Static Electricity Problems

EddieWalker · Aug 12, 2006

I'm connected to the web via satellite. It used to be Direcway and now it's Hughs. When it's working it's fine, but it's very tempermental and I've had issues with it off and on since it was installed two years ago. They've replaced everything on it, but it's still not reliable. Lately it's gotten worse.

One of the teste customer support has me do is to unscrew the coaxle cable and touch the end with my finger, count to ten and then put it back on. This has been known to fix it!!!

It's getting worse and worse, so I think that for whatever reason, I have allot more static electricty than I should. Touching the top of the cable only allows me to surf for so long. During the day it's worse.

Then I got this idea that it might make a difference if I disconected the cable from the wall instead of the modem and touch it there. That seemed to make a big difference. And then one time I accidentaly touched the tip of the cable to the threads of the male end of the wall plug.

Blue sparks!!!! I touch it several times until the sparks stop, the screw it back together with fantastic results. I can surf again at high speed and it lasts for hours sometimes. Sometimes it only lasts a few minutes, but when I do it again, it usually lasts for a long time.

Obviously I have a problem with static electricity.

My dish is grounded. The cables go to a junction block that is also grounded. This ground is a 14 guage stranded wire that is tied into my ground rod that's in the ground.

Any advice????

Thank you ,
Eddie

Jimbrown · Aug 12, 2006

If you have not done so go here and read the faq on grounding. there are also many disscusions on it. There are two types of ground the dish ground which is primarily for lightning and the coax ground whichis for thestatic build up. I don't think yours is ground correctly or there is a bad ground.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sat

rich_ncal · Aug 13, 2006

Is it possible there should be a voltage on the coax from the receiver to the antenna to supply power for a low noise amplifier in the antenna?

Try testing the voltage on input connector for the antenna to the receiver. Perhaps there is some DC voltage in the range of 5 to 18volts on this line.

In my experience with electrostatic discharge in to a circuit if it is there and causes damage, it is like an arc in a circuit. The ESD damage to an integrated circuit usually does not recover.

midlf · Aug 13, 2006

First off I don't have such a system and am not familiar with them so this is just speculation. I believe the power out to the dish is superimposed on the coax. If that is true then pulling the coax plug will remove the power to the dish receiver. Would this be the dish equivalent to BIG SWITCH on a PC. I.E. pulling the power could be reseting something or letting something cool off.

gordon21 · Aug 13, 2006

You have a grounding problem. You should not get shocked by a DTV installion, even if it is running. See JimBrowns link.

rich_ncal · Aug 13, 2006

Perhaps this is a better link

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,14774973?hilite=electrostatic

In my earlier post I was referring to a DC voltage on the center conductor of the coax line. It was not clear to me from Eddie's post if the blue arc is from the center conductor or the outer jacket of the coax.

Interesting that a static on a line can cause a problem like this. I would need more information to believe that. But it is always good to learn something new.

EddieWalker · Aug 13, 2006

Interesting point. I'm making an assumption that it's a grouding or static electricty problem, but I realy don't know for sure.

The blue sparks are too small for me to feel anything from them, and it's not consistant as to how many or how big the sparks are when I pull off the cable. I do know that when I do this, my modem gets it's signal back and I'm back online again. This solution works one hundred percent of the time.

How long it lasts is a huge variable. Sometimes it's only ten minutes, other times it's hours and hours.

There is no power at the dish, so it has to be coming through the modem, which has a three prong cord to it. I'd think that it would be grounded at the modem, but who knows.

The ground wire is connected to one spot on the dish and goes to my ground rod for the house.

The stuff I've read on the links provided suggest that the ground wire needs to go directly to the breaker box. This doesn't make any sense to me, but so far, none of the posts on those sites do either. hahahaha

Too technical for me.

I hadn't thought that I could be resetting something on the dish by disonnecting the cables. Would that still apply if I didn't get the little blue sparks? I can pull the cable off the modem, touch it to my finger and put it back on with iffy results. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Touchting the center of the cable at the wall jack to the threads of the jack fitting causes those sparks and it works every time.

Thanks,
Eddie

rich_ncal · Aug 13, 2006

Maybe you are resetting something in the modem or the LNA.

The contact of your skin would be iffy, how much resistance there is in your hand would depend on a number of factors including salts and sweat or other things on the surface of your skin. Grounding the center conductor of the coax cable to the outer shield with a direct contact would be a good low resistance contact each time.

It is not clear to me are you grounding the center of the line from the antenna or the line from the modem (receiver), to tell which is getting reset.

I also thought some of these satellite DSL systems had two lines to the antenna one for transmit and one for receive, but it could done with one.

If there is a DC power supply with voltage on the center conductor to power the amplifier in the antenna, then there will not be static charges on the center line of the coax. The DC power source will eliminate/control that.

EddieWalker · Aug 13, 2006

Rich,

Your correct on the two cables. One of them gives me the sparks and fixes everything for a short time when I touch the little wire inside the middle of the cable to the outside of the connection in the wall.

From what I've read on the links that were provided, it is a DC current that goes through the cables.

One thing that caught my eye was that this guy said to be sure to ground your dish and cable to the same ground as your power supply. Mine isn't. I have two seperate 200 amp panels to my house. The computer and modem are pluged into one panel with it's own ground rod. The dish is grounded to a different panel with it's own ground rod.

Does this make any sense?

These guys at those links are very **** about this stuff, but maybe they have a point. I'm also thinking about putting another grounding block on the line where it comes into the house. At this point, I can ground it to the same ground rod as the the power to the modem is grounded.

Thank you,
Eddie

rich_ncal · Aug 13, 2006

"Does this make any sense?" Not to me, but if it does not cost too much why not try.

Intermittent problems can fool you as the come and go.

I don't have satellite DSL, but I do have DirecTV. My biggest issue is reception during the heaviest rain storms. Luckily it does not rain often in California.

I think the best reason to ground the dish would be in case of a lightning strike.

I would check that the dish is aligned correctly to the satellite.

P.S. Congratulations on the wedding.