Directv H20 lost communication with AMX controller

yanbin

Will the Baud Rate change after the firmware update? It is a DirecTV H20 receiver, and have been working for 2 years, suddently stop working last friday. any idea?
Thanks.

ericmedley

yanbin wrote: »

Will the Baud Rate change after the firmware update? It is a DirecTV H20 receiver, and have been working for 2 years, suddently stop working last friday. any idea? I have over 100 boxes out there I'm trying to control.
Thanks.

Call me cynical about DirecTV ('cause I am...)

but here's the question after I fixed your post.:

Will the the firmware update break my code? The box has a DirecTV logo on it, and has been working for 2 weeks but it suddently stop working last friday.

The answer is always 'Yes' This is why I've just given up and stick with IR control. (even this has bit me once or twice...)

yanbin

The Client unplugged the DTV receiver power last night, it worked for a while, this morning it could not turn on again. when I press the channnel up/down, only the TX led light flash in AMX controller, after I unplug the power again, it back to working, but i am not sure how long it will be working this time. Btw, the other two DTVs using the same baud rate (9600) working fine.
update, after 20 minutes, it stop working again.

jimmyw

Move to IP Control, you can subscribe to the broadcast and discover all DTV's on the network, and then use that data to automatically get some JSON love going. I have relay control of every DTV box in the house, when something goes wrong, I turn it off, make a list of what boxes are still transmitting, turn it back on, wait the alloted time, and see what the new boxes IP is (static ip to directv is a joke) then reinit my module with that IP I have never had IP control fail me yet in this method.

John Nagy

Doesn't sound practical as an integrator solution, a DIY guy can tolerate a procedure to go through "when it goes down" meaning it WILL go down. It our world, that means rolling a truck, do that a few times and your profit is all gone. We've found IP for DTV to be sketchy at best, requiring frequent reboots. We have not enough units on RS232 to have gathered a negative opinion yet here...

FYI, the baud rate isn't changing from hour to hour. If it works at any time, the baud is right. Sound like your box is bad. Go back to IR....

vining

jimmyw wrote: »

Move to IP Control, you can subscribe to the broadcast and discover all DTV's on the network, and then use that data to automatically get some JSON love going. I have relay control of every DTV box in the house, when something goes wrong, I turn it off, make a list of what boxes are still transmitting, turn it back on, wait the alloted time, and see what the new boxes IP is (static ip to directv is a joke) then reinit my module with that IP I have never had IP control fail me yet in this method.

If you have the mac why not leave the box dhcp and bind the mac to a specific IP in the router. When the box requests an IP from the router (DHCP server) the router will give it the IP you set in it's static binding table for the mac address of the requesting client.

the8thst

vining wrote: »

If you have the mac why not leave the box dhcp and bind the mac to a specific IP in the router. When the box requests an IP from the router (DHCP server) the router will give it the IP you set in it's static binding table for the mac address of the requesting client.

This is how I setup all of my networks. Static DHCP addresses.

I have been running 1-Way IP on DTV boxes for awhile without issues.

jimmyw

That is a good way to do it, but if DTV ever comes to change the box, its a moot point resulting in a truck roll, the method we developed eliminates that, the only thing that the directv guy has to do is in the menu enable external control(and we have a note about it on the rack).

vining

jimmyw wrote: »

That is a good way to do it, but if DTV ever comes to change the box, its a moot point resulting in a truck roll, the method we developed eliminates that, the only thing that the directv guy has to do is in the menu enable external control(and we have a note about it on the rack).

How do you go about doing that? Are you broadcast pinging a closed network or do something else?

jimmyw

not in front of the code right now but 99% sure its something like this

DATA_EVENT[ndvBroadcast]{
    ONLINE:{
	....
	
    }
    OFFLINE:{
	.....
	
    }
    ONERROR:{
	....
    }
    STRING:{
	LOCAL_VAR CHAR theString[1000]
	LOCAL_VAR CHAR theIP[20]
	theIP = data.sourceip
	theString = data.text
	send_string 0, "'ndvBroadcast string[',theIP,']:'"
	
	SWITCH(theIP){
	    CASE '192.168.1.61':
	    CASE '192.168.1.62':
	    CASE '192.168.1.63':
	    CASE '192.168.1.64':
	    CASE '192.168.1.65':
	    CASE '192.168.1.66':
	    CASE '192.168.1.100':{//filter know statics
		
	    }
	    DEFAULT:{
	    	Proccess_BC_Packet(theIP,theString)
	    }
	}

    }
}

sorry, thats off the top of my head, but it should be right
I just watch and see when a new dtv comes online, then I populate a list that matches boxes to macs, if someone doesnt send out a broadcast for a long time, he is dead to me and his spot is open, if I ever get to a logic state where I am unsure of what box is in what slot, I just put a pop up that has a cancel on all screens, if no one says stop I kill all boxes and power them up 1 at a time until I re populate the list. it takes about 8 mins for our biggest house (18 boxes), and happens automatically, or at the push of a button if the homeowner knows directv was messing with boxes