Daily Archives: August 7, 2016
I Triple Dog Dare You . . .
And there’s not a frozen flagpole in sight.
Well, we lucked up today with the scheduled rain not showing up. And even with the sun out, it only made it up to 90 degrees. Nice.
After our coffee this morning, I spent most of the early afternoon looking at a DirecTV problem that started a week or so ago with a couple of symptoms.
The first problem was that sometimes it wouldn’t record two problems at one time. One of them would just be blank. And the other thing was that every few hours we would get an on-screen message saying that the DVR had not received any guide updates for 1, 2, or even 10 hours. I had already tried a power-down reboot with no luck.
My first thought was that one of the twin RG-6 cables running from the satellite dish to the receiver was bad. But replacing the cables with a spare set didn’t fix the problem.
Next I wondered if there was a reason that someone threw away this Winegard CarryOut Dome. Regular blog readers will remember that back in May while we were staying at the Lake Conroe TT, I found a Winegard CarryOut dome on the ground outside one of the dumpsters at the park.
Superficially it looked OK so I grabbed it and threw it in the backseat. Jan just shook her head, since she’s used to my dumpster diving. But as it turned out, when I got around to checking it out it worked perfectly. So since I had swapped it out with my original one, I just started using the new one as a long-term test.
So maybe it was possible that one of the two outputs on the CarryOut was flakey, and that’s why someone threw it away. So I tested each output separately and both were working fine.
Now the only thing left was the DVR receiver itself. So I pulled both cables off the DVR and then plugged one into the Tuner 1 input . . . and got nothing. So I plugged it into Tuner 2, and got a good signal. Back to Tuner 1, and nothing.
Next I went into the DVR’s Setup menu to check the actual signal levels, and I was showing 95% on Tuner 2, but nothing on Tuner 1 when I plugged in the that one. So it was definitely a Tuner 1 problem.
But as I was stepping through the menu, I noticed something else. The DVR’s system software had been updated on July 27th. That’s about the time that the problem started.
Hmmm!
I guess I could call DirecTV, but I doubt they could get me a new DVR before we leave here on Tuesday morning. So I decided to check the Satellite Dish Setup on the receiver. It was set to 18” LNB, MultiSwitch, and Dual Tuners just as it should be.
Hmmm!
I wonder what would happen if I set it to Single Tuner, which should make it only operate on Turner 1. And since Tuner 1 wasn’t working, what would happen? So I changed it to Single, and then rebooted the DVR.
And when I tried plugging into Tuner 1 this time, it now worked. So that means the circuitry itself is working. Of course this leaves me right where I started – with a single Tuner input. So now I reset it back to Dual Tuners and again rebooted.
And this time both Tuner inputs now work fine.
So the only I thing I can figure is that something glitched during the system software update, and setting it to Single Tuner and then back to Dual fixed the problem.
This taken care of, about 4pm Jan and I headed out for dinner. As we talked over where to go, Jan mentioned how much she enjoyed her Chicken Sandwich at Hooter’s the other night, so back we went.
I of course went right back with my 10 wings, naked, all drums, but this time I bumped the sauce up to Triple Dog Dare, their hottest sauce, from last time’s 911. I got the feeling not many people order this, because our waitress looked at me with wide eyes and said, “It’s really hot!” and I said, “I hope so.”
The sauce on the plate is a side of their Chipotle Honey, since I like a little sweetness with the heat.
Triple Dog Dare is hotter than 911, but I’ve had hotter, like Buffalo Wild Wings, Blazin’ sauce, or the several places that I had Ghost Pepper wings. But they were good.
And even Jan liked it since she kept rubbing her sandwich in the Triple Dog Dare drippings on my plate.
Later in the evening, about 7pm, Jan and I drove down to the main intersection and walked out on the beach with our chairs to watch the sunset. And it was certainly worth it.
I’m constantly amazed at the light-gathering capacity of this Panasonic Lumix FZ270. When I took the photo below it was so dark that we could hardly see this kayakers as they paddled in.
Got to talking with them, and they started about a mile west of here and then the wind kicked up and they got blown down the coast. Since they weren’t where they were supposed to be, they borrowed my cell phone to call their wifes to let them know where to pick them up.
Thought for the Day:
“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” — Thomas Jefferson
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