Updated DirecTV Serial Control - TRY ME!

[LazyGun]

Hmm...apparently MS has a SerialPort API in 2.0 of the Framework.
I might have a play tonight, see if I can connect to the serial port of the box.

[LazyGun]

After a couple of hours of net research, and then messing about in C#, I finally got a small winform to change the channel on my SIR-TS360 over the serial connection.

Basically you just transmit those strings I pasted earlier as Hex byte arrays.

This is probably a horribly kludgey way of doing it, but I modified the strings to have a '-' seperator between each hex number e.g.
2A647476300D0A became 2A-64-74-76-30-0D-0A

I then split that into an array(using the '-' as the seperator in string.Split..makes life easier for me), looped through each one calling byte.Parse on it (with AllowHexSpecifier as a NumberStyle), copying each value into a byte[] i declared, and then transmitted that using SerialPort.Write.

The port needs to be opened with a Baud of 57600, Parity none, Databits 8, StopBits 1, and bob is your uncle

Wonder if we could get this squeezed into the DirecTV Serial Control Plugin now.

[Nadim]

The new dll does not work with old 420 RCA receivers. Had to revert to the old one.

[JUC]

Is there a list yet of all the STB's that can work with serial tuning?

[Wakecrash]

I just upgraded to 5.0.4 and it started missing channel chages, I reverted back to an older dll and everything works now.

[AngelofDeth]

Does this version use "fast" channel changing? The old one up and just quit on one stb. The new one works, but its like using the old one with fast channel changing disabled.

[eyepulp]

So I held off upgrading from 3.0 because frankly I was sick of the frustrations that came with the house of cards that is a fully functional Sage System. I like what Sage represents, and enjoy not being tied to Tivo. That being said, I really do hate the minutia that goes with maintaining Sage.

Why am I crying now? I upgraded to 5.0.4.92. I'm running Java 1.4.2_06. I have a DirecTv D10-100 box that I (until recently) controlled through a serial cable. Every time I upgrade, it seems I lose a lot of my previous settings (sure, after digging through here I realize now to overwrite a bunch of property files), and I also seem to have to wage an epic war via internet searches, obscure zip downloads, driver installation/re-installation, and of course, lots of reboots.

Version 5 is no different, and lo, the D10 doesn't change channels. I've tried all the DirecTvSerialControl.dll files in this thread (by "try" I mean overwrote the one's in the /common folder and restarted the computer) and none work. There isn't even a whisper on the D10 box. That being said, I do get a video signal from the box and can watch whatever channel it's stuck on via Sage. The entirety of the problem lies in the inability to change channels. It used to be working so well, too.

Why did I upgrade? Because the SageTVService.exe started maxing out my CPU and bringing the machine to a crawling, squealing halt under version 3. No new drivers had been installed, and no new software on that machine for months. Perhaps a windows update munged it. I write software, so I know things don't just "suddenly stop working" - something had to change. But ya got me as to what it was. So I took a sharp stick and shoved it into my eye - and upgraded. *sigh*

The DirectTV Control app that you can use to test your serial connection works fine. So I'm left looking at Sage with a most unpleasant taste in my mouth. Truly a love/hate relationship.

Anyone have any idea how to remedy this? The upgrade process apparently deleted all my old Sage3 .dll's, but maybe someone still has one from 3.0 that I can try? Or maybe there's a better way of debugging this?

Sorry for ranting - I just don't get much time to watch TV, so when I'm doing this crap instead it feel like I'm back at work. Argh.

[Wakecrash]

attached the one I use, remove the .txt extension.

[Hector]

If you still need it I have the 3.0 archives.

peace . . .

Originally Posted by eyepulp

Anyone have any idea how to remedy this? The upgrade process apparently deleted all my old Sage3 .dll's, but maybe someone still has one from 3.0 that I can try?

[eyepulp]

Thanks to both of you for the help. Wakecrash, I tried yours, with no luck. Hector, if you've still got the 3.0 version, I'd like to try it.

Something's tickling the back of my brain telling me there's something else causing the problem, but I can't think of anything other than replacing the dll.

Is there anything else within Sage that affects the ability to control the DirecTv box over the serial cable?

[Hector]

Are you sure you're using the correct COM port?

If you check your source details that will confirm the COM port and that you have DirecTvSerialControl selected. Setup Menu-->Source Setup-->Click on the source.

I don't have a 3.0 install, just the original 3.0 archive(s) so you'd have to extract it yourself. I can set you up a d/l if you want. I really don't think the .dll is any different than the old one I posted earlier in this thread but it could be. LMK.

peace . . .

