Prof Revolution S2 7500 USB Query

[kylegordon]

Hi all,

I'm fresh and new to the DVB-S2 world, but I have 15 years of experience with Linux... so it *should* be a simple query!

I recently bought a Prof Revolution S2 7500 USB direct from their store, with the expectation of using it on a headless server in the loft, serving via TVHeadend. LinuxTV wiki suggests all would be fine if I use the firmware from a random Russian website, and use Ubuntu 12.04. This I have done, and I find that it's useless after a reboot unless I re-plug the USB connection or power cycle the tuner. I've asked Prof Tuners directly twice now, via tech support and via marketing about both getting a more recent firmware file (the Russian site version is 4 years old), or these "Linux drivers" that they claim to have in the marketing material. When you use Debian 6 or 7, or Ubuntu 12.10, 13.04, or 13.10, random i2c errors are guaranteed during channel scans, and I've not tested custom kernels yet. I also appreciate there's patches available for kernels, but there's no detail about what kernel to apply to, what V4L framework they're for, etc.

Does anyone have any success in communicating with this company this year, or getting support and working hardware from them? I'm <--> this close to doing a chargeback if they continue to fail to respond :-(

Rant over, thanks for reading this far Please tell me if I'm wrong in all this!

Cheers

Kyle

 

[updatelee]

the md5sum of the firmware Im using is

updatelee@dvb:~$ md5sum /home/updatelee/src/UDL/v4l-updatelee/firmware/dvb-usb-p7500.fw
5de7eb9cb7eefbb89343b64596de3a1d /home/updatelee/src/UDL/v4l-updatelee/firmware/dvb-usb-p7500.fw

The other firmware I have for it that also seems to work, but I dont know the difference

updatelee@dvb:~$ md5sum /home/updatelee/Downloads/dvb-usb-p7500.fw
c8d554f9850b1a691032ba4b003a18a0 /home/updatelee/Downloads/dvb-usb-p7500.fw

If you need a copy of either let me know and I'll upload them.

It really doesnt matter how old the firmware is, they control rudimentary functions and its extremely rare you ever see the firmware updated. Its the drivers where all the changes happen.

The stock V4L kernel has support for the Prof 7500, its missing some features and has a few bugs on higher SR, and a the odd specific fec. But it does work.

If you want you can try my tree at https://bitbucket.org/updatelee/v4l-updatelee Ive done alot of work with the stv0900/stv0903 driver to add blindsearch/blindscan, spectrum scan, IQ plot, and fixed alot of minor bugs causing issues.

UDL

 

[kylegordon]

Hi UDL,

Excellent, many thanks for the information. I'm currently using c8d554f9850b1a691032ba4b003a18a0. I'll give your v4l branch a shot and provide an update in here

Cheers

Kyle

 

[updatelee]

Yup sounds good, just follow the instructions in the README and you should be good to go. If your using 32bit then make sure to select that in make menuconfig. Im using 64bit, have been for 7-9 years.

UDL

 

[kylegordon]

You star.

I'd initially tried your kernel, initrd on 12.04 (LTS) but every time TVHeadend queried the adaptor it got told that the operation was not supported.

Made the move up to 13.10, after I spotted that it was mostly likely what your kernel tree came from, and it's been running fine all day. It comes back cleanly from a reboot, it scans, streams, etc. Everything that TVHeadend wants it to do.

Thank you again

 

[kylegordon]

My joy appears to have been short lived. I come back from not using it for a few days to find that any attempt to stream from the device results in a timeout. Be it with mplayer or with TVHeadend.

