Actisys 200L Problem

[Worf]

With Sage 1.4 I frequently had the problem of my Actisys 200L not intializing on startup. Usually I could go through the setup wizard again at fix it. With Sage 2 I don't get a message that it didn't initalize on startup, so I don't know if it does or not. So far, every time it hasn't. To fix it I have had to remove the source and re-add it. I am now required to be connected to the internet to re-add it. Before I could fix it without being connected. Any suggestions?

[mlar]

ActiSys IR-200L is infamous for not always initializing correctly. Most software packages work around this by retrying initialization many times. I wonder if SageTV does this as well, if not, that would be a welcome addition. I'm personally getting very frustrated with the ActiSys IR-200L. It sometimes misses channel changes, ie, it it supposed to send 184 to switch to animal planet, but only send 18, 84, 14 or something like that, dropping one digit. I always thought this was because the satellite receiver sometimes miss a digit, after all, I had the same problem with my TiVo (although much less frequent). Anyway, this weekend I decided to get to the bottom of this problem. I hooked up my video camera in nightshot mode to be able to record the IR pulses as they were transmitted... It turns out that it isn't the satellite receivers fault after all. The ActiSys sometimes does not even transmit all the digits! I had several cases where it completely skipped a digit. I have no idea if this is because the ActiSys is just crap, or if it has anything to do with the actisys driver. I'll work on this a bit more, but if it doesn't get better, I'll just throw them in the trash, and buy USB-UIRTs instead.

[Worf]

It appears the Sage 2 tries to initalize it twice according to the log, but so far it has never successfully initalized on startup. Would different Com port settings make a difference? I have tried changing them, but I haven't found anything to help consistently. I occassionally have the problem with it missing digits, usually the first digit, but generally once I get it to initalize it works fairly well for me. The biggest problem for me is the WAF. This is killing it!

[danward79]

I have battled with the actisys for ages. I beleive i know what the underlying problem is or what one of the problems is...

I use a laptop alot at work to interigate systems, faultfinding etc. What i have found is these two do not always connect to equipment, etc. With some old style laptops I mean 1997/1998, connect no problem, it is only laptops running 1998 onwards having the problem. This lead me to think and experiment.

What i have found is some systems have a slightly lower serial data voltage which causes problems when it is connecting to equipment, I connected the actisys to an 'old style' laptop and it worked like a dream.

I suspect if one of us were to build a buffer/amplifier we would not have this problem. I thought about trying it but can't be bothered.

Anyway, just thought i would post you my input / ideas and findings

Dan