Thread: New azbox software out

http://www.marcush.de/wp-content/upl...2/101_0465.jpg

That's it there at the top of the picture. FDM stands for Flash Disk Module. I think it's 256MB. You can get them the size of normal hard drives too, but they're extraordinarily expensive and not particularly fast.

Originally Posted by B.J.

Really? That's interesting. I guess that explains why things are mounted /dev/hda1 , hda2, hda3, hda4.
I was wondering why they were mounting as a hard drive when there obviously wasn't any hard drive in there.
Neat.

Yes, the actual drive is something they call DOM - Disk On Memory. Within the Premium model, it is located just right of the HOME button on the AZBOx front panel and quite near the front of the machine.

It is a plug-in module that looks like a monolith and stands upright with the pins extending from the bottom. I had this removed from my box once, for some reason. But, I cannot remember what the connector style looks like. I was thinking it was a pin-type connection, not a edge connector style.

If you do a FORMAT APPLICATION AREA, this is the device that gets, reformatted. If it ever goes bad, it is really easy to replace, provided you can come across a new one. If you have two AZBoxes, this is handy as you can "plug and play" with these modules (DOMs) to troubleshoot.

As for improving the blind scan operation with version 0.9.4142 I am afraid that isn't one of the updates here. According to one of the European sites, this upgrade addressed some missing files and recording or transferring features with those file types. They also discussed the blind scan feature and no one there found anything improved, yet. Apparently, many Europeans don't utilize blind scanning like we do. From discussions abroad, I think they are starting to demand it - or at those who were unaware of it before are now. That is a plus for us in N.A.

I mentioned to them how we use blind scan over here and a few of them were really impressed. I think they were drooling!

RADAR

If they have enough unencrypted channels (or even otherwise... everybody on the European forums is always talking about emulators...) maybe they don't need to bother looking for feeds.

If it ever goes bad, it is really easy to replace, provided you can come across a new one.

I'm running a the 2 Gig unit......

Memory.com | IDE Flash Modules

It doesn't make it any better.

Originally Posted by Lak7

I'm running a the 2 Gig unit......

Memory.com | IDE Flash Modules

It doesn't make it any better.

Lak7,

I assume that it is the "horizontal" module, but do you recall which pinout (40 or 44 pins)? Which p/n or item # did you get?

This would be a good resource for future considerations should anyone have one fail. I am sure that would be rare, but just in case, it would be good to know the information just in case.

I would vote for composing a post on its own, just to list this information as a "sticky". We should also have a "sticky" for internal and external HDD's that are compatible with the AZBox Premium and Elite. I think this would be very helpful to everyone.

RADAR

Originally Posted by AcWxRadar

I assume that it is the "horizontal" module, but do you recall which pinout (40 or 44 pins)? Which p/n or item # did you get?

This would be a good resource for future considerations should anyone have one fail. I am sure that would be rare, but just in case, it would be good to know the information just in case.
.....

Interesting about the memory modules. Drifting off topic here I know, but the comment above about it being "rare" that one of the things fail caught my eye.

Different kind of memory module, I know, but a couple weeks ago, I had 3 of those thumb drive things tied to a cord in my pocket, and we were getting snow, so I went out in the dark to shovel off the deck between house and garage. Overnight, snow came off my metal roof, and I had a foot or so of snow on the deck again. This time I got the snow blower out, and started blowing the snow off. When mostly done, I noticed something on top of the snow where the blower was throwing it. It was one of the thumb drives. To make a long story shorter, I had some important data on one of the little thumb drives, and now I'm looking at a 3' deep pile of snow, knowing that the darn drive was down there somewhere. I shoveled much of the snow by hand back onto the deck, and sifted through it with a rake. Got out my metal detector, and went over the area. I eventually found the cord, and the cap from the drive with the important data, but no thumb drive. Finally gave up, but my wife came out and stood there, and said "isn't that a thumb drive over there?". Sure enough, the thing had skidded across the top of the snow, and was about 5' from where I was looking.
Anyway, back to the topic of memory modules failing, even though I had FOUND 2 of the 3 drives, I figured that there wasn't much chance that they had survived the torture of sitting overnight in wet snow then being collected by a big auger, and blown out the top of the snowblower by a high speed impeller, being separated from it's cap none the less.
Well, I let the things sit on the table for half a day, then decided to try them out. Both worked fine. I've become a believer that these solid state memory devices are next to indestructible. Particularly compared to hard drives. I've had a couple hard drives destroyed by rather innocuous falls to the floor (when I tripped on the cord and pulled them off a table).

But yes, it's nice to know of a source for these devices, although I'm still a bit confused about just what info is kept where, which is replaced upon upgrading and wiping the application area, etc. For example, there are partitions mounted as these hdax devices, but then there are partitions mounted as mtdblocks. What devices are these mtdblocks on? I assume that there must be a boot program on rom or non volatile ram that allows us to load the OS when the existing OS is corrupted, but I guess it's function is over by the time the OS is running, so that wouldn't need to be mounted anywhere. Anyway, I've been an off and on Unix/Linux user for over 20 years, but never ran into this mtdblock term, so I'm curious. I looked it up and see that it refers to "memory technology devices", but that could refer to a lot of things. Just curious what hardware item these mtdblocks are on???

but do you recall which pinout (40 or 44 pins)? Which p/n or item # did you get?

It's a 40 Pin - TS2GDOM40V-S
Just an FYI, I formatted it with a PC into 4 equal parts, and it would not boot unless connected to a network - Weird. I then formatted with the AZBox, which does pre-determined parts, and all is fine.

well I used the newest (4142) and all I see is when you hit power off now you have 4 options

standby
shutdown
restart
cancel

blind scan is the same....I'm going back to the previous (4110)

Originally Posted by Iceberg

well I used the newest (4142) and all I see is when you hit power off now you have 4 options

standby
shutdown
restart
cancel

blind scan is the same....I'm going back to the previous (4110)

Ice,

I was reading on some of the European forums about the new shutdown, standby ops in the latest firmwares. It does make sense why they adopted it. Same thing as having a safe removal method for USB flash drives or shutting down your home PC. I am sure that you understand that. However, I am detecting a lot of really squirrelly reactions (menus locking up and such) with version 0.9.4142.

Yep, it ain't so hot, but afterall, it is a beta version, so they are not claiming it to be without flaws. I think it is great that they are allowing us to dabble with the beta versions. I think it helps them create a better official firmware version. We get to be the guinea pigs in the process, but that gives them assistance to repair errors sooner then they might find on their own.

RADAR