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Motorola Cable Box

Spire_JeffSpire_Jeff Posts: 1,917
in AMX General Discussion
Has anyone developed a reliable way of determining the current power status of Motorola cable boxes? The two methods I am toying with are: a 12v power supply plugged into the cable box and driving a contact closure or an LED sensor. ELAN makes an LED sensor, but I have to supply 5v (think they chose 5v instead of 12v to make me have to work). As for the power supply, I have to find the menu to make the power output of the cable box reflect the power status of the box.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Jeff

Comments

  • jjamesjjames Posts: 2,908
    I talked to my tech guy and he says the problem with LED is that the "message" light (on the 2200 & the 6500 series) interferes with the sensing of the power LED. The setting should be under the "settings" menu, and you'd want to set the "power outlet" to switched.

    Then from there, he hooks it up through a 12v power cube to Elk relay to give contact closure on the I/O sensor on the master. Then I just use a simple IF/ELSE to power on and off the box:
    IF(![dvIO,1])   // TO POWER ON
  SEND_COMMAND dvCABLE,"'SP',9"

IF([dvIO,1])   // TO POWER OFF
   SEND_COMMAND dvCABLE,"'SP',9"
  • wcravenelwcravenel Posts: 114
    Motorola Cable Boxes

    Double check advanced setup (setup button twice) there might be an option to have numeric keys power on the unit. I assume you don't want to turn it off. Also can possibly set timer to turn on every morning. Scientific Atlanta boxes generally have these options.

    Bill
  • pauldpauld Posts: 106
    Well the power sync is works great, but my installers have started running into motorola cable boxes that don't have a switched outlet, the outlet is still there but does not switch any more. I think it is in the new firmware.
    My installers have seen this twice in the last month.

    If you decide to use the led sensor i would say that you need to put the sensor inside the cablebox for best performance.
  • jjamesjjames Posts: 2,908
    pauld wrote:
    If you decide to use the led sensor i would say that you need to put the sensor inside the cablebox for best performance.
    And cut the "message" LED . . . but you didn't hear that from me. :D
  • Thomas HayesThomas Hayes Posts: 1,164
    They must of just started with the unswitched AC. I know that I did use an electronic relay that worked fine. The light sensors aways seemed to give me an issue depending where it was installed.
  • HARMAN_icraigieHARMAN_icraigie Posts: 660
    Video Sync Sensing on the composite out. Have a bag of video attenuators at the ready, knocking the signal down 10db - 20dB usually gets it down to a level where there actually is an on and off state.
  • pauldpauld Posts: 106
    You could use a light sensor on the Optical digital output, instead of the front LEDs.
  • Thomas HayesThomas Hayes Posts: 1,164
    The only thing that I haven't tried when using 'video sync' boxes is what if that channel is off air. I made a few video/audio sync sensing boxes some years back and added my own sysc in the event that only audio was present at the input, the added sync was enough to trigger the auto-switch switcher that the client had and still wanted to use.
  • Spire_JeffSpire_Jeff Posts: 1,917
    Thanks everyone, great ideas. I'll let you know which of them work out. (or which one works first, depending on time :) )

    Jeff
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