Understanding DISEQ FTA Switches

external switches

There are only 2 main switches that work with most, if not all, FTA receivers and regular (legacy) LNBs:
22khz switch, connect 2 LNB to one receiver

DiSEqC 4×1 switch, connects up to 4 LNBs to a receiver.

22khz switches, these are really simple, they look like a splitter but they are a simple ON or OFF switch, 0khz and 22khz are the 2 input ports, then one goes out to the receiver port, when you have 22khz OFF on your receiver, the 0khz port is connected, when you have 22khz ON in your receiver, the 22khz port is connected.
This switch is for connecting 2 LNBs to one receiver.

The 22khz switcher has a big brother, it is a 22khz DTV or 4×4 switcher, this switcher has 4 inputs to connect 2 DUAL LNB and can connect up to 4 receivers.

2 inputs are labeled 13v.0khz and 18v.0khz (remember the internal LNBF switch) and the other 2 inputs are 13v.22khz and 18v.22khz. This allows both polarities of each LNB to be inside the switch at all times, so any polarity on any 2 LNBs can be accessed by any of the 4 receivers.

These switches also come in a 4×8 for up to 8 receiver connections to 2 satellites.

DiSEqC is a pulse switch, it also uses a 22khz signal but uses a single pulse to set the DiSEq switch to 1 of 4 ports, these switches come in 2×1 and 4×1 models, for 2 LNBs in ONE receiver or 4 LNBs in ONE receiver respectively, these can NOT be used for more than one receiver, you need to use another DiSEq switch for the second receiver.

DiSEqC-1 or 2 or 3 or 4 in your menu will cause the DiSEqC switch to switch to that numbered port, some receivers use A, B, C, D instead of 1, 2, 3, 4.

This “pulse” is only sent once, if the DiSEq switch is too far from the receiver, you may miss it and not switch ports, sometimes toggling between channels may cause the switch to happen, the pulse repeats every time you switch channels , but moving the switch closer to the receiver can improve its performance.

DiSEqC = Digital Satellite Equipment Control, this was designed for FTA receivers.

DiSEqC switches come in 2 main types, committed (1.0) and uncommitted (1.1), but also 2-way committed (2.0) and 2-way uncommitted (2.1).

Committed switches (1.0) are the most common and are the ones that come with receivers.

These switches require FACTORY software on your FTA to work properly, 1.0 means your receiver can operate ONLY committed switches, 1.1 means it can operate committed AND uncommitted switches, 1.2 means it can operate both committed and uncommitted plus DiSEqC motor controls.

2.0 is the same as above, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 but the receiver can also receive information from the switch, 2.0 switches receive the heartbeat command from the receiver, then switch ports, then send an acknowledgment to the receiver, if a 2.0 receiver does not receive confirmation, it will send the DiSEqC pulse over and over again until the switch confirms that it is on the correct port.

Putting 2 committed DiSEqC switches on one cable is a no-no, so there are types of committed and uncommitted switches, a committed switch is placed first on the line (the DiSEqC pulse comes from the receiver, so the first would be the closest to the receiver), then you can connect an Uncommitted switch to the Acknowledged switch, the Acknowledged switch will ignore commands from Uncommitted switches.

Committed 4×1 switches are about $20, uncommitted 4×1 switches are about $80, unless you have to have 16 LNBs connected to a receiver with committed switches.

No multi-receiver DiSEq switches for legacy (regular) style LNBs

22khz switches and DiSEq switches can work well together, with one restriction: the 22khz switch must come AFTER the DiSEq switch.

So you can connect a 22khz switch to two LNBs and then connect the output of the 22khz switch to port 1 of the DiSEq switch. So instead of 4 LNBs you could have 5 LNBs connected, you can add a 22khz switch to each DiSEqC port for a total of 8 LNBs connected to one receiver.

Dishnet Legacy switches are designated by SW, such as sw21 or sw64, these do not use true DiSEqC pulses, so they will not work with FTA receivers.

Legacy TWIN and QUAD LNBs have built in SW switches so they also won’t work with FTA receivers

DishPro TWIN or QUAD LNBs have an internal DiSEqC switch so EACH port on the LNB has access to either of the 2 internal LNBs, 110 or 119, DiSEqC 1 = 119 and DiSEqC 2 = 110, these LNBs require a list of DP channels.

DishPro external switchers, there are now 2, a DP34 and a DPP44, both use true DiSEqC pulses so will work with FTA receivers, but you must use DP LNBs to take advantage of the multi-receiver aspect of this switcher.

(The DPPlus LNB does NOT work with FTA receivers, it does not use true DiSEqC)

If you connect a standard (non-DP) LNB to a DP switch and more than one receiver, you can only get 1 polarity at a time from that LNB. If you only have 1 receiver connected, it has been reported to work fine. I have not tested this.

Multiple receiver switches

If you are using standard LNB (not DP), you need 1 LNB port per receiver, it’s that simple, if you have a dual LNB, you have 2 ports so you can connect 2 receivers, if you want to connect a third receiver. you need a third LNB port.

Single output (non-DP) LNBs can only be used with 1 receiver.

But if you have a Dual LNB you can expand it to 4 or 8 or even 16 outputs.

This is done with a Multi-switch, they come in 3×4, 3×8 and 2×16.

You run 2 cables from the dual LNB to the multiswitch and then you have 4 LNB outputs (or 8 or 16), if you have 2 LNBs you want then you need 2 multiswitches, one for each LNB.

The 22khz 4×4 switcher consists of 2 multi-switches in one box, and you can use them together with DiSEq 4×1 to set up a multi-satellite multi-receiver system.

The C/Ku or 0/12v switch is a voltage controlled switch, most FTAs ​​don’t have this option but some do, these don’t work from a coaxial cable signal like 22khz and DiSEqC do, they require 2 wires for the switch, the switch has 2 inputs and one output, at 0volts one port is connected to 12v the other port is connected.

On the back of the receiver there will be a GND (ground) and 12v (12 volts) this is where the 2 wires connect to the switch, and there will be an option in the menu for 0/12v ON or OFF.