LNB signal to a second STB

[ablyes]

Hello,

I have a clarke-tech with 2 LNB comming on his 2 LNB IN :
- LNB IN 1 : astra19 + hotbird 13 (collective installation)
- LNB IN 2 : astra 28

I have another STB witch needs astra19 (an stb location canalasat).
To watch TV on this STB i must switch on the clarke-tech !

Questions :
1- What can i do to watch tv without switching on the clarke ?
2- must i put configure the second STB to power supply the LNB (i tried all configuration without success) ?

Thank you.

[machare]

Is a collective installation a monoblock?

Can the canalasat STB drive this OK by itself?

If you connect the canalasat STB to LNB 1 of the Clarke-Tech, you would need to put the Clarke-Tech into Deep Standby otherwise it(the Clarke-Tech) will try and power the LNB itself.

[Larry-G]

You could replace the mono block with one that has twin output feeds so each box gets Its own independent feed.

[ablyes]

Is a collective installation a monoblock?

Can the canalasat STB drive this OK by itself?

If you connect the canalasat STB to LNB 1 of the Clarke-Tech, you would need to put the Clarke-Tech into Deep Standby otherwise it(the Clarke-Tech) will try and power the LNB itself.

I can't put the clarke into deep standby, cccam must turn in background.
LNB OUTPUT 1 is not power supplied, and my question is how to power supply it all time, or just give the hand to the second STB (officiel canalsat) to power supply it.

[ablyes]

You could replace the mono block with one that has twin output feeds so each box gets Its own independent feed.
it's a collective installation, i can't modify it :)

[Larry-G]

I can't put the clarke into deep standby, cccam must turn in background.
LNB OUTPUT 1 is not power supplied, and my question is how to power supply it all time, or just give the hand to the second STB (officiel canalsat) to power supply it.

simple answer you can not, your using loop-through from the ET to another box, for the second box to work the ET must be in deep standby, thats just how it is.

[Rob van der Does]

simple answer you can not, your using loop-through from the ET to another box, for the second box to work the ET must be in deep standby, thats just how it is.
Sorry to contradict you here: If ET is asleep, it won't be able to accommodate active pass-through.
In this case the problem is most likely that the ET switches off LNB power when in (normal) standby, thus denying active loop-through. Most modern boxes do so, in order to save a few milli-watt power consumption. I know (see another thread on this forum) that it should be possible to edit a line, so that power will not be cut off. However: I tried that, and it didn't work.

Normal operations would be: the box that loops through takes care of the power supply of the LNB, and (if the LNB is not in use for it's own tasks) allows LNB commands (setting the LNB Horizontal/vertical and High/Low) of the second box to be passed on (= active loop through).
If that is not supported, leaving the box "On" isn't a real option, as the LNB will probably be in use then (although in your setup tuner B will be the preferred tuner, so if no recordings are being made LNB 1 will be free).

[machare]

My ET9000 is suppling LNB power when in standby. - I can measure the voltage.
The box is very much alive when in standby. It will continue recording, or display a picture on a network connected PC.

If the et9000 is set to receive the same channel as the canalsat STB wants, then it should get and output the right quadrant (High/Low - Hor/Ver) as the canalsat wants.

[Rob van der Does]

My ET9000 is suppling LNB power when in standby. - I can measure the voltage.
Hmmm, strange: on the ET9200 the voltage drops to zero when in standby. Even after editing a file that's supposed to prevent that.
But if it does, the box probably supports active loopthrough.



The box is very much alive when in standby. It will continue recording, or display a picture on a network connected PC.
That's correct; that's how it is designed. And that's also the reason that power consumption in standby is practically the same as when "on".



If the et9000 is set to receive the same channel as the canalsat STB wants, then it should get and output the right quadrant (High/Low - Hor/Ver) as the canalsat wants.
Also correct, but requires
1- prior knowledge of which channel is going to be watched by the other box, and
2- no recordings/streaming to take place from that box.

[Gennar1]

When in standby, the ETxx00 decoders will not power the LNB if you set the "dvb" kernel module option "lnb_power_off_in_standby=1".

