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  1. #1
    Left The Driveway
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    Dish Satellite in Solitude 2930RL

    We have a new Solitude S2930RL and love it, but one thing has me a bit frustrated. We have a Dish Playmaker and a Wally. It's the same setup I've had in previous trailers and a Class A. I connected the dish to the plug on the Nautilus marked SAT/Living Room. The other two are marked Cable and AUX/Bedroom. Also in the wet bay is a male coax connection marked "Satellite" which GD told me is for a TV outside the coach. With the connection to the SAT/Living Room the setup for the Living Room TV was typical and the reception is excellent. The problem is that I cannot get any satellite reception in the bedroom. In fact, when I try to source that TV with its remote, there is no satellite option in the menu. It's an inexpensive/no name set, but I would think it has to have that option.

    Sadly, Customer Service at GD was of little help although they did gladly send a coax schematic. I am able to read it as many years ago I had a Ham radio license (I think it was the one just after Marconi!). I show an orange wire (marked satellite) from the Nautilus to the Living Room TV and only a white wire from there forward to the Bedroom TV.

    Do I need to get to the area behind the wall in the door side of the storage bay and do some rewiring? Or, am I showing my age and forgetting the obvious? Any ideas will be appreciated and for any solutions I promise to toast you with some single malt!

    Many thanks in advance!

  2. #2
    Setting Up Camp
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    Quote Originally Posted by EdgewoodPeter View Post
    We have a new Solitude S2930RL and love it, but one thing has me a bit frustrated. We have a Dish Playmaker and a Wally. It's the same setup I've had in previous trailers and a Class A. I connected the dish to the plug on the Nautilus marked SAT/Living Room. The other two are marked Cable and AUX/Bedroom. Also in the wet bay is a male coax connection marked "Satellite" which GD told me is for a TV outside the coach. With the connection to the SAT/Living Room the setup for the Living Room TV was typical and the reception is excellent. The problem is that I cannot get any satellite reception in the bedroom. In fact, when I try to source that TV with its remote, there is no satellite option in the menu. It's an inexpensive/no name set, but I would think it has to have that option.

    Sadly, Customer Service at GD was of little help although they did gladly send a coax schematic. I am able to read it as many years ago I had a Ham radio license (I think it was the one just after Marconi!). I show an orange wire (marked satellite) from the Nautilus to the Living Room TV and only a white wire from there forward to the Bedroom TV.

    Do I need to get to the area behind the wall in the door side of the storage bay and do some rewiring? Or, am I showing my age and forgetting the obvious? Any ideas will be appreciated and for any solutions I promise to toast you with some single malt!

    Many thanks in advance!
    I feel for ya.. I can't figure out my "recent purchase 2015" I have the same Playmaker and Wally, that work great with the coaxial strung out the window. But I have no signal using the jacks. The labeling is poor. I might have to have an expert solve this for me. I haven't checked the bedroom yet, but we don't plan to use it there. I don't know why there is 4 jacks, with only 3 places to hook up a TV. (LR,BR,pass-thru)
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  3. #3
    Site Team traveldawg's Avatar
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    On my rig the AUX/Bedroom connector in the wet bay feeds directly (and only) to the AUX coax connector in the bedroom. I would think your's does the same. So the dish antenna should plug into the AUX/Bedroom connector in the wet bay and the Wally's coax should plug into the bedrooms AUX connector.

