Frustrating problem with sky magic eye (to change channels in other rooms)

martin57

Hi folks,


I have one sky digi box the basic one and have sky in 3 other rooms by having a little maplin distribution box in loft and running a cable from RF 2 in sky box and using a magic eye in each of the 3 other rooms.

I have always found the magic eye setup to be very tempermental and frustrating to setup,for example good picture but unable to change channels etc, even switching different magic eyes made a difference at time, though nothing wrong with any of them.

Anyways I got it working with sky box and it was fine, but then that box broke down and I have now a secondhand.Thomson basic box.
Anyways the problem is now the magic eye works for part of the day usually in the morning but in evening won't work. I do switch off the sky box at night, but by that time the magic eye is not changing channels in any room anyway

Strange thing last night, magic eye not changing channels in other room (good enough picture) but if I moved digi box on stand so that side was more or less facing towards me then magic eye could change channels in other rooms again. Do you think its heat that is expanding the connections or something like that, particularly as I have said it works fine in morning.

Will change fine in room where sky box is no problem with sky remote, but that is sensor on front of box.

The distribution box is left on 24/7 so I have ruled that out as trouble.

Could it be that the sky box is heating up or something during the day, and therefore cutting of the magic eye power from RF 2 As I have said it works fine during the early part of day?

Frustrating!

Thanks for any advice
Martin57

almillar

You're going to need a bit of experimentation, but I'll give you a stab instead of heat - light. If a room is bright in the evenings but works in duller mornings, you may need to pull the curtains or something or the sunlight (or that from your own bulbs could interfere with the infra red signals from the magic eye into the box.

martin57

Thanks very much for reply and that suggestion, it was a good one.


Its not the light or sunlight in room as even when room is dark same thing happens. third day now that I have switched digi box on in morning and about 10.11pm the tv magic eye wont change channels in other rooms. The picture is not affected, changes channels fine all day in all rooms.


Could it be maybe thqt something to do with the RF outlet in box takes many hours to show its fault or what?


Has me stumped! I thought maybe that there might be some sort of parental control that was switching off the change channel feature from the RF out put in box but seems not.


Any other ideas welcome as to why this seems to happen at the same time every night?


Thanks a lot
Martin57

martin57

Update.


Well thanks to Almillar I think I might have solved this problem.


As he has stated I think it was bright light from living room where box is that was falling on sensor at front of box.


Somehow this was affecting changing channels with the magic eye link in other rooms.


I would have expected the sensor in front of box to work independently from the RF output at back of box and have no bearing on changing channels in another room with the magix eye, but from my experiments so far it does affect the magic eye in other rooms.


I now have the box on its side facing out, so that sensor gets less light and the channels changed fine last night from all the 3 magic eyes links in the other rooms.


Here's hoping it lasts,


Thanks again Almillar I would never have thought of that.





Martin57

almillar

Excellent.
When you use it in another room, the little sensor just takes the signal from the Sky remote and then transmits it again from the little transmitter you stick in front of the Sky box sensor. Bright light, or blockage, of either of these, will interfere.