Invacom Experts?

[Falcon05Dad]

I recently had a lightning strike near/on our home which affected my sat gear. I replaced the SG2100 motor that I knew was toast with a SG380 (Thanks Sadoun for the quick ship), I realigned my Fortec Star 90cm dish and could get good Sig/Qual for circular birds through my Invacom quad lnb and Sonicview 4000 receiver, but no linear birds. I tried both linear coax ports on the LNB with no success.

You who've had Invacoms, do you think you could lose just the linear signal circuitry or would the entire LNB typically fail? I don't have any backup LNBs or receivers, so I'd rather replace the LNB first, if it makes sense to do so.

This happened while we were on vacation and I had the electric connections pulled but not the coax to the receiver. Also lost a motherboard on a computer and a DSL modem because the strike got the phone line and I didn't disconnect the ethernet cable from the modem to the PC. Lightning does some strange stuff.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[rainman]

do you have a disqec switch in the system if so this would be my first suspect and yes one side of the lnb could go down.

[Vitruvius]

Yes, that is a good possibility.. it being just the diseqc switch like Rainman said...if you are lucky.
I had an invocom quad connected to my 36" system and lightning struck. I switched out each element until I had it working. I changed the diseqc switch, then the LNB, and then the receiver. The motor, the dish and cable were fine. I had to get a full system running to test the equipmentYes, the receiver was toasted such that I only got the same frequency on every bird... and only 4 of the same channels all the time.
You can buy a 10 dollar copper grounding rod and hammer it into the ground near your dish to ground it for future protection. Tie it to your mast and dish by 8 gauge copper wire. Get a surge suppressor for your coax.
The invacom I have is toasted,,, both the linears and the circulars...

Good luck.

[Falcon05Dad]

Originally Posted by rainman

do you have a disqec switch in the system if so this would be my first suspect and yes one side of the lnb could go down.

No switch in place at the time of the damage. A single cable was attached to one of the linear ports. Thanks for your response.

[Falcon05Dad]

Originally Posted by Vitruvius

Yes, that is a good possibility.. it being just the diseqc switch like Rainman said...if you are lucky.
I had an invocom quad connected to my 36" system and lightning struck. I switched out each element until I had it working. I changed the diseqc switch, then the LNB, and then the receiver. The motor, the dish and cable were fine. I had to get a full system running to test the equipmentYes, the receiver was toasted such that I only got the same frequency on every bird... and only 4 of the same channels all the time.
You can buy a 10 dollar copper grounding rod and hammer it into the ground near your dish to ground it for future protection. Tie it to your mast and dish by 8 gauge copper wire. Get a surge suppressor for your coax.
The invacom I have is toasted,,, both the linears and the circulars...

Good luck.

Thanks for your help, gents. Once I get the system running 100% again, I'll definitely follow your advice on the ground rod and coax surge suppressor.

[Jim-S]

This may be a dumb reply but check your receiver for the proper setup for Linear LNB...................

[Falcon05Dad]

Not a dumb reply at all, Jim. The system had been up on both circular and linear sats for almost two years prior to the lightning hit. I had not mentioned how long I've been playing around with FTA. Thanks for the response.

[Vitruvius]

yeah... for some reason.. the lightning toasted my receiver and Invacom LNB but not my motor.
Those were replaced.
You can get a good Ku Linear or Universal LNB for only about $15... I got a spare when I got mine. I didn't spend the big bucks for the Invacom again. I just get linear signal it is fine... not much out there for circular.