Firewire stops changing channels

[mistergq]

I am not sure if this is a hardware problem on computer, box or what have you, but I am having a problem.

I have two Motorolla 6100 that I have been changing channels for over a year without a problem. The firewire is set up as a daisy chain.

two nights ago, I discovered that the boxes never changed channels. Restarted computer, did not fix the problem. I then unplugged the firewire cable and replugged it in, fixed the problem.

24 hours later, same problem. Did not discover it to this morning and lost all of last nights recordings.

Any suggestions on trouble shooting?

[Clift]

Are you using a "force" flag, such as -f4? If so, try using -f6. I had this happen some months ago

[mistergq]

Originally Posted by Clift

Are you using a "force" flag, such as -f4? If so, try using -f6. I had this happen some months ago

I don't believe so. where is the force flag out?

[spook]

Sounds like maybe your FW port is going bad? I think when the problem starts happening, you should test by doing your Channel -v, in you cmd window and see if it sees the devices. If they aren't there, then I would think your FW port would be starting to go bad... but don't fret, FW cards are cheap.

Also, I just did my setup from analog tuners, to the STB tuners, and I have to give kudos to the FWChannelProxy.dll I'm using to change the channels now. no registry entries, no syntax... just change the file name to the device number you are using... Also, this driver automatically uses force

[mistergq]

Originally Posted by Clift

Are you using a "force" flag, such as -f4? If so, try using -f6. I had this happen some months ago

Clift, did you mean -a6 not -f6? the proper syntax is:
channelw.exe -f -a6 %DEVICE% %CHANNEL%

Originally Posted by spook

Sounds like maybe your FW port is going bad? I think when the problem starts happening, you should test by doing your Channel -v, in you cmd window and see if it sees the devices. If they aren't there, then I would think your FW port would be starting to go bad... but don't fret, FW cards are cheap.

Also, I just did my setup from analog tuners, to the STB tuners, and I have to give kudos to the FWChannelProxy.dll I'm using to change the channels now. no registry entries, no syntax... just change the file name to the device number you are using... Also, this driver automatically uses force

that is what i am thinking spook, bad firewire port or firewire cable. I guess the question is whether the firewire port on my computer or on the STB is what is going bad.

Once I got the firewire setup, I did not continue following the firewire development so I didn't know about FWchannelproxy.dll

[spook]

Can you reverse the daisy chain of the STB's? then if the one is going bad, then the other should still be able to change? to prove that side of things...

Yeah, I just changed to my STB's, and it looks like FWChannelProxy was just made at the beginning of this year.

channelw.exe -f -a6 %DEVICE% %CHANNEL%

I was using this, with the multi changer, but I couldn't get the %DEVICE% to work... I could manually put in the device number for either box, and get them to work, BUT, I couldn't get the variable %DEVICE% to work properly. Then I found FWChannelProxy, and that just made things really simple.

http://babgvant.com/blogs/andyvt/arc...nnelproxy.aspx