# hughes series 2 sd power supply



## tomc585 (Mar 4, 2009)

I just used my last power supply. They seem to becoming harder to find these days. I cant justify paying $50 plus for a "pulled from a known working unit" off fleabay or $70 from weak site. If they were new with a revision then maybe. Does anyone know of a repair option to fix the bad ones?


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

tomc585 said:


> I just used my last power supply. They seem to becoming harder to find these days. I cant justify paying $50 plus for a "pulled from a known working unit" off fleabay or $70 from weak site. If they were new with a revision then maybe. Does anyone know of a repair option to fix the bad ones?


Generally the repair option is to replace capacitors.

When you say "used your last one", did you have a stock for fixing other people's TiVos, or just keeping your own going, and if it's just your own stuff, are you in need of one or just wanting to have a spare?


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## tomc585 (Mar 4, 2009)

Just my own use. unfortunately I dont have any "in stock"...lol. This last one I took out of an un-activated unit I use just for a spare tv that we watch old movies saved on it. That was kind of my spare parts machine. 

So I have a core I could or get repaired if I new what the mod/parts are needed.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

tomc585 said:


> Just my own use. unfortunately I dont have any "in stock"...lol. This last one I took out of an un-activated unit I use just for a spare tv that we watch old movies saved on it. That was kind of my spare parts machine.
> 
> So I have a core I could or get repaired if I new what the mod/parts are needed.


So is SD-DVR320 a Hughes brand DirecTV TiVo with a larger hard drive than it left the factory with?

'Cause tivopedia only lists the SD-DVR40, SD-DVR80, and SD-DVR120.

Do they use the same power supply as the HDVR2, or do you know?

You might find this page interesting reading

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Repair-a-Hughes-HDVR2-Tivo-Power-Supply/

How-to-Repair-a-Hughes-HDVR2-Tivo-Power-Supply


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## tomc585 (Mar 4, 2009)

unitron said:


> So is SD-DVR320 a Hughes brand DirecTV TiVo with a larger hard drive than it left the factory with?
> 
> 'Cause tivopedia only lists the SD-DVR40, SD-DVR80, and SD-DVR120.
> 
> ...


yeah, it is a sd-dvr80 that i loaded with a 320gb drive after two 80's and a 120 died, the sd-dvr40, 80 and 120 are the same except for the drive capacity. 
These listed all use the same power supply so that link is a great find. Thanks
Hughes HDVR2
Hughes SD-DVR40
Hughes SD-DVR80
Hughes SD-DVR120
Philips DSR7000
Philips DSR704
Philips DSR708
RCA DVR39
RCA DVR40
RCA DVR80
RCA DVR120 
Samsung S4040R
Samsung S4080R
Samsung S4120R


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## the_Skywise (Nov 27, 2000)

What're the symptoms of a power supply going bad? I've got one that's intermittently losing both tuners, pixelation and eventually ending up with a reboot that can't retrieve any satellite signal at all or a lock up or the HDMI video going out. But the ODD part is that if I just unplug my unit (an HR10-250) for a little more than 10 seconds and then plug it back in, everything will come back and work fine for several days.

With the pixelation and reboot I'd say a hard drive issue but the tuner signal loss sounds more like a motherboard problem but the behavior with the lock ups, especially with the 10 second delay with the power out is leading me to believe this is all a power supply problem?

(eh I should just buy a roamio, go comcast and be done with it...  )


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

tomc585 said:


> yeah, it is a sd-dvr80 that i loaded with a 320gb drive after two 80's and a 120 died, the sd-dvr40, 80 and 120 are the same except for the drive capacity.
> These listed all use the same power supply so that link is a great find. Thanks
> Hughes HDVR2
> Hughes SD-DVR40
> ...


You should be able to use the power supply out of a non-satellite TCD240xxx or TCD540xxx as well, 'caused I used an HDVR2 supply in both.

The TDC240xxx supply has a little more overall current capacity (can't remember if it's on the 5V or 12V rail) than the 540 or DVR2 supplies), so you might not want to try to run a 240 for long with the supply from one of the other models.

There's a sticker wrapped around the big capacitor on these supplies (or else the info is silkscreened onto the circuit board) that gives the figures on how many amps at which voltage it can deliver, and they wouldn't spend the money to put more capability in a particular model than was necessary.


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## nmiller855 (Sep 26, 2000)

If the wrong power supply is installed, what issues would it cause?
I bought what I thought was the right one but the unit will not display the channel content. I get the channel banner, guide, etc. But not the programming. The account status shows closed & I've called DirecTv a few times & they have not been able to get to work. If it is just the wrong power supply, I'll buy another & install it.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

nmiller855 said:


> If the wrong power supply is installed, what issues would it cause?
> I bought what I thought was the right one but the unit will not display the channel content. I get the channel banner, guide, etc. But not the programming. The account status shows closed & I've called DirecTv a few times & they have not been able to get to work. If it is just the wrong power supply, I'll buy another & install it.


The important part is for what's called the "pinout" to be the same.

The term actually comes, I'm fairly certain, from which pin number corresponds to what part of a vacuum tube, transistor, or integrated circuit, but in this case it means of the conductors between the power supply and the motherboard, which ones are ground, which other ones are what voltage, and which, if any, are no connection.

You don't want, for example, to apply the +12V output to where the motherboard is expecting only +5V, and you sure don't want to short any of the voltage lines to ground.

One the Series 1s and Series 3 stand alone (non-satellite) TiVos, there are color-coded wires that run to the plug that goes into the socket on the motherboard, so it's just a matter of making sure the locations of particular colors match.

On the S2s I've seen, except for one of the earliest ones, a TCD140060, they use a white "ribbon cable", and apparently the pinout is the same for the 240 and 540 series, and at least the HDVR2

There should be a label/sticker wrapped around the largest capacitor showing the various DC output voltages and the amperage it can deliver at that voltage.

Although on some supplies that info might be silk-screened onto the circuit board instead.

Look at the original supply for your unit (the model number of which you should already have told us) and see if there's a listing for an output in the 28 to 30 V range with a rather small current capacity.

Then see if the replacement supply (the model number from which it came you also should have told us) has a similar output listed.

That will be the source of the reference voltage that's used for a thing called a varactor in the tuner.

A varactor is basically a capacitor whose capacitance can be changed by changing the bias voltage applied to it rather than turning a knob.

Basically, change the voltage, change the channel (by changing the frequency that gets passed through the tuner).

I think all TiVos used this up until the dual tuner Series 2, which apparently has some other way of tuning in particular channels.

But if your TiVo uses the tuning voltage and the replacement supply doesn't supply it, that might account for your problem.

What's wrong with your original power supply?


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## tomc585 (Mar 4, 2009)

worst case....the wrong power supply will do something really bad to the motherboard. Some look the same/similar but as it was said in the post above, not all are created equal. I tried to use a power supply from the HR10 in the SDVR and it cooked the ribbon cable instantly. I was lucky not to do any damage elsewhere in the unit. Always cross reference it somewhere to be sure.


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## nmiller855 (Sep 26, 2000)

My unit is a SD-DVR4O.
The original power supply would no longer power up the unit.
On the original power supply the is +3.3-3.2A, +5-2.52A, 12V-1.16A, +32-0.005A.
All of the numbers are the same on the new one except the last 2 that are +12V-4.51A & 30V-0.005A.

Edited it to add: I just saw that the old one says Total 78W max& the new one says Total 30w max.

I was attempting the repairs before my cataract surgery &couldn't see these numbers clearly.

Also the ones I see on Ebay list numbers with TCD then numbers. Where are those numbers found?


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

The TCD numbers are for standalone TiVos, not DTiVos. Your unit is an SD-DVR40 (last character is a zero.)


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## nmiller855 (Sep 26, 2000)

Thanks for your quick response. I looked all over my units but only have DirecTv models.


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## nmiller855 (Sep 26, 2000)

So will any of the power supplies listed on Ebay under TiVo power supply series 2 work wit my unit or should I try to buy another whole same model unit & switch out the power supplies?
Soldering is NOT an option for me.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

See http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-power-supply.php for the groups of compatible models.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

nmiller855 said:


> My unit is a SD-DVR4O.
> The original power supply would no longer power up the unit.
> On the original power supply the is +3.3-3.2A, +5-2.52A, 12V-1.16A, +32-0.005A.
> All of the numbers are the same on the new one except the last 2 that are +12V-4.51A & 30V-0.005A.
> ...


There's something not adding up here.

The one that can put out 1.16Amperes (that's current) on the +12V (that's voltage, the difference in potential between two points that causes current to flow between those 2 points) rail/output should be the 30Watt (that's power, which in simple terms is Volts multiplied by Amps) supply and the one that can do 4.51A on the 12 should be the 78W.

I've got a power supply from a TCD240080 that lists

+3.3-3.2A
+5-2.52A
+12V-4.51A
+30V-0.005A
Total 78W max

and a supply a fellow TCF'er assures me came out of an HDVR2 which lists

+3.3-3.2A
+5-2.52A
12V-1.16A
+32-0.005A
Total 30w max

They are physically interchangeable and electrically interchangeable as far as the ribbon cable pinout.

Of course the ribbon cable pinout specifies which lines are ground and which ones are supposed to couple which voltage rail to which point on the motherboard, but amperage, and therefore power in Watts, is not addressed.

But I've managed to get the 240 to boot up okay with the HDVR2 supply and the similar to the HDVR2 TCD540040 supply.

Long term I figure there's a reason the 240 needed more power available on the 12 V rail, and that that's why they spent the extra money giving the supply that capability, but short term and for testing purposes, those should be considered interchangeable.

So let's figure out for sure which supply your SD-DVR40 came with and which supply is the other one you acquired more recently, and go from there.


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## nmiller855 (Sep 26, 2000)

I just ordered the right power supply from Weaknees.
So does anyone want to buy 3 power supplies for: COMPATIBLE WITH:

TiVo TCD540040
TiVo TCD540080
TiVo TCD540140
Humax T800
Humax T2500?


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## jar-head (Mar 28, 2006)

I have 4 Hughes SD-DVR40 DirecTivos...have not used any of them in 3 years. I powered up 3 of them a minute ago. 2 of them powered on fine and 1 was stuck on powering up. I was going to pull the hard drives anyway. Could the power supplies in these boxes be re-used for your purposes?


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## tomc585 (Mar 4, 2009)

jar-head said:


> I have 4 Hughes SD-DVR40 DirecTivos...have not used any of them in 3 years. I powered up 3 of them a minute ago. 2 of them powered on fine and 1 was stuck on powering up. I was going to pull the hard drives anyway. Could the power supplies in these boxes be re-used for your purposes?


They sure would!


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## nmiller855 (Sep 26, 2000)

They would come in very handy. How much do you want for 2 of them? I would probably be interested in all 4 but since tomc585 started the thread,'I don't want to be greedy.


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## tomc585 (Mar 4, 2009)

2 would be fine for me, i also dont want to be greedy


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