This can be done editing the file /etc/modutils/_et9x00 like this (on the OpenPli image, but I guess it's the same on Vix):



root@et9x00:~# cat /etc/modutils/_et9x00
tpm
modloader
modloader2
dvb lnb_power_off_in_standby=1


After editing the file, launch the commands:



update-modules
reboot


In this way, the LNB will always be off in standby, and pass-through will work perfectly to the second decoder.
The second decoder must power the LNB by itself and it must be shutting down the LNB power in standby, otherwise it will interfere with the ET when you want to use the primary decoder.
I'm using a Sky Italia box with both tuners connected in pass-through to the ET9000.
The Skybox works perfectly fine when the ET9000 is in standby. Unfortunately, I have to put the Skybox in deep-standby to be able to use the ET9000 without interference, as the Skybox will always power the LNB, even in standby.
Of course, in no case you will be able to use both decoders at the same time, unless they are tuned to the same band/polarization.

[Rob van der Does]

Thanks for your explanation, but there's something I don't understand.
1- I've always lead to believe that the LNB-Power (= for activating the Local Oscillator of the LNB) should come from the first box and that
2- the first box must support "active" loopthrough (= allowing the LNB commands for band and polarisation form the second box).

At least, that's the way it worked on my previous (non-Linux) boxes. And now you suggest that the first box must also allow for pass through of LNB power.

3- At the moment, without having changed anything in my box, LNB power of the ET9200 is always when in standby (expect when recording of course).

Long story short: now you lost me completely.

[machare]

The LNB port on the receiver supplies either 13v or 18v to power the LNB and switch the polarity. Having two receivers trying to do this differently is not likely to give satisfactory results!

[Rob van der Does]

And what about my point 3?

[machare]

And what about my point 3?I presume you meant to say 'always off'. But even so I have missed the significance.

[Rob van der Does]

I presume you meant to say 'always off'. But even so I have missed the significance.
As power is already always off, there seems to be no point in editing files, would there?

[machare]

As power is already always off, there seems to be no point in editing files, would there?Well perhaps not with your ET9200, but with my ET9000 it appears there would! :)

[Gennar1]

Thanks for your explanation, but there's something I don't understand.
1- I've always lead to believe that the LNB-Power (= for activating the Local Oscillator of the LNB) should come from the first box and that
2- the first box must support "active" loopthrough (= allowing the LNB commands for band and polarisation form the second box).

At least, that's the way it worked on my previous (non-Linux) boxes. And now you suggest that the first box must also allow for pass through of LNB power.


As machare already pointed out, I don't think this can work, as the polarization is driven by CC voltage. So if the first decoder powers the LNB with either 13 or 18 V CC, the second decoder can not switch the polarization (in this case, my Skybox enables the short-circuit protection and switches off the affected tuner).
There is a difference between the ET9000 in standby (with lnb_power_off_in_standby=1) and the ET9000 in deep standby: the signal level available in the second case is drastically lower (on my Skybox, the level indicator goes from 100% to about 60%).
So I guess "active loop-through" means that the first decoder is just amplifying the signal, without powering the LNB.
But I'm not an expert, so take this with a grain of salt.



3- At the moment, without having changed anything in my box, LNB power of the ET9200 is always when in standby (expect when recording of course).

Long story short: now you lost me completely.

As I said, all this is valid for the OpenPli image; there may be something different in the Vix image that explains what you see.
My ET9000 is powering the LNB in standby by default if the "lnb_power_off_in_standby" option is not set to 1. The proof is that every time there is a driver update the "/etc/modutils/_et9x00" file is overwitten so the Skybox stops working. Enabling the option again fixes the problem every time.
Even with the "lnb_power_off_in_standby" option set to 1, the decoder is perfeclty capable to manage programmed recordings, as the LNB power is activated automatically when the recording starts. Of course, if a record starts while you are using the second decoder, conflicts are possible.

[Rob van der Does]

Well, I'm lost now. Just spoke to Andy, and in this area he does nothing different from what PLi does. And I used my volt-meter to see what happens: on (normal) standby LNB-power drops to zero, without changing any files myself (on the et9200 that is).

[Gennar1]

Then maybe it's a little hardware difference?
I have an ET9000 from early August. For sure the ET9200 has a newer revision of the tuners (I read about that in a review somewhere), and probably some little design differences, too.