Skystar USB HD , no rotor and remote control

[lakisfm1]

Technisat Skystar USB HD (no CI).

 

I use DVBViewer 4.8.1 PRO and USALS does not move the dish.

(I have setup the site coordinates of course).

 

I also have bought ProgDVB which' USALS working ok - and Progfinder moves the dish normally.

 

 

 

Also i copied the skystar.dll from the bundled cd 'Technisat Edition' in order to have the remote control working in the PRO edition ,

but seem not to work either.

I can see the Skystar Remote in Plugins menu , but 'settings' is greyed and not working.

 

Thanks!

Edited September 1, 2011 by lakisfm1

[Griga]

Please post some more information:

 

http://www.DVBViewer.tv/forum/index.php?showtopic=2210

[lakisfm1]

here it is i hope it is not viewable to anyone ....

 

 

It is a netbook EEEPC1000H i use it only for SD since it cannot handle HD of course.

 

Skystar USB HD , driver version 4.6.0.9999 (the latest from the site).

 

i hope i didnt forget any info.

 

thanks!

support.zip

Edited September 1, 2011 by lakisfm1

[Griga]

According to your support.zip your SkyStar USB HD installation (with WDM/Network driver) is ok. No need to copy DDLs. DVBViewer has already detected it in Program Files\TechniSat DVB\bin. So in theory DiSEqC 1.2 should work.

 

Please try if moving the motor with TransEdit (download from the members area) works.

[lakisfm1]

You are right transedit seems to move it. (Although i noticed some times not to move it).

I think i need some diseqc repeats....

 

Somethings different with DVBViewer , i rechecked my scanlists they have angular positions as should.

 

the dll i copied was for the remotecontrol (which i still miss).

[Griga]

You are right transedit seems to move it.

Can you tell me in detail what you have tried?

 

I think i need some diseqc repeats..

You can define DiSEqC sequences with repeats and inserted delays in the DiSEqC Editor (DiSEqC = Extended, a kind of expert mode).

 

Somethings different with DVBViewer

I will look after it. You are the first user who is posting feedback about the SkyStar USB HD and DiSEqC 1.2. Maybe the implementation is still a bit beta

 

the dll i copied was for the remotecontrol (which i still miss).

Sorry, I have no experience with this topic. Someone else has to take over.

[lakisfm1]

well i used the preset satellitees 19 , 13, 28.2 and tried Positionel Console > Goto Angular position and worked.

 

Also i added the sat's 0.8W and 39E and tried 'blindscan' and the dish was moving .

 

 

feel free to ask me to do tests ... i want to use DVBViewer too..

i am on holidays in the village until saturday , so have plenty of time

 

ps. i just bought the usb card , i am registered user with the Skystar PCI HD on the desktop pc.

Edited September 1, 2011 by lakisfm1

[lakisfm1]

Here are my further reports.

 

Transedit usals is shifted by about 1 or 1.5 degree as i also found someone saying in another forum.

i tried the trick and got stable signal (had unstable signal in scanning...)

In the Site setup , instead of 39.97E i put 40.97E and works better.

 

Transedit MOVE EAST WEST buttons do not work.

 

Progdvb's USALS worked stable at once .... i am sure my rotor is not shifted.

 

And as always DVBviewerPro doesn't move the dish nor in USALS nor in stored position mode.

Sad to have to stay with ProgDVB for now ....

Edited September 3, 2011 by lakisfm1

[Griga]

Transedit usals is shifted by about 1 or 1.5 degree

I can't imagine why. The calculation is the same for all devices, and there are no other reports about this issue so far.

 

Transedit MOVE EAST WEST buttons do not work

May be due to a bug that I've just found. The SkyStar USB HD (at least with the WDM driver) only outputs DiSEqC commands on subsequent tuning. This is not guaranteed to happen in my code, because a positioner console doesn't perform tuning.

 

I've uploaded a TransEdit test version 3.8.0.8 to the members area -> beta section. It performs dummy tuning when DiSEqC commands are issued by the positioner console. Please try if it works better now.

 

And as always DVBviewerPro doesn't move the dish nor in USALS nor in stored position mode.

Unfortunately DiSEqC 1.2 support for the SkyStar USB HD with WDM driver has not been included in DVBViewer Pro 4.8.1, as I've found out. It was supposed to, but a mail with the required code changes that I had sent got lost somehow.

 

However, it may be possible to make it work with the latest BDA driver and a special trick - I'll come back to it later. Let's first try to improve the WDM driver handling in TransEdit.

[lakisfm1]

Seems now the EAST WEST buttons do send a diseqc command , because i lose signal when i press them.

 

But in reality after i press 'analyze' or 'scan selected' to get back sync ,

i see that same 89-90% quality , tried 1 ,5 , 20 steps and more times both east and west , still no change.

Motor is not actually moving.

 

Also this way is a real pain... to move 1 step , then go back press 'analyze' or 'scan selected' and simultaneously monitor the signal using in the background the card's utility signal bar....

 

Normally signal bars should present inside transedit , you must at least re-lock automatically the last used frequency directly after each step movement ............

 

ps. Just arrived in home in town , i have another rotor dish here ...

Edited September 4, 2011 by lakisfm1

[Griga]

Also this way is a real pain... to move 1 step , then go back press 'analyze'.

You can use the Positioner Console and the Analyzer simultaneously. The Analyzer displays the signal quality.

[lakisfm1]

oh , i didn't think of that.

 

Yes you are right. this way i have also auto-resync.

 

And moreover ... now i see that the rotor moves step by step , it is ok!

[Griga]

What about the "degree shift"? Does ProgDVB provide a possibility to view the calculated motor angle (like the TransEdit positioner console) or the resulting command string?

 

If you copy a usals command in the TransEdit DiSEqC Editor and paste it in a text editor, you get something like

 

[E0 31 6E E0 47]

 

which are the bytes that are sent as DiSEqC command. It would be interesting to compare it.

[lakisfm1]

ProgDVB and ProgFinder don't show the calculated degree shift , as long as i searched in both programs.

 

I didn't quite understand the second part of the post.

Should i send the HEX command using Transedit DiseqC Editor ? and monitor if it goes to dish? how ?

 

ps. it is getting hot here in Greece , going to the beach , will reply at night

[Griga]

Should i send the HEX command using Transedit DiseqC Editor ?

If you like The DiSEqC editor is useful if you want to send commands repeatedly, if additional delays are required etc. Usually you don't need it for single motor commands.

 

Additionally the DiSEqC Editor allows to view the created DiSEqC raw commands as hex string by using copy and paste to a text editor - if you want to look behind the scenes and find out how TransEdit internally translates your input. It can be helpful for debugging, comparing, whatever... but has no technical function. Since ProgDVB doesn't reveal its command sequence, knowing the TransEdit hex string is useless in our case.

[lakisfm1]

Yesum Boss,

what can i do next ?

 

[Griga]

what can i do next ?

Check your personal messages

 

You can try the BDA driver. However, only version 4.7 will do the trick (at least under Windows XP, under Windows 7 also 4.6 may work, don't know), and there are drawbacks:

 

- It is hard to get. The 4.7 driver is not included in the 4.6 download provided by TechniSat for the SkyStar USB HD. But it can be found in the 4.7 download for the SkyStar 2 eXpress HD. SkyNetU2CBDA.inf and SkyNetU2CBDA.sys 4.7.0.48 are required. Unfortunately the version in the inf file is wrong - the driver can be installed, but the device manager will show a wrong version. AFAIK the driver is also distributed via Windows Update, at least for Windows 7.

 

- Warning: Users have already experienced nasty issues with this driver (including me on 2 PCs). Suddenly the device stops working. It may even vanish completely from the device manager (not detected by Windows anymore) or appear with a question mark. Looks like the driver does something unhealthy with the SkyStar USB HD under certain circumstances and lets it crash internally. The only remedy in this case: Reset the device by disconnecting it from the power supply. Then wait some seconds and re-connect it. After that it may be necessary to re-install the driver. I got it fixed on one PC by uninstalling and removing everything else from TechniSat, particularly the WDM/NDIS driver and the TechniSat software, but not on the other PC - maybe because it also contains a SkyStar S2 HD PCI, dunno...

 

- After having replaced the WDM driver by the BDA driver (or vice versa), reboot in any case. Otherwise things may get confused.

 

Provided the 4.7 BDA driver has been installed successfully and is working, sending motor (DiSEqC 1.2) commands with DVBViewer Pro 4.8.1 should work without additional measures, but only under Windows 7. Under XP an additional tweak is required:

 

- Close DVBViewer. Find the file hardware.xml in the DVBViewer configuration folder. Open it with a text editor.

 

- Change the vendor value assigned to the SkyStar USB HD from 0 to 19.

 

<entry name="Vendor">19</entry>

 

- Save the changed hardware.xml, relaunch DVBViewer, try... and don't perform "Detect Devices", because it will restore the previous vendor value.

 

That's all - good luck

[lakisfm1]

A bit risky job , i see.

 

But i cannot understand why do i have to mess with the WDM driver , when Prog's softwares ,

and even more Transedit CAN move the dish normally...

 

Why do i think that the problem is in DVBViewer software and it's communication with the 4.6 driver ?

Edited September 5, 2011 by lakisfm1

[Griga]

Why do i think that the problem is in DVBViewer software

For a simple reason: DVBViewer 4.8.1 generally blocks DiSEqC 1.2 with TechniSat WDM drivers, because the SkyStar 2 / SkyStar S2 and related devices are not suitable for driving a motor due to a missing automatic current limiting. They may get destroyed if the motor requires too much - something that ProgDVB doesn't consider.

 

However, the SkyStar USB HD provides current limiting (if the motor needs more than 400 mA, power is switched off). Thus it must be handled as an exception, and that's what DVBViewer Pro 4.8.1 doesn't do. The next release will..

[lakisfm1]

So i am lucky i own a skystar PCI HD and a skystar USB HD which both have current limiting.

(Not that it is always a good thing e.g. in Dreambox 500 it couldn't handle even the rotor current).

 

However, the SkyStar USB HD provides current limiting (if the motor needs more than 400 mA, power is switched off). Thus it must be handled as an exception, and that's what DVBViewer Pro 4.8.1 doesn't do. The next release will..

 

So , i can wait the next DVBViewer release you will allow the Skystar USB HD to move rotor.

And i will be if not the 1st , one of the first testers... is it ok?

[Griga]

ok

[lakisfm1]

Well i took the risk to play with the driver just to verify.

 

I updated the driver in 'Network adapters' to the 4.7.0.48 and rebooted.

Now the device is not anymore in 'Network adapters' , instead is listed in Sound Video and Game Controllers and version is displayed 4.7.0.48.

 

Next i edited the .xml and saved , BUT when i launch DVBViewer it overwrites the vendor back to 0 , without going to options menus , just channel switching.

 

I even tried to make the .xml read-only , again DVBViewer was more clever than me ...

[Griga]

Next i edited the .xml and saved , BUT when i launch DVBViewer it overwrites the vendor back to 0

Strange. Of course I've tested it here (under XP SP3) and didn't experience such a behaviour. AFAIK DVBViewer Pro 4.8.1 only changes the vendor value if you perform "Scan Devices".

 

I even tried to make the .xml read-only , again DVBViewer was more clever than me

I can't reproduce it either. So I really wonder how you made it... under Vista/Windows 7 I would suspect trouble with the Virtual Store.

[lakisfm1]

using XP SP3 all updates.

 

Overall the BDA driver didn't work even with ProgDVB , ProgFinder.

I then downloaded the Express driver, installed it too , din't work either.

 

I am now in process to install back the WDM driver , i cleanup the system , but for some reason it keeps installing the BDA now

 

 

aaaagh

[Griga]

Don't let Windows select the driver. Pick it from a list of available drivers, or direct Windows to the desired inf file (SkyNetU2C.inf for WDM). And don't forget to reboot.

 

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/updatedriverxp.htm

[lakisfm1]

ok i figured it out.

 

Some more info , i saw that the WDM driver 4.6.x which i downloaded also included a BDA driver , which didn't move motor.

 

Summing , no BDA driver moved rotor , only the WDM.

[lakisfm1]

only the WDM using Prog's and Transedit.

[gagias]

Hello I am the owner of the card skystar usb hd, before buying ver.4.9 DVBViewer you wonder if this version of the DVBViewer 4.9 solves the problem of engine management with drivers 4.6

 

TKS

[gagias]

Work very well many tks

[lakisfm1]

Yeah Yeah it works fine now

 

Thanks!