Archive for the 'Hardware' Category

lirc and LCDproc for Soundgraph iMON changes

Published on March 30, 2010 in Hardware, Linux and Software. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

well… after an update quite a while ago my lirc and lcdproc stopped working. starting lirc on the default ubuntu install would always result in:

unable to load LIRC kernel modules. Verify your selected kernel modules in /etc/lirc/hardware.conf

so trying to add the modules manually would tell me a bit more:

root@augustiner:~$ modprobe lirc_imon
FATAL: Error inserting lirc_imon (/lib/modules/2.6.31-21-generic/updates/dkms/lirc_imon.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
root@augustiner:~$ dmesg | grep lirc_imon | tail -n1
[  420.742877] lirc_imon: Unknown parameter `islcd'

i noticed a line in the options that was wrong and removed it:

options lirc_imon islcd=0

lirc was back up and running but not my LCD screen. the logs showed:

[  492.637968] lirc_imon: lcd_write: invalid payload size: 32 (expecting 8)
[  492.762951] lirc_imon: lcd_write: invalid payload size: 32 (expecting 8)
[  492.887947] lirc_imon: lcd_write: invalid payload size: 32 (expecting 8)
[  493.012940] lirc_imon: lcd_write: invalid payload size: 32 (expecting 8)
[  493.137946] lirc_imon: lcd_write: invalid payload size: 32 (expecting 8)
[  493.262958] lirc_imon: lcd_write: invalid payload size: 32 (expecting 8)
[  493.387957] lirc_imon: lcd_write: invalid payload size: 32 (expecting 8)
...

some further googling and i found out that the options line has changed from release to release. to get it back working use:

options lirc_imon display_type=1

to get the write type just look into lirc_imon.c

enum {
   IMON_DISPLAY_TYPE_AUTO,
   IMON_DISPLAY_TYPE_VFD,
   IMON_DISPLAY_TYPE_LCD,
   IMON_DISPLAY_TYPE_NONE,
};

mythtv with mantis and DVB-S2 (TechniSat SkyStar HD2 continued…)

Published on July 16, 2008 in Audio/Video, Hardware and Linux. 19 Comments

well thanks to awf and his comment i checked out mythtv (the release-0-21-fixes branch) and applied this patch, compiled and it kinda works.

that was the short version, here’s the longer one:

check out mythtv
svn co http://svn.mythtv.org/svn/branches/release-0-21-fixes/

download this patch right here and apply it from the mythtv folder using
patch -p0 < mythtv_multiproto.5.patch

then make sure you've got all the qt3 development libraries, the XvMC development libraries aswell as LAME and all the others (don't quite remember the whole list) but if you compile you'll find out what your missing.

to configure i used awf's parameters described in his post
./configure –enable-xvmc –enable-dvb –disable-hdhomerun –disable-firewire –enable-xvmc-opengl –enable-opengl-video –enable-opengl-vsync –enable-proc-opt –extra-cxxflags=-I/path/to/mantis/linux/include –extra-cflags=-I/path/to/mantis/linux/include
of course don't forget to correct the path to the mantis driver build.

of course now
make
sudo make install

then configure mythtv using mythtv-setup.

awf was nice enough to send me the dtv_multiplex table (which contains all the transport information for hotbird 13°E and astra 19.2°E) and so i went on to channel scanning... have all the hotbird channels... but can't scan astra eventhough i think i've got the disecq settings correct! if i look into the database it has my card and the inputs doubled, i can delete everything and it recreates them like that. soooo, a little help on the diseqc settings would be greatly appreciated ;)

of course if anybody want's the dtv_multiplex for hotbird and astra i'll gladly send it to you since it did help me out a lot! (of course if awf is cool with that)

thanks a bunch for the comments left here they helped out alot!

UPDATE: ok, got the astra channels scanned too. thanks to awf who pointed out that i needed two video inputs (right now both set to EIT that's why i thought one wouldn't make a difference).

it scans ASTRA HD+ and ANIXE HD but it can't get a lock on both channels through mythtv. so the multiproto myth patch is still missing something or does anybody else have a good idea?

howto run a TechniSat Skystar HD2 on linux

Published on June 19, 2008 in Audio/Video, Hardware and Linux. 46 Comments

since i’m switching from my analog WinTV-PVR-500 to a DVB-S setup in my mythtv box I installed a TechniSat Skystar HD2 card (a rebranded Azurewave AD SP400 CI VP-1041) and to my surprise I got it running fairly quickly.

here’s a description on the first steps i took in creating a mythtv box with DVB-S and hopefully DVB-S2.

install mercurial (distributed version control system). In debian based systems:
sudo apt-get install mercurial

then obtain the latest mantis multiproto drivers. there is no patching necessary for the card to run.
hg clone http://jusst.de/hg/mantisthen compile and install.
make
make install

more info can be obtained here under “Method 2″.

the modules can be loaded manually but to test the correct loading a reboot is easier. now the card should be loaded at boot.

to create a channels.conf you’ll need scan from the dvb-apps located on linuxtv.org.
the way to get this working quite easy is described here. the TerraTec Cinergy S2 PCI HD CI is another clone of the same card.

make sure that the changed line in the Makefile has the correct path. in the example it is
CPPFLAGS += -I/usr/src/mantis/linux/includebut since i compiled in my home directory my path was different (this is quite obvious but i thought i’d state it to be sure).

