My D10 Serial Solution...

[951porsche]

I was helping my uncle setup a SageTv system, and It worked great until the dtv "upgrade". Anyway, I was goofing around and I found a few things out. While whatever the hex string is that sends the complete channel change IS broken. I found the hex codes that Dtv changed for #'s 0 - 9! Heres the layout if SageTv wants to rewrite their DLL or someone wants to understand whats up...

What was documented as working before...

FA A5 00 00 CF would be 0
..
FA A5 00 00 C6 would be 9

By experimenting around I happened to find that

FA A5 00 00 E0 would be 0
FA A5 00 00 E1 would be 1
FA A5 00 00 E2 would be 2
FA A5 00 00 E3 would be 3
FA A5 00 00 E4 would be 4
FA A5 00 00 E5 would be 5
FA A5 00 00 E6 would be 6
FA A5 00 00 E7 would be 7
FA A5 00 00 E8 would be 8
FA A5 00 00 E9 would be 9

those Hex strings work for d10 for senging the numbers individually! So next I tried using the Directv control app by rewriting it with these Hexcodes. My modified Dtvcontol and dtvcmd worked with the alterations in a standalone sense, however it didn't work through SageTv as it sends the hex string to change the channel in one whack. (There may be a different opcode to change this as well But I'm too lazy to look into it, plus I don't want to put the D10 into a funny state by "experimenting" with it)

So in any event What I did to get this thing working again was to remove SageTv's directtv serial plug-in and add in the EXEtuner plugin. This plugin now runs the event program in Girder to get it to tune the channels in a number by number sequence. There may very well have been a more elegant solution, but I only spent about 1/2 hour messing with Girder So i'm really a Girder Noob. Now that Girder was getting messages from Sage I used SageSetExternalChannel.gml as a template to create my own that has the updated HEX codes that work with the D10. I rewrote it and have it named d10SageSetExternalChannel.gml. So now I have Sage changing channels again! yea!!! Only thing that was a little annoying was that I didn't see the enter key in a obvious location to directly force the receiver to go to the channel rather than wait for a extra digit to come by. This means it has a little bit of a delay more like an IR blaster setup. I did a little playing around and I've found if you pad a 0 in front on all the channel remaps it acts more closely to what everyone had before. Let me check something... I'm back! Well for this system I edited the script to pad a 0 on all channels as this box doesn't get anything in the 1000+ range. It now is nearly as good it was before, without doing a ton of mods to sage! okay back on track....

So in summary, This setup works again and can tune sub-100 channels as well as higher number channels that were Hit by the "upgrade".

what you need:
Exetunerplugin.zip <--- install per instructions provided with it and set it up for GirderDSStune.reg
Get a copy of Girder, I'm using 3.29b <---- Install it into c:\program files\girder
Get a copy of Serial.3.0.20.zip which is a plugin for girder <--- install it and enable the plugin to always load

download d10_or_d10xxx_sagesetexternalchannel.zip

Use either d10SageSetExternalChannel.GML if you want to have it pause waiting for the 4th digit
or if you don't use any channels above 1000 then use d10xxxxSageSetExternalChannel.GML
Copy one of them to your c:\program files\girder directory.

now load either GML depending on your choice and if you want Girder to startup automatically and run your GML at startup configure it in the Settings....

That should do it, although I'm writing this in a rush so there may be mistakes, I only wrote this as so many people are hosed by not having a fully functional system. I hope this helps you guys out....

[Beefcake550]

This is great stuff. It's amazing how people can un-fsck what DirecTV fscks up!

On that note, I am having issues making it work for me. I got all of the software installed and have SageTV set to use the EXETuner to control my D10.

Question is about how exactly to setup the serial plugin to girder (configure it). Also, after opening the GML file, what else do I need to do. I tried looking at the readme in the GML file, but it seemed to have nothing to do with what we're trying to do.

Also, how can I debug the problem? How can I tell if girder is not sending out the command to the serial port or if Girder is not getting the command from Sage.

I'm a complete NOOB at girder, so I have no clue. I set the serial port to be 9600, N,8.1, and assigned it to COM1. There are a few other options I don't know what to do like flow control.

Anyhow, maybe some details on setting up Girder and debugging would be great. Thanks for your hard work.

-Brian

[Wakecrash]

Would this work if I have two D10s with the serial control problem and one older reciever (RCA486RH) which work fine.

Is this meant to work only if your server is the PC you watch TV from?

I have a server in a seperate room that controls the recievers, I control the server through clients and MVPs.

[dbfresh23]

I haven't tried it, but you'd need the Multi-EXEtuner plugin instead of just the EXEtuner plugin to control more then one box. More importantly Sage should update their dll. I no longer use a D10 so I don't have a need to submit a support request.

It shouldn't matter what box it's running on, server or frontend.

[951porsche]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

This is great stuff. It's amazing how people can un-fsck what DirecTV fscks up!

On that note, I am having issues making it work for me. I got all of the software installed and have SageTV set to use the EXETuner to control my D10.

Question is about how exactly to setup the serial plugin to girder (configure it). Also, after opening the GML file, what else do I need to do. I tried looking at the readme in the GML file, but it seemed to have nothing to do with what we're trying to do.

Also, how can I debug the problem? How can I tell if girder is not sending out the command to the serial port or if Girder is not getting the command from Sage.

I'm a complete NOOB at girder, so I have no clue. I set the serial port to be 9600, N,8.1, and assigned it to COM1. There are a few other options I don't know what to do like flow control.

Anyhow, maybe some details on setting up Girder and debugging would be great. Thanks for your hard work.

-Brian

Hi, seems like forever since I did this, even though its not. Let me see. I have the exe tuner running on this box, and I have girder starting up at startup. Now for the girder part...

Girder was confusing as heck for me as I had never used it. I have girder set up to auto load the GML file that I posted earlier. Under settings.
Also under settings I have on the Plugins tab the "Generic Serial Support" checked as well as having it auto enabled.

Now once you have that Set, Select "Generic Serial Support" and then click on setttings...
inside of settings I have a config setup for it called "my dss" which I believe I created when I did this. If you don't have a config create one here... Once you've created it put the serial port settings in, for instance my settings are n81 9600 COM1 then hit ok

Now on my setup ever diagonal rectangle named svideo has the settings for generic serial support setup for serial port "My dss" or whatever you named it. It may automatically do the same for you, I don't know..... If not check a few of them

easy way to test Girder just standalone is to go to a a #, like 0. then under the 0 you'll see svideo and 0. right click on 0 and select "test commmand"
On my setup it shows up on the D10 with it pressing just 0. So if thats working then you're good. past that I can't tell you much as that was the only time I've ever used Girder...


Get girder doing that then if you're stuck I can help you more perhaps.

Good luck!

P

[951porsche]

Based on my limited use of Sage I would say that it should work from clients just as it does from Server. I've been running just fine since I posted it and just installed a Client running MVP that working as well.

Originally Posted by Wakecrash

Would this work if I have two D10s with the serial control problem and one older reciever (RCA486RH) which work fine.

Is this meant to work only if your server is the PC you watch TV from?

I have a server in a seperate room that controls the recievers, I control the server through clients and MVPs.

[dagar]

So has anybody gotten this to work with multiple D10s?

[Beefcake550]

Ok, I'm getting there, but not yet!

I can now use the "test command" feature of Girder and it correctly sends the serial command to my D10 box. Now, I configured sage to use the EXETuner plugin, and clicked on the .reg file for GirderDSS, but Something is broken here. Girder reports that it received the "event/message" (Im not sure of the correct terminology), but it doesn't do anything.

Is there a way to see some kind of log of the events/messages that Girder is receiving? Or does someone know what I'm doing wrong? Any help is appreciated.

-Brian

[Beefcake550]

Ok, I figured out how to have the event pop up when it occurs from sage. I got rid of the '-silent' in the registry setting.

So, now I see:
Event String: DSSTUNE
Event device: 203
Event Payload: 290 - or what ever channel it's switching to

What is the device #? Should I change that on my system, and what do I set it to? So, now it seems like:

Sage->Girder works (in that sage sends events and girder receives them)
Girder->D10 box works (can do test commands to change channels)

but

Sage->Girder->D10 doesn't work....

Any Ideas?

[nielm]

To link the event to the action in Girder, you need to 'Learn' the event that sage sends onto an action...

[Beefcake550]

how exactly do I do this?????

[Beefcake550]

ima noob.. at girder!!!

[Beefcake550]

I finally got it working!!!

Once I changed the name of my serial port to "my dss" like it was expecting to be in the GML file. Previously, I had been calling it "my d10" and changing the target of each command, but that didn't work.

I'm even fooling around with my MCE remote now in Sage. Mapping those buttons is really cool.

-Brian

[dagar]

Ok, for the terminally confused (e.g. me). Can anyone help me??? I have 2 D10 boxes with 2 PVR250s attached to my server. I have girder and can manual force the channel change in girder. I only have one STB hooked up right now until I get it working. Any idea how I should configure my Sage 'server'?

[Beefcake550]

Not much time, but

you need multiEXE plugin from sage.
girder will need to get the messages from multiEXE and route the correct message to the correct D10 device.

Good luck...

-Brian

[dagar]

Ok, so I have the following:

EXEMultiTunerPlugin.dll (do I need the EXETunerPlugin reg files or other files from it?)
Girder v3.3.7 (Generic Serial Support plugin checked)
Porche's mod'd dtvcon.gml loaded (and tested, it will change to a low channel)
SageTV and SageClient (on my client, obviously)

Ok, so, how do I bridge the mix? How do I connect tuner.dll and get Girder to intercept the Sage commands and send them to the STBs?

That's the part I don't know --> girder will need to get the messages from multiEXE and route the correct message to the correct D10 device

[dagar]

So, I have the EXEMultiTunerPlugin.dll now picked and assigned to my cap card. Still trying to distill the Girder interfacing (looking over the 'EXE Tuner Plugin doesn't seem to work" thread.

[Wakecrash]

Weird, no one has responded that got this to work with multiple D10s. I tried but didn't get too far, the demo version of girder kept crashing on my, give the little pop up, select demo mode or what ever, same pop up again, select demo mode again then crash.

[dagar]

I've got a trouble ticket in. Suppose I'll see how Sage's support is