Hobbyist Open Source Satellite Receiver - Raspberry Pi 2???

[fred555]

mumudvb 1.7.3 and 2.0.0 for Raspbian
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=110004

Dvb-apps looks intersting, especially this one: dvbdate - Set your clock from digital TV
https://packages.debian.org/sid/dvb-apps

Main User Applications:

. scan - Scan for channels on your digital TV device
. dvbscan - Another frequency scanning tool
. czap, szap, tzap - Tuning utilities for DVB-C, DVB-S, DVB-T
. azap - Tuning utility for ATSC
. gnutv - Tune, watch and stream your TV

General Utilities:

. dvbdate - Set your clock from digital TV
. dvbnet - Control digital data network interfaces
. dvbtraffic - Monitor traffic on a digital device
. femon - Monitor the tuning on a digital TV device
. zap - *Just* tunes a digital device
. atsc_epg - Display ATSC Electronic Program Guide (next programs)
. alevt - Teletext browser

 

[Magic Static]

You guys are workin Fred too hard
He's about to blow a gasket LOL I ran into him and he's lookin a little haggard

 

[fred555]

I like it, yup thats me!

 

[fred555]

Ran the shorter coax power feed tonight and hope to have things up and running tomorrow night.

Also been toying around with IP surveillance cameras and been thinking about the Pi based STB and
how to add camera views as channels. Setting up this free software on an old PC http://www.zoneminder.com/ and realized Camera streams are accessed via URls just like any other http stream. It would be cool to have a receiver that, lets say you are watching TV and there is a knock on the door, then just change to the front door channel and see who's there.

 

[Magic Static]

I switch inputs on my monitor to see who's knocking I thought about hooking it to the TV.

 

[fred555]

Here is an interesting article. Its based on DVBT but the principles can be adapted.

http://blog.oxplot.com/pi-tv/

This part near the end is intriguing:

The script runs a multithreaded web server and provides a single page with links to different channels. Opening a link changes channel. That’s it!

 

[KE4EST]

Very interesting, gonna have to read into this.

 

[fred555]

We would start at the section "Install LinuxTV dvb-apps and configure",
as we already have drivers (remember the long long days of compiling?)
Tzap is the DVBT tuner app so we would use the DVBS app.
The command used to install dvb-apps is not correct for the pi.
It may be as simple as apt-get install dvb-apps.

May have some time over the 3 day weekend to look at it more closely.

Been way busy this spring, new dishes, replanting old dishes, entirely new GigE network to better support streaming. Still looking into all the possible tuning methods available and thinking about integration into an STB with thought about the "player" side of things.

 

[fred555]

Dvb-apps is already installed on the image. I'm guessing from the base Raspian image? More to come.

 

[updatelee]

I've been using Ubuntu on mine and it's working out great if you want to try something different.

UDL

 

[fred555]

I've been using Ubuntu on mine and it's working out great if you want to try something different.

UDL

I would love to try it out, cant wait!
If you want to post an image, I will get KE4EST to PM you the details on where to post it.

 

[fred555]

I am back up and running. I used a much shorter run for the Power over coax setup, about 10ft vs 70 ft.
It is working fine. The sun is in the wrong place for proper pictures, but I will get some more at dusk to show the display.

I have been remoted into it all morning via it's wifi link with no issues. Been trying to use alternate tuning methods.
Below I am trying to watch one of the NASA channels using szap from dvb-apps but I am stuck.

Cd to the following directory:
/usr/share/dvb/dvb-s
Look around and you will see many initial scanning files.

I created the following file called 105W-AMC18
# AMC 18 @ 105.0W
# freq pol sr fec

S 03760000 V  28068000 AUTO

You can add your own tranponders using the format shown above.
Unlike Mumudvb, you can add an entire sat full of transponders.

