Definative thread for How to Wake up Dish 211 receiver

[rantonow]

There seems to be snippets of this answer throughout the various posts but nothing that seems to be on topic. So lets FINALLY get this question answered for those of us Dish Network users ->

"HOW DO WE GET SAGETV7, HD-PVR and USB-UIRT TO WAKE UP THE DISH NETWORK 211 RECEIVERS AFTER THE 3AM CODE UPDATES?"

Seems there are enough people with this specific configuration that someone must have made it work pretty bullet proof. Needless to say, recording the stupid Dish Network power off logo screen does nothing for the WAF ;-)

Please post:
1-How you have been able to do it?
2-What OS (seems Windows7/Vista verses XP/WS03 have different results)?
3-Do you have Sage configured as a service or manually started?
4-What trade-offs does your solution have - ie, is it "bullet proof?"

[fidget]

1-How you have been able to do it?
My .ir file has the code for ENTER and I have Sage send the ENTER code before and after the channel codes.

2-What OS (seems Windows7/Vista verses XP/WS03 have different results)?
I use XP Pro.

3-Do you have Sage configured as a service or manually started?
I have Sage run at startup, not as a service.

4-What trade-offs does your solution have - ie, is it "bullet proof?".
Since the Dish box MUST go to sleep, you will never have a foolproof solution. I changed my receiver to power-off at 5:00 because too many programs that I want to record seem to straddle 3:00.

[jerryt]

1). I have the "Select" command programed to be sent before the channel number.
2). Win 7
3). Manually started.
4). Bulletproof for me.

[wjohn]

Originally Posted by jerryt

1). I have the "Select" command programed to be sent before the channel number.
2). Win 7
3). Manually started.
4). Bulletproof for me.

Same here, except Win XP.

[sic0048]

Don't make it more difficult than it needs to be. I don't rely on the computer to turn the box back on. You can set the Disk box to auto tune a channel (any channel) at 3:58am (with the auto check at 3am). The box will turn itself back on automatically to tune the channel.

If tried it to tune a channel at 3:28am, but it doesn't work for me. I'm not sure if that is because some updates take longer or what. You could try it, but just be aware that it might need to be 58 minutes after the update. This means that any recording from 3am to 4am will be bad. But it is rare that I have any recordings then, but when I do, I simply delete them and mark them as "wrong program". Then they will get rerecorded.

I went this avenue because the box will turn itself back on to tune the channel. Also, make sure the box is set up to stay on all the time (no "time out" function). This means the box will stay on until the next update at 3am. But knowing it will turn back on automatically at 3:58am means I am assured that it is available to record the rest of the day.

This set up is 100% reliable!

[briands]

I use same approach as sic0048 and it works pretty well. My next improvement is to set each box to a different time with different line ups (one unique channel I don't really use for each one). Then creating a daily recurring manual recording on each of those unique channels to prevent sage from trying to use that tuner for something I might like.
It really shouldn't be this hard...

[rantonow]

I have also chosen the "more bulletproof" route of depending on the Dish receiver to wake itself up with a VCR timer. I have had about a 75% success rate so far but I suspect it has to do with not having enough time for updates to finish. I left the default at 3 AM and have it set to tune to the preview channel 101 at 3:28 but that might not be enough time. I had three of the four days this week that it worked flawlessly. I believe this is probably the best for the "wake up" issue but I dont think this addresses the receiver going to sleep due to inactivity. I have so many recording set throughout the day that as yet, I have not had that issue.

I am running Sage TV7 on Windows Server 2003 for OS. Have had no issues at all for the past two + years it has been operational with previous versions.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by rantonow

I have also chosen the "more bulletproof" route of depending on the Dish receiver to wake itself up with a VCR timer. I have had about a 75% success rate so far...

Sorry I just find this statement ironic, I mean I have a 100% success rate for a very long time now with the apparently "less bulletproof" route

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Sorry I just find this statement ironic, I mean I have a 100% success rate for a very long time now with the apparently "less bulletproof" route

Yeah, same.. i never had a problem with it waking up by sending SELECT prior to tuning..

