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Electronics Repair (sci.electronics.repair) Discussion of repairing electronic equipment. Topics include requests for assistance, where to obtain servicing information and parts, techniques for diagnosis and repair, and annecdotes about success, failures and problems. |
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#1
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Ubee D3.0 cable modem
I just picked one up at Goodwill. Brought it home and hooked it up, and
activated it throug Comcast. It came up working. Tried running a speed test from the Speakeasy site. It started working, then slowed down, down, down, and finally stopped. Couldn't get it to work again. Can antone suggest anything I might be able to check to get this working? I did open it and look at the caps - none are bulging, and a quick ohmmeter test suggests they act as a cap as I switch the leads back and forth. |
#2
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Ubee D3.0 cable modem
Bob F wrote: I just picked one up at Goodwill. Brought it home and hooked it up, and activated it throug Comcast. What do you mean by 'through Comcast'? Did you set up an account with then, and give them the modem's ID or did you just hook it up and try it? |
#3
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
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Ubee D3.0 cable modem
I just picked one up at Goodwill. Brought it home and hooked it up, and
activated it throug Comcast. It came up working. Tried running a speed test from the Speakeasy site. It started working, then slowed down, down, down, and finally stopped. Couldn't get it to work again. Can antone suggest anything I might be able to check to get this working? I did open it and look at the caps - none are bulging, and a quick ohmmeter test suggests they act as a cap as I switch the leads back and forth. Bad caps are still a reasonable suspect... they can go bad in ways which don't cause them to bulge. Two ways to check: (1) Use a capacitor ESR meter (which is different than a capacity measuring meter). They should show a low ESR - a fraction of an ohm. (2) Use an oscilloscope to monitor the voltage across each cap, with the cable modem powered up (ideally, in actual service). If you see significant ripple or noise across a power-supply decoupling capacitor, the cap may be bad. -- Dave Platt AE6EO Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads! |
#4
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Ubee D3.0 cable modem
Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Bob F wrote: I just picked one up at Goodwill. Brought it home and hooked it up, and activated it throug Comcast. What do you mean by 'through Comcast'? Did you set up an account with then, and give them the modem's ID or did you just hook it up and try it? Hooked it up, called them and had them activate it. |
#5
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
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Ubee D3.0 cable modem
Dave Platt wrote:
I just picked one up at Goodwill. Brought it home and hooked it up, and activated it throug Comcast. It came up working. Tried running a speed test from the Speakeasy site. It started working, then slowed down, down, down, and finally stopped. Couldn't get it to work again. Can antone suggest anything I might be able to check to get this working? I did open it and look at the caps - none are bulging, and a quick ohmmeter test suggests they act as a cap as I switch the leads back and forth. Bad caps are still a reasonable suspect... they can go bad in ways which don't cause them to bulge. Two ways to check: (1) Use a capacitor ESR meter (which is different than a capacity measuring meter). They should show a low ESR - a fraction of an ohm. (2) Use an oscilloscope to monitor the voltage across each cap, with the cable modem powered up (ideally, in actual service). If you see significant ripple or noise across a power-supply decoupling capacitor, the cap may be bad. I'll try #2. Many thanks. |
#7
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More interesting - Ubee D3.0 cable modem
OK. I took the board out of the case and used the oscilloscope to look at the
signals on the caps. I did see a triangular ripple on several of them, which matched a larger waveform seen on the ethernet connection, first seen on a small disc cap near the ethernet connector, but also seem on the rest of the ethernet connector pins.. I went upstairs, and tried the internet access - it works! When working, the max download is about the same as the old DOCSIS 2 modem (this is DOCSIS 3) at ~25Mbs. The upload speed is a bit faster, maybe 3.5 compared to 3Mbps. Put the board back in the case, powered it up, and tried again - no connection. It seems, what fixes it is to have the ground from the scope probe connected to the outside threads of the cable connector, and the scope turned on. Turn off the scope, and it quits working. Now, I can really use some ideas! |
#8
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
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Ubee D3.0 cable modem
Second try - it didn't show up for me.
