[mythtv-users] Multiple D10s

[Kevin Plew]

Rich West wrote:
> Josh wrote:
>   
>> Kevin Plew wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> Hello all- I searched the archives and didn't find anything pertaining 
>>> to controlling multiple Directv D10-100s. I have a PVR-500 with one D10 
>>> connected to each input and am trying to figure out how to get Myth to 
>>> control them.
>>>
>>> Thanks
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>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> I have 2 serial cables plugged into the LSDP on the back of both my 
>> D10's using a couple of directv.pl scripts to change the channels and 
>> it's been working great for over a year now. If you have a IR blaster 
>> there is documentation for doing it that way also.
>>     
>
> The D10 has a "Low Speed Data Port" (a good thing).  I had to figure out
> what the heck was meant by LSDP and I have (and use) 3 set top boxes
> with these ports.. Some times, abbreviations only serve to confuse
> rather than to clarify.The Low Speed Data Port is really a 4-pin
> phone-style port, just a heck of a lot smaller.  If you look, you will
> see it has the same connector as the coil handset cord on your
> non-cordless phone (still have one of those?).  This makes it a bit of a
> pain to deal with, but you can get it to work. :)
>
> Anyhow, you can either buy a cable to convert from the low speed data
> port to a serial port or you can make one.
>
> Check out this site: http://www.dtvcontrol.com/index.aspx?content=cable
> You can either buy the adapter from them, or, using the pin-out listed
> on the site, you can make your own.  I took an old headset cable, two
> serial to RJ-45 adapters, and a short RJ-45 ethernet cable and:
> o Cut the headset cable in half, giving me two pieces of the same
> approx. length
> o Cut the RJ-45 cable in half giving me two pieces of the same approx.
> length.
> o Cut back the outer sheathing on the RJ-45 cables at the point where I
> cut it in half.
> o Cut back the outer sheathing on the headset cables at the point where
> I cut it half (this was a pain)
> o Cut back the sheathing on the individual exposed wires on the RJ-45
> cables and the headset cables.
> o Plugged the RJ-45 cables in to the Serial-RJ45 adapters.
> o Using a 9-volt battery and a cheap DC tester, I mapped out what pins
> on the serial side of the adapter mapped to which exposed wires on the
> cut end of the RJ45 cable.
> o Then, following the pinout on the dtvcontrol.com site, I hand twisted
> the appropriate wires together and electrical-taped it to hold.
>
> The result wasn't real pretty and dealing with the tiny wires in the
> headset cable can be frustrating, but it worked and only cost me my time
> and the price of the headset cable (my wife got mad that I took the
> headset cable from the phone by the computer. :) ).  I got the
> serial->RJ45 adapters from work (we have a gazillion of them) as well as
> the short (2-ft) RJ-45 cable.  I repeated the entire procedure to make
> one more cable (so I have half of a headset cable lying around at home).
>
> Whichever way you go about it, you will end up with the low speed data
> port converted to a serial port.  With that, you can either connect it
> directly to an available serial port on your machine, or you can connect
> it to a USB-to-Serial port adapter.  More than likely, you don't have
> more than one or two serial ports on your machine, and if you want to
> drive multiple D10's, you'll need to get your hands on the USB-to-Serial
> port adapters.
>
> I bought three of these USB to Serial port adapters, for $9.99 each with
> free shipping and they worked like a charm:
> http://www.emtcompany.com/products/adapters/dxubdb9-usb-to-serial-db9-adapter-cable.htm
>
> Now, I am not saying you can't get them elsewhere.. just that they
> worked for me (and they were at the right price point!). :)
>
> Then, I wrote a small wrapper script around the directv.pl script called
> "change_channel":
> -----
> #!/bin/sh
>
> if [ "X$1" = "X" ] || [ "X$2" = "X" ]; then
>         echo "Usage: $0 <port> <channel number>"
>         echo
>         exit;
> fi
>
> /usr/local/bin/directv.pl port $1 setup_channel $2 hide
> -----
>
> And, finally, from within mythtv, I set up the change channel command to
> be "/usr/local/bin/change_channel /dev/ttyUSB0" for the first one,
> "/usr/local/bin/change_channel /dev/ttyUSB1" and so on.
>
> Now, you might ask "Why not just call directv.pl directly?  Why use the
> wrapper script?"  Good question.. and I have a good answer. :)  With my
> set top box (I don't know if this is the case with any others), I want
> to hide the set top box's on-screen-display when a channel is changed. 
> If I don't, that on-screen-display hangs around for an obscenely long
> amount of time.  "setup_channel" is supposed to take care of this, but
> it doesn't seem to work for me.  Additionally, the script can take the
> options out of order (eg: port /dev/ttyUSB0 hide setup_channel 29), but
> I couldn't get it to hide the on-screen-display no matter how I
> organized the options.  The only one that worked is the one in the
> wrapper script.
>
> Now, because mythtv wants to append the channel number at the end of the
> channel change command, the wrapper script was needed.. :)
>
> I hope this helps.
> -Rich
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>
>   
Rich- I can't wait to start cutting. I agree that this should be posted. 
Lots of good work here.

Thanks