EDIT:i noticed that scan with the patch don’t work anymore… it should work just using the compiled scan in the dvb-apps/utils directory!

while running scan:
./scan dvb-s/Astra-19.2E > ~/.szap/channels.confcheck to see if these lines (or any stating: Using ‘STB0899 Multistandard’ DVB-S2) appear.
----------------------------------> Using 'STB0899 Multistandard' DVB-S2
Tune to frequency 11914500
DVB-S IF freq is 1314500
0x0006 0x0081: pmt_pid 0x0062 PREMIERE -- PREMIERE HD (running, scrambled)
0x0006 0x0082: pmt_pid 0x0063 PREMIERE -- DISCOVERY HD (running, scrambled)
0x0006 0x0084: pmt_pid 0x0065 BetaDigital -- ANIXE HD (running)
0x0006 0x0083: pmt_pid 0x0064 BetaDigital -- ASTRA HD+ (running)then you know that DVB-S2 is working also! yay!

afterwards i had 1187 services only on Astra 19.2E. half of them scrambled but hey, the numbers count ;)

now to test the whole thing enter the dvb-apps/test directory and try zapping to a channel (check in the ~/.szap/channels.conf to see which number is good to go and not scrambled).
./szap2 -r -n 085
the output will show you some channel data and as soon as “FE_HAS_LOCK” is displayed (keep szap running) open mplayer in a different terminal
mplayer /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0
and you should see a picture! alright, the card is up and running!

all seems good but i still have a problem with DVB-S2. and that is as soon as i’m trying to display a DVB-S2 channel like ANIXE HD (channel #550 in my channels.conf)
./szap2 -r -t 2 -n 550i get a “FE_HAS_LOCK” but mplayer then just returns:
TS file format detected.
VIDEO MPEG2(pid=1535) AUDIO A52(pid=1539) NO SUBS (yet)! PROGRAM N. 0
and that’s it…

i think i’m missing some codecs or something (w32codecs,DeCSS, x264, etc. is installed).
any help is appreciated though ;)

NOTE: don’t forget to add the option “-t 2” for DVB-S2 for szap

UPDATE: i noticed that when i zap to a HD station and wait long enough i get this error right after the “TS file format detected”:
Too many audio packets in the buffer: (4096 in 7340032 bytes).
Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed?
For AVI files, try to force non-interleaved mode with the -ni option.
MPEG: FATAL: EOF while searching for sequence header.
Video: Cannot read properties.

so i’m still unsuccessful at watching HD tv.

UPDATE 2!!: to watch HD tv stations you need the option -p when calling szap2!
-p : add pat and pmt to TS recording (implies -r)

so try
./szap2 -r -p -t 2 "ASTRA HD+" and open mplayer… wow

my 3GHz system that’s gonna be the mythbackend sometimes quits with mplayer saying:
************************************************
**** Your system is too SLOW to play this! ****
************************************************which means… my frontend system is gonna have to be upgraded!

canon powershot G7

Published on July 27, 2007 in Hardware. 0 Comments

i recently bought myself a Canon Powershot G7 and i’m really pleased with it. great camera with the retro looks of an old analog cam.

it handles macro shots really good, i was playing around with it for hours and made a bunch of nice pics which i posted in this gallery.

i also bought the WP-DC11 marine kit.
wp-dc11
which is loads of fun. we tested it at a friends pool party and made tons of fun pictures (this example doesn’t have the best colors but you get the point)
underwater sample

for anybody that doesn’t want to buy a single-lens reflex (SLR) camera this is one that gets pretty damn close to it!

replacing the display of your iAudio X5

Published on April 21, 2007 in Audio/Video and Hardware. 5 Comments

well i ruined my display and finally was able to get a new one.

the X5

since i thought it was no biggie to replace myself i started disassembling my X5.

step 1

after opening the next step was removing the hard drive.

step 2

i had to complety remove everything to reach the display.

disassembled X5

the replacement display in place i put it together to check if it worked. i wasn’t carefull enough so i had to solder the battery cable back on, because i accidentally tore it off (so be careful if you plan on doing something like this too).

and when i turned on the device the backlight seemed to work but my display didn’t. :(

testing the display

looks like i’m gonna have to send it in for repair anyway since the display controller seems to be broken too. always fun to look into electronic devices though ;)