ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Voice - Data - Video Discussion inexpensive coax tester

Hal,
As I said, it’s been a long time since and I don’t think I have even held a CATV box for many years, so things could be quite a bit different now.

Anyway, my point was though, regardless of the source, there was a distinct voltage or difference in potential that existed on the line only when a CATV box was installed. True, this in no way verifies that signal is present, but it can be used to locate a cable end.
I don’t think the OP was really interested so much in actually testing for the presence or quality of signal as he was in just identifying the line-in and getting the correct cable connections at the splitter in the attic to avoid having to make several trips up there.

Yes, we do And VSWR and impedance matching cabling and connectors to waveguide, though I didn't get into that with my home CATV. All my calcs were in dB, I just did a quick conversion to % for that post, though. Sounds more dramatic to say each jack gets 1% than to talk about a -20dB loss, ya know?

Hmm, every Motorola/GI cable-box we've had has had about 5VDC to from shield to center, and we're talking 10 boxes here. Hmm, maybe that's why they all quit working...

I can't wait until Cisco (who owns Scientific Atlanta) to buy out Motorola's cable-box/modem division, so I can finally get a box that works, that doesn't need unplugged everyday. (Or dropped out a second story window.)

Ian A.

Will that cure the buggy software issues that some motorola boxes have. Or will that be 3rd party software with cisco too.
We sure have a lot of issues with the firmware upgrades on the HD satellite boxes here.

1. You could carry a cable modem up there and watch the receive led.

2. You could cut the cable, put on your ends, then put in a barrel and a 50 foot length of cable on one end at a time, and take it down to a TV.

1. You could carry a cable modem up there and watch the receive led. 2. You could cut the cable, put on your ends, then put in a barrel and a 50 foot length of cable on one end at a time, and take it down to a TV.

Come on now! You have a 50-50 chance of getting it right the first time you try it. If you are going to go through all of that trouble isn't it going to make more sense to just climb down and see if it works then go back and swap the connections if it doesn't?

-Hal

Ian, Cisco has their feet in every industry now since the computer geeks like them so much. They are doing a very good job of practically destroying the telecommunications industry and making billions in the process. They might make good network hardware (I don't disagree), but the rest of their products are cheap Chinese-made junk.

Wow, a simple question about an inexpensive COAX tester went into four pages? Are we putting too much effort in side-tracking the original question?

Well you gotta figure, Cisco owns SA, SA technically makes the equipment (which I believe is made in Mexico.) What I heard is they want to merge the lines, which could go either way, SA-branded Motorola cable boxes that work, or Motorola-branded SAs that are junk. And in case anyone's wondering, I'm comparing my family's current and past Motorola/GI boxes to my cable-engineer-uncle's current 4 SA boxes, which are all "experimentals" from Comcast. His boxes always work fine, while ours get swapped about every two years.

Just my 2¢
Ian A.

No. What will actually happen is that the box will continue to crash even with Cisco's name on it. Some poor slob at the cable company will open a TAC case with some guy who can barely speak english, and after 5 hours of that guy going through every troubleshooting flowchart Cisco has, they will finally determine that it's a firmware problem and a month later they'll release new firmware that hasn't been fully tested, so the customer can beta-test it for them on a production network.

Like I said, all I know is that all the SA (Cisco) boxes I've seen have worked fine for years and continue to work fine, while the Motorolas we have here are complete junk and last six months at best.

Ian A.