my frankenbox dm800hd

[niteman1969]

So here goes the story, bought a dead original dm800 and 2 dead clones
from the bay total outlay about the same as a working clone.

The dead original 800 was a tuner fault and a

Dream Multimedia
>>>>>>error

Which means no sim or sim not connecting properly.

So on to the dead dm800hd clones one was standard no ca found, flashed
with wrong software / bootloader.

Other was completely dead.

So first things first check original box, tuner has some heat damage and sim
holder is showing bad / dry solder joints. Original sim is inside (looks hopeful).

Opened both dead DM800 clones and power up, see that one is completely dead
and indeed the ca problem on the other one.

Decided that this one has probably been flashed with an original firmware
and put the dm800 original sim inside and boots to newnigma 3.1.1
immediatley turn off and boot with power button turned on and flash with
sim2.01 patched image gemini 5.1 bl 75 as sim 201 is only 75 or 76.

Turn off, put in sim2.01 and success we have a working clone
although i have not tried scanning any channels yet.

Now for the original dm800

Got out the soldering iron and reheated/reflowed the solder.
Tried to put sim back in and wouldn't you know it, snap off
the sim holder plastic latch with my heavy handedness.

Now i got a serious problem!!!!

Anyway I put it all back together and decide to use double sided sticky
tape on sim and tape it down.

Power on and have success sim reads and box boots into
a very old blackhole 0.11.

So shutdown, connect LNB to tuner and restart.

Back to same error double sided tape is too weak, at this point
i reach for the superglue. Ah well needs must.

Boot up again no problem blackhole starts and i reconfig the tuner and start
scanning channels, and get very few to scan so tuner is in trouble as specified.

At this point I have 1 working dm800 clone and a partially working original
and a dead clone.

I then dismantle all 3 to look at the tuners, the original dm800 is a revision K
and is pretty obviously suffering from overheat damage.

The now working clone has latest revision M.
The dead clone has a revision L3.

Decided to try the revision M in original DM800 and it worked
3126 channels scanned on the two sats I had set up via disecq.

Check a few channels and put my sub card in and all is working
very well - revision M tuner is damn sensitive got snr 15.00db
and agc 99 across most channels.

So I now have an original dm800hd that has a superglued sim card
and a tuner from a clone - all hail the frankenbox!!!

Genuine dreambox check passes and dream multimedia tell me this
box was manufactured in feb 2009 - pleased as punch.

Now for the working clone box - decide that the L3 tuner from dead
box is the only thing i can put in and do so. Connect LNB and boot
the box scan in same satellites 3094 channels found so L3 definately
not as good as the M but i got an original dm800hd and a clone as
well as another box for spares for less than a new working clone.

In my words well chuffed although it took most of a full day to do
this, it was well worth the time and effort.

As well as all this I got a nice new black dm800 clone remote
which just looks better with my setup.

Regards

Niteman1969

[mickbrush]

Nice one mate well done.