We have wiring diagrams for this setup, see:

SWM and WB68 wiring diagrams

(The wb68 and wb616 wire the same way.)

We also have products that will allow you to install multiple SWMs--we have a chassis that holds 6 SWMs allowing for up to 48 tuners, for example. We have other equipment that is meant to improve the reliability of this type of setup.

If you use splitters beyond 1x2s (eg 1x4s between the dish and switches) you are going to reduce the integrity of the signal and it may not work properly.

SWM-8 connected to WB616

Perhaps I didn't explain myself clearly. I would like to know if it is possible to connect two SWM-8's to the WB616 rather than directly to the 5 LNB dish?

I was thinking I could connect two SWM-8's to the WB616 and still have 8 additional ports open for future use or perhaps another SWM-8.

Please advise, I need to run cable now.

Thanks.

Sorry - no - you can't cascade those units like that at all.

I Humbly disagree

I found diagrams from the manufacturer showing the cascading of 4 wb616's from a single wb616 to give a total of 64 ports. The diagram showed direct connect from the "main" switch to the 4 "cascaded" switches. I figured if it worked for the switch, it should work for the SWM. So I tried it. Directly connected a SWM to 4 output ports of a wb616. It works perfectly! It also makes a lot of sense. The diagrams on this web site suggest splitting the incomming signals before going to both the SWM and the wb616. This presents 1 big problem and one small issue. The big problem is, I believe the SWM should only be 40 feet from the dish? If you split the signal that should reduce that run to perhaps 20 feet? (the numbers might be wrong, but the logic is sound). The wb616 can use much longer runs, mine are at least 75'. The small problem with using a splitter, you MUST make sure you match the incomming signals to the same ports. That would be easy to mess up and would take some time to figure out.

If there is any manufactures documentation on why you SHOULDN'T directly connect a swm to a WB616 then please direct me to it. Until then, IT WORKS GREAT

We can only tell you that DIRECTV does not recommend this setup.

Thank you XYZZY

Logically it made sense that you should be able to cascade SWM's from a WB616 and I was going to try it myself on an existing install with a WB616 this week. The way I figure it, I can install 4 SWM's on 1 WB616 or 2 SWM's and have 8 single receiver ports available for home runs.

Thanks Again!

We agree that it makes logical sense, but for whatever reasons, DirecTV specifically recommends against it.

Why bother with a 6x16 instead of 1x4 high-frequency splitters?

I currently have two WB68s connected in parallel using 4 high-frequency splitters that the DirecTV installer put in. I am looking to buy a SWM8 and replacing one of the WB68s with the SWM8, and plan on wiring the SWM8 to the WB68 myself as per the the wiring diagram on this site.

Question: what kind of high-frequency splitters will I need? In particular, should they be the ones that pass power on both ports, or ones that pass power on just one port? Or does it matter? The reason I ask is that I don't know what kind of splitters I currently have in place with my two WB68s and need to know if I need to buy new splitters.

I found an old post here where folks are arguing over the kind of splitters needed for the two WB68 setup, so I figured it could be an issue with the SWM8/WB68 combo as well.

The splitters you have should work if they work fine now. No power is passed on that side of the multiswitches, it's all on the downstream side. The power is inserted through the SWM port, and not the LNB side of the unit.

I can tell you that if you put a swm-8 behind a WB616 it will not work, you have to use the 4 splitters, for what ever reason if you try it every other transponder reads 0.

Sure - because the WB616 can't read the incoming SWM signal.