Mailing List Archive: DCT2000

DCT2000

Jul 22, 2003, 8:11 AM

Post #1 of 14 (3291 views)

All,

I was chekcing the archives regarding this cable box and decided to
buy one for now. My question is regarding the serial port on the box.
In the manual it mentions that its some high speed data connector (or
something to that effect), but it looks like people are connecting
this link to their computers to do channel changing etc on the cable
box. Am I understanding this correctly?

Also ... if that is how people are managing channel changes, how do
you populate the database for channels? The way I understand it there
is only one *channel* on the out from the cable box so wont a discover
just populate one entry rather then the full list of channels.

Sorry if this sounds like other posts, I just haven't reached the
point of enlightenment yet ;)

Thanks in advance,
Lonny
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Re: DCT2000 [ In reply to ]

chip at chocobo

Jul 22, 2003, 8:28 AM

Post #2 of 14 (3296 views)

Permalink

On July 22, 2003, Lonny Selinger sent me the following:
> I was chekcing the archives regarding this cable box and decided to
> buy one for now. My question is regarding the serial port on the box.
> In the manual it mentions that its some high speed data connector (or
> something to that effect), but it looks like people are connecting
> this link to their computers to do channel changing etc on the cable
> box. Am I understanding this correctly?

I have the same series of digital cable box at home. My TiVo is using
the serial connector to change channels on it currently. I've poked
around a few times trying to see if anyone has a spec on how to change
channels with it, but so far havn't come up with anything.

I have been planning to put a tap on the serial line to see if I can
figure it out on my own, but I havn't found the time to do so yet.

--
Chip Marshall <chip@chocobo.cx> http://www.chocobo.cx/chip/
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Re: DCT2000 [ In reply to ]

lonny at bangtherockstogether

Jul 22, 2003, 9:02 AM

Post #3 of 14 (3260 views)

Permalink

> I have been planning to put a tap on the serial line to see if I can
> figure it out on my own, but I havn't found the time to do so yet.

Well ... all of a sudden I have a vested interest ;) and a breakout
box (although I'm guessing its still RS232). Over the next little
while I might monkey around with it and see what I can find out :)

--
Lonny
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Re: DCT2000 [ In reply to ]

chip at chocobo

Jul 22, 2003, 12:50 PM

Post #4 of 14 (3279 views)

Permalink

On July 22, 2003, Lonny Selinger sent me the following:
> > I have been planning to put a tap on the serial line to see if I can
> > figure it out on my own, but I havn't found the time to do so yet.
>
> Well ... all of a sudden I have a vested interest ;) and a breakout
> box (although I'm guessing its still RS232). Over the next little
> while I might monkey around with it and see what I can find out :)

With a bit of help from someone on IRC, I came across a thread in the
archives that seems to suggest that people already have this working.

http://lists.snowman.net/pipermail/mythtv-dev/2003-June/010538.html

I may take a stab at implementing it in perl or something in a single
script to make it easier for people to just drop in. Not sure why this
seems to be an ongoing issue. Maybe I'm missing something.

--
Chip Marshall <chip@chocobo.cx> http://www.chocobo.cx/chip/
GCM/CS d+(-) s+:++ a22>? C++ UB++++$ P+++$ L- E--- W++ N@ o K- w O M+
V-- PS+ PE Y+ PGP++ t+@ R@ tv@ b++@ DI++++ D+(-) G++ e>++ h>++ r-- y?

Re: DCT2000 [ In reply to ]

lonny at bangtherockstogether

Jul 22, 2003, 1:49 PM

Post #5 of 14 (3269 views)

Permalink

> I may take a stab at implementing it in perl or something in a single
> script to make it easier for people to just drop in. Not sure why this
> seems to be an ongoing issue. Maybe I'm missing something.

Incidentally, Perl is my prefered coding/scripting language :) Thing
is I dont even know if the serial port is enabled on this box or not
... I might hook something up to it tonight and play with some
settings in kermit or minicom just to see if anything sparks, then
start hacking or helping on a unified drop in script.

--
L
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Re: DCT2000 [ In reply to ]

ian at duckland

Jul 22, 2003, 2:28 PM

Post #6 of 14 (3224 views)

Permalink

On Tue, 2003-07-22 at 12:50, Chip Marshall wrote:
> With a bit of help from someone on IRC, I came across a thread in the
> archives that seems to suggest that people already have this working.

Yep - it's working just fine!

> I may take a stab at implementing it in perl or something in a single
> script to make it easier for people to just drop in. Not sure why this
> seems to be an ongoing issue. Maybe I'm missing something.

It's not an ongoing issue - I just posted the scripts to the list again
last week. Check the gossamer-threads archive for them.

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

Re: DCT2000 [ In reply to ]

riley at randdtechnologies

Jul 22, 2003, 2:42 PM

Post #7 of 14 (3256 views)

Permalink

Here is a thread about controlling the DCT2000 via the serial port. It is
about the tivo but there is code attached to some of the posts that has the
hex codes. My serial port is disabled so I wasn't able to use it and am
using IR instead. Good luck!

William

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=62212&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

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Re: DCT2000 [ In reply to ]

lonny at bangtherockstogether

Jul 22, 2003, 2:59 PM

Post #8 of 14 (3272 views)

Permalink

> It's not an ongoing issue - I just posted the scripts to the list
> again
> last week. Check the gossamer-threads archive for them.

