TeVii S480 - unpowered multiswitch

[Kiwi_Tim]

Hello,

 

I think that my Tevii S480 is not providing adequate power to operate my unpowered mutiswitches. I am using a Hauppauge HVR3000 and Tevii S480 on a Foxconn A7GM-S motherboard with a 300W power supply. Using an Athlon II 460 triple core 95W CPU and XFX HD5670 512MB graphics card. I think the motherboard is supplied with adequate power, as I've never noticed any poor performance in other apps, no unrequested shutdowns.

 

The symptom is a temporary freeze in sound and video ( less than a second) every minute or two on DVBViewer 4.9 (with Recording Service 1.9.2.0). These freezes are not constant, but occur in a random but clustered pattern. This never occurs with the Hauppauge card; the problem is only on the Tevii card.

 

Each TV Tuner is connected to a 4 port DiSEqC 1.0 switch. The DiSEqC switches connect to 3 unpowered multiswitches (Zinwell MS3X4WB-Z : see link below)

 

http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Products/JVI/Zinwell-MS3X4WB-Z-Mini-Max-Multi-Switch.htm

 

The multiswitches connect to 6 LNBs, and the entire cable run from LNB to switches, to tuners, would be about 22m.

 

 

What makes me think that the visual and audio error is related to insufficient power getting to the multiswitches is the following:

 

If HVR3000 is changed to a channnel on the same satellite as that that a Tevii tuner is tuned to, the Tevii tuner has no errors: perfect audio and video. I think the power from the HVR3000 overcomes the TeVii's deficiency to operate the multiswitch.

 

However, if the HVR3000 is directed to a different satellite, then the Tevii tuners can have errors(but not always).

 

My guess is there is not enough power coming from the Tevii tuners to power the DiSEqC switch, multiswitch and LNB. Whether this is a problem with the TeVii Hardware, my motherboard's PCi-e 1x slot, or my 300W PSU, I can't say.

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

 

Tim

New Zealand

[Kiwi_Tim]

I solved the problem. I already had the 4-pin power cable connected to the TeVii S480, so that was not the issue. I had thedevices connected in the following order:

 

S480 TV Tuner->DiSEqC->3 Multiswitches -> 6 LNBs

 

Which I changed to:

 

S480 TV Tuner-> 1 Multiswitch ->2 LNBs

 

I removed the DiSEqC switch from the series above and the problem disappeared. Excluding the tuner, all the devices are unpowered, requiring power from the tuner. By removing one device, more power is available for the remaining devices, which prevented the video and audio errors that I had been experiencing.

 

I now only have access to 2LNBs with the S480, but that doesn't worry me as my Hauppauge tuners can tune to all the remaining LNBs.

 

So I guess the problem is one of the following:

 

1) Tevii tuners aren't supplying enough power to work reliably with a setup like mine including a series of switches

 

2) The Zinwell MS3X4WB-Zunpowered multiswitch is too power hungry to work with some devices when configured in a series of other switches.

 

 

 

Anyway, I am satisfied with how things are working now.

 

Tim

New Zealand

Edited March 7, 2012 by Kiwi_Tim

[Derrick]

>Each TV Tuner is connected to a 4 port DiSEqC 1.0 switch. The DiSEqC switches connect to 3 unpowered multiswitches

..the topic is somewhat misleading. You use a mix of switches. I don't believe that the problem is caused by a lack of power but by switching glitches caused by other cards.

 

>However, if the HVR3000 is directed to a different satellite, then the Tevii tuners can have errors(but not always).

..not always because it depends whether a different position and /or lnb_plane is selected.

 

>These freezes are not constant, but occur in a random but clustered pattern. This never occurs with the Hauppauge card; the problem is only on the Tevii card.

..the random pattern could be caused by auto_epg_update by another device in the background.

 

It's only guessing. Please attach a support.zip!

Try again with your initial configuration but change the card order in the hardware options of the RS.

[Kiwi_Tim]

Thanks for the ideas, Derrick. Have attached support file. I have 3 cards on the system : 2 Hauppauge (HVR3000, NOVA-S-Plus) and the TeVii S480. The later has proved very unreliable with DiSEqC switching, so I just leave if on position AA.

 

Tim

New Zealand

support.zip

[Kiwi_Tim]

Your idea about changing the order of tuners in RS worked! I did not even know that it was possible to do this, and have no idea why it works, but it seems to.

 

Thanks Derrick,

 

Tim