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07-03-2022, 10:01 AM
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#1
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Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Louisville, KY
Posts: 1,395
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Is my Wally (dish receiver) just plain dead?
This was really frustrating to me, with multiple technical faults/issues … but I think I can finally state this in a way that makes sense, and where someone can help me make a judgement…
Scenario - we are in WA state, just west of north cascades NP. I have two antennas, a traveler rooftop, and a tailgater portable antenna. Also two wallys, call them #1 and #2. I went to activate the traveler antenna, and it failed in its satellite search. I thought i had a clear view of the sky (according to my satellite finder app), but there IS one suspect branch…), so i got out the tailgater, and positioned it where i *knew* i had clear shots at all three satelites.
The tailgater quickly located and locked on to all three satellites (110, 119, 129) (that is still *so* cool to watch) , then wally #1 would do its thing, then display the available channels on the homescreen, and begin populating the guide while displaying at least one active channel on the upper right side if screen. (Im going to mostly skip over issues around trying to configure wally #2, both as primary (both as slave, and then as primary when wally#1 got flaky) - as for now i am putting that down to a bad 100ft cable … but suffice it to say that that little wild goose chase supplied me with HOURS of fun and lost time….
Anyway, go back to wally #1, which is displaying tne channel guide, select a channel i know i get, and up flashes an error box with either a “channel signal loss” or “total signal loss” error. Configure tailgater antenna all over again, get wally #1 working again, and displaying a favorite channel … only to come back a little later only to have the screen showing alternately the total or channel signal loss error (yes, im skipping over a lot of detail and individual tries and confusion).
Ok … so ultimately, somewhat in desperation, i again try the bigger rooftop traveler antenna, and *this* time it locks in to all three satellites (something slightly different in the search pattern i guess). However, i *still* get the same on-again-off-again behavior from wally #1 (and yes, i have multiple times done the complete reset of wally #1). *however*, now it looks like wally #1 just goes right to the signal loss error screen. BUT, what is weird is that if i go to the home screen, it shows active channels, AND the guide is active and actually updating … BUT if i go to actually watch a channel, i get alternately either the total or channel signal loss error.
Technical summation: wally #1 diag screen shows locked on satellites 110, 119, and 129 with signal strengths between 50-60%, however it gives a weird “reception error” message on the upper left of the diagnostics screen, and will not now display any channels. Wally#2 on the other hand works flawlessly, either when wired into either the primary or secondary feed of the bigger traveler antenna (and showing the 50-60% signal strength), AND wally#2 also works flawlessly when hooked in to the primary feed for the smaller tailgater antenna, with signal strength of 25% or so … which to me indicates the 50% signal strength on wally#1 is NOT the issue.
So, if you can follow the logic of all that, i am left with a weird mix of locked satellites, acceptable signal strengths, but some obscure reception error and no displayed channels. Have i just been witnessing a slow and intermittent death of circuitry in wally#1 … or can anyone think of something else i can do other than trashing wally#1 and buying a new one…
(Aside - its raining here today and tomorrow … so no NP trail hiking … and it turns out there is a camping world with the wally’s about 60 minutes down the road)
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07-03-2022, 10:12 AM
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#2
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Community Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2021
Posts: 5,748
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My rv has a RoadTrip T4 RT2035T In-Motion Satellite Antenna connected to a Wally receiver. When my tv is not displaying the DISH channel guide or channels I call DISH to resolve the issue andf advise if the Walley is properly functioning or not.
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2022 Jayco Pinnacle 36SSWS / 2016 Ford F-350 6.7L diesel crew cab long bed 4x2 DRW
2022 Thor Palazzo 33.6 diesel pusher / 2021 Chevy Equinox LT AWD toad
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07-03-2022, 10:22 AM
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#3
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Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Louisville, KY
Posts: 1,395
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Camp CA
My rv has a RoadTrip T4 RT2035T In-Motion Satellite Antenna connected to a Wally receiver. When my tv is not displaying the DISH channel guide or channels I call DISH to resolve the issue.
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Yeah, but all too often there is more wisdom to be had here on this forum. So i thought i would at least try here [emoji4]
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- 2017 Newmar London Aire -
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07-03-2022, 11:49 AM
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#4
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Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Pacific Northwest and Arizona
Posts: 2,040
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I have a question. Have you updated your location?