    Then the Wally's HDMI output should plug into one of the bedrooms TV's HDMI input ports. You should select that HDMI port as your input on the bedroom TV. And you should see the Wally's 'splash' screens regardless of whether you have an antenna connection or not. There is no such option as Sat as an input, just TV coax or HDMI (and maybe some kind of analog RCA connector type connection).
    Larry KE4DMG
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  4. #4
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    Thanks for the responses. I think onespeed hit it on the head in that not all terminals/connections are marked. The schematic shows a cable connection from the LR to the BR, but it does not seem connected. Perhaps a connection underneath has come loose. I probably did not make myself clear in my original post that I am seeking to have satellite service in both the LR and BR using one Wally. I had this in my recently sold Itasca Class A as well as in a 2004 Carriage Cameo. I would certainly think Grand Design quality would include it in a Solitude. BTW - the AUX connector in the wet bay does feed the BR Traveldawg is correct in his hookup suggestions, but this will, unfortunately not allow me simultaneous satellite capability in the LR.
    Home Base near Edgewood, New Mexico
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  5. #5
    Rolling Along Spartacus's Avatar
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    I went through this for about a couple of years now to the point that my wife would be on me to stop, because I would come in and go out of the 5th wheel trying to get the SAT to work so I finally call Dish Network and told me that their system don't work well with Splitters, in most of all rv's they all have some kind of Splitters so what I did is to bypass them all but adding a separate connections, for my bedroom and our living area.
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  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by onespeed View Post
    I feel for ya.. I can't figure out my "recent purchase 2015" I have the same Playmaker and Wally, that work great with the coaxial strung out the window. But I have no signal using the jacks. The labeling is poor. I might have to have an expert solve this for me. I haven't checked the bedroom yet, but we don't plan to use it there. I don't know why there is 4 jacks, with only 3 places to hook up a TV. (LR,BR,pass-thru)
    The problem with the older models is that there are splitters in the coax run that prevent the Wally from "back-feeding" power to the antenna. I ran into this issue on my previous trailer and had to mount my Wally in the basement, run a coax directly from the Wally to the antenna, then using a component in to coax out adapter to get the feed into the trailer. The picture was ok but not ideal....

    Thankfully the mfr's have starting laying in direct coax runs without splitters so we can utilize our satellite systems without having workarounds to make them useable.
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  7. #7
    Site Team traveldawg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by EdgewoodPeter View Post
    Thanks for the responses. I think onespeed hit it on the head in that not all terminals/connections are marked. The schematic shows a cable connection from the LR to the BR, but it does not seem connected. Perhaps a connection underneath has come loose. I probably did not make myself clear in my original post that I am seeking to have satellite service in both the LR and BR using one Wally. I had this in my recently sold Itasca Class A as well as in a 2004 Carriage Cameo. I would certainly think Grand Design quality would include it in a Solitude. BTW - the AUX connector in the wet bay does feed the BR Traveldawg is correct in his hookup suggestions, but this will, unfortunately not allow me simultaneous satellite capability in the LR.
    I'm pretty certain that to share the output of the Wally you need an HDMI feed - not a coax feed. At least every motorhome (or other rig) I've worked in has had it this way. Newer motorhomes distribute signals via HDMI (and some now use CAT4 to HDMI converters). Most trailer manufactures don't bother (to busy chasing a price point rather than customer satisfaction point).

    I think you are out of luck without trying some sort of HDMI distribution (wireless or wired). There are post here about the wireless HDMI adapters. Or you can search on line for a splitter and an extender.
    Larry KE4DMG
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  8. #8
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    Greetings All -
    Finally got the issue(s) squared away. There were several levels of problems. First I ascertained that there was, in fact, coax running from behind the radio to the bedroom. One problem was that many of the coax connections at the radio as well as at two splitters under the bedroom floor were loose. A couple were only a thread or less connected. Maybe they all shook loose in transit to New Mexico (?). Additionally, the two connections above the bedroom TV marked satellite and antenna were reversed. That didn't happen in transit! Another problem was that the Wally only has one HDMI connector (which goes to the Living Room TV). It does, however, have RCA connections. I picked up an "RF Modulator" at Best Buy which connected the Wally to the splitter with the bedroom coax. And . . . lo and behold, we have TV in the bedroom. The one caveat is that it is not high def quality but more than acceptable (considering we'll probably be half asleep watching TV in the bedroom!)

    I was (am) just a bit disappointed that Quality Control didn't discover the wiring issues, but, reasonably, they would have had to hook up a satellite to find it. On a very positive note, Grand Design customer service has been very helpful (on this and another unrelated issue). And all the coax is color coded just as the schematic says it is.

    So we are now transferring stuff we stored in a cargo trailer that came out of our old Class A. It's a great opportunity to leave home what didn't get used in the past couple of years (like our 70 year old Monopoly set!) Our maiden voyage is next week and we're all looking forward to it (with the possible exception of the Aussie who will miss his daily paper route!) I promised you all a Single Malt Scotch when the problem was solved. The DW is pouring it now. Many thanks again for your help!
    Home Base near Edgewood, New Mexico
    2021 Grand Design Solitude S 2930RL
    2014 Ford Super Duty Platinum Crew Cab Power Stroke
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