No TV Signal

[cKuR6]

hmmmm, I don't have an upload attachment option.

[Crash2009]

On some monitors, it's hard to see.

[cKuR6]

Interesting, completely invisible at work. I can see it clearly at home. I'd always rather direct link than photobucket. Thanks!

[JohnW248]

I don't see how there could be any interference with MoCA and the tuner. What are the devices before and after the first splitter going to the cable modem?

I would change the input going from the drop to a three way splitter (get one of TWC's internet device splitters that will send the strongest signal to the cable modem) with one to the cable modem, one to the ETH and the third to the TA. Fewer units, fewer connections, fewer problems--sorta of an old rf rule.

The thing I don't understand is how you run all those extenders on a machine with 8 gig of ram? I've got four extenders on the 9100 which has 24 gig ram with normally only two active extenders and normal memory 33 percent or about 8 gigs in use. There are also a number of other computers and extenders on my network and a lot of tuners (although no more than 9 assigned to any one machine.

But I don't see anything in your system to explain the signal drops---I think we're looking for an air gap that is temp/time dependent and I'm really looking at your previous owners dog in this.

[cKuR6]

Yep, seems to be the only weak link left. I had the system wired all wrong, but Crash has helped me to this point, where there doesn't seem to be anything else left. Unless, it's the TA. I'm either going try the new FW, which one person reports over 40 days of successful uptime with, or get another lamp timer to auto reboot the system every Sunday.

At its highest use rate, I see about 20-30% CPU and 50-60% RAM used. Only time it goes higher is if someone is using the htpc as a PC.
We could theoretically use 5 extenders at a time. I can't recall that happening often. Normally, 2-3 (2). Highest, 4 at a time. My younger ones watch together, as do my wife and I, usually. My oldest is more of a roku user. We'll see how the mem use changes soon. I'm adding BD rips to the mix now. I bet that'll switch him to echo, because I'm not going to spend time setting up Media Browser or another folder structure.

The devices on the tap are MoCA POE filters.
Thanks, ill look into the 3 way splitter to replace the tap and two way. My signals are worse with the new splitter. -3 -5 vs the old -2 + 2, with most hovering closer to 0. That $16 piece of junk is going back.

[JohnW248]

TWC cable gives me splitters and then you know that they're two way and right bandwidth. From your set-up I don't see why you'd need the MoCA POE filters. In the old FiOS set-up you needed the filter on the input the tuner and nothing else (they don't have SDV so no TAs). Try the new FW on the ETH, just remember that you can't open the diagnostic tab on the cableCARD after you do since it'll restart the cableCARD.

Rather than a lamp timer, when you want to restart the ETH, just go to the Web Gui and click on the LOG tab, at the bottom left is a command box. Type reboot and click send. The Tuner will restart. After it restarts click on the TA tab and open diagnostic map in a new tab and make sure it is responding. TA discovery and TA lock ups are still the one issue that keeps cropping up and I think it is a Cisco issue. If it doesn't respond, power cycle it and it should come up, a full power cycle start can take four minutes so be patient.

[Crash2009]

We have a little bit of a conflict that I think needs clarification......http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 389#p82389

On one hand we have Ceton Support saying put the MoCa POE Filter at location 2.

Then we have Eric saying put the filter at 1.

Then we see the filter installed at 3.

Sorry for messing up your bootiful diagram. I should have copied the select of 3, rather than cut.

I think we should also look at the Specs (Model Numbers) of the 2 splitters in the vicinity of 1,2 and 3.

[cKuR6]

Those were all when the moca and twc were on the same lines. None of the lines are common any longer. Ill prob remove them and see what happens.

The splitter I replaced, was a TWC. It was obviously not the problem. Ill see about obtaining a three way.
I was not aware of the issue with fw updates and cable card diag. Ill search out the info on that suggestion. I was also unaware that I could reboot the device via software. Just wish I could do the same with TA. My electronics closet creates a hassle, when I need to access. 4 minutes is not bad...... I've seen it flash for 10 before.

[Crash2009]

Those were all when the moca and twc were on the same lines. None of the lines are common any longer. Ill prob remove them and see what happens.

Right, you probably don't even need them anymore. Unless you go full blown MoCA in the future.

[JohnW248]

Those were all when the moca and twc were on the same lines. None of the lines are common any longer. Ill prob remove them and see what happens.

The splitter I replaced, was a TWC. It was obviously not the problem. Ill see about obtaining a three way.
I was not aware of the issue with fw updates and cable card diag. Ill search out the info on that suggestion. I was also unaware that I could reboot the device via software. Just wish I could do the same with TA. My electronics closet creates a hassle, when I need to access. 4 minutes is not bad...... I've seen it flash for 10 before.

Just as a clarification, Ceton had to do something with the FW to make it compatible with the NDS cableCARDs (which made by Cisco do not behave as Cisco). In doing that one side effect is that if you go to the cableCARD tab in the Web Gui and Click on the Cisco CableCARD Diag Screen, it will restart the cableCARD and then open the tab. This tab has two pieces of information I find useful, 1) the current FW from TWC that is installed on the cableCARD and 2) the boot time and current time to show if the card has restarted and when in the past.

Most people don't even know that is there much less use it and I think Ceton just considers my complaint as a minor irritant from and old user. But it's something you should know.

BTW besides restarting the tuner, you CAN restart just the cableCARD (this is if you want and not automatic like the last two FW updates) by going to the CableCARD tab in the Web Gui and Click on CLEAR CHANNEL MAP. The card will restart and rebind and download a new channel map (not used if you're on a TA).

There is probably a way to restart the TA as well, I know that the DCN (digital Control Network) can restart them by remote but that's a coax signal. You could play around with the calls to the TA and see if you can come up with a command that works. On the other hand, just put the AC on an easily accessible powerstrip that you can toggle the switch on when you need to PS the device.

The Diag Reboot happens with 14.10.3.163 and 15.1.13.152. Maybe it will change again in the future...who knows?

[cKuR6]

I certainly use that screen. Not as much anymore, since EMM drops don't seem to be an issue. I used to be on the phone with TWC Buff 3-4 nights a week. All would die, I'd see 0 EMM, call Buff, watch EMM's rise, and be back in business. They also require me to use it when I call for other purposes. I asked them about a way to reboot the TA, without unplugging and they seemed to not know of any other option.

I leave the powerstrip in the closet with the devices, partially for asthetics, and partially for safety. The closet is blocked by a couch, table, and surround sound speaker. This all but assures that none of the kids or their friends will screw with it.

I obtained a large network switch for free..... I'm thinking about attaching cat6 to the ends & pulling all the coax lines. If I do that, then I'll move the TA and Eth up with the HTPC, and it'll be easy to just reboot then.

[JohnW248]

I certainly use that screen. Not as much anymore, since EMM drops don't seem to be an issue. I used to be on the phone with TWC Buff 3-4 nights a week. All would die, I'd see 0 EMM, call Buff, watch EMM's rise, and be back in business. They also require me to use it when I call for other purposes. I asked them about a way to reboot the TA, without unplugging and they seemed to not know of any other option.

Just to be clear, all the other screens work without trouble so you can look at Conditional Access and see entitlement message (EMMs) and check DAVIC for OOB signal lock and erros and Condition Access to verify that the stream is received and authorized. It's just that one screen for the Cisco Diagnostics which shows the boot time, current time, FW version and BFS and Hub. It most useful if you have a spontaneous restart and want to know when it happened (of course you can always subtract the uptime from the current time to get the restart time as long as the tuner restarted as well as the cableCARD.

On the EMMs, the zero number should have no impact on operation. Maybe something else was happening as well like you lost CA stream authorization or the card became unpaired. But you can reboot the tuner and go back to zero EMMs normally. The high EMMs is required to get the CA stream authorization downloaded to the card and the CA stream authorization started. Cisco recommends a count of 39 on pairing a card/STB.
Next time you have a TWC checking the line, make sure they know about the dog and the chewed through cable. If that repair isn't on your account something is wrong (like the previous owner repaired it himself).

Also BTW, if everything is working, Buffalo can make the TA light flash and restart it. That's IF the communication link is good and I think with what's going on at your location it isn't that good. You need to start also looking at screens in the TA. The RF Statistics will give you signal lock, SNR and Signal level and upstream connection information:
CURRENT FDC
Freq: 74.500 MHz OOB Frequency
DAVIC: Connected Authorized ocnnection
Status: Locked Locked up with OOB
Level: 4 dBmV Signal level
Seconds: 337071 how long connected
Corr Bytes: 148 Same as Davic on the cableCARD errors
Uncor Blks: 384
Errs Avg/Inst: 0 / 0
Total Bytes: 3715765642
S/N: 33 dB This is the SNR for the OOB frequency
CURRENT QAM The is the channel tuned to be the TA getting the channel map, it will change during normal operation
Freq: 795.000 MHz Frequency of the service channel
Tuning Mode: QAM-256 Modulation
Status: Locked
Level: 7 dBmV Signal level at the TA for this channel
S/N: 40 dB The SNR for the service channel
Seconds: 55869 How long on this channel
Corr Bytes: 744 Again like the DAVIC OOB errors
Uncor Blks: 617
Errs Avg/Inst: 0 / 0
EQ Gain: 1.0 EQ Gain for Upstream
CURRENT RDC
Freq: 15.000 MHz Frequency of the Upstream request channel from your TA to the Node
Power: 46 dBmV How much power (normally between 38 and 55)
Delay: 638 uSec This is the offset between you and others on your node to prevent collision on requests to the node
Retrans: 0 An integer here shows errors that require a second or third request and usually means you're getting SDV errors and slow tunes

There are also a lot of other things you can look at like the local carousel which is how your TA knows what channels others are requesting on the node so it can join and not need a new send from the head end.

There are also pages showing the IP address of your TA on the DCN as well as the number of SDV channels, etc.

All of this stuff they can see in Buffalo if the can get to your TA, if you have more than one you might have to give them your RF MAC address (I have five).

[cKuR6]

I will definitely do that, inform about the line. I was told it was professionally repaired......

TWC said the same about the EMM's, but whatever was going on, was always fixed bu EMM hits. THe auth and all other readings were normal every time.

[JohnW248]

I will definitely do that, inform about the line. I was told it was professionally repaired......

Just check that its on the account, a private contractor might have been used (especially if TWC was going to charge). But professional really doesn't have any meaning here (except the guy has a magnet sign on his van) but maybe TWC did repair it. Doesn't mean that something else might have happened. You signal level looks like an air gap at times and that can be caused by thermal contraction of the center conductor in the coax. Some things don't make sense. I had a dead short on my phone line several months ago BUT the DSL was working just fine. So to the DSL frequency it was just a load, at the dc/voice level it was a dead short. But a TWC Line Engineer can find it if its a faulty cable when the normal service guys can't. BUT you have to get to that guy and that's the trick and the reason for the journal.

[cKuR6]

Great info. Thanks for all the TA insight. I missed that edit with my last read. I do remember when the system was new and they were checking multiple times a week, they always said Fdc and RDC were good. Signals back to closer to 0 late last night and today, strange. Next time it's bad ill call buffalo again. I have a lot of fam up there. Going to ask around. Hopefully somebody will know somebody and I can get this moving a little quicker.