I've checked the threads and found references to them (and a
change_channel.c code snippet) but I can't seem to find the scripts in
the archives. Could you posibly send them again or point me to the
correct thread to snag them :)
Thanks,

--
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Re: DCT2000 [ In reply to ]

chepati at yahoo

Jul 22, 2003, 3:11 PM

Post #9 of 14 (3251 views)

Permalink

There's been a lot of discussion regarding the Motorola DCT2000, but does
anyone on this list have a Scientific Atlanta Expolor 2000 box? It has a
data port on the back that resembles a Mac-type serial port.

I'm wondering if it's possible to control the box by means of a serial
cable...

Anyone? By the way, SA Explorer 2000 boxes are used by Time Warner in NYC,
where I live.

Thanks,
IvanK.

On Tuesday 22 July 2003 05:42 pm, William Riley wrote:
> Here is a thread about controlling the DCT2000 via the serial port. It is
> about the tivo but there is code attached to some of the posts that has the
> hex codes. My serial port is disabled so I wasn't able to use it and am
> using IR instead. Good luck!
>
> William
>
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=62212&perpa
>ge=20&pagenumber=1
>
>
>
> ---
> Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
> Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> Version: 6.0.502 / Virus Database: 300 - Release Date: 7/18/2003
>
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Re: DCT2000 [ In reply to ]

ian at duckland

Jul 22, 2003, 3:25 PM

Post #10 of 14 (3258 views)

Permalink

http://lists.snowman.net/pipermail/mythtv-users/2003-July/010241.html

On Tue, 2003-07-22 at 14:59, Lonny Selinger wrote:
> > It's not an ongoing issue - I just posted the scripts to the list
> > again
> > last week. Check the gossamer-threads archive for them.
>
> I've checked the threads and found references to them (and a
> change_channel.c code snippet) but I can't seem to find the scripts in
> the archives. Could you posibly send them again or point me to the
> correct thread to snag them :)
> Thanks,
>
> --
> Lonny
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@snowman.net
> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
--
__________________________________
Ian Forde, RHCE, CCSE, SCNA, SCDME
CYTBeN, Inc.
ian@duckland.org / ian@cytben.com

Re: DCT2000 [ In reply to ]

lonny at bangtherockstogether

Jul 22, 2003, 3:38 PM

Post #11 of 14 (3249 views)

Permalink

> http://lists.snowman.net/pipermail/mythtv-users/2003-July/010241.html

Awsome thanks Ian!! One more question, a friend of mine works at the
CableCo here and I just asked if he knew if the serial port was
enabled or not ... this was his response:

"I'm not sure what it means for the serial port to be enabled.
There's an
option for "high speed serial port output" or something like that, but
when
they throw in words like "output," it doesn't make me think it's what you
want."

How can I tell if its been enabled or not. I can't seem to find
anything in the menus anywhere. Is there an easy test? Listen on the
port and whack some stuff ans see if theres any output?

TIA,
Lonny
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Re: DCT2000 [ In reply to ]

mythtv at ricerage

Jul 22, 2003, 3:40 PM

Post #12 of 14 (3270 views)

Permalink

Here's a silly question...

How does one go about finding the status of the serial port? Nothing in
the help/about/whatever mentions it at all. Should I immediately assume
it to be disabled?

I tried the scripts but remote.py fails with an i/o error. I'm only
assuming it could be because the port is dead.

Re: DCT2000 [ In reply to ]

ian at duckland

Jul 22, 2003, 9:05 PM

Post #13 of 14 (3255 views)

Permalink

Just run the changechannel.sh script (with the parameter of a channel
that you know you receive) from the command line and see if it works.

Example:

/usr/local/bin/changechannel.sh 3

(I'm having deja vu here... I could have sworn I wrote the *exact* same
thing 2 days ago!)

-I

On Tue, 2003-07-22 at 15:38, Lonny Selinger wrote:
> > http://lists.snowman.net/pipermail/mythtv-users/2003-July/010241.html
>
>
> Awsome thanks Ian!! One more question, a friend of mine works at the
> CableCo here and I just asked if he knew if the serial port was
> enabled or not ... this was his response:
>
>
> "I'm not sure what it means for the serial port to be enabled.
> There's an
> option for "high speed serial port output" or something like that, but
> when
> they throw in words like "output," it doesn't make me think it's what you
> want."
>
> How can I tell if its been enabled or not. I can't seem to find
> anything in the menus anywhere. Is there an easy test? Listen on the
> port and whack some stuff ans see if theres any output?
>
> TIA,
> Lonny
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@snowman.net
> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
--
__________________________________
Ian Forde, RHCE, CCSE, SCNA, SCDME
CYTBeN, Inc.
ian@duckland.org / ian@cytben.com

Re: DCT2000 [ In reply to ]

help at pdscc

Jul 22, 2003, 9:28 PM

Post #14 of 14 (3263 views)

Permalink

Hmmm, interesting, this would make it easier that using IR...

Anyone on Shaw Cable in Canada tried this out with their DCT2000?

Also looking over the thread it says you need firmware 7.54+, mine has 7.44,
anyone know who to talk to at Shaw to get the firmware upgraded/updated.

On 22 Jul 2003 at 16:42, William Riley wrote:

> Here is a thread about controlling the DCT2000 via the serial port. It is
> about the tivo but there is code attached to some of the posts that has the
> hex codes. My serial port is disabled so I wasn't able to use it and am using
> IR instead. Good luck!
>
> William
>
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=62212&perpage=
> 20&pagenumber=1

--
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