Magic eye suddenly not working

[kalbiston]

Any advice please, my magic eye upstairs has suddenly stopped working, not even lighting up. Was working ok previously odd intermittent stopping and starting bu5 not working at all for past month now, even though we have not touched or changed anything.

thanks in advance

[Mark39]

The most likely cause is poorly fitted plugs at one or both ends of the coax cable which runs from your Sky box to the TV upstairs. You can check that the magic eye isn't faulty by plugging it directly into the rf2 socket to see if it then !ights. The solution  is to remove and refit both plugs - ideally the centre wire of the cable should be soldered to the centre pin of the plugs, otherwise the problem will likely reappear at some point.

[Kettlebell+Mike]

Two of mine have stopped working too, around about the last update, one a few days before the other, separate wiring, get the picture, although one has gone grainy but no magic eye ability

[Mark39]

@Kettlebell+Mike  can you tell us about your magic eye setup? Are you using an IO Link? What kind of splitter?

[Kettlebell+Mike]

Very straight forward set up, not that technically minded, we have two cables one running in to bedroom and one into kitchen, then one coming from sky box which we swap between the two when we need it using connectors. The bedroom one died a few days before the kitchen after last upgrade and the picture went grainy, the kitchen picture is still good just lost the ability to use the remote control ( no light on). No changes have been made to anything, checked the RF2 power was on via a YouTube video

[Mark39]

As one of the TVs still has a good picture and one magic eye still controls your Sky box (I'm assuming that's the case from your post) your Sky box is ok.

The most likely problem, therefore is with your cabling.

Unless the plugs were fitted to the cables by the cable manufacturer, I'd remove them, cut the cables back an inch or so  and refit the plugs.

[Kettlebell+Mike]

No, both magic eyes lost the ability to control the sky box, apologies for not making that clear. Just seemed very coincidental that this happened after the upgrade. The kitchen one is a proper magic eye, the bedroom one is an eBay special,  can’t see why they both worked well before and all of a sudden stopped without any changes or alterations. Many thanks for your advice.

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[Mark39]

Ok, to eliminate possibilities, then, I'd suggest plugging each magic eye, in turn, directly into your Sky box's RF2 socket on the rear panel. If the power LED on each eye lights up, they and your Sky box are working correctly.

[Kettlebell+Mike]

Thanks, will give it a try. Ironically the picture in the kitchen has now gone grainy today too

[Sawyers75]

A while ago the 3 magic eyes that we have been using stopped working with their own remotes. Each one has a working light on it and the picture is as good as it has always been. I have a lab gear splitter in the loft which is working and lit up, I've checked all cable ends and fittings and even swapped the outputs on the splitter to see if this works. We can change channels using the sky+ app with no problems. The eyes are not sky brand but we've never had an issue and nothing physical has changed with the cabling. Frustrating is not the work to explain it!!!!!!!!!!! 

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@kalbiston wrote:

Any advice please, my magic eye upstairs has suddenly stopped working, not even lighting up. Was working ok previously odd intermittent stopping and starting bu5 not working at all for past month now, even though we have not touched or changed anything.

thanks in advance

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[Mark39]

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@Sawyers75 wrote:

A while ago the 3 magic eyes that we have been using stopped working with their own remotes. Each one has a working light on it and the picture is as good as it has always been. I have a lab gear splitter in the loft which is working and lit up, I've checked all cable ends and fittings and even swapped the outputs on the splitter to see if this works. We can change channels using the sky+ app with no problems. The eyes are not sky brand but we've never had an issue and nothing physical has changed with the cabling. Frustrating is not the work to explain it!!!!!!!!!!! 

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Somebody sent me a PM a couple of days ago with exactly the same issue! Are you using an IO Link? Or do you have RF sockets on the rear panel of your Sky box.

[Sawyers75]

I have RF outputs, I've done the usual RF on-off save as most people have done. Powered down box and started back up, all the usual suspects. 

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@Mark39 wrote:

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@Sawyers75 wrote:

A while ago the 3 magic eyes that we have been using stopped working with their own remotes. Each one has a working light on it and the picture is as good as it has always been. I have a lab gear splitter in the loft which is working and lit up, I've checked all cable ends and fittings and even swapped the outputs on the splitter to see if this works. We can change channels using the sky+ app with no problems. The eyes are not sky brand but we've never had an issue and nothing physical has changed with the cabling. Frustrating is not the work to explain it!!!!!!!!!!! 

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Somebody sent me a PM a couple of days ago with exactly the same issue! Are you using an IO Link? Or do you have RF sockets on the rear panel of your Sky box.

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[Mark39]

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@Sawyers75 wrote:

I have RF outputs, I've done the usual RF on-off save as most people have done. Powered down box and started back up, all the usual suspects. 

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Next thing I'd do then is to plug one of the magic eyes straight into the RF2 socket and see if it's then able to control the box (after covering up the normal IR receiver on the front panel).

[Sawyers75]

Tried the eyes in the back of the box and covered the IR receiver, worked spot on. So tried the input cable direct to a bedroom ariel and it worked, so to me this was saying its a splitter issue. I bought a new lab gear 4 way professional splitter with powerpass FBS904/S so I had no empty ports. AND THIS DIDN'T WORK!!!!!! Am I missing something? 

[Mark39]

I would have carried out the same test. With your old splitter connected, you could try connecting just one of the outputs (leaving the other two disconnected) and see if the magic eye then works. I'm wondering if one of the eyes or one of the output cables has developed  a fault and is drawing more current than your Sky box can provide. You could try all 3 connected singly, and if they all work, then maybe two together.

If I've found the right spec for your new splitter, I don't think that will work at all, as the power pass is from outputs to inputs, and you need it the other way round.