OK. I took the board out of the case and used the oscilloscope to look at the signals on the caps. I did see a triangular ripple on several of them, which matched a larger waveform seen on the ethernet connection, first seen on a small disc cap near the ethernet connector, but also seem on the rest of the ethernet connector pins.. I went upstairs, and tried the internet access - it works! When working, the max download is about the same as the old DOCSIS 2 modem (this is DOCSIS 3) at ~25Mbs. The upload speed is a bit faster, maybe 3.5 compared to 3Mbps. Put the board back in the case, powered it up, and tried again - no connection. It seems, what fixes it is to have the ground from the scope probe connected to the outside threads of the cable connector, and the scope turned on. Turn off the scope, and it quits working. Now, I can really use some ideas! Oops. One more thing. It seems to occasionally quit for a few minutes aven when I get it working. |
#9
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More interesting - Ubee D3.0 cable modem
In article , Bob F wrote:
OK. I took the board out of the case and used the oscilloscope to look at the signals on the caps. I did see a triangular ripple on several of them, which matched a larger waveform seen on the ethernet connection, first seen on a small disc cap near the ethernet connector, but also seem on the rest of the ethernet connector pins.. I went upstairs, and tried the internet access - it works! When working, the max download is about the same as the old DOCSIS 2 modem (this is DOCSIS 3) at ~25Mbs. The upload speed is a bit faster, maybe 3.5 compared to 3Mbps. Put the board back in the case, powered it up, and tried again - no connection. It seems, what fixes it is to have the ground from the scope probe connected to the outside threads of the cable connector, and the scope turned on. Turn off the scope, and it quits working. Now, I can really use some ideas! It would not be the first time that a product had a bad ground connection, and that creating other ground paths (galvanic or capacitively coupled) restored operation. Some products depend on screw connections (e.g. PCB to case) or threaded connections to work. One loose screw or nut could compromise the grounding and signal flow. Or, there might be e.g. a cracked solder joint, where the cable connection is attached to the PCB... this can be a "high physical stress" location if the cable flexes. Check the jack-to-PCB mounting... if you see any solder joints which are cracked or look dubious, reheat/resolder them. Another possibility is that you have a bad cable... its shield might be making intermittent contact at one end or the other. Having the scope hooked up and turned on, could provide an alternate ground path through the building mains (your building's cable shield should be bonded to the mains ground, where the cable enters the building). Try a different "known good" cable... and if possible, a different jack on your cable wiring. Also, instead of hooking up the 'scope, try a simple wire connected between the outside threads of the cable connector, and a known-good grounding point in your house... see if this restores operation. -- Dave Platt AE6EO Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads! |
#10
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More interesting - Ubee D3.0 cable modem
Dave Platt wrote:
In article , Bob F wrote: OK. I took the board out of the case and used the oscilloscope to look at the signals on the caps. I did see a triangular ripple on several of them, which matched a larger waveform seen on the ethernet connection, first seen on a small disc cap near the ethernet connector, but also seem on the rest of the ethernet connector pins.. I went upstairs, and tried the internet access - it works! When working, the max download is about the same as the old DOCSIS 2 modem (this is DOCSIS 3) at ~25Mbs. The upload speed is a bit faster, maybe 3.5 compared to 3Mbps. Put the board back in the case, powered it up, and tried again - no connection. It seems, what fixes it is to have the ground from the scope probe connected to the outside threads of the cable connector, and the scope turned on. Turn off the scope, and it quits working. Now, I can really use some ideas! It would not be the first time that a product had a bad ground connection, and that creating other ground paths (galvanic or capacitively coupled) restored operation. Some products depend on screw connections (e.g. PCB to case) or threaded connections to work. One loose screw or nut could compromise the grounding and signal flow. Or, there might be e.g. a cracked solder joint, where the cable connection is attached to the PCB... this can be a "high physical stress" location if the cable flexes. Check the jack-to-PCB mounting... if you see any solder joints which are cracked or look dubious, reheat/resolder them. Another possibility is that you have a bad cable... its shield might be making intermittent contact at one end or the other. Having the scope hooked up and turned on, could provide an alternate ground path through the building mains (your building's cable shield should be bonded to the mains ground, where the cable enters the building). Try a different "known good" cable... and if possible, a different jack on your cable wiring. Also, instead of hooking up the 'scope, try a simple wire connected between the outside threads of the cable connector, and a known-good grounding point in your house... see if this restores operation. I really appreciate the help. I decided I should remove the splitter that separates the internet and TV signals. I hadn't remembered, but the splitter was a "2-way splitter amplifier, which I had used to get a strong enough signal for my computer TV tuners to get good digital signals. With the cable plugged directly into the modem, it works great. With a splitter for it and the TV, (5-1000MHz, amplified or not), it can't drive the modem. So, it appears I have a signal strength, quality, and/or a splitter problem, or a weak modem. It is good to know that it seems to work good with the direct cable connection, so maybe this is a solvable problem. More experimentation tomorrow. |