Originally Posted by eyepulp

Is there anything else within Sage that affects the ability to control the DirecTv box over the serial cable?

[AngelofDeth]

Originally Posted by eyepulp

Thanks to both of you for the help. Wakecrash, I tried yours, with no luck. Hector, if you've still got the 3.0 version, I'd like to try it.

Something's tickling the back of my brain telling me there's something else causing the problem, but I can't think of anything other than replacing the dll.

Is there anything else within Sage that affects the ability to control the DirecTv box over the serial cable?

Have you turned on debug logging? Also, are you sure you copied the directv serial control dll to the right directory? The version you installed and version you were running would have been installed to different directories by default. The serial control DLL that comes with Sage now, stopped working on one of my D10's. And if you copied the DLL into the wrong directory that could be it.

[eyepulp]

Hector: I'm pretty sure things are okay with the COM1 port. The DirecTV executable app that I test things with connect to COM1, and the seetings for the source under Sage also points to COM1.

Interestingly when Sage is turned on, the stand-alone DirecTV app errors out when trying to connect to COM1 - saying the port is already in use. Which makes me think Sage is seeing it, and claiming the resource, but just not sending anything proper through.

Angel o' Death (is that Irish?): I've tried the dll in several directories -
C:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\Sage5\SageTV
C:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\Sage5\Common

Anyone want to tell me the "correct" directory? Next I'll be trying the recycle bin... =\

Also too, how do I turn on debug logging? I'd love to see what it says is happeneing right when I change a channel. Maybe it will also indicate what's being loaded and what isn't...

My wife is getting grumpy about our missed recordings. I better go hit the torrents. =P

Thanks again for the ongoing advice. My misery loves your company.

[Wakecrash]

It goes into the Sagetv directory, not common.

[eyepulp]

Argh. Still no love. When I go to do source setup, I select S-Video, and it brings up the Live TV. Then it goes to tuning, where I say it's an external box. Then I tell it I want to use the DirecTV Serial Control on COM1. I get no errors or anything, and complete my source setup.

When I go back in to look at the Source, it says
"Tuner Control: C:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\Sage5\Common\DirecTVSerialControl COM1"

THIS is why I thought it should be in the \Common directory. Why must I be infected with the crazy?

Wakecrash, I've tried it in both directories, and reinstalled my source several times. Somehow this seems harder than it should be.

Argh again.

Update: I Just did a complete wipe and re-install. It puts the .dll into the SageTV directory, but the Source Setup still points to the /common folder. Oy.

Help?

[AngelofDeth]

Try turning on debug logging and see what Sage says when you switch a channel... Add "debug_logging=TRUE" into your sage.properties when STV isn't running. You should then see a sagetv_0.txt in your SageTV folder after restarting.

[eyepulp]

With the debugging turned on (thanks for the syntax), I found an error message:

Sat 9/16 23:35:35.723 Seeker channel string=202
Sat 9/16 23:35:35.725 Could not open COM1
Sat 9/16 23:35:35.725 ERROR Cannot open serial port for DTV control: COM1

Which definitely narrows things down. Then I started looking for anything in the system that ties to COM1 that I haven't been thinking about. I looked through my Girder setup and lo, there was much rejoicing. Apparently at some point with my v3 setup I got so tired of messing with the channel changing dll that I changed the setup and used the serial support found in Girder (which handles my general remote control duties). So v3 was passing it's channel changing to girder, and not doing the job itself. Girder took over COM1. I set it up so long ago that I barely remember doing it - though I think there was a lot of lost hair in the process...

So in point of fact this was not Sage's fault, and though it's still incredibly frustrating to figure out when things don't work, at least there's verbose debugging available, and especially helpful is this forum.

I wonder if there would be a simple STV to write that might keep track of a debugging file and display errors such as this. I've seen playback errors shown in the gui, but I wonder if there would be a way to show all ERROR messages thrown by the system. Maybe it would be a mode once could turn on and off...? I dunno. It took a long time to narrow down a dumb problem, and wasted a lot of you folk time too (sorry about that).

Maybe there's a way to reduce someone else's pain and turn this experience into something useful. Any tutorials on writing plugins or extensions?

PS: Thanks for everyone's help. I can now veg out properly, and stop reading books instead... =)

[aedgington]

Sage 5 killed my functioning D10 also. I'm going to try the old DLL, does it require a Sage restart or reboot?

Interestingly enough, I actually got a few channel changes out of my system before it quit on me, which I find really odd.

[Wakecrash]

Shutdown sage, make sure the service is is not running, then copy the old dll into your sagetv directory.

[jimmyb]

Ditto on truning off Sage Service b4 making any changes.