D11-500 model working with USB...kind of

[fatsin182]

Alright, good news and bad news. I had the script working in Sage and I was able to change the channel up/down, use the guide, or type in a channel. But now, I can't get it to work again. I followed all the directions and it worked initially. I then proceded to restart and hookup my other STB. I wasn't exactly sure how to get the second STB working so I experimented a little. Well, somehow I ended up getting neither of them to work so I decided to unhook the second one for now and just put the settings back the way they were for the first one. Well now that one just won't work either.

The command prompt window appears briefly and it seems to be retrying to send the commands. It does a retry attempt 4 times and then closes. During this, on the directv OSD, it seems to want to change the channel but it enters in two 3's, and it doesn't accept that channel because I don't have it. It then enters one or two more 3's and again, doesn't accept it. It's almost as if it is going too slow or something. My port monitor program says that the command

FA A5 00 01 E3

is being sent and that is sent 3 times with about 2 seconds between each send. This command is sent right when Sage is turned on as well and I select Watch TV. Is it being sent because Sage wants to turn the STB to the channel that Sage is set to at the time? Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this latest problem would be awesome. And if I'm able to get the one working again (and stabalized), how do I get the second STB working in tandem as far as the registry entries are concerned? I currently have the command you suggested in the registry Cybrmage. Thanks in advance!

-Shane

[fatsin182]

I have success! I got the one STB working with the USB/Serial connection. Sage controls the box beautifully, on the server and the client. My question is, how do I get the second STB working now with the EXEMultiTunerPlugin? Do I just add a command line in the registry below the one I already have there? Thanks for the help, getting this far is awesome, just a little more and I should be finally set.

-Shane

[cybrmage]

Now that you have it working for one STB, you need to make some minor changes to get it working with two STBs...

Change your .reg file to:

-------
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\Common\EXEMultiTunerPlugin]
"command"="perl.exe C:\\perl\\directv2.pl port com%DEVICE% baudrate 115200 flow none box_type D11 %CHANNEL%"
-------

Import this new .reg file.

Then you need to change the configuration for SageTV.

Using Windows Explorer, navigate to your SageTV remote codes directory ( c:\Program Files\SageTV\Common\RemoteCodes). There, you will find a file named StubDevice.ir. Right click on this file and select copy. Then, right click and select paste. Rename this copy of StubDevice.ir to 1.ir. Then paste the file again and rename it to 3.ir.

Then, in SageTV, go to setup / setup video sources. Select the tuner device that has STB1 connected to it. This will bring you to the source details page. You should see a box on the right hand side of the page labeled "Tuner Control: EXEMultiTunerPlugin StubDevice". Navigate to this box and select it. This will bring up a tuning device menu. Navigate to "change tuning device" and select it. SageTV will then present a menu with 1 and 3 available. Select 1, then back out to the main menu.

Repeat this procedure for the tuning device with your second STB attached to it.

Regards

[fatsin182]

I got it working! Thanks for the help Cybrmage. Sorry it took so long to post my results, but one of my adapters was defective and hindering me from using one of the STBs all together. I got a replacement and finally got my setup together and working. Thanks to everyone that helped me out with this and I'm so happy I was able to get the D11s working properly. I knew it could be done and I couldn't have done it without the help of the Sage TV Community. So add one more up and running D11 user to the mix.

[toricred]

OK, so I've got it working, but at reboot I have to run the com port toolkit and send something to it to "wake it up". I'd like to either have this happen automatically, or better yet not need it. Any ideas?

[fatsin182]

I have the same problem. Whenever I reset the server computer I have to "wake up" the boxes with the com port toolkit. I don't reset the comp to often but sometimes it's necessary. Also, whenever it just randomly decides to stop receiving commands I have to use the toolkit. So yeah if someone has an idea on how to fix this that would be awesome!

[AtomicPenguin]

Not sure if this will help you but I'm controlling my D11-300 with a serial-to-usb cable called the USB TV Translator. No extra configuration needed. I just set up SageTV for serial tuning and that was it (v5.0.4). No 3rd party apps to run alongside SageTV to make it work.

You can actually return it to them if it doesn't work for you. I searched high and low till I came across it and I'm glad I did.

[toricred]

Originally Posted by fatsin182

I have the same problem. Whenever I reset the server computer I have to "wake up" the boxes with the com port toolkit. I don't reset the comp to often but sometimes it's necessary. Also, whenever it just randomly decides to stop receiving commands I have to use the toolkit. So yeah if someone has an idea on how to fix this that would be awesome!

OK, I got that fixed. I modified the perl script to save the settings to the port initialization and now it works perfectly. The routine for initializing the com port is the last sub-routine and I think the method to use was write_settings.

[chickman]

Purchased a Serial to USB cable from http://www.patersontech.com/ and change the baud rate on the serial port of my PC from 9600 to 115000 and attached my new DirecTV D11-500 and everything works great. Very happy with the results without a whole lot of work. Figured I share my findings in case anyone was having issues.

[gilded07]

sorry to drudge this old thread up again but it might help me. I've been using serial tuning with a D10-300 successfully w/ SageTV 6.3. I tried a brief experiment with the local analog cable and now I think I'm ready to return to directv. I have a D11 that I'd also like to hook up. I've ordered some USB to serial cable / adapters to convert a USB port on my server to a serial port #2. I'll be using an Avermedia 1500 MCE PCI tuner with RCA inputs for video and audio.

Will I have any trouble with serial tuning on the D11?

Thanx.

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by gilded07

Will I have any trouble with serial tuning on the D11?

http://www.patersontech.com/products...ranslator.aspx

Click on compatibility list - D series DirecTV seems to be supported by this translator.

I use these cables for my Direct boxes.

[gilded07]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

http://www.patersontech.com/products...ranslator.aspx

Click on compatibility list - D series DirecTV seems to be supported by this translator.

I use these cables for my Direct boxes.

I paid $6 for the cable/adapters on ebay. I'm hoping they work in the same fashion as the expensive patterson cables.

[bhyman1]

Originally Posted by gilded07

I paid $6 for the cable/adapters on ebay. I'm hoping they work in the same fashion as the expensive patterson cables.

Depending on the model of DirecTV box and USB to serial adapter, yes.

I'm using cheapies from Newegg and it works great.

Check out this thread too: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35663