[linux-dvb] Lost lock problems over extended periods of time

[Andrew de Quincey]

On Tuesday 07 June 2005 17:32, Andrew de Quincey wrote:
> > >>The periods used to vary, don't know what exactly caused them to vary
> > >>either. The variations used to happen something like what you said 10 ~
> > >>12 hours or sometime it was 48 hours. But 72 hours seemed the maximum
> > >>that it would go many times.
> > >
> > > Interesting - thats exactly it.. so its across completely different
> > > card architectures!? (I assume you're still talking about the twinhan
> > > cards here)
> >
> > Exactly.. I am talking about different firmware based ones too FTA and
> > CI based.. different generations too.. Regarding that issue i' am almost
> > tied up in knots... :-(
> >
> > I had a revision AV7110 1.3 card, which was blown when i received itself
> > from Galaxis as a sample given to one of our guys. Even an lspci did not
> > show anything at all, on some motherboards inserting the card into the
> > PCI slot itself would result in a hung BIOS. After that i decided that,
> > i would never again go with one of those FF cards. (eventhough they are
> > the same TT-PCI cards remarketed)
> >
> > That was the time i first started up with DVB, and in this region could
> > not see any other hardware other than Twinhan and got my first card as
> > well as suggested for many others as well as my company too. But the
> > biggest problem their was drivers, whether be it Windows or Linux. well
> > you know the rest..
>
> OK, my hack doesn't help. I used the following patch in dvb_frontend.c:
> Index: dvb_frontend.c
> ===================================================================
> RCS
> file:
> /cvs/linuxtv/dvb-kernel/linux/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-core/dvb_frontend.c,v
> retrieving revision 1.96
> diff -a -u -r1.96 dvb_frontend.c
> --- dvb_frontend.c      17 Nov 2004 14:30:33 -0000      1.96
> +++ dvb_frontend.c      7 Jun 2005 16:29:35 -0000
> @@ -507,9 +507,10 @@
>                         else {
>                                 /* if we _WERE_ tuned, but now don't have a
> lock,
>                                  * need to zigzag */
> -                               fe->state = FESTATE_ZIGZAG_FAST;
> -                               fe->started_auto_step = fe->auto_step;
> -                               check_wrapped = 0;
> +                               fe->state = FESTATE_RETUNE;
> +                               dvb_frontend_init (fe);
> +                               printk("DVB: LOST LOCK - attempting
> retune\n");
> +                          continue;
>                         }
>                 }
>
> But, it just sits there printing "DVB LOST LOCK". Of course when I retune
> it works perfectly! This time, it only took about 30 mins to lose the lock
> though.

Just a thought - could it be the DiSEQC? I'm just using simple tone/voltage 
control myself. Do all these cards use the same LNB chip on them? The DVB-S 
stv0299 ones I have here all seem to use an LNBP16A chip.