What Is J-Taged

[Blue Crystal]

Well I did not win the auction for the Coolsat 6000, I was trying for.
However, I have my eye on a Pansat 2500 the seller says has to be J-Taged.
I don't know what that means.

I'm sure someone will know.

Thanks

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Basically it ultimately means hacked. If your receiver has been Jtagged then chances are good its been hacked.

Hacked receivers are going to be useless shortly.

 

[Cadsulfide]

JTAG stands for Joint Test And electrical Group, it is a standard where computer driven devices can be reprogrammed in-circuit to update features and fix bugs. Scott is right about it, stay away from recievers that have been fiddled with.

 

[ussexplroer]

what I think he gots there

Yes, J-tag is used for hacking. Evil. But it can also revive a dead unit too. AKA they put bad software on it and then the reciever does not boot up. SO bascily it is dead. The rom chip is corrupted. You cannot load any software on it. One way is to JTAG the firmware back onto the receiver.

It involves a cable connected to say your printer port. Then you click some pins onto the bad rom chip. THen flash the chip. AKA another way to flash a rom chip. INstead of a eprom programmer since they are a little pricey.

I had one unit that was used for a company specificly for certain channels. Actually more than one. The mfg of the unit had two models. ONe was TRUE FTA the other was with the other places firmware on it to receive specific channels. I think it was a ABN receiver. Cannot remeber. ANyway when you goto load the true FTA firmware onto it via null modem. It does not work. I never did jtag it since all the jtag stuff is different per receiver and finding software is well, bad sites since once again most is used for hacking.

Later,

Josh

 

[SatinKzo]

well, I will say that hackers software generally messes up the fta stuff and sometimes to the point that using the serial/usb interface to reload factory stuff does not always clear out the bugs.

jtagging is used to reprogram the chipsets without using the interal software loaders. Seems that most pansats have interfaces on the board (have to open it up) for just such a need. I know I bought a pansat 3500 (ebay, $80) that no matter what I did it still had issues, until I got a 20 pin cable, some software and the code files for the particular chipset that was in my 3500. After I jtagged it, I could then reload factory software normally and the unit worked flawlessly afterward.

If you are not afraid of electronics or working with some loader programs on your PC, jtagging is actually quite easy and an inexpensive way to grab a nice receiver on the cheap since the seller thinks it's useless.

 

[Inno]

On the other hand, I've had good luck with formerly hacked receivers. When I got my Pansat 3500 it was dead, or so it seemed. I ended up building a JTAG and flashing factory firmware back on it and I got a nice receiver for free! I guess they guy that had it made a mistake when he was trying to load the evil hackware to it and he thought it was dead forever. His loss was my gain.
I also picked up a Coolsat 5000 from Ebay that just needed the factory firmware put back on via the serial cable and it's working 100%. For $16.50 it was worth the risk for me and it paid off!

 

[wainwright]

I recently purchased a Coolsat 6000 on e-bay for $20.50 (sorry if I took yours, Blue Crystal) to use as a spare for my Coolsat 5000. When I hooked it up, I realized that it had all the Dish channels listed. However, when I looked at the menus, they looked like my 5000 with a few extra entries.

I've disconnected it until I have the time to download and burn the latest factory software and restore it to real fta mode, however it looked like all the fta settings were still there. I should have tried a blind scan on 97 where my dish is pointing (I haven't installed my motor yet), but I was just checking that it powered up.

 

[Inno]

I believe even after putting the factory firmware on you still have to clear all the channels that are still stored on it. That's what I had to do with my CS5000.

 

[qwert1515]

Linuxman had to JTAG his FTA receiver because it had problems with ChannelMaster (http://www.satelliteguys.us/fta-shack/152075-problem-pansat-3500-cm-file-list.html)

 

[Blue Crystal]

Thanks everybody I knew you "GUYS" would have the answer.
Everyone seems to keep beating me on EBAY.
I guess I'm just too stingy with my money.
One day I will get the right one!

Thanks again.

 

[linuxman]

Linuxman had to JTAG his FTA receiver because it had problems with ChannelMaster (http://www.satelliteguys.us/fta-shack/152075-problem-pansat-3500-cm-file-list.html)

I did Jtag one of my Pansat 3500s that I have had for over two years. I know it has never seen funny firmware since I bought it brand new, but it was acting strangely and I couldn't seem to get it to work well on very low symbol rate and very high symbol rate channels as well as high FEC.

After Jtagging it and reloading the factory firmware, it has been working flawlessly.