Switched digital, cable set-top-boxes & channel shut-down

[Dave47]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

A micro controller?

Yep, a Teensy 3.0 and one IR LED to be exact.

I recorded the remote codes (pronto style) with the USB-UIRT and have the Teensy blast the OK out every 3 hours. This keeps the STB alive regardless of what the server is doing.

I had grander plans of having the Teensy listen for the USB-UIRT to send remote codes and only send a keep alive "OK" code if there hadn't been one for a while. That hasn't been necessary so far.

I think STB Keepalive couldn't share the USB-UIRT with SageTV in Windows 7. Regardless, it didn't work for me.

David

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Dave47

Yep, a Teensy 3.0 and one IR LED to be exact.

I recorded the remote codes (pronto style) with the USB-UIRT and have the Teensy blast the OK out every 3 hours. This keeps the STB alive regardless of what the server is doing.

I had grander plans of having the Teensy listen for the USB-UIRT to send remote codes and only send a keep alive "OK" code if there hadn't been one for a while. That hasn't been necessary so far.

I think STB Keepalive couldn't share the USB-UIRT with SageTV in Windows 7. Regardless, it didn't work for me.

David

Sounds like you were not using the updated driver that allowed multiple thread access. SageTV itself had the same problem if you used the USB-UIRT to receive remote commands from the GUI and the Service was used to change channels. An updated driver was posted (or a link probably) to an updated driver that eliminated the problem - for me at least. But I no longer need that since the USB-UIRT is only used for receiving currently since I use HTTP tuning for Satellite.

[Dave47]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

Sounds like you were not using the updated driver that allowed multiple thread access. SageTV itself had the same problem if you used the USB-UIRT to receive remote commands from the GUI and the Service was used to change channels. An updated driver was posted (or a link probably) to an updated driver that eliminated the problem - for me at least. But I no longer need that since the USB-UIRT is only used for receiving currently since I use HTTP tuning for Satellite.

You would be correct. I've just downloaded the latest USB-UIRT driver and will give it a try. Thanks for the tip.

David

[Slugger]

Not sure how the tuning works for firewire? Is it configured thru Sage? If so, the Sage APIs might be able to blast random buttons periodically. If it's controlled via an external script/program then you should just be able to set up a scheduled task to randomly send a channel change or "exit" button periodically.

This is one of those things where I just don't have the hardware to even experiment so though I'm sure there's a viable solution to the problem, I really have no way to write/test one. I'm a USB-UIRT user, but my STBs don't sleep though I did write some SJQ scripts that could control the USB-UIRT for someone else way back when. They were supposed to be able to work with any IR device that Sage could control, but the (public) Sage APIs that deal with IR don't quite work as advertised and actually only work reliably with USB-UIRT devices.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by Slugger

Not sure how the tuning works for firewire? Is it configured thru Sage? If so, the Sage APIs might be able to blast random buttons periodically. If it's controlled via an external script/program then you should just be able to set up a scheduled task to randomly send a channel change or "exit" button periodically.

This is one of those things where I just don't have the hardware to even experiment so though I'm sure there's a viable solution to the problem, I really have no way to write/test one. I'm a USB-UIRT user, but my STBs don't sleep though I did write some SJQ scripts that could control the USB-UIRT for someone else way back when. They were supposed to be able to work with any IR device that Sage could control, but the (public) Sage APIs that deal with IR don't quite work as advertised and actually only work reliably with USB-UIRT devices.

ok, thanks for the reply. You would need a set top box from a SDV cable company to test