pansat 9200hd Technical Bulletin (June 18, 2008)e-Sata PVR Operation Ready Fix

[arboristman]

Technical Bulletin (June 18, 2008)

Subject : e-Sata External PVR Operation Ready Fix
Model : Pansat 9200HD Early Production (sold before Jan, 2008)
July, 2007 (S/N : 7H~ series)
Oct, 2007 (S/N : 7J~ series)
**** Nov, 2007 (S/N : 7K~ series) production OK (sold after Feb, 2008)
Modification : Relocate TR Q3 (MMBT 2222A Fairchild) as per attached photo.
Verification : After relocating the Q3 TR base (or C178) the voltage should be 1.8V DC from 0V

Recommendation

If these instruction are too difficult for you to follow or you can not find a qualified installer to make the modification, please send the whole unit back to the Panarex Service Department because you will be charged to have the PCB board replaced if you make a severe damage mistake. The fee will be based on the actual price of the board. (Around $200.00)

1. Find and hire an excellent qualified technician nearest to your location.
2. Desolder & remove the part TR(Q3) quickly. (Not more than 2~3 seconds to avoid PCB pattern damage)
3. Clean the main PCB board Q3 TR area and removed TR legs and solder again with new direction
as per the attached photo. (Should you need new TR, contact the Panarex Service Dept to request it)
4. You need to check the C178 leg (or TR bare) measures 1.8V DC.

Panarex Electronics
11672 Tuxford St., Sun Valley, CA 91352 USA
Tel : 818-768-5161 Fax : 818-768-5191
E-mail : pansatusa@cs.com

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[arboristman]

its strongly,strongly recommended that you send it in for repair.
its not worth the risk.its pansats fault,and they should do it for free along with paying all shipping charges.whether they do or not,i don't know.first thing you would want to do would be to e-mail them and ask them.
edit:
ok it appears that they will cover cost of service and shipping one way,they will pay to ship it back.
they should go good for all shipping imho.
it shouldn't cost the customer one penny.
not after buying a $429.00 receiver advertised as pvr ready.
but that's the skinny anyway.
remember to flash with factory files first!!!
make sure to remove anything inside the unit you may have installed!!!!

[arboristman]

here you go.but again,i wont recommended that you do this yourself.
also i read,that when you send it in,they also upgrade the software for it.
so even if you do it yourself,you will have to wait for the software to be released.

[arboristman]

c/p:

I'm in full agreement that you should send your STB back to Pansat for repair unless your really good at intricate electronics work.
Having said that, I was stupid enough to do it myself, so for those of you who are going to insist on doing it yourself also, here's some mistakes of mine you can learn from:


First of all - get a good magnifying glass before you start.

The transistor Q3 does not have legs that go thru the PC board, they are just short little stubby legs that lay flat on top of the PC board (at least mine were).

I just went slow & gradual wicking off the excess solder over several short bursts of heat with the old iron. This seemed to work ok.

I did not get a good connection the first time at the "base" leg. I measured 2.33 - 2.35 volts on the emitter & collector legs, but only 17.4 mV at the base. I carefully scaped off around the base leg & re-soldered & then it was ok. Moral of this story - clean good before re-soldering and spend some quality time positioning the tiny little black bug we are referring to as Q3, and hold it down steady while soldering the 1st leg. As a side note - I did plug my box in before re-soldering the base properly and everything worked ok, but I'm sure it was not "PVR Ready".

Note - I originally was a little confused because I was measuring across the 2 points shown in the picture looking for 1.8 volts. You actually want to measure 1.8 volts from either of these points relative to ground.

So now my box is back up & running, & I am reading 1.84 volts at the base of Q3

Good Luck to all you risk takers!

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