[eric3a]

I send "Select" before tuning also and never have a problem, but then that's because I extremely rarely record anything at 03:00am.

On those ultra rare occasions in the past when something was recording at 03:00 I was stuffed because the Dish receiver was waiting for a proof of life (forgot the actual message but it's something like "the receiver will now update, if you want to cancel this and continue to watch TV press "OK"), which of course SageTV can't be aware of.
So I installed "STBkeepalive" program which sends a "OK" every night at 03:01 via the USBUIRT, but I have no idea if it really works since recordings at that time are so rare, and checking that it does work isn't on my priority list.

Eric

[stanger89]

Just had a thought, I wonder if it would be possible to have SJQ fire an event for STBKeepalive at 3:0x only if a recording is in progress....

[eric3a]

Yes. Good idea! That would probably work and if someone did a lot of recordings across 03:00am reset period, it would be worth the try.

Hey, I might try to set it up myself even though I don't record that late that often, but it shouldn't be hard at all, so why not?!
I don't remember if there's a command line option for STBKeepAlive, but I think there is.
Eric

[fidget]

Originally Posted by eric3a

Yes. Good idea! That would probably work and if someone did a lot of recordings across 03:00am reset period, it would be worth the try.

Hey, I might try to set it up myself even though I don't record that late that often, but it shouldn't be hard at all, so why not?!
I don't remember if there's a command line option for STBKeepAlive, but I think there is.
Eric

I just moved my restart time to something more acceptable, like 5:00.

[curtvm]

I have a vip211/r5000-hd/server/hd200, and have been running it for several years (or more) now. I had programmed a scheduled task to simply send a 'select' at 10 minutes before every hour. A little overkill, but at the time I thought the receiver had a mind of its own, so figured I would at least get 23 of the 24 hours no matter what.

I did update the r5000 software recently (regret), which now has the option to send a command before the channel change (I send select command first). So now with my scheduled task disabled, this works good also.

I still have to keep in mind what time I have the receiver set to do updates, but otherwise don't run into problems where the receiver is off when it should record.

But. I do have problems once in a while where for some reason the receiver changed to a 'bad' channel, or ends up with some weird dialog box (I never use the receiver outside of sage). Then the receiver needs a channel up to get out of those dialogs (select does not do anything). Of course when this happens, no record. Maybe there is some combo that would always get to a known state or something.

[sic0048]

Originally Posted by curtvm

But. I do have problems once in a while where for some reason the receiver changed to a 'bad' channel, or ends up with some weird dialog box (I never use the receiver outside of sage). Then the receiver needs a channel up to get out of those dialogs (select does not do anything). Of course when this happens, no record. Maybe there is some combo that would always get to a known state or something.

Yeah, when you tune to a unavailable channel, generally you must use the "previous channel" button to get out of that situation. You cannot simply tune a channel using the number buttons, or even by pressing the channel up or channel down button.

This makes it really inconvenient should your Sage system tune one of these channels by accident. In fact, you can loose an entire days worth of recordings until the box resets itself at the next daily update.

I cannot think of a way to minimize this except by doing a "previous channel" command prior to tuning any channel. But this would probably cause more headaches than it is worth.

[rantonow]

I have been getting kind of mixed results getting the Dish box to turn itself on. How do I prefix channel change commands to that it has a SELECT before it? I have already programed Sage with the SELECT command - just dont know how to tell it to link before a channel command. I am ALMOST there Thx!

[fidget]

Originally Posted by rantonow

I have been getting kind of mixed results getting the Dish box to turn itself on. How do I prefix channel change commands to that it has a SELECT before it? I have already programed Sage with the SELECT command - just dont know how to tell it to link before a channel command. I am ALMOST there Thx!

Select the HD-PVR
Select Tuner Control
Select Remote Control Options
Set the Channel Change Prefix Code to be SELECT
Set the Channel Change Confirm Code to be SELECT

[cadillac]

In remote control options, I can't seem to change any option. It goes through the motions, but doesn't accept the changes. Any ideas there?