DTV USB/Serial Control

[MrD]

fyi,

to save yourself countless hours of stupid trouble shooting the latest firmware 42EB on the DTV-H2x receivers seems to have busted the USB/serial channel control.

[Beefcake550]

I have an H21 and still ahve no problems....when did the firmware download to your box?

Also, i'm using the EXETuner plugin instead of Sage's built in support. Perhaps that's the difference the plugin uses and exe caleld directv.exe to change channels...

[MrD]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

I have an H21 and still ahve no problems....when did the firmware download to your box?

Also, i'm using the EXETuner plugin instead of Sage's built in support. Perhaps that's the difference the plugin uses and exe caleld directv.exe to change channels...

How are you using EXEtuner and serial control? Sage has built in support for DTV serial control.

It's the serial control on the receiver (i.e. usb port) that is now broken.

[HelenWeathers]

According to Paterson's web site only the H21-200 is affected and on that model the USB port is disabled.

Here's a quote from the site:

July 8, 2009 - An update for H21-200 receivers from DirecTV disables the USB port. Stay tuned while we work with DirecTV to resolve this issue.

[Beefcake550]

Well, just before Sage ahd the direcTV serial control working proerly on the H21, I had gone the route of trying out the EXEtuner plugin. The registry key points to an exectuable that runs to chagne the channel. I got the executable from a GBPVR forum for changing DirecTV channels via command line. A google search could find it for you.

Since I was successful in that experiment, I have used the motto, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" many times when temped over to using the built in support.

[HelenWeathers]

MrD: Did you try shutting down your system and unplugging your receiver for a few minutes before restarting your whole system and repowering your receiver??

[71_Cuda]

I have two DTV receivers (1 H20 and 1 HR20), and I'm using the built in Sage serial control on the H20 and the EXETuner plugin for the HR20. I was using the EXETuner on both initially. My reason... I had an OTA antenna integrated into the boxes and I needed the directv.exe app (used with EXETuner) to be able to send the dashes "-" for the subchannels. The built in SageTV serial control can't send dashes. That's a problem for integrated locals and any other dashed subchannels DTV may use. Mine were working fine for a while. Then I started having problems with the HR20. It would only receive the first digit. Usually rebooting the box would fix it, but after 1-3 days the problem would return. It became unreliable and a nuissance. I switched serial tuning for that box to the built in Sage option and it's worked fine since. Of course I can't tune locals on that one anymore. But that's not a problem since I ended up with 3 OTA tuners trying to solve another problem. I've just made those top priority and set the HR20 to 5th priority. The chances of it needing to tune local now are VERY slim - and I don't currently have other subchannels.

I'm wondering now it my HR20 problem with the EXETuner had anything to do with a firmware update.

[71_Cuda]

Originally Posted by MrD

fyi,

to save yourself countless hours of stupid trouble shooting the latest firmware 42EB on the DTV-H2x receivers seems to have busted the USB/serial channel control.

I see you have an H20 as well as an H21 receiver. Can you confirm - did it bust it on the H20, too. Or is it just the H21 as Helen indicates from the Patterson website?

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by 71_Cuda

I see you have an H20 as well as an H21 receiver. Can you confirm - did it bust it on the H20, too. Or is it just the H21 as Helen indicates from the Patterson website?

FYI: I have two H20s (H20-100s) and they are both working fine with the most current firmware for them.

[MrD]

Originally Posted by 71_Cuda

I see you have an H20 as well as an H21 receiver. Can you confirm - did it bust it on the H20, too. Or is it just the H21 as Helen indicates from the Patterson website?

Oh yeah the H20 still works no problem.

[MrD]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

MrD: Did you try shutting down your system and unplugging your receiver for a few minutes before restarting your whole system and repowering your receiver??

Yes. I also had a spare patterson device that I swapped out.

I have the system installers test app and I am going to try a null modem cable tonight.

btw, my last H21 died after plugging and un-plugging it (i.e. it never powered up again). So I get a little nervous when I do that step.

[bhyman1]

It wold seem that my H21-200 is no longer changing channels with serial control either.

My H21-100 still works fine though.

[MrD]

my h21-200 is working again after the reset and turn off usb reset on the patterson device

[Polypro]

Thank you for this post. H21-200's here...and they stopped working as well.

Can you walk me through exactly how you got them working again, including how to update the Paterson Device (If Needed). I could never figure out how to Interact with the Paterson (Do I plug it into a serial port on an old motherboard?) Thanks, P

[bhyman1]

I just read over on DBSTalk that apparently you can fix this by leaving the USB device plugged in, hitting reset on the receiver, and then waiting a few minutes for the USB communiactions to come back.

So I'l give this a try tomorrow once I'm home.

[MrD]

Originally Posted by Polypro

Thank you for this post. H21-200's here...and they stopped working as well.

Can you walk me through exactly how you got them working again, including how to update the Paterson Device (If Needed). I could never figure out how to Interact with the Paterson (Do I plug it into a serial port on an old motherboard?) Thanks, P

my setup:

patterson serial side plugged into pci serial card on pc (also note that I have had success using usb to serial adapters too, i.e. plug usb serial into PC plug patterson into serial adapter)
patterson usb side plugged into receiver usb port

corrective action:

plug patterson usb side into PC usb port
run tv translator patterson software
run test mode (verify test completed ok)
uncheck the "usb reset" check box
plug patterson usb side into receiver
press reset button on the receiver
wait
restart sage (may or may not be necessary)
verify that channels change

[Polypro]

Thanks for the instructions. Before I unhooked the Patersons, I decided to try a power off (unplugged) reset of the 2 STB's. I powered them off with the front panel power buttons and then removed the power cables. I let them sit for about 15 min (not that that matters...1 sec is probably good enough) and then plugged them back in. After letting them sit for another 10 min or so, I added them back in to sage...and they worked! Serial changing was back to normal. Is there a way to NOT get updates on these boxes?...a way to block DTV from pushing stuff down?

Thanks,

P

[toricred]

I've been fighting with this same problem every 2 days or so. I have 4 serial controlled H21's. After pulling the plug and re-inserting it works for a couple of days. I have at least one that is using the patersontech and at least one using usb-serial->null modem->serial-usb. Any other ideas to fix this?

[bhyman1]

Have your tried just a straight up red-button reset after everything is on?

[toricred]

I have just started doing that after reading this thread, but I'm still after a way to not even need that.