[mythtv-users] USB->Serial for controlling DirecTV boxes

[Brad DerManouelian]

On Sep 23, 2008, at 9:48 AM, Brad Fuller wrote:

> On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 3:29 PM, Brad DerManouelian
> <myth at dermanouelian.com> wrote:
>> Does anyone know where to get older supported USB->Serial converters?
>> I've bought several over the past couple of weeks. Apparently, the
>> newer pl2303X ones don't work on the DirecTV boxes where the older
>> pl2303 ones do. There's no way to tell which chip you have until you
>> plug it in and I've already wasted a bunch of money on different ones
>> that the wiki say will work including identical ones that I currently
>> have working.
>
> question: Are you plugging the USB part into the DirecTV box? I ask
> cause the PL2303 works fine in Linux - you just have to enable the
> kernel module.

Yeah, that's how it works. You plug in the USB to Serial adaptor into  
the DirecTV box then into a null modem, then into the serial port on  
your myth box (or into another USB to Serial converter and that into  
the USB port on your myth box). I have two of these working just fine  
so I know how it works and I know my hardware is good (I've switched  
out just the new USB to Serial device and used all the other hardware  
from my working setup and it doesn't work).

And yes.. the PL2303 and PL2303X converters both work just fine in  
Linux. The DirecTV box doesn't support the PL2303X chip and the  
manufacturer in all their wisdom decided to keep the same product and  
vendor ID's in the PL2303X as the PL2303. A patch was written in the  
linux module to handle this, but the DirecTV STB still doesn't.