There have been times we had the same problem - signal lost - when we set-up in an area with zero obstructions. Even confirmed that the require satellites had green check marks on them in the status menu. My wife had to log onto our account and update our location. Even after doing that we had to do a receiver reset and a guide update. Then all was good.
When all else failed, she initiated a chat with Dish and had them reset or reactive the receiver remotely.
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Tom and Pris M. along with Buddy the 18 year old Siamese cat
1998 Safari Serengeti 3706, 300HP Cat 3126 Allison 3060, 900 watts of Solar.
Dragging four telescopes around the US in search of dark skies.
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07-03-2022, 12:01 PM
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#5
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Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Louisville, KY
Posts: 1,395
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So … status update … for whether it might help someone else. Plugged the receiver in this morning. Appeared to work ok .. diagnostics all green. Then after a while it stopped working on some channels, and diagnostics went back to showing “reception error” … even though all three satellite signals remained at 50-60%. Ran the switch diagnostic, and it showed no errors.
Called dish. Tech sounded confused by this also, but has me try running the switch diagnostic again. This time it took more time, then went into the guide and channel update mode, and afterward all diagnostics were green, and all channels appear to be working.
The tech said that as you move around the country, you will likely use different channels and transponders. The receiver reboot process is *supposed* to update these … but apparently the non volatile memory can not get appropriately updated, and it can sometimes take not one, but *multiple* executions of the check switch diagnostic to get the receiver correctly configured for your current location.
Now that is a lesson i had better remember going forward…
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- 2017 Newmar London Aire -
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07-03-2022, 12:08 PM
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#6
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Senior Member
Winnebago Owners Club
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: Las Vegas NV.
Posts: 801
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Had similar issues and found my software was a year old. Went to diagnostic screen and updated software no issues since.
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Robert, Sami and our owner and boss Peanut.
2017 Winnebago Vista LX 35F. 5 Star Tune, Hellwig sway bars, Super Steer Trac Bar, 1600 Watt Solar, ARP, Spare tire carrier, Starlink, weather station, 2020 Jeep Wrangler, Ready Brute Elite.
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07-03-2022, 12:18 PM
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#7
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Community Administrator
Tiffin Owners Club
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: DFW, Texas
Posts: 21,151
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I've encountered the signal loss issue with just one of my Wallies a couple of times while the other one worked just fine. I found I had to remove the card from the slot and slide it in and out a couple of times then it rebooted and worked fine. I think it may develop a little corrosion on either the card or the contacts. I also found to always let the Trav'ler go through its complete search and lock onto the satellites before powering up the Wallies. It seemed like the Wally interfered with the Trav'ler in some way until it was totally locked in.
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2017 Phaeton 40IH XSH Maroon Coral - Power Glide Chassis with IFS
Previous '15 Tiffin Allegro RED 38QRA and '06 Itasca Sunrise 35A
'16 Jeep JKU Wrangler Sahara or '08 Honda Goldwing
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07-03-2022, 12:42 PM
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#8
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Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Louisville, KY
Posts: 1,395
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Quote:
Originally Posted by astrnmrtom
I have a question. Have you updated your location?
There have been times we had the same problem - signal lost - when we set-up in an area with zero obstructions. Even confirmed that the require satellites had green check marks on them in the status menu. My wife had to log onto our account and update our location. Even after doing that we had to do a receiver reset and a guide update. Then all was good.
When all else failed, she initiated a chat with Dish and had them reset or reactive the receiver remotely.
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Yeah … i always update the location, as there are some “critical” channels we dont get unless i do that. Also, ltDan, i did also try reseating the card … did not help. Sending an update signal (they call it waking up the receivers) also did not help. Like i said, running the switch diagnostics (several times) appeared to do something different from either a power reboot or a refresh signal. I can only assume there is some NVRAM that needs some aggressive measures to reset (the rep i spoke with did not think about things at too deep a technical level …. More of a if that does not work try this kind of person.
Seems like kind of a flaky system … but i guess the wallys are really designed to be set up in a house that does not change location every day!
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