#11
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
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More interesting - Ubee D3.0 cable modem
Bob F wrote:
Dave Platt wrote: In article , Bob F wrote: OK. I took the board out of the case and used the oscilloscope to look at the signals on the caps. I did see a triangular ripple on several of them, which matched a larger waveform seen on the ethernet connection, first seen on a small disc cap near the ethernet connector, but also seem on the rest of the ethernet connector pins.. I went upstairs, and tried the internet access - it works! When working, the max download is about the same as the old DOCSIS 2 modem (this is DOCSIS 3) at ~25Mbs. The upload speed is a bit faster, maybe 3.5 compared to 3Mbps. Put the board back in the case, powered it up, and tried again - no connection. It seems, what fixes it is to have the ground from the scope probe connected to the outside threads of the cable connector, and the scope turned on. Turn off the scope, and it quits working. Now, I can really use some ideas! It would not be the first time that a product had a bad ground connection, and that creating other ground paths (galvanic or capacitively coupled) restored operation. Some products depend on screw connections (e.g. PCB to case) or threaded connections to work. One loose screw or nut could compromise the grounding and signal flow. Or, there might be e.g. a cracked solder joint, where the cable connection is attached to the PCB... this can be a "high physical stress" location if the cable flexes. Check the jack-to-PCB mounting... if you see any solder joints which are cracked or look dubious, reheat/resolder them. Another possibility is that you have a bad cable... its shield might be making intermittent contact at one end or the other. Having the scope hooked up and turned on, could provide an alternate ground path through the building mains (your building's cable shield should be bonded to the mains ground, where the cable enters the building). Try a different "known good" cable... and if possible, a different jack on your cable wiring. Also, instead of hooking up the 'scope, try a simple wire connected between the outside threads of the cable connector, and a known-good grounding point in your house... see if this restores operation. I really appreciate the help. I decided I should remove the splitter that separates the internet and TV signals. I hadn't remembered, but the splitter was a "2-way splitter amplifier, which I had used to get a strong enough signal for my computer TV tuners to get good digital signals. With the cable plugged directly into the modem, it works great. With a splitter for it and the TV, (5-1000MHz, amplified or not), it can't drive the modem. So, it appears I have a signal strength, quality, and/or a splitter problem, or a weak modem. It is good to know that it seems to work good with the direct cable connection, so maybe this is a solvable problem. More experimentation tomorrow. And trying it again later, it doesn't seem to be working at all. ugghhh! |
#12
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Ubee D3.0 cable modem
Bob F wrote:
I just picked one up at Goodwill. Brought it home and hooked it up, and activated it throug Comcast. It came up working. Tried running a speed test from the Speakeasy site. It started working, then slowed down, down, down, and finally stopped. Couldn't get it to work again. Can antone suggest anything I might be able to check to get this working? I did open it and look at the caps - none are bulging, and a quick ohmmeter test suggests they act as a cap as I switch the leads back and forth. I just got back from the Comcast office. Turns out this unit was rented by a customer and is not usable by me, as Andrew suggested. IT would have been nice. |
#13
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Ubee D3.0 cable modem
In article , says...
Bob F wrote: I just picked one up at Goodwill. Brought it home and hooked it up, and activated it throug Comcast. It came up working. Tried running a speed test from the Speakeasy site. It started working, then slowed down, down, down, and finally stopped. Couldn't get it to work again. Can antone suggest anything I might be able to check to get this working? I did open it and look at the caps - none are bulging, and a quick ohmmeter test suggests they act as a cap as I switch the leads back and forth. I just got back from the Comcast office. Turns out this unit was rented by a customer and is not usable by me, as Andrew suggested. IT would have been nice. One reason to ALWAYS be wary about used modems. Generally, for D3 modems, only Motorola and Zoom seem to be widely available for retail sale, with maybe some Cisco models on-line. Generally, RCA, UBee, and other odd brands tend to be only available to ISP's. -- If there is a no_junk in my address, please REMOVE it before replying! All junk mail senders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!! http://home.comcast.net/~andyross |
#14
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Ubee D3.0 cable modem
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