Serial Cable for DTV receivers

[JUC]

Hi all, just switched to DTV and can't wait to try to serial connection to change channels. Anyway, where can I get one of the cables? I need the one that goes from serial to low speed data port on the back of my D10.
They have them on BTV for $20. I called Ratshack and they told me they didn't have them (hard to believe). Anyone know where i can buy one...i would like it today, but if i have to order it then that's what i'll do. I can't build one myself either, no knowledge of that stuff.
Thanks
JUC

[turak]

What type of connection is it on your STB? DB9? I picked up a straight DB9 serial cable to control my motorla cable STB from staples. Too bad I was never able to get comcast to enable the serial port.

[JUC]

Ahhhhh!!! I went home last night and realized my 'low speed data' port is actually labelled as a phone jack...WTF! Am i out of luck here. This is for the D10-300. I thought these STB had low speed data ports. Would this still work by any chance? BTW--i need some sort of serial cable to low speed data port if it is even possible.
thanks
JUC

[Wakecrash]

I posted a reply about D10 support in your other post, but for cable, go to http://www.dtvcontrol.com/ for pin outs to make your own. I could only find the small handset type jack needed at an Ace hardware, radio shack, lowes, home depot only carried the 6 and 8 conductor type.

[idvsego]

does anybody know if all the DTV boxes have the serial ports or home control ports enabled? also, will sage control this box just by enabling the serial control? how about mulitple boxes connected via serial? if I had an expansion card thar added serial connections to the PC. I would prefer a hardwired control over an IR emitter myself, but I have 4 tuner boxes to control. I am thinking a card like this one...

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=50322081&pfp=cat3

[JUC]

Might be cheaper to just get USB to serial cables. Not sure how much they are though and since you would have to buy 4 it might eat up your usb ports---but still an option to look into. Not sure about the DTV receiver ports being enabled--unfortunately, my 2 D10-300's don't have them (will be calling DTV very shortly).
JUC

[idvsego]

dpends on the price of the converters. haven't looked for them too much yet, but they are $37 a piece here...
http://www.dtvcontrol.com/

[JUC]

update: i just called DTV to see if i could exchange my D10-300 for one that has a low speed data port. Low and behold, they tell me that the 300 does have one. I swear when I looked last night it didn't but I need to check again. But, i have also read elsewhere that the D10-300's don't work with Tivo's for serial channel changes for some reason...hopefully i actually have a STB with low speed port and i can get it to work. Can anyone confirm that the 300 does or does not have a low speed port and whether it works?
thanks
JUC

[idvsego]

just found this while searching the forum...

http://www.sfcable.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=31D1-A2&Category_Code=88

looks like the same adapter being sold on dtvcontrol for way more. I am thinking that adapter and this dongle
http://www.cablewholesale.com/specs/10u1-06103.htm

plus a short phone cord.

about the different models, couldn't tell you for sure, but I did find this post...

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9131&highlight=serial+control

[JUC]

Thanks, I think i might actually have one of those adapters in the first link you posted. Someone gave it to me a while back and i never knew what it was for...worth a shot. The other links were similar to what i have found. The D10-100 works, no one can confirm if the 300 does though. My only question is, why would the 300 have the low speed data port on it if it doesn't work? doesn't make sense to me. I need to go home and confirm that mine has the low speed port and see if i can' find that adapter.
thanks
JUC

[idvsego]

Dtv just finished installing my 4 boxes. I checked the first one they unboxed and it was a DC10-100, so I was happy. I left them to thier work. came back after they were done to activate and saw that the first one was indeed a 100, but the other 3 were 300's. I stopped the activiation and started to call bestbuy and Dtv. Then I saw that the installers hadn't left yet, so I went and talke dto them. They searched the truck and found 3 100's and swapped them for me. very cool of them to do, since it saved me a trip to best buy and a possible fight to exchange.

So now I have 4 DC10-100's and will be ordering the proper cables for direct serial control. I think I am going to go with a PC card to add the serial connections since it is only about $10 more than the USB dongles and I can buy it local. Next will be the serial cables and the adapter to the low speed data port.

[GadgetGuy]

Let me know what you find. I have been running BTV for a few years, but due to general stability issues re:link software to distributed clients, I recently decided to give Sage a whirl. Stability via client software is much better, but there are some issues.

1. The regular serial cable for RCA-style boxes do work for the D-10 series (assuming your low-speed port exists and is active).

2. The problem is that the D-10 uses a newer control-code set than the older models, so while the cable will connect the equipment properly, Sage transmits the wrong codes via its DirecTVSerialControl.dll. I have both types of DirecTV receivers (old and new) on my recording server, and both are capable of being controlled thru a separate utility, but different control sets are necessary to make both work. The cables I have built are identical.

Snapstream, I believe, has this solved, but I suspect that the Sage control dll needs to be updated or a separate one created. This is consistent with another post I read where MythTV programmers are working on the problem now.

Please post if you obtain different results in your testing.

[that_kid]

I have almost the same problem. I've also been using btv for years without issues using the same cables. Now I have a problem with sage controlling 2 of my 4 boxes. 2 of them use the new controls and the other 2 use the old controls. Boxes 1 and 4 use the new control sets and boxes 2 and 3 use the old and I can only get 2&3 to tune now. At one point I deleted all my sources and added them back one at a time and when going through the channel lineup I was able to change channels(with the exception of box 3). It seems like sage can use either the new set or the old but not both. I know it's not a cable issue as I've made new cables today and I'm having the exact same problems plus when sage doesn't change the channels I can stop the sage service and use dtvcon without any issues. Now if we can get this resolved I can finally leave BTV :blush:

[Opus4]

If the codes to control DirecTV boxes via serial cable have changed, I suggest you contact Frey directly to see if they have a solution for that.

- Andy

[that_kid]

Thanks Andy, I've sent the information in.

[idvsego]

I did the math and I think I am going with a mix. i am going to use serial control for one of my boxes, and the other 3 are going to use a USB-UIRT. Using the USB adapters or buying a serial card makes the total for 4 too much $$.

[Drazi]

FYI, I just updated to 2.2.6RC and I'm now able to use my D10-100 with serial control. Make sure you reboot after the upgrade, I didn't and it wasn't working at first.

I also have two RCA420's which still work. I'm guessing for each channel change Sage sends both old and new codes and one always gets ignored by the receiver.