8PSK USB adapter for PCs

[HokieEngineer]

Hey everyone!

Over the last few months, I've been working on a little side project. It is an adapter board that interfaces with the 8psk module sold for dish network 6000 receivers. Basically, it uses the broadcom 8psk turbo decoder inside the module, and allows control through your PC.

Currently, it is working with TSReader, and I hope to get a linux module put together. Eventual plans include a Windows MCE driver. I have a friend at MS who is looking into driver development on that, but there are no set dates for it. Consider it another research project!

Data flow diagram:
LNB --> 8psk module --> adapter board --> usb2 --> PC --> TSReader

Anyways, you might ask, so what? Whats so good about this? Well, for one, its a pretty inexpensive, quality usb2 tuner for your pc. If you have fun scanning for wildfeeds it will do most everything up there. Listed below are the modulations it is capable of tuning:

DVB-S
Turbo-coded QPSK
Turbo-coded 8PSK
Turbo-coded 16QAM
Digicipher II Combo
Digicipher II Split (I/Q)
Digicipher II Offset QPSK

The symbol range is 1Msym/s up to 30Msym/s. Note that it will do turbo coded 8psk, however it will not do DVB-SNG which uses Viterbi/Reed-Solomon just like DVB-S, but the symbols are trellis coded prior to transmission.

It supports DiSEqC switching. The hardware supports DiSEqC 2.0 however I am still working on the software for that support.

The device measures 2"x3.3" and is powered via a regular computer HDD power supply connector (the 4 pin red, black, black, yellow).

So, if anyone is interested, let me know. In order to use it you would have to supply your own 8psk module. I know they are floating around on ebay or dishstore has a bunch. The adapter board itself runs $275. It is professionally manufactured and has been tested to deliver up to 650mA to lnb/switches.

I plan on standing up a website with some pictures and a way to download drivers/firmware updates. They should be available the 2nd week of March. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

**Important. This setup is for FTA purposes only. It does not do any decryption **

I have attached a screen shot of TSReader tuned to the Dish HDTV demo channel on 61.5 as an example.

 

[HokieEngineer]

I forgot to mention I have successful streamed video from tsreader through my home network to a roku hd media player hooked to my HD tv. Very good results. It worked with both live content as well as recorded content.

 

[BFG]

This is exactly what I would like to have as well! So you hade to make the board? You'd be willing to make them for others, or no?

 

[HokieEngineer]

Yea I plan on putting an order in for a bunch. They would $275. I decided to have them professional manufactured because I don't trust my handmade skills over multiple boards. Right now I have two boards, both are handmade. They were BITCHES to put together, the surface mount ICs being the worst.

 

[BlackHitachi]

Yea I plan on putting an order in for a bunch. They would $275. I decided to have them professional manufactured because I don't trust my handmade skills over multiple boards. Right now I have two boards, both are handmade. They were BITCHES to put together, the surface mount ICs being the worst.

WOW sounds really cool Hokie!!

 

[goaliebob99]

hokie can you post or pm what the boards look like? also what drivers are you using to get this to run in windows xp.. as far as MCE it runs off of xp so I would imagin that xp drivers would work.

 

[HokieEngineer]

Here are some pictures of the beta board. The production one will have a real heatsink, no wires, and no exposed traces. All of the components will be machine placed and soldered to make sure there are no defects. I have my 8psk module out of the case but it works just as well inside the metal case it normal comes in.

As for the drivers, I made the driver which allows it to interface with windows. However, MCE is a different beast, as it requires a driver to interface with their fancy guide and such. I've just begun to look into development in that regard.

TSReader support is already functioning, linux dvb support should not be far behind.

 

[raydio]

That's nice that it can do DCII, however can it receive anything free since it could not be authorized?

 

[Stefan]

If you have fun scanning for wildfeeds it will do most everything up there.

Maybe, if there were any wildfeeds that used 8psk turbo code, but my understanding is the only people using 8psk turbo code are dish network and since they are a DBS provider and not a network there aren't going to be any wildfeeds from them. So, the usefulness of a tuner that does turbo 8psk for anything besides stealing dish network is questionable at best.

"That's nice that it can do DCII, however can it receive anything free since it could not be authorized?"

That's an interesting question and observation. Perhaps HokieEngineer would like to address it.

 

[goaliebob99]

Maybe, if there were any wildfeeds that used 8psk turbo code, but my understanding is the only people using 8psk turbo code are dish network and since they are a DBS provider and not a network there aren't going to be any wildfeeds from them. So, the usefulness of a tuner that does turbo 8psk for anything besides stealing dish network is questionable at best.

"That's nice that it can do DCII, however can it receive anything free since it could not be authorized?"

That's an interesting question and observation. Perhaps HokieEngineer would like to address it.

I actually ran across an 8psk wild feed on AMC 3 yesterday that was an up link for ESPN. I could tell that it was in fact 8psk by looking at the tables on that bird for the SD feed that was also there. There up there but not many people know about them because there is the lack of what hokie made.

 

[HokieEngineer]

Maybe, if there were any wildfeeds that used 8psk turbo code, but my understanding is the only people using 8psk turbo code are dish network and since they are a DBS provider and not a network there aren't going to be any wildfeeds from them. So, the usefulness of a tuner that does turbo 8psk for anything besides stealing dish network is questionable at best.

