[mythtv-users] another DCT2000 query

[Ian Forde]

On Wed, 2004-02-18 at 12:50, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> At 07:19 PM 2/17/2004 -0800, Ian Forde wrote:
> >On Tue, 2004-02-17 at 13:33, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> > > I'm attempting to control a DCT2000 cable box using Jim Paris' (contrib) C
> > > program.
> [...]
> >What about the python scripts that AFAIK are still in mythtv/contrib?
> 
> Yeah, thanks for the reminder. I tried this script and it sort of worked, 
> at least  well enough to let me write a very simple Perl program that 
> *only* does channel changes. I'm still a bit puzzled about what exactly the 
> DCT2000 is doing on the serial port ... the Python program reported 
> receiving responses from the DCR2000, while the C program and my Perl 
> program both did not ... but I guess that's not really a MythTV problem.

Okay - I'm confused by the "sort of worked" bit.  What happened when you
ran the command?  Remember that you may need to power-cycle the cable
box before getting it to work the first time - serial ports, like
plumbing, get various crud stuck in their queues sometimes.

> For others: the key lesson here is not to trust negative reports from 
> software that is supposed to access the serial port. Use the test packet 
> from the TiVo Forum for a (seemingly) dead sure test of whether the port is 
> active ... this test packet will turn the box off (or on) if the port works.
> 
> If this test works, then the serial port works on the DCT end, so do 
> whatever it takes to get the thing running. If it does not, the serial port 
> is disabled on the DCT end, almost surely.

Basically, if you got the box to turn on and off, I would be convinced
that your serial port is enabled.  Keep trying both the script and the C
code.

> Thanks again, Ian.

You're welcome!

	-I
-- 
                       __________________________________
                       Ian Forde, RHCE, CCSE, SCNA, SCDME
                       CYTBeN, Inc.
                       ian at duckland.org / ian at cytben.com