Next step, run the following commands:

mkdir /root/.szap
scan -l C-BAND /usr/share/dvb/dvb-s/105W-AMC18 > /root/.szap/channels.conf

Here is the result  from channels.conf:

[0065]:3760:v:0:28068:274:275:101
[0066]:3760:v:0:28068:289:292:102
[0067]:3760:v:0:28068:4145:4148:103

Now run this command to list channel numbers:

root@raspberrypi:/usr/share/dvb/dvb-s# szap -q
reading channels from file '/root/.szap/channels.conf'
001 [0065]
002 [0066]
003 [0067]


Now I will tune channel 1:
szap -l C-Band -n 1

root@raspberrypi:/usr/share/dvb/dvb-s# szap -l C-Band -n 1
reading channels from file '/root/.szap/channels.conf'
zapping to 1 '[0065]':
sat 0, frequency = 3760 MHz V, symbolrate 28068000, vpid = 0x0112, apid = 0x0113 sid = 0x0065
using '/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0' and '/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0'
status 1f | signal ac81 | snr 0057 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal ac81 | snr 0057 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal adbb | snr 0057 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal aaaa | snr 0058 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal ab47 | snr 0057 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal aa0c | snr 0058 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal aaaa | snr 0057 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal aaaa | snr 0057 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal ab47 | snr 0057 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal aa0c | snr 0058 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK

So far so good, I have lock.

Next open up another ssh session.

Here is the part where I am stuck. This command takes the stream and uses netcat to
present it as a network stream. then I try to use VLC on my laptop to view with rtsp://192.168.0.20:2222

root@raspberrypi:/usr/share/dvb/dvb-s# cat /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0 | nc -l -p 2222
OPTIONS rtsp://192.168.0.20:2222 RTSP/1.0
CSeq: 2
User-Agent: LibVLC/2.1.5 (LIVE555 Streaming Media v2014.05.27)

I am not really VLC saavy, so if someone smarter than me with VLC can give me a hint that would be helpful.

Mumudvb is working as expected this morning but I am looking for a more efficient means of tuning,
especially more efficient in terms of a usable means of tuning for an STB.

 

[updatelee]

I'll look into it tonight, I'm not at home for the next two weeks, so not sure if I can make an image while it's still in the RPI

UDL

 

[Titanium]

Updatelee, been unsuccessful at using Ubuntu with DVBUpdate with either the Tevii or TBS. Have you been successful at running DVBUpdate on the Pi2? If so, could you share pointers for compiling?

 

[fred555]

I'll look into it tonight, I'm not at home for the next two weeks, so not sure if I can make an image while it's still in the RPI

UDL

The Pi is at home and you are not? That wont work I don't think.
Until then do you have a How-to on what you did?
We are starving for input from others on how to make proper use of the Pi2
in this hobby. Thanks!

 

[KE4EST]

I too am looking forward to your input updatelee, on the Pi2.

 

[fred555]

 

[updatelee]

What I'll do when I get home is create an image to get people started. Then I'll post a how to, this will be more sustainable. It's not as simple as on an Intel box, but it's still doable, just a few extra steps

The quick and dirty is you use the RPI must recent kernel (4.0) compile and install, then download the Linux media modules master branch, download v4l-updatelee, create a patch based on the differences, apply that patch to the Linux media modules branch, compile and install. Then using apt-get install qt and qwt. Then compile updatedvb

I'll detail every step once I get home so you can literally copy paste or even just run a script.

UDL

 

[KE4EST]

What I'll do when I get home is create an image to get people started. Then I'll post a how to, this will be more sustainable. It's not as simple as on an Intel box, but it's still doable, just a few extra steps

The quick and dirty is you use the RPI must recent kernel (4.0) compile and install, then download the Linux media modules master branch, download v4l-updatelee, create a patch based on the differences, apply that patch to the Linux media modules branch, compile and install. Then using apt-get install qt and qwt. Then compile updatedvb

I'll detail every step once I get home so you can literally copy paste or even just run a script.

UDL

This will be most appreciated!!!
Thanks

 

[updatelee]

Started writing the howto last night, should be done sometime tonight or tomorrow. I started from scratch just so I dont miss anything

UDL