How would one tell if the Pi is connecting to the receiver?

Hi all,

I’m playing about with my ORx and, as I expected, having no luck getting it to receive data. This is most likely because I can’t point the satellite dish successfully.

However, It occurs to me that there is no obvious way that I can see to determine if the Raspberry Pi with the ORx image is actually successfully connected to the DVB-S/S2 receiver.

The receiver I have was purchased from the Outernet store.
Is there any way beyond “the USB port is plugged in and I’m feeling lucky” to confirm that my raspberry Pi is connected and communicating with the receiver?

I’m not presently concerned about actually receiving a signal, I just want to make sure that the receiver as a collective system is functioning as it should.

I dont know, what,s mean as you wrote: “I’m playing about with my ORx and, as I expected, having no luck getting it to receive data…”. but the “regular procedure”, at least at my case, to start the ORx receiver consists of this stepps:

  • plug into the parts, include the power units, in my case 2 different units, one for the RPi and USB hub, another for the PCTV DVB-S2 receiver unit
  • plug the network cable in RPi, connected to my local router
    (- connect a compatible usb wifi adapter)
  • plug in the memory card with the OS into the SD slot
  • switch on the powers, wait some minutes
  • check the local router, on which IP address accessible the new RPi system
    (make SSH into it.)
  • call in a local machine into the browser the web page on the ORx system,s
  • fill the infos on the stepps on Setup menu
    If it is successfully finished, your system is ready to receive.
    In this stage, you can login into the Dashboard menu, and access to the menu items, inform you about the system status. Access to the system log file.
    In this file you can see, how the OS recognized (or not) your receiver unit. This is the example of my log file:
    ======================================
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.067650] em28xx: New device PCTV PCTV 461 @ 480 Mbps (2013:0258, interface 0, class 0)
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.073657] em28xx: DVB interface 0 found: isoc
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.079613] em28xx: chip ID is em28178
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.469707] em28178 #0: EEPROM ID = 26 00 01 00, EEPROM hash = 0x663c7aa0
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.475661] em28178 #0: EEPROM info:
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.481340] em28178 #0: microcode start address = 0x0004, boot configuration = 0x01
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.516935] em28178 #0: AC97 audio (5 sample rates)
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.522743] em28178 #0: 500mA max power
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.528304] em28178 #0: Table at offset 0x27, strings=0x148c, 0x1874, 0x0a6a
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.587644] em28178 #0: Identified as PCTV DVB-S2 Stick (461e) (card=92)
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.593383] em28178 #0: dvb set to isoc mode.
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.599196] usbcore: registered new interface driver em28xx
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.649244] em28178 #0: Binding DVB extension
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.769786] i2c i2c-2: m88ds3103_attach: chip_id=70
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.804787] i2c i2c-2: Added multiplexed i2c bus 3
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.902635] m88ts2022 3-0060: Montage M88TS2022 successfully identified
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.956902] i2c i2c-2: a8293: Allegro A8293 SEC attached
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.962672] DVB: registering new adapter (em28178 #0)
    Jan 1 00:00:36 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 36.968215] usb 1-1.2: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Montage M88DS3103)…
    Jan 1 00:00:37 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 37.000576] em28178 #0: DVB extension successfully initialized
    Jan 1 00:00:37 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 37.006242] em28xx: Registered (Em28xx dvb Extension) extension
    Jan 1 00:00:37 orxpi user.info kernel: [ 37.109956] em28178 #0: Registering input extension
    Jan 1 00:00:37 orxpi user.notice hotplug.dvb: DVB frontend /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0 added, restarting ONDD
    ======================
    (the date is not correct)
    If you see similar, the next stepp is to poining your dish, or at least check, is it pointed to the correct direction/satellite.
    ============
    If you have problem on some previous stepps, the best way to access the RPi on direct way, with a hdmi monitor and a usb keyboard. In this case you can access to the system and can use some basic linux commands to check the status, for example lsusb, lsmod, ps x, look around in the /dev dir, etc.
    (basically, the DVB-S2 receiver unit will recognize on the system as a usb-type periphery unit, it means, with the usb plug-in subsystem will load the necessery kernel modules and come up the kernel dev interfaces.)
    t.janos

I spent almost all of my time on a Lighthouse, but I’m sure @branko will be chiming in soon enough.

On a Lighthouse, the way to check if the tuner is connected is by entering the following command:

ls /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0

If there is a file at that location, then the tuner is connected.

It is the result of the process to init the usb receiver: load some kernel modules in the predefined order, based on udev scripts/rules, and make the /dev entries. The ondd program use the frontend file/“kernel entry point”, as Syed said.
But I have experiences, sometimes this dvb-s2 device not initialized correctly. In this case there is a practical tipp:

  • start the system without the dvb-s2 device pluged in the RPi.
  • When the system is ready, you can plug in the receiver device. If you have the web interface and you start to fill the Startup menu, you can make this stepp before you answer to the questions, reffered to your satellite. After this answers will prepare the config file for the ondd daemon, and the system try to connect to the real receiver device.
    To check this processes you need network connection to the system. (web/http and ssh)
    If you have any problem with your dvb-s2 device, and you havenot (configured) network connection, you can check only the kernel messages on the “system console”, means on the hdmi monitor with an usb keyboard.
    t.janos

Thanks, tjanos and Syed.
That ought to cover what I’m looking for. I’m not an enormous Linux guy but I’m sure I can figure it out based on that.

In the 2.0.000 image, there’s a small icon shaped like the tip of a coax cable in the dashboard.

This icon should be solid black when OS recognizes the tuner and is able to load drivers for it. If tuner is not recognized or is unplugged, you’d get a “No tuner” message and the icon blinks red.

It should also be mentioned that the tuner itself cannot detect absence of a LNB. That’s just a limitation of how LNBs work.

Also, as a side note, this indicator does the same thing as what Syed is suggesting you do from the command line, so there’s no need to run any commands anymore.

1 Like

[quote=“branko, post:6, topic:1514”]
It should also be mentioned that the tuner itself cannot detect absence of a LNB. That’s just a limitation of how LNBs work.
[/quote]Any tuner similar to this rx part?

Wow, that’s pretty neat. What’s that?

here it is
http://www.tooway.com/

This is by Eutelsat :smile: