Using box to tune aerial

Robti

Member
Hi I just wondered how fast the box updates it’s signal strength as I was going to use it to try and tune my aerial using signal detection, tune to a weak channel and move the aerial, unless I’m told here to use some other method.
Thanks
 
Menu >> Settings >> System >> Signal Detection, then right cursor to pick a channel from the tuned list. You will then have live monitoring of signal strength (relative to whatever "100%" is) and quality.
 
Many thanks @Black Hole i was hoping to do it this way. At the moment I get high 90% quality but only <25% strength so going to give it try anyway
 
The Web if doesn't update so you need to do it from a TV which requires someone to shout the results if you are on a ladder moving the aerial!
 
Thanks @MymsMan aerial is in the loft so should be okay when I have someone to check on the tv as I move it. Or then again I could get a portable up there but who has one nowadays what
 
Thanks @MymsMan aerial is in the loft so should be okay when I have someone to check on the tv as I move it. Or then again I could get a portable up there but who has one nowadays what
A portable with an HDMI connection to the Humax box - it would be nice if you could do it from a phone/tablet
 
The Web if doesn't update ...
Is it understood when the strength and quality values that are displayed from channel.db are updated? Or are you just saying that the web page doesn't automatically refresh?

I ask because in an environment (a few miles from Crystal Palace) with the low-power Local mux and a long aerial lead, I put an attenuator in front of the distribution amp to get acceptable quality on the high-power muxes, consequently disabling the low-power mux. The Webif display seems to reflect the values when first tuned rather than the on-screen display in Menu >> Settings >> System >> Signal Detection.

Incidentally, the Webif display could be improved by adding a tooltip with the actual value to the progress-style display: this can easily be done by adding a title in addition to the alt attribute of the progress image, a new line 6 in webif/html/diag/progress.jim as follows:
Code:
                    title=\"$percent%\"
 
The Webif display seems to reflect the values when first tuned rather than the on-screen display in Menu >> Settings >> System >> Signal Detection.
That is exactly how it works, I.e. the data is only updated during a re-tune
 
That is exactly how it works, I.e. the data is only updated during a re-tune
Even worse if you use Tunefix-update instead of retuning the box the Mux can move to a totally different channel without the information being updated, there was a suggestion that Tunefix-update would clear out the stale data but I don't know if that has happened yet.

If the box can display live info it should be possible for the webif to do the same but it would take some time and detective work by @af123 to discover the source of the information.
 
Even worse if you use Tunefix-update instead of retuning the box the Mux can move to a totally different channel without the information being updated, there was a suggestion that Tunefix-update would clear out the stale data but I don't know if that has happened yet.
It hasn't. I figured that if the only way to update the data is to retune the box, then you might as well do it anyway and not bother with tunefix-update, as it's fewer steps.
 
...If the box can display live info it should be possible for the webif to do the same but it would take some time and detective work ...

It looks as if the humaxtv binary obtains the current signal strength and quality internally and stores the data in RAM.

You can see the SQL INSERT and UPDATE template statements that set the scan results in channel.db/TBL_TS in the output of strings /usr/bin/humaxtv.

I suppose the duplicate freq.db/TBL_FREQ is tunefix thing?

However nm -D reveals no obviously relevant external calls from humaxtv, such as through the Broadcom Nexus API: perhaps it uses direct ioctls on /dev/brcm0 to run the tuner?
 
It looks as if the humaxtv binary obtains the current signal strength and quality internally and stores the data in RAM
The challenge is to find where/how.
I suppose the duplicate freq.db/TBL_FREQ is tunefix thing?
It is, for when the stupid Humax software zeroes out all the entries when doing a manual tune, apart from the mux. being tuned. Tunefix then restores the cached copy when it next runs.
 
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