[vdr] Re: DiSEqC support

[Oliver Endriss <o.endriss@gmx.de>]

Reinhard Walter Buchner wrote:
> Hello Klaus, Oliver,
>
> >Klaus Schmidinger wrote:
> > I'm in the process of implementing fully configurable
> > DiSEqC support into VDR and have put together the
> >specification for the 'diseqc.conf' file:
>
> ......
>
> > #   [ xx xx ...]  hex code sequence (max. 6)
>
> Does this mean I can actually send codes TO the diseqc
> device? I.e. lets say channel 1 is ARD on Astra and channel
> 200 is Via Voice on Hispasat. When I switch from channel
> 1 to channel 200 (and have the right diseqc commands in
> the conf) it would move my motor dish to Hispasat? That
> would be great ;ö))

Yes, you can do this. For example you could use DiSEqC 
command 6b  (Drive Motor to Satellite Position xy).
Depends on what your device supports.

> However, is it possible to (with your planned config) to
> change the diseqc.conf from within VDR? I would need
> this to fine tune the dish. Would it, at least theoretically
> speaking, be possible (with your current VDR config) to
> make a plugin that allows the user to drive his dish per
> remote and after finding the correct satellite position
> (this is where an OSD "carrier-to-noise" and "signal-
> strength-meter" would come in handy) be able to store
> this information in the diseqc.conf? Of course a
> transponder scanner implementation would be great.
> The large number of satellites (channels) would make
> a hand made channels.conf very difficult.
>
> I am willing to look into this as soon as I get handy
> with the plugin concept.
>
> For the motor dish user to fine tune his system, it would
> be great to have a conf file, which contains one or two
> reference channels for each satellite. These should be
> FTA channels and always be "on-air" (a test signal like
> Astra Mosaic). Of course these could be saved in the
> channels.conf with some special mark, that they are
> reference channels (only). My question: how is the
> channels.conf info read? Digitwise from beginning to end ?
> Or does VDR know that position "xy" (example) contains
> the symbol rate info? What I mean is, what would happen,
> if I simply add another digit to the end of the channel info
> in channels.conf? Would VDR be bothered by this? or would
> it simply ignore the additional info w/o becoming confused?
>
> This bit would only need to be set to 0 or 1 and be read by the
> motor plugin to know which channel to tune to while manually
> searching for a certain satellite position. W/o having a reference
> channel it is nearly impossible to hit a satellite while moving
> the motor.

You must not change the channel.conf format! I cannot see any reason why 
this should be necessary at all. A plugin can have its own 
configuration parameters or configuration files. See file PLUGINS.html.

A plugin can get a notification when vdr switches channels (see status 
monitor plugin). Therefore, your plugin will notice when you switch to 
channel xy. If your plugin knows from its setup parameters that channel 
xy is a 'reference channel', it can take appropriate actions...

> Oliver wrote:
> >This should work as long as there is no need for processing
> >"DiSEqC  2.x). AFAIK current DVB-S cards cannot receive
> >DiSEqC messages.
>
> Correct. For a 2.0 system you need to have transcievers (master
> slave combo) in the diseqc devices. Current DVB-S cards don't
> have this. They can only send. The diseqc 2.0 is (as far as I have
> gotten into reading and understandig it ;o)) much more complicated,
> because you have to assign who is master and slave (x) and you
> need to avoid collisions on the data line. Diseqc has watchdogs
> for the collision supervison, but Eutelsat (makers of Diseqc) suggest
> the driving equipment should also watch out for this. However, I
> don't think we need to consider this problem right now, as I know
> of no DVB cards that provide diseqc 2.0 nor are they planned for
> the near future. And even when they arrive, they will still be
> <Diseqc 2.0 compatible.

It seems that even Eutelsat do not believe that DiSEqC 2.x will be very 
popular: 'It is still recommended that all Slaves should support Level 
2.x reply messages when requested, but these new commands [i.e. DiSEqC 
1.x] do not demand the return of actual data values for the system to 
operate'.

Oliver


-- 
Info:
To unsubscribe send a mail to listar@linuxtv.org with "unsubscribe vdr" as subject.