Dish Hopper 3/Joey


Last Changed 9/5/2017
Dish released the Hopper 3 in 2016 as an upgrade to the Hopper 2000. The Hopper 3 has 16 internal tuners compared to the 3 tuners in the Hopper 2000. The Hopper 3 uses a new cable technology. from Dish. The Hopper 2000 and prior Dish receivers used Dish Pro Plus (DPP) which multiplexed two signals down the same wire. In the case of the Hopper 2000, the three tuners requires 2 cables for the three signals. The new technology for the Hopper 3 multiplexes 16 signals on one wire and is call Dish Pro Hybrid (DPH). This new cable technology required a change in the LNBF head unit (the end of the dish arm with the three white buttons) of the Dish and a device at the receiver end of the cable called the Dish Hybrid Solo Hub. The new Hybrid LNBF can work in two modes. If the Hybrid Solo Hub is not attached, the Hybrid LNBF acts like the previous DPP LNBF putting two signals per wire. When the Hybrid Solo Hub is attached, the Hybrid LNBF switches to putting 16 signals per wire. The switching of the Hybrid LNBF head is important in getting a Hopper 3 to work with our Winegard Trav'ler automatic roof dish. The Trav'ler uses signals from the LNBF head to know when it has locked onto the satellites down the positioning process. If the Hybrid LNBF is in the Hybrid mode, the Trav'ler control box cannot see signals so position the dish to the satellites. When the Hopper 3 came out, there was a big question on whether the Hopper 3 could be used with the Trav'ler automatic roof dish. Tom of rvseniormoments.com did the experimentation. First he tried just putting the new Hybrid LNBF head on the Trav'ler. It worked in the DPP mode but when he connected the Hybrid Solo Hub, the Trav'ler could no longer position to the satellites. The solution was easy. Since Tom and I both use a Trav'ler dish most of the time and a ground tripod dish when there are obstructions to the Trav'ler, we used switches between the Trav'ler coax cables and the ground tripod dish coax cables. Tom found that leaving the switch open, between the Hybrid Solo Hub and the Trav'ler, the Trav'ler could position itself to the satellites. Once positioned, the switch is closed and the Hopper 3 works fine. These are the steps to modifying the Winegard Trav'ler to work with a Hopper 3. Technical Dish Hopper 3.
	The Hopper is the Whole Home DVR unit with three tuners from Dish. The Hopper 2000 can attach directly to one TV. The Joey is a client unit which received decoded programs from the Hopper. The interconnect for the Hopper to the Joeys uses MOCA (Multimedia Over Coax Association) which uses coax cables.
	This is a view of the cable side of the Hopper compliments of SatelliteGuys.us
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	We originally had these muffin fans on the VIP722K which was thicker. The masking tape is an inelegant attachment but it works.
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Both coax cables from the satellite dish attach to a muxing unit called the Solo.
	The normal wiring for the trailer as it was built had one satellite dish coax cable going to the living room and the other to the bedroom. When we had the Winegard AS-2003 roof dish and the VIP622, we had to get the bedroom satellite coax to the living room. We accomplished that by using Carlon conduit and fittings mounted under the trailer belly so we could run a coax cable extending the bedroom cable. We also used this conduit for running CAT-5 cable to our roof ,mounted CPE radio.

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With the VIP722K and the VIP612, each DVR could operate with a single coax cable using a Dish Separator. To connect the Solo, we changed the coax jumpers to again run the bedroom coax signals to the living room.
	We carry a DPP 1000.2 dish mounted on a tripod that we use when the roof dish is blocked.
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originally we used the most basic of switching methods, we would remove one set of cables and attached the other. That was cumbersome at the best,
	We acquired high frequency rated coax switches to move the connections to one set of cables or the other. We used these switches to be able to switch the Solo unit to the roof dish or the ground dish.
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	Here is the Switches, the Solo, and the Splitter in the Entertainment Center.
	Here the items are labeled. Could you imagine manually swapping cables without the switches?
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At one time, we had the cable from the TV Antenna (Batwing) to the bedroom TV on a switch to move the cable between the antenna or the VIP622 TV2 output. We used this cable with the Joey distribution network which is a cable from the Solo unit to a standard high quality coax splitter. The splitter was connected to the cable to the bedroom TV and also to an external coax feed we had so we could have a Joey outside the trailer.
	In the bedroom, the Joey was connected to the sable that used to bring the TV Antenna signals. The Joey connects to the TV with a HDMI cable. The Joey is the black unit, about the size of the white cable modem.
	This the cable attachment side of the Joey compliments of SatelliteGuys.us.
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	All the Wi-Fi electronics and the Joey are located behind the bedroom TV.
	This is the current cabling for our TVs in *Tige*. To facilitate moving the Dish Hopper 2000 between the Winegard Trav'ler SK-1000 and the ground DPP 1000.2 using the same set of switches we had used before.
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