Winegard Roadtrip Mission - 4x4 HDMI Matrix - VIP211k - LG TV
This is not a question but what I found when installing this equipment. Hopefully may answer present and future questions.
Roof mount and tracking and HD are only available (as of 9/2015) for Dish network not Direct TV. And even that is with lots and lots of hidden caveats, see below.
I chose the VIP211k because of the OTA input and because it’s rectangular shape allowed a better fit with the cable modem in the cabinet space I have. The VIP211k is an older design and it seems to be in limited current production so the unit you get is likely refurbished which may be ok but I went through three before I got one that hasn’t failed. In fairness the first one might have been my fault when I left it on, on a hot day, in a closed up coach with inadequate cabinet ventilation. I’ve since added a 24 volt fan running on 12 volts. It still moves a fair amount of air but is much quieter and still keeps things cool.
Sometimes the TV does not see the VIP211k through the 4x4 HDMI Matrix switch when starting from scratch leading one to believe that the VIP211k or the matrix switch or HDMI cable is defective. I spent a lot of time chasing my tail on this one. It likely isn't any of these but simply an initial handshaking failure through the complex HDMI path. If you have problems try the analog video path from the TV directly to the VIP using the AV (yel/wh/red) wires, and selecting that input on the TV. It may prevent lots of gray hair.
The Winegard Roadtrip Mission dish is advertised as Tracking - HD - Dish network and it works for the Western arc (110, 119 and 129) which does not cover for HD the states northeast of and including Maryland. That’s a lot of states! And does not cover northern New England for anything. It’s a good thing no one lives there or goes there. The Eastern Arc (61.5, 72.7 and 77) covers everything east of the Mississippi and more. So use the Eastern Arc when the Western Arc doesn’t work and the Western everywhere else. Keep in mind that the Western Arc might not work in the West because there could be trees or a building or a mountain in the way, so the Eastern Arc would be handy and vice versa.
Winegard implements a "Hybrid" mode that substitutes 61.5 for 129 and includes 110 and 119. 129 is the Western principal HD satellite, its Eastern equivalent is essentially 72.7 not 61.5 although 61.5 appears to have some spot beam (local) HD signals. 61.5 is apparently used because tracking is guaranteed to work. 72.7 and 77 are so close in the sky that tracking usually works but is unreliable. The real solution is to switch between Eastern Arc and Western Arc and forget about "Hybrid". The poorly written manual leads you to believe that the Eastern Arc is unavailable, that is not true. What the manual really means is that it won’t track reliably though it will still try to track.
But switching between the Eastern and Western arcs means getting on the roof, removing the cover, flipping some small switches, replacing the cover and climbing down then going through the reset process (See below). Did no one at Winegard consider that motorhomes move? As an electronic designer I am astonished that this switching function is not available from the Setup Menu, but it's not.
I got tired of climbing on the roof and designed a remote switch that uses the second, and in my setup unused, coax output of the dome as the switch input. This gets the switch wire onto the moving platform with minimal effort. I had a spare wire through the roof from the previous dish but you may not. I am not offering to do this. It is not for anyone not familiar with soldering SMT0603 parts. But it does work. The schematic, using a simple 74HC04 Hex Inverter, a photo of the chip installation and a schematic of the video switching are available on my site at
Index of /winegard Winegard will be happy to tell you that this voids the warranty.
When you change the Arc switches, either manually or using the Hex Inverter, you will have to re-power the antenna. That’s what Winegard says. But it’s only a small part of what is really needed. In my experience you must kill the AC to the receiver also. I use an outlet strip switch which is easier for me than unplugging things. Turning off the receiver, at least in my setup, is not enough, it must be power line disconnected. So un-power the receiver and antenna, change the switch or switches, re-power and wait until is shows Acquiring Signal. Then, on the remote, press Menu – 6 –1 - 1 and select Check Switch. It will likely still show the satellites of the previous arc. Select Test then wait forever for the 38 tests. It will likely say that something failed. Save it anyway and go back to Check Switch. Most of the time the first time through it will find only one or two of the new arc satellites. So, run Test again and wait again and go back to Check Switch again until you get all three. This takes TIME, so have some other thing you can do while you wait and wait and wait. Eventually it will find the new arc. At least, mine does.
Many, many decades ago I climbed roofs to install Winegard antennas. Seems like parts of their design team are still in the 1960's. Maybe if enough people scream at them, they'll implement a firmware Arc switch on the RoadTrip Mission (they do it on some other models). How hard could that be? It's just firmware in two places, though updating the firmware in the antenna might not have been implemented. It is implemented in the receiver.
All the above was part of a massive change over in our 2000 Mountain Aire diesel pusher from SD coax and CRT's to HDMI and flat screens. The inputs to the 4x4 HDMI Matrix switch are the VIP211k (with OTA), a cable decoder, a Blu-ray player and Chromecast. The outputs are the front TV, the back TV, a projector (mounted above the driver with a conventional window shade as a screen near the kitchen) and the input to the radio (better sound for the projector). Biggest issue was getting a 50' HDMI cable to the rear TV. Lots of holes in the passenger side cabinets did the trick. Stay very close to the outside wall when going past the pocket door next to the refrigerator!!! And be sure you have a good electrical 'snake' to feed through the three walls behind the refrigerator.
Linear Mode
