USALS not working properly

Gurabli Gurabli

Hi,

I moved from VDR to TVH, and I really like it. I have a motorized dish, and I'm using USALS. With VDR, DVBViewer and my Dreambox everything is working perfectly fine. However, I'm having real difficulties with TVH. The situation is the following:

- Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS, default kernel
- DVBSky T9580 PCIe card, DVB-S2, DVB-T2, DVB-C tuner

- using tvh unstable repository, current version is 4.1-2281~g39108ce~xenial

I configured TVH according to the post by @Gary Brown here https://tvheadend.org/d/1935-rotor-motor-support-latest-information?r=14860#message-14860

I have a similar motor, that drives the dish at 2.5 / sec at 18V, so I have set the rate to 400, like suggested.

I have the proper long and lat configured.

I configure two orbital positions, 0.8W and 16E, it scans the muxes fine, TVH moves the dish. I map the channels, everything is working fine. I select a channel at 0.8W, TVH drives the dish and channel plays perfectly. I then select a channel on 16E, dish is moving, and channel starts perfectly. Everything is working very nice.

But! I restart my backend, and DVB-S stops working. I can't tune to any of the DVB-S channels, not on 0.8W or 16E, just no signal message. It happens also if I only restart tvheadend service from cli. I need to start VDR, tune to a channel on 0.8W, it moves the dish perfectly, channel starts playing, then I disable VDR, start tvheadend, and everything is working again perfectly. Of course, until the next service or system restart. It looks that somehow tvheadend loses the position where the dish is and it can't find the satellites anymore. It is very strange. I might try to set GOTOX positions with DVBViewer and try GOTOX for these two positions instead of USALS, but still strange. I haven't tested GOTOX yet, as I always used USALS.

Anyhow, something is definitely broken with Tvheadend and motor (USALS?) code. It must be tvheadend since the same setup work perfectly fine with VDR and DVBViewer.

Any ideas?

mpmc

Gurabli Gurabli wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I moved from VDR to TVH, and I really like it. I have a motorized dish, and I'm using USALS. With VDR, DVBViewer and my Dreambox everything is working perfectly fine. However, I'm having real difficulties with TVH. The situation is the following:
>
> - Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS, default kernel
> - DVBSky T9580 PCIe card, DVB-S2, DVB-T2, DVB-C tuner
> - using tvh unstable repository, current version is 4.1-2281~g39108ce~xenial
>
> I configured TVH according to the post by @Gary Brown here https://tvheadend.org/d/1935-rotor-motor-support-latest-information?r=14860#message-14860 >
> I have a similar motor, that drives the dish at 2.5 / sec at 18V, so I have set the rate to 400, like suggested.
> I have the proper long and lat configured.
>
> I configure two orbital positions, 0.8W and 16E, it scans the muxes fine, TVH moves the dish. I map the channels, everything is working fine. I select a channel at 0.8W, TVH drives the dish and channel plays perfectly. I then select a channel on 16E, dish is moving, and channel starts perfectly. Everything is working very nice.
>
> But! I restart my backend, and DVB-S stops working. I can't tune to any of the DVB-S channels, not on 0.8W or 16E, just no signal message. It happens also if I only restart tvheadend service from cli. I need to start VDR, tune to a channel on 0.8W, it moves the dish perfectly, channel starts playing, then I disable VDR, start tvheadend, and everything is working again perfectly. Of course, until the next service or system restart. It looks that somehow tvheadend loses the position where the dish is and it can't find the satellites anymore. It is very strange. I might try to set GOTOX positions with DVBViewer and try GOTOX for these two positions instead of USALS, but still strange. I haven't tested GOTOX yet, as I always used USALS.
>
> Anyhow, something is definitely broken with Tvheadend and motor (USALS?) code. It must be tvheadend since the same setup work perfectly fine with VDR and DVBViewer.
>

> Any ideas?

This seems very similar to issue #4023 ! Like in that issue, please try and get some debugging information, start tvheadend using

--trace diseqc --logfile /tmp/diseqc.txt

Tvheadend should start writing to that file (you can check the file while it's running) if you don't get the expected output run tvheadend with the following (will be a large file):

debug all --trace all --logfile /tmp/alltvh.txt

Once you have a log file (with diseqc lines) create a new issue or add a comment and attach your log to #4023.

Gurabli Gurabli

Thanks @Mark Clarkstone

Yes, I saw the other issue (#4023). It does look similar, or at least means that motor support is broken in some way, or if not broken, then the current implementation is not quite good. I also believe this should be working exactly the same way as VDR or and other Set top Box works, or other software like DVBViewer. They all have perfect DISEqC implementation, everything works perfectly fine. There is no need to wait for rotor, etc, etc. You just configure lat and long, add the orbital positions, and that is. I'm sure Tvheadend is not inferior then VDR or DVBViewer are, so it is just a matter of writing the proper code for DISEqC, including USALS. Unfortunately, I don't understand coding, so I can only help test if somebody is willing to rework or improve the way Tvheadend handles USALS.

If I provide you a trace all debug, will that help more then a diseqc trace only? I will try to reproduce it now.

mpmc

Gurabli Gurabli wrote:
> Thanks @Mark Clarkstone
> Yes, I saw the other issue (#4023). It does look similar, or at least means that motor support is broken in some way, or if not broken, then the current implementation is not quite good. I also believe this should be working exactly the same way as VDR or and other Set top Box works, or other software like DVBViewer. They all have perfect DISEqC implementation, everything works perfectly fine. There is no need to wait for rotor, etc, etc. You just configure lat and long, add the orbital positions, and that is. I'm sure Tvheadend is not inferior then VDR or DVBViewer are, so it is just a matter of writing the proper code for DISEqC, including USALS. Unfortunately, I don't understand coding, so I can only help test if somebody is willing to rework or improve the way Tvheadend handles USALS.
>

>If I provide you a trace all debug, will that help more then a diseqc trace only? I will try to reproduce it now.

The diseqc should be more than enough, when Jaroslav gets a chance he'll take a look at it, he is the main dev, I just help out with the docs :p

If you don't get any diseqc log lines then post an all log (*just remember to filter your passwords*).

You can of course use an all log and just grep the diseqc lines :)

Gurabli Gurabli

I'm having some hard time to make this work, I mean to get the logs. Should I set the logging in Debugging-Configuration tab? That will be enough?

Or, I tried to run like this, but then I get no adapters found when try to tune to a channel:


sudo tvheadend -u hts -g video --debug all --trace all --logfile /tmp/alltvh.txt

mpmc

Gurabli Gurabli wrote:
> I'm having some hard time to make this work, I mean to get the logs. Should I set the logging in Debugging-Configuration tab? That will be enough?
>
> Or, I tried to run like this, but then I get no adapters found when try to tune to a channel:

> [...]

Add the hts user to the video group (You may need to restart the machine):

sudo usermod -aG video hts

check the group has been added:

groups hts

then run tvheadend like this:

sudo -u hts /usr/bin/tvheadend -c /home/hts/.hts/tvheadend --debug all --trace all --logfile /tmp/alltvh.txt

The above will make tvheadend run in the foreground, so you'll see the output, also make a backup of your current config before running the above (just in case things go wrong).


sudo -u hts cp -ar /home/hts/.hts /home/hts/hts_backup

Gurabli Gurabli

Thanks!

I think I managed somehow to get the logs, I opened an issue #4030

Uploaded two full trace logs, I hope it will be of help. If not, I will try to give more logs or whatever you need.

Thanks