Dr HD F16 ... from Vu+ Uno?

[Huevos]

No spectrum display plugin. But ask Sonnetpete if the spectrum on the F15 is of any real value or works as portrayed on the website.

The krkadoni meter just shows a visual equivalent of the SNR and AGC readouts, but doesn't work properly under OpenWebIf. Under the old WebIf it did display a pseudo SNR in dB value, derived from the SNR percentage, but (if you use arithmetic to convert from percentage to d 99% SNR = 15dB so it maxes out at 15dB where a Dreambox SNR in dB is able to measure higher dB values. That means the only way to get the dish nailed with that meter is once you get near you need to start looking for weaker and weaker transponders that never reach 99% SNR.

 

[Captain Jack]

Hmmm, yes. I remember seeing 19dB from some strong transponders on my clone...

I even remember a speccy on my ancient Nokia 9600 with DVB2000 loaded.

 

[Vipersan]

The speccy on F15 does work ..and quite well..
Granted it will never be as good as a dedicated meter/speccy ..but can be used to find sats when scanning the arc.
It will tell you which are the most promising transponders/frequencies to scan..
It will work in bar mode ..or single line mode..depending on which version software is in use..
There are 3 agc levels to choose from ...and it is possible to set a zoom mode for a particular area of the spectrum.
I used it to find 43 west in C band ..even before I ever managed to scan in a Cholusat ..which was never possible during a blind scan ..as its just too weak ..and required the signal build to a usable level ..before scanning it and logging it in.
..but of course ..the one thing that the F15 has going for it above all else ..is the exceptionally sensitive tuner.
There are more elaborate and versatile receivers out there ..but for dxing those weak ..fringe ..channels ..I'd say it has the edge.
rgds
VS

 

[Huevos]

The speccy on F15 does work ..and quite well..
Granted it will never be as good as a dedicated meter/speccy ..but can be used to find sats when scanning the arc.
It will tell you which are the most promising transponders/frequencies to scan..
It will work in bar mode ..or single line mode..depending on which version software is in use..
There are 3 agc levels to choose from ...and it is possible to set a zoom mode for a particular area of the spectrum.
I used it to find 43 west in C band ..even before I ever managed to scan in a Cholusat ..which was never possible during a blind scan ..as its just too weak ..and required the signal build to a usable level ..before scanning it and logging it in.
..but of course ..the one thing that the F15 has going for it above all else ..is the exceptionally sensitive tuner.
There are more elaborate and versatile receivers out there ..but for dxing those weak ..fringe ..channels ..I'd say it has the edge.
rgds
VS

Cholusat not a problem for me with the Vu+, but like you say the blindscan on the F15 is not so good that you could lock Cholusat and you needed to enter it manually anyway. For me the only useful specky is one where you put the marker over the signal peak and it decodes (or at least tells you the parameters of) the transponder. Anything else is just a glorified squawker. And the truth is a squawker would have been just as helpful to locate 43W as you panned the dish across the arc.

 

[Vipersan]

Cholusat not a problem for me with the Vu+, but like you say the blindscan on the F15 is not so good that you could lock Cholusat and you needed to enter it manually anyway. For me the only useful specky is one where you put the marker over the signal peak and it decodes (or at least tells you the parameters of) the transponder. Anything else is just a glorified squawker. And the truth is a squawker would have been just as helpful to locate 43W as you panned the dish across the arc.

I see what you're saying Huevos ...but a squawker would _not_ have found me 43W..
It simply isn't a big enough signal in the UK ..to produce any response audibly..
I found it by nudging the dish a few clicks at a time whilst watching the F15 speccy..
A barely perceptable change was seen ..and at this point ..the 'bump' was logged into the Vbox ..
Cholusat channel info was then added ..and after a few seconds the AGC in the F15 kicked in allowing a lock ...the channel was then scanned successfully.
What you don't realise is that 43W is just not considered do-able this far North in the UK on anything less than 2.4 mtrs ..so a combination of speccy watching ...and the exceptional gain of the F15 made just _one_ channel possible from this bird in Cband.
The F15 once again proved its worth ..as I've _never_ managed anything from this bird on the Openbox S9 HD ...the Humax HDCI2000...the AZbox premium ...the Cuberevo ....the Echostar....or the old favourite ...the Nokia 9600..
Even now ..Cholusat is TOD dependent ...even on the F15.
rgds
VS

 

[sonnetpete]

....But ask Sonnetpete if the spectrum on the F15 is of any real value or works as portrayed on the website.

I don't know whether my opinion about the value of the spectrum is valid, as I have zero experience of spectrum analysers. I doesn't work as displayed on the website but AFIK that because my software is out of date and it will display like the website under the latest release. I'm not in a position to use the F15 for aligning my dish, hence I make do with a (non analyser) meter.

 

[Llew]

I might be showing my ignorance here, but what's the purpose of the LAN facility in the DR HD F15 receiver? I'm coming straight from Linux boxes to this one, and I can't work out whether you can stream video to a PC, take snapshots etc. Nothing in the manual in this regard, just a file manager using PC Tool, but that only uses a COM port, which I do use for updating software, changing channel settings etc.

Regarding tuner sensitivity of the F15, as Vipersan has mentioned, it certainly puts my other receivers to the test; my Echostar's tuner was always the best in this respect, and it easily holds a weak signal where the DM8000 and TBS6925 pixelate.

 

[digi247]

From what i can see the F15 is identical to the Blade 7000 and i suspect made in the same factory as well, the blade with a certain firmware can be used to download channel lists from servers and various other features but i would hazard a guess that there is a firmware for the F15 that would allow Cccam and newcamd protocols to work same as on the Blade

 

[Llew]

From what i can see the F15 is identical to the Blade 7000 and i suspect made in the same factory as well, the blade with a certain firmware can be used to download channel lists from servers and various other features but i would hazard a guess that there is a firmware for the F15 that would allow Cccam and newcamd protocols to work same as on the Blade

Yes, maybe there is something similar for the F15, but despite checking the sites mentioned in this section, there doesn't seem to be much in that respect. Nothing much anywhere else either online. At least my Diablo CAM works OK in the box.

For video and snapshots to the PC I suppose I can use the RCA jacks to send video and snapshots to VLC using my USB video grabber, as I presently use with my non-Linux boxes.

 

[Huevos]

what's the purpose of the LAN facility in the DR HD F15 receiver?

I think it is probably just a case of being futureproof rather than having a specific function. If you have the hardware all you need is a software update and the device can do a new task. If you don't have the hardware no amount of software can compensate.

Take, for example, the dishpointer app. I'd put money on it that no one in the Apple or HTC labs had any idea that their phones would be used as an augmented reality satellite location device when they were choosing the hardware. They just selected hardware they thought was appropriate and later someone wrote some software that shoehorned this everyday device into that role.

 

[Llew]

I did get as far as setting the network protocols to connect to my PC's IP address, but it just hung while trying to connect, didn't even time out.

 

[Captain Jack]

The F15/16's can certainly be used for erm.. sharing.. with a number of patches available on Russian sites.

 

[lanab]

Regarding tuner sensitivity of the F15, as Vipersan has mentioned, it certainly puts my other receivers to the test; my Echostar's tuner was always the best in this respect, and it easily holds a weak signal where the DM8000 and TBS6925 pixelate.

Really? then i might sell my TBS6925 card and buy a Dr.HD receiver instead, thanks mate.

 

[timo_w2s]

I've got a F15 on order from Ireland as I'm curious to try this receiver myself, hope to get hold of it in the next couple of days.

I'm keen to see how sensitive it is compared to my TM6900, which isn't that great even though it was supposed to be a "super sensitive" receiver. I often work with weak signals due to my dish size limitation so something more sensitive would be good.

Also keen to play with the spectrum analyser. Might come in handy when adjusting LNBs on my multi LNB setup I suppose.

My main concern is the lack of support. I'm used to getting loads for Technomate boxes from all sorts of forums. With the F15 the only real active place seems to be in Russian.

I'm also a little worried the TM remotes will conflict with the F15 as they look the same (with slightly different key layout) so that might make using both boxes tricky/annoying if I need to start covering IR sensors.

Will report back when I've had a play.

 

[digi247]

I've got a F15 on order from Ireland as I'm curious to try this receiver myself, hope to get hold of it in the next couple of days.

I'm keen to see how sensitive it is compared to my TM6900, which isn't that great even though it was supposed to be a "super sensitive" receiver. I often work with weak signals due to my dish size limitation so something more sensitive would be good.

Also keen to play with the spectrum analyser. Might come in handy when adjusting LNBs on my multi LNB setup I suppose.

My main concern is the lack of support. I'm used to getting loads for Technomate boxes from all sorts of forums. With the F15 the only real active place seems to be in Russian.

I'm also a little worried the TM remotes will conflict with the F15 as they look the same (with slightly different key layout) so that might make using both boxes tricky/annoying if I need to start covering IR sensors.

Will report back when I've had a play.

Did your F15 arrive and if so what do you make of it, I am really interested in getting one of these now as i had a play with a TM5402HD the other day before i passed it on and it gave me fantastic readings on 7° west and locked and held a signal that my ultimo could not with heavy rain, If the tuner on these is as sensitive as they are on the TM's then i have to have one.

 

[lanab]

What tuner is it inside DrHD? Availink?

 

[timo_w2s]

Did your F15 arrive and if so what do you make of it, I am really interested in getting one of these now as i had a play with a TM5402HD the other day before i passed it on and it gave me fantastic readings on 7° west and locked and held a signal that my ultimo could not with heavy rain, If the tuner on these is as sensitive as they are on the TM's then i have to have one.

I did arrive a few days ago and I've had a play with it but it's not set up properly yet. It is more sensitive than my original TM6900 (the very first version, without LAN) but I suspect the F15 is probably similar, if not the same, as the newer receivers in the TM range like the TM5402.

Later on in the week I'll try and get some proper side by side comparisons done with screen shots, especially with the Sky DRX595 which is the most sensitive receiver I've used so far.

Happy to also report the remote for the TM6900 doesn't conflict with the F15 so I can use both at the same time. Rather annoyingly there are just a couple of buttons that have changed places on the remotes so it's taking a while to get use to it...

 

[digi247]

I did arrive a few days ago and I've had a play with it but it's not set up properly yet. It is more sensitive than my original TM6900 (the very first version, without LAN) but I suspect the F15 is probably similar, if not the same, as the newer receivers in the TM range like the TM5402.

Later on in the week I'll try and get some proper side by side comparisons done with screen shots, especially with the Sky DRX595 which is the most sensitive receiver I've used so far.

Happy to also report the remote for the TM6900 doesn't conflict with the F15 so I can use both at the same time. Rather annoyingly there are just a couple of buttons that have changed places on the remotes so it's taking a while to get use to it...

Thanks for that i look forward to your comparisons as well as the pics.

Regards

 

[timo_w2s]

What tuner is it inside DrHD? Availink?

I don't know, but I'll open the box up later this week and take some photos if that would help ID it if no one else knows.

 

[lanab]

I don't know, but I'll open the box up later this week and take some photos if that would help ID it if no one else knows.

Would be nice to see your comparison as you also have the Sky DRX895 box which i agree it's the best tuner i've seen to date.