PCI DVB slave to PANSAT 2500A

[bigOleB]

Anyone slaving a PCI DVB from a PANSAT 2500A?

I have one single cable coming from DiSEqC to Pansat 2500A. I have just completed my in home office and would like to add a PCI DVB to my office PC.
I have heard of people slaving a Pansat to Other STB but not to a PCI DVB.

Any suggestions would be a great help. Thanks.

 

[Mr Tony]

It would still work. You would get the same polarity as what the 2500 is set to

Just run a cable from the loop out of the receiver to the PC card

 

[bigOleB]

Thanks ICE. I thought it would but wanted to make sure before I go out and spend some of that hard earned green stuff.


When slaving can either device control motor or just main reciever?

 

[iammike]

I've slaved an analog receiver to my PC card before, and lately have been going in the other direction. I've had problems with c-band and moving the motor with the PC card and find that letting the receiver control things works better for me. I don't think you can control the motor via the slaved device, but it could just be my PC card. The downside to having the PC card slaved to the receiver is that the PC can't change satellites if you have timers set to record programs.

 

[Tron]

It is better to slave the PC card to the Pansat. Since the Pansat has blind scan, you want it to be the device that controls polarity.

Whichever device is slaved cannot control polarity on the LNB and will only receive the polarity that the 'master' device is set to. Since the Pansat can scan, you want it to be able to control polarity.

Might also be a good idea to put a DC block (available at Radio Shack) between the Pansat and the PC card to prevent the PC card from sending LNB voltage out.

 

[iammike]

Might also be a good idea to put a DC block (available at Radio Shack) between the Pansat and the PC card to prevent the PC card from sending LNB voltage out.

I tend to agree, however I have been able to control my Diseqc switch with the PC card slaved to my Fortec. I think the Fortec may have been turned off at the time though. Would the DC block prevent the PC card from controlling a switch?

 

[Tron]

That's a good question...

Since the DiSEqC switch relies on four unique tones to switch ports (and not changes in voltage), I would think the DC block wouldn't prevent the switch from operating. Should be easy enough to test it by placing a DC block there and then trying the switch.

But then what happens if one receiver wants programming from one LNB and the other receiver wants it from a different LNB? It probably wouldn't work with both recievers turned on.

If you do this, please post the result in this thread. Thanks!

 

[Mr Tony]

I tend to agree, however I have been able to control my Diseqc switch with the PC card slaved to my Fortec. I think the Fortec may have been turned off at the time though. Would the DC block prevent the PC card from controlling a switch?

correct. If the master is off, you can do whatever you want with the slave unit. I learned that the hard way

I havent tried the DC block and a switch. I only used it when I was slaving a receiver off G10. But it blocks voltage so it probably blocks you switching ports on a switch.

 

[zodiak]

I asked this question before but didn't get a definite anwer...

Is it possible to control a receiver from a PC? If so, the PC (slaved to the receiver) could just send a command (via serial?) to the receiver to switch to a particular sat/polarity...

 

[Tron]

That's an interesting idea! Use a serial cable from a PC which would send a command to the STB to switch polarity based on PC software. I'm not sure whether or not the serial interface on the STB's can be used for control purposes however. I'm sure something could be implemented in future STB firmware revisions...