The last words from dmesg are...
[ 13.023220] dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-p7500.fw'[ 13.023225] dw2102: start downloading DW210X firmware
[ 13.132046] dvb-usb: found a 'Prof 7500 USB DVB-S2' in warm state.
[ 13.132143] dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer.
[ 13.132340] DVB: registering new adapter (Prof 7500 USB DVB-S2)
[ 13.232720] fbcon: inteldrmfb (fb0) is primary device
[ 13.261189] dvb-usb: MAC address: 22:ab:10:3b:f5:ff
[ 13.924660] stv0900_init_internal
[ 13.924661] stv0900_init_internal: Create New Internal Structure!
[ 14.037068] stv0900_st_dvbs2_single
[ 14.037069] stv0900_stop_all_s2_modcod
[ 14.043191] stv0900_activate_s2_modcod_single
[ 14.057811] stv0900_set_ts_parallel_serial
[ 14.079058] stv0900_set_mclk: Mclk set to 135000000, Quartz = 27000000
[ 14.081811] stv0900_get_mclk_freq: Calculated Mclk = 654258176
[ 14.092147] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 160x50
[ 14.095201] i915 0000:00:02.0: fb0: inteldrmfb frame buffer device
[ 14.095204] i915 0000:00:02.0: registered panic notifier
[ 14.098936] stv0900_get_mclk_freq: Calculated Mclk = 654258176
[ 14.098939] stv0900_attach: Attaching STV0900 demodulator(0)
[ 14.099379] dw2102: Attached STV0900+STB6100A!
[ 14.099379]
[ 14.099385] usb 2-4: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (STV0900 frontend)...
[ 14.106643] input: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-4/input/input7
[ 14.109058] dvb-usb: schedule remote query interval to 150 msecs.
[ 14.109062] dvb-usb: Prof 7500 USB DVB-S2 successfully initialized and connected.
<unrelated stuff>
[ 35.897927] stv0900_init
[ 35.901455] stv0900_set_tone: Off

All attempts to tune to anything with TVHeadend or Mplayer are met with timeouts or failures to cache any data. In addition, TVH logs this when I restart the app...

Nov 30 22:41:01 tvheadend tvheadend[3008]: dvb: /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0: unable to query (err=Operation not supported)

Whilst using dvbsnoop to get more info out of it, I get this...

Device: /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0


Basic capabilities:
Error(95): frontend ioctl: Operation not supported
Current parameters:
Error(95): frontend ioctl: Operation not supported

This happens with both the 3.11.0-rc2+ and 3.11.0-rc2+ kernels now, so I'm at a complete loss.

Can you post up the alternative firmware that you mentioned? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated!

Cheers

Kyle

 

[updatelee]

Unplug it and plug it back in

UDL

 

[kylegordon]

Tried that already, and got the same results. Also quite unworkable on a repeat basis, as it's in the depths of the equipment rack in the loft...

 

[updatelee]

Here's the other firmware

https://bitbucket.org/updatelee/v4l...706f8fff0f4293d5caef1c701/firmware/?at=master

UDL

 

[dhubsith]

First of all Kyle, your startup messages look good to me. All the right things are in the kernel, and everything gets started like it should. You should be able to tune something at that point, if the dish is aimed correctly. I am getting the same messages you are. The firmware I have is the c8d554f9850b1a691032ba4b003a18a0 version, I don't think there's anything wrong with it, don't know about the other one. I can get both C and Ku band, DVB-S or DVB-S2 QPSK on a 6-ft disk with a dual-band LNBF.

My problem is that I can't get ANY 8PSK channels at all on the Prof 7500. Has anybody else been able to lock a DVB-S2/8PSK channel? I am using scan-s2 (with crazycat's patches applied) to try to scan it, I can find QPSK channels but not 8PSK. I use (a modified) dvbstream with mplayer to receive (if there is anything there that will lock), but if scan-s2 can't see it, neither can dvbstream. Kernel is 3.12.

I've been all over the FE_SET_PROPERTY/FE_GET_PROPERTY stuff, I think I understand what they're doing, and it looks like 8PSK SHOULD work, just set DTV_DELIVERY_SYSTEM and DTV_MODULATION before you issue the ioctl. But it doesn't work. Anybody got any suggestions?

