Pulse 4K Tuner issues:

Ev0

Ev0

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@el bandido following your post on vix board about the Pulse 4K tuner issues, I contacted Abcom and asked them to look into it.

This was the reply:

So I contacted Abcom to ask them to look into the issue's you reported.

This was the reply:

1. a symbol rate above 45000
- It was already cleared last year.

- I think the user just heard some old issue.



2. small symbol rate transponders

- Pulse4K has no special issue on it.

- It will work the same as other boxes.



3. blindscan feature

- Our Pulse4K uses a different Blind scan way than other box.

- Now we are trying to improve it

- Also we may change total Blind scan way like other box.

- I will update it to you soon"


So could you check the Hi and Low SR issues again with the latest OpenBh 5.0.013 image and see if anything has changed for you.
 
Thanks for making an effort to fix some issues. DVB-S/S2 blindscan issues were reported directly to AB-COM in September of 2021. I don't believe there is any desire or interest in fixing the broken blindscan due to the amount of time they have known about this problem. Images for the PULSe4K have been on build servers since June, 2021.

First, I never hear about issues and repeat them as not working. I actually experience the problems or issues I report, and usually supply screencaps, videos, or other documentation. There are 3 49000 symbol rate transponders located at 67w ku. The Octagon SF8008 opens all three of these transponders. I cannot get the PULSe4K to open these three transponders. Please see video in link. The PULSe4K will not lock the 49000 transponder at or around 0:54 in the video while the Octagon SF8008 locks the same 49000 transponder at or around 6:38 in the video.

162.216.113.217/pulse4k - sf8008_blindscan-test.mp4

For the small symbol rate transponders, the PULSe4K will lock all of what I tested this morning. But it has to be correctly set (DVB-S or DVB-S2), and does not auto detect DVB-S or DVB-S2 automatically as the Octagon SF8008 does. I will continue to check this and provide documentation about low symbol rate transponders if AB-COM shows some desire or interest in fixing fta issues.

The video in the link above shows a blindscan video test of the PULSe4K and the Octagon SF8008. A lot of active channels for 67w are not listed on Lyngsat, so if you doon't have a receiver that can blindscan then you may not know they exist. And even if you do know they exist, you cannot receive them if the receiver you are using is not capable of opening the 49000 symbol rate transponder!

 
el bandido said:
Thanks for making an effort to fix some issues. DVB-S/S2 blindscan issues were reported directly to AB-COM in September of 2021. I don't believe there is any desire or interest in fixing the broken blindscan due to the amount of time they have known about this problem. Images for the PULSe4K have been on build servers since June, 2021.

First, I never hear about issues and repeat them as not working. I actually experience the problems or issues I report, and usually supply screencaps, videos, or other documentation. There are 3 49000 symbol rate transponders located at 67w ku. The Octagon SF8008 opens all three of these transponders. I cannot get the PULSe4K to open these three transponders. Please see video in link. The PULSe4K will not lock the 49000 transponder at or around 0:54 in the video while the Octagon SF8008 locks the same 49000 transponder at or around 6:38 in the video.

162.216.113.217/pulse4k - sf8008_blindscan-test.mp4

For the small symbol rate transponders, the PULSe4K will lock all of what I tested this morning. But it has to be correctly set (DVB-S or DVB-S2), and does not auto detect DVB-S or DVB-S2 automatically as the Octagon SF8008 does. I will continue to check this and provide documentation about low symbol rate transponders if AB-COM shows some desire or interest in fixing fta issues.

The video in the link above shows a blindscan video test of the PULSe4K and the Octagon SF8008. A lot of active channels for 67w are not listed on Lyngsat, so if you doon't have a receiver that can blindscan then you may not know they exist. And even if you do know they exist, you cannot receive them if the receiver you are using is not capable of opening the 49000 symbol rate transponder!

Click to expand...
The link for the video is not working.

Can you fix the link, so that I can forward it on.
 
So I got this reply from Abcom (they contacted the box manufacturer and this was the reply):

1. In modulator Standard Spec,
Symbol rate is 1~45MSymbol/s ( 1000~45000)

Thus it will not scan 49000 symbol naturally.

Also it will not guarantee to scan below 1000.

si2166spec.jpg



2. Blind scan

We continue to check to improve it."
Click to expand...


So it seems that Octagon is somehow forcing the tuner to work outside of it's specification (or maybe you just got lucky with your specific box, who knows).

And they are still working on a proper fix for the blind scan.
 
PULSe4K has Si2166D Tuner. Octagon SF8008 has Si2166D Tuner.
OctagonSF8008 has a decent DVB-S/S2 blindscan and the PULSe4K does not
Octagon SF8008 can receive symbol rates above 45000, but the PULSe4K cannot.

It doesn't take much to see which is the better fta receiver. Anyone that has both of these receivers can test and see. Your Octagon SF8008 will perform the same as mine, provided it is healthy and connected to a decent satellite dish antenna. Excuses can be made, or it can be called a Fluke... whatever. But at the end of the day, the Octagon SF8008 is a decent fta receiver and the PULSe4K is not!

Thanks for trying, but this will be nothing but a dead end that is filled with excuses. Even if a modified OctagonSF8008 image was uploaded to the Internet that worked on the PULSe4K and Proved the PULSe4K SI2166D tuner capability, some sort of excuse would still exist. I don't plan on wasting anymore time trying to improve the PULSe4