"That's nice that it can do DCII, however can it receive anything free since it could not be authorized?"

That's an interesting question and observation. Perhaps HokieEngineer would like to address it.

Addressing the DCII question, no, it cannot receive anything that is encrypted. As I said in the original post, the board just sends the transport stream to your PC application. DCII is a just a different way to modulate the video stream. I believe there is/was a FTA PBS feed up there. Again, it is useful for scanning and performing analysis on transponders you might not otherwise be able to.

Some info about DCII:
http://www.coolstf.com/mpeg/#dcii

As for turbo coding, while it is rare to find other systems that use it, Dish is not the exclusive user of turbo coded signals. There are commercial receivers out there that will tune 8psk turbo, however they cost $$$. So the point of this project was to create something that was in the consumer price range. Also, a point that is related to dish network, it is useful for doing stream analysis that people do here and other sites every wednesday or so . Even though the video streams are encrypted, it can be useful to look at the available information to help determine if the channel is "hdlite", mpeg4/avc, etc.

Its definitely a niche market product, but I figured theres probably others out there that might want it, so I offered it up for sale.

I should have pictures up of the finished product tomorrow, along with a way to place an order. Those who have already requested one are first on the list, however there shouldn't be any problem fulfilling everyone's request. I expect to be able to ship late next week.

 

[Stefan]

Is yours the same as the one Genpix is selling? If not what are the differences between yours, the one Rod originally built, and Genpixs adapter? Are you using your own custom driver or Rods driver for the original adapter he built. I believe Rods drivers come with Tsreader don't they?

 

[HokieEngineer]

This board was built and designed by me. It uses a different LNB controller than Rod's board. FYI, he stated that he was not interested in continuing his project due to most of his time is devoted to TSReader. That was the primary reason I spent the last few months working on this. The driver is my own, you just have to copy it to the sources folder for TSReader to recognize it.

I attempted to minimize the size of the board so it would be easier to fit it into an enclosure. I am no box building master so, personally, I plan on buying a plastic or metal box that the module and my board can fit in, then use a dremel to make the needed holes for power, usb, and rg-6.

Once I find a suitable box I'll share it, or if anyone finds something that works, I wouldn't mind them posting. For right now I just have it sitting on a stack of paper on my computer case. Not exactly the most "foolproof" setup if something gets bumped!

 

[mkm4]

So, the usefulness of a tuner that does turbo 8psk for anything besides stealing dish network is questionable at best.

The Dish signal isn't always encrypted. Also, it was real nice to have when Voom was still around. They were always testing their signal and dropping the encryption.

 

[HokieEngineer]

Okay got the production boards in. Attached are some pictures. Still waiting on DNS to change, at which point the website will be live. As you can see from the comparison with my cell phone, it is pretty compact.

 

[dfergie]

dang I should have pulled my module when I RMA'ed my 6000...

 

[Stefan]

Just to clarify, Is DCII support currently working with the driver and firmware your using? I know you previous said your device was capable of locking DCII signals and I also know that unless the signals are zero key there's no way to decode them even if you lock then, but the question I'm asking is does your device currently out of the box with the driver and firmware that currently comes with it have the ability to lock DCII signals? If so I may be interested in one myself.

The reason I'm asking this is there's another person making and selling a similar adapter and though the tuner itslef is capable of locking DCII signals and Rods original adapter was capable of doing the same, this other persons adapter doesn't yet have that ability because it hasn't been implemented in the firmware and driver he's using. The reason for this is this other person didn't have access to the data sheets for the tuner module and had to figure out how to make it work by analyzing the communication between the module and a Dish 600 reciever. So, he doesn't know how to make the tuner tune DCII signals. Rod did have access to the technical data provide by the manufacturer but was bound by Nondisclosure agreements. So he couldn't help that person in this regard. Anyway, have you been able to make your adpater with it's current firmware and driver tune DCII signals? Have you tested this ability and verified that it does indeed work?

 

[HokieEngineer]

Yup, it has been tested and verified to tune DCII signals. It will do three DCII modes, DCII Combo, DCII split I/Q, and DCII Offset.

The website has been setup, but isn't ready for primetime just yet, hopefully I'll have it available to the public tonight.

 

[BrettTRay]

I'm not to familiar with alot of the FTA talk but I've noticed that there are a few HD channels that are in the clear but are in Digicipher 2, does this mean that these will work with them or am I missing something? Sorry for the stupid question i just wanted to clear that up before I spend the money on one.

 

[Stefan]

I'm not to familiar with alot of the FTA talk but I've noticed that there are a few HD channels that are in the clear but are in Digicipher 2, does this mean that these will work with them or am I missing something? Sorry for the stupid question i just wanted to clear that up before I spend the money on one.

Not necessarily or at least that's my understanding. My understanding is that some of those signals listed as FTA may be fixed key and some recievers, like previously authorised 4dtv recievers, may recieve those signals "free" but those signals are actually encrypted. If that's the case then this adapter may lock those signals but you wouldn't be able to watch them. I believe that in order to actually watch, or listen to in the case of audio channels, they would have to be what's called "zero key" and I've been told there are very few zero key DCII signals up there. I can't say that for certain as I don't have a DCII reciever and haven't really looked at any of these signals but that's what trustworthy sources have told me. So the bottom line is that unless you know form a reliable source that the signals in question are zero key DCII then don't count on it.