Equipment Overheating

[bairman]

We recently purchased a Monaco Diplomat with the AV equipment located above the drivers seat in a small un-vented compartment.

When we got the RV we had them install a Winegard Traveler Dish 1000 on the roof with the control box in the small cabinet above and left of the drivers seat. In the AV bay is a RCA home theater system and a Winegard switch box. I place our Dish HD PVR dual TV on top of the switch box to try and allow air to circulate around the units. My problem is that the Dish receiver overheats and shuts down. I have used a 12 volt clip on fan that I attach to the open door and plug into a 12 volt source on the dash and it does help to keep the unit cool but looks terrible with this big fan and cord hanging down. Rv service centers have recommended adding a ac duct from behind the drivers seat to adding fans to the compartment. I tried the latter option and bought two 4" AC fans but found there was no room to mount them. I did drill some 5/16" holes on the left side out of view to try and get the air to circulate , but doubt this will help much. Fry's Electronics sells 3" 12 volt computer fans and I may be able to find room for these. I am just not sure how to convert them from 12 volt to 110v AC. Do you think this will work?

Now for an embarrassing question, we haven't used our MH in almost two years due to illness's and now I cant figure out how to hook up my receiver before we leave on our 2 month trip. I have two cables coming from the Dish Traveler and on the back of my receiver I have two dish in ports and one that says to use on tv channels between 31-68 I think. The RV is set up different than my house so I can't use that as they have splitters etc. I believe the two leads from the dish would go into the back of the HD PVR, but not sue how to get from there to the second TV (I can get the front TV working with no problem). Do I come from the back of my dish receiver with a short cable and go to the switch box for the rear TV. The switch box has a cable already plugged into it marked DSS, but I think that may come from the external connection in the rear bay.

[FMCANationalOffice]

You should be able to find an appropriate muffin fan in either 12VDC or 120 VAC.

Brett

[shields]

Since your AV equipment is running on 120 volts, using 120 volt fans might make good sense. You can find them at most computer centers or at http://www.ncs-us.com/cooling%20fans.htm

I had the same trouble with our home entertainment system. We vented the bottom of the cabinets, installed spacers between the components to increase circulation, and installed a pair of thermostatically controlled fans to vent hot air from the top rear. I hope this works for you since overheating will reduce the life or your components and could pose safety hazards too.

Otherwise, is it possible to relocate any of he components?

Good luck.

Tim

[Guest BillAdams]

Get fans!! You will want 120V unless you have some known good 12V wires in that particular cabinet.

As to the wiring, you will have one or 2 cables coming from the roof. If you have the Dish Separator (looks like a splitter but it's Dish Net specific) just use one cable and the separator to connect to the 2 inputs. The output to the front TV should be HDMI and pretty easy to setup. The second tuner output is a coax cable. You connect that coax to the Video Control Center so you can send the signal to the other TV's in the coach. This output is usually set to channel 60 but has a settable option. You would set the TV you want to watch to that channel to see a picture.

[bairman]

Get fans!! You will want 120V unless you have some known good 12V wires in that particular cabinet.

As to the wiring, you will have one or 2 cables coming from the roof. If you have the Dish Separator (looks like a splitter but it's Dish Net specific) just use one cable and the separator to connect to the 2 inputs. The output to the front TV should be HDMI and pretty easy to setup. The second tuner output is a coax cable. You connect that coax to the Video Control Center so you can send the signal to the other TV's in the coach. This output is usually set to channel 60 but has a settable option. You would set the TV you want to watch to that channel to see a picture.

Thanks for the information. I Googled muffin fans and found a large selection of 2.5" and up @ 110 volt. The small ones seem to have a low cfm, but if I can use two with one pulling and one pushing maybe that would work. I am bring the MH this weekend so I will check space availability.

Yes I have that splitter that is attached and used in my house, so I will just connect one of the leads and then figure out the rear set.

[vtbigdog]

As an alternative to running wires to power a fan, there is a small fan that can plug into a USB port. The Dish Network box has two USB ports and your other equipment may also have USB ports. Check with Radio Shack.