 

[updatelee]

works for me. You can see examples of how I set FE_SET_PROPERTY in tune-s2 and updateDVB on my bitbucket repo, just google my name and you'll find it.

Im using a highly modified kernel though, you can find that there too if you want to try it. If you use any exsisting apps with my kernel you'll need to recompile them to get them to work and some tuners are having issues with using dvb api v3 with my kernel. I never looked into it much cause imo no one should be using v3 anymore.

UDL

 

[dhubsith]

I have the latest tune-s2 (bb391...) and to get it to compile I changed DTV_DVBS2_MIS_ID to DTV_STREAM_ID in tune-s2.c and commented out DC-II, C-QPSK etc in tune-s2.h. Here are the results I get, first for a DVB-S channel (PBS on AMC1):

tune-s2 4091 V 14029 -lnb CBAND
LNB: low: -5150 high: 0 switch: 0
opening: /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0
LOW band

Tuneing specs:
System: DVB-S
Frequency: 4091 V 14029
22khz: OFF
Modulation: QPSK
FEC: AUTO
Inversion: AUTO
Rolloff: AUTO
Pilot: AUTO
MIS: -1

Tuned specs:
System: DVB-S 5
Frequency: 4092 V 14028
22khz: OFF
Modulation: QPSK 0
FEC: AUTO 9
Inversion: AUTO 2
Rolloff: AUTO 3
Pilot: AUTO 2
MIS: -1

status Locked | signal 88% | snr 14.4 db | ber 0 | unc 0 | FE_HAS_LOCK

Here I try to tune an 8PSK channel (ION on AMC1)

tune-s2 4040 H 30000 -lnb CBAND -system DVB-S2 -modulation 8PSK
LNB: low: -5150 high: 0 switch: 0
opening: /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0
LOW band

Tuneing specs:
System: DVB-S2
Frequency: 4040 H 30000
22khz: OFF
Modulation: 8PSK
FEC: AUTO
Inversion: AUTO
Rolloff: AUTO
Pilot: AUTO
MIS: -1

Tuned specs:
System: DVB-S2 6
Frequency: 5150 H 0
22khz: OFF
Modulation: 8PSK 9
FEC: AUTO 9
Inversion: AUTO 2
Rolloff: AUTO 3
Pilot: AUTO 2
MIS: -1

status Unlocked | signal 89% | snr 13.7 db | ber 3595777 | unc 5575 |

The interesting thing is that the frequency it ends up trying to tune is the LO frequency (5150). In any event, it doesn't lock. Not sure what to try next, I have been leaving FEC, Inversion, Rolloff, and Pilot at AUTO.

 

[kylegordon]

Quick update - the device went back to Prof Tuners.

I emailed asking about "Linux support" and never got a reply. Firmware gleaned from a Russian forum and 3rd party forum isn't my idea of badged, marketed, advertised support. I persevered a bit more with different kernels, firmwares, etc, and then tried it on a Windows 7 desktop with their official drivers, recommended software, etc, and it displayed exactly the same behaviour. It would fail to tune to anything, and wouldn't pick any signals up off a known good source.

Emailed them asking to return it for a refund, I would pay return postage, etc, and by 2 weeks they never replied. Opened a case with Paypal, more weeks passed, and then Prof Tuners said via Paypal to return it within 6 working days... whilst I was on holiday over Christmas. Paypal kindly extended the returns period, I got it sent back, and then Prof Tuners seemed to refuse to believe it had been sent. I sent Paypal photos of the receipt, tracking number, and a screenshot showing it had been signed for and delivered to their address, and finally I got my money back from Paypal.

Clearly they make products that work, as evidenced in this forum. Maybe I got a broken one. Whatever happened, their customer service is appalling, and I won't hesitate in thoroughly recommending people to avoid them. Now that I have my money back, it's time to look at alternatives.

I really appreciate the time that people spent trying to help out! Many thanks for that, and apologies for not testing it on a verified (read: Windows) platform earlier.