearing on the coax continuity.

Any thoughts or suggestions will be welcome!

DrDaveMA · 02-24-2019, 10:07 AM

All your cables go to the driver’s side cabinet. If you open that cabinet and remove the amplifier and other devices you will find a rats nest of cables. You will also find several splitters mounted on the walls. WRV had a propensity for installing “standard” length cables that would fit several model (read length) coaches and coiling the excess in that cabinet. If you are really enthusiastic you can probably cut out several 10’s of feet of cable, just leave enough to remove any equipment you have in there.

When the coach was manufactured there was an abc switch in that cabinet that allowed you to choose which input you wanted to use for the bedroom tv, antenna, cable or satellite. That should have been shown on the Alpine/PO diagram.

PS - update your profile, it shows the Tropical and an Alpine.

Jim A · 02-24-2019, 10:21 AM

I am not aware of any place where the cable would have another connection point. WRV used what seems to be good quality compression connectors, but maybe one of them is bad.

Three of the remaining cables (white RG6 coax?) are for the roof satellite, aux satellite, and the outside TV. If you can identify those, that will narrow your possibilities for the bedroom TV. Might help a little. The aux satellite and outside TV are easy to get to with your tester. The third is on the roof, of course.

Good luck!

Ljwt330 · 02-24-2019, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrDaveMA

All your cables go to the driver’s side cabinet. If you open that cabinet and remove the amplifier and other devices you will find a rats nest of cables. You will also find several splitters mounted on the walls. WRV had a propensity for installing “standard” length cables that would fit several model (read length) coaches and coiling the excess in that cabinet. If you are really enthusiastic you can probably cut out several 10’s of feet of cable, just leave enough to remove any equipment you have in there.

When the coach was manufactured there was an abc switch in that cabinet that allowed you to choose which input you wanted to use for the bedroom tv, antenna, cable or satellite. That should have been shown on the Alpine/PO diagram.

PS - update your profile, it shows the Tropical and an Alpine.

Thanks to both you and Jim for the responses.

In my coach, all the cables are on the passenger side, not the driver side. Could have been moved by a PO, but that's where they are. There is the ABC switch there as well. The drivers side has an entertainment system that may not be factory and there a lot of wires but not cables stuffed behind it.

And thanks for the heads up on my profile, I didn't even remember I had one, let alone anyone would look at it! It's now updated.

Jim, the cable looks to be good quality and original, it just always registers as OPEN when using the tester. I've been able to identify some of them as you mentioned, but still cannot nail down the bedroom cable.

Jeep401 · 02-24-2019, 01:05 PM

When I was trying to get all my stuff work when I bought mine one of my switches was bad, not sure if you were testing before or after the switches. I just had to keep checking things till I got it all working. It took several days!

Jim A · 02-24-2019, 06:33 PM

Not that it matters at this point, but my '04 came from the factory with a Winegard Video Distribution Switch box (often called the Box of Many Buttons, or BOMB.) There were no splitters at all in the system. There was one coax A/B switch to select between the roof satellite and the aux satellite (mis-wired by the factory), a VCR, and a DVD player/sound system. All of these were mounted on the driver side. The satellite receiver was mounted on the passenger side.

I know that the '05's that I saw had completely different components and wiring, as they no longer used the Winegard BOMB. They used an LCD TV with multiple inputs that year instead of the tube type standard TV or the optional plasma monitor that I have from '04. And a bunch of splitters. But they still had those main white RG6 coax runs.

I am still using all of the original color coded coax. 15 years later they all still work! EVERYTHING else has been replaced at least once, and often more! (Nothing in there has changed in the last 6 months, which is probably a record for me.)

Ljwt330 · 02-24-2019, 07:15 PM

From the responses, I am thinking a PO removed the original equipment, including the BOMB, and moved things over to the passenger side when they added the entertainment system on the driver's side. That system takes up about half of the right side of the driver's cabinet, from top to bottom. I can see the opening in the back of the cabinet when looking at the left side, and can see tons of wires in the space back there, but no coax. I think I will remove the system and look behind at the connections and fully explore just what's back there in the opening as that's where OEM wiring/cabling should be.

I am not familiar with the system, I think it's called Enterprise, but it is a multi media component which includes DVD, AM/FM, amplifiers, etc. Perhaps the bedroom TV cable is connected to that as it would be the source for watching DVDs in the bedroom.

Since my Alpine is in storage, it will be a while before I can check it out but I am encouraged that the cable is somewhere behind the driver's side cabinet. I'll post results when I finish my searches.

DrDaveMA · 02-24-2019, 09:26 PM

Remember that WRV modus operandi was to use up old stock before implementing a change. That in addition to what PO’s might have done, who knows what you have. Our ‘05 was built in Sept ‘04. It had a RCA surround sound system in the driver’s side cabinet that had a CD/DVD/TV/radio player built in to it. It had the RCA unit mounted in a painted black, plywood mount, behind which was piles of cables including multiple splitters. I would open that side and pull everything out searching for coax cables. You should also look toward the windshield center post where you have a LARGE bundle of cables coming up to the cabinets and going down to the dash area. The plastic cover over this steel channel is held on with Velcro and the bundle is held together with electrical tape.

Ljwt330 · 02-25-2019, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrDaveMA

Remember that WRV modus operandi was to use up old stock before implementing a change. That in addition to what PO’s might have done, who knows what you have. Our ‘05 was built in Sept ‘04. It had a RCA surround sound system in the driver’s side cabinet that had a CD/DVD/TV/radio player built in to it. It had the RCA unit mounted in a painted black, plywood mount, behind which was piles of cables including multiple splitters. I would open that side and pull everything out searching for coax cables. You should also look toward the windshield center post where you have a LARGE bundle of cables coming up to the cabinets and going down to the dash area. The plastic cover over this steel channel is held on with Velcro and the bundle is held together with electrical tape.

Thanks for the input Dave. My coach is a 2003 built 2004 MY so it appears anything is possible. From your description, my set up is like yours except for the brand of the entertainment center and very well may be factory installed. The PO used the rear TV so I know there is a connection somewhere and I'll just have to dig around for it.

Ljwt330 · 02-27-2019, 04:56 PM

Update to close this out. The person from whom I bought the MH emailed me and said he thought the cable was behind the front TV as he replace it and remembers a bunch of coax back there. I dug into it and found it! All is good (at least it will be if I can get that blasted electric heating element unscrewed from the water heater--awaiting the delivery of a 1-1/2" socket for my 1/2" drive to remove it!)