Only 0.4V at LNB 1/2 Input Sockets on Back of Foxsat HDR. Is this a fault ?

[Black Hole]

Unless you are some kind of masochist you have done enough to demonstrate the Foxsat is broken. You do not need to prove whether the LNB is good - don't postulate double faults until there is no alternative explanation.

Replace your Foxsat (on the second hand market, or with a current model), then see what's what.

 

[Mechnical Al]

Update & conclusion; Purely by coincidence, just the other day, I was relocating a spare bedroom TV from stand mounted to wall mounted when I noticed it had a satellite reception socket, allowing me to conduct some diagnosis by substitution. With TV selected as the input source, and a DMM connected...the socket powers up and provides 18.5v. I connected the TV to the satellite antenna, and it accomplished an autotune OK, with none of the nonsense about asking for a postcode, despite never having been connected to the antenna before. It discovered 761 channels, and did exactly the same on the other second LNB connector. I sample viewed a few channels, all fine. On that basis it seems both lanes of the antenna system are fully operational, therefore the fault must lie within the Humax Foxsat receiver, and it's inability to supply power to the antenna.

Can anyone recommend a good company for repairing Humax receivers, as Humax don't deal with this model anymore? Cheers, Allan

 

[Black Hole]

Can anyone recommend a good company for repairing Humax receivers

I'm not aware of any, but the cost is likely to be prohibitive. Consumer electronics is so cheap isn't generally worth repairing any more, therefore the skills to do it have been lost*.

My recommendation remains the same:

Replace your Foxsat (on the second hand market, or with a current model)

* Footnote:

I'm currently trying to fault-find a HDR-FOX which won't power up when it has a HDD connected (see https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/start-up-fails-when-hdd-connected.10164/). Internal voltages are fine without the HDD, but one of the supply rails collapses when it tries to drive a load. The work is very much hampered by not having a circuit diagram and thus having to use educated guesswork and probing to deduce the circuit in that area of the board only, aided by having a working one to compare voltages etc.

Were I looking at it, I would find it more difficult to make progress with your Foxsat because I don't have a working reference. Also, the area of circuit involved might be hidden inside a metal can.

 

[grahamlthompson]

Update & conclusion; Purely by coincidence, just the other day, I was relocating a spare bedroom TV from stand mounted to wall mounted when I noticed it had a satellite reception socket, allowing me to conduct some diagnosis by substitution. With TV selected as the input source, and a DMM connected...the socket powers up and provides 18.5v. I connected the TV to the satellite antenna, and it accomplished an autotune OK, with none of the nonsense about asking for a postcode, despite never having been connected to the antenna before. It discovered 761 channels, and did exactly the same on the other second LNB connector. I sample viewed a few channels, all fine. On that basis it seems both lanes of the antenna system are fully operational, therefore the fault must lie within the Humax Foxsat receiver, and it's inability to supply power to the antenna.

Can anyone recommend a good company for repairing Humax receivers, as Humax don't deal with this model anymore? Cheers, Allan

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www.digirepairs.co.uk

 

[Black Hole]

How do you know these are a "good company" as specified by the OP, or did you just google it? Maybe they've seen the problem before and know straight away what it is and what to do about it, but if they don't £55 doesn't cover much investigation. As their blurb states:

We offer a No Fix – No Fee policy

...which means you pay £8-ish to ship the item, they tell you they can't fix it, and then you either abandon it or it costs you £15 to get it back.

Or you put that money towards a replacement.

 

[grahamlthompson]

How do you know these are a "good company" as specified by the OP, or did you just google it? Maybe they've seen the problem before and know straight away what it is and what to do about it, but if they don't £55 doesn't cover much investigation. As their blurb states:

...which means you pay £8-ish to ship the item, they tell you they can't fix it, and then you either abandon it or it costs you £15 to get it back.

Or you put that money towards a replacement.

There are posts on My Humax from members who have used the service and been very pleased including a very recent one. The boxes were returned with recordings intact.

1100S - both tuners falsely show 'no signal' « My Humax Forum

myhumax.org

 

[Mechnical Al]

Thanks everyone for your advice & comments.

Graham, I did see the ad for digirepairs, thanks, and I emailled them with my symptoms & findings to ask (as far as they could possibly tell from the info I gave) if it's likely to be repaireable. All I got in response was; 'you'll have to send it in'. Nothing about whether or not it's a common fault, and if yes, the chances of it being repaireable.
As I understand it, there's no supply of new spares for these machines, and replacing those tiny individual components on the PCB's would be extremely difficult without specialist tooling, so I'm guessing repair might be simply by robbing whole PCB's from scrapped machines which potential customers have sent in, and have been 'abandoned' as pointed out by BH.
I decided 'you'll have to send it in' possibly translates to; 'we need it for spares' so I didn't chance it.

I was also becoming more convinced by BH's advice at posts 21 & 23. Well actually, I know BH is right, it's just that I hate to throw things away. Repurposing works well for metal / wood etc, as these materials are simple to make into other stuff, but electronic equipment, being PFM to me at least, isn't so easy.

So in balance ( loss of all our movies collected on the hard drive, Vs buying a new serviceable recorder with much improved features) and even though by now I was satisfied I'd proved the satellite antenna and LNB's worked OK, I decided to swap to Freeview.
I bought a Humax FVP-5000T with a 1TB memory. Plenty of bells & whistles, and can record 4 channels whilst watching another......although it's quite rare to find even two channels with good shows running simultaneously. Can even receive Netflix through the wifi, so no need to connect the telly to the laptop with electric string anymore....and everyone's happy again.

But how's this for a real coincidence; The only movie I desperately wanted to record (on Christmas day 2020, when the original Humax box was found croaked) was Nick Park's Early Man. 6 months later; the day after I installed the new box........Early Man was being transmitted. It's so funny, and if not a footbal enthusiast, definately needs watching again, after researching the footbal related items.

For example; The stone age folk live in a crater as their beloved home, but they call it 'The Valley'. Me.....(not a football enthusiast) just thinks well that's odd......but asking a football enthusiast mate....he told me 'The Valley' relates to Charlton Athletic FC, whose supporters struggled for a long time to keep their beloved home ground, just like the stone age folk do to keep the iron age folk out, who just want to evict them to mine the crater. Love it !

So if anyone wants a US Humax Foxsat HDR for spares, just ask.

 

[Black Hole]

loss of all our movies collected on the hard drive

Well, I presume your movies are still there on the hard drive – so you haven't lost them, you've just lost access to them. I take it that having tried (and failed) to retune, you effectively bricked the Foxsat and it won't even act as a player.

If you had the foresight to install Nowster's Patch, this isn't an issue: you can pull the HDD and access the recordings by other means. If not: the recordings are encrypted on the HDD and I'm not sure we know how to decrypt them externally (or even internally).

The Valley

I hadn't spotted that one, but the Aardman bunch are very good at slipping in humour for adults (keep an eye on the background scenery). If you've not seen it, try Pirates an Adventure with Scientists (or whatever it's called).

 

[Mechnical Al]

BH you're right, the old Foxsat is stuck firmly in the retune loop.

No foresight ? ....it's much worse than that, I didn't even have a clue anything like Nowster's patch existed. Especially for IT stuff, I've always relied on the 'if it ain't broke, don't try and fix it' theory, as fiddling usually makes it worse than if I leave it alone.

But on the subject of movies...your comment about 'haven't lost them, just lost access to them' reminds me of Judith's classic line in Life of Brian; 'You can't actually have babies Stan, but you can have the right to have babies'. : - ).
And Pirates & Misfits is one of those excellent (but now inaccessible movies), but I have watched it a few times. Sadly Nick Park's movies don't seem to get much publicity, and lots of people haven't even heard of Pirates & Misfits......I only stumbled across it on offer as a longhaul inflight movie.

The technical side of making these movies makes them doubly entertaining. If you haven't already seen it I highly recommend to have a look on YouTube at;
On the Shooting Set of Aardman Animations' Early Man!
It's by Adam Savage of the Tested group.

Queen Oofeefa link to footbal is obvious & funny, but I'm still trying to work out the relevance of the name Lord Nooth....some say his character is based around Sep Blatter, perhaps? Any ideas?

 

[Black Hole]

I've always relied on the 'if it ain't broke, don't try and fix it' theory, as fiddling usually makes it worse than if I leave it alone.

That's an adage which is a useful rule when one knows no better, but (as usual) doesn't always apply. This forum arose from the recognition there are things which are already broken, if you look deeply enough, so it's more a question of deciding whether the cure is worse than the disease. The problem now is that products have become so locked down we "hackers" have no means to apply cures.

As I understand it, in the USA people have no compunction about modifying their cars to suit their own requirements, but over here the insurance companies go ballistic. It's all very well the likes of Jimmy DeVille on Fifth Gear demonstrating how to upgrade (for example) your suspension, but if you tell your insurer they'll likely cancel your policy (or at least refuse to renew it), and if you don't tell them and have a claim the loss assessor will tell you you're not covered. They don't mention that on Fifth Gear! Many don't realise that even applies to something as simple as swapping stock steel rims for alloys (presuming the car didn't come with alloys in the first place).

Compared with that, hacking around in some (uninsured) household kit, which will only be a liability of a ton or so if it goes pear shaped, is a piece of p*ss.

Queen Oofeefa link to footbal is obvious & funny, but I'm still trying to work out the relevance of the name Lord Nooth....some say his character is based around Sep Blatter, perhaps? Any ideas?

I'm not that into it, so no. The historical references in Pirates are more my bag. I'm not sure what "Misfits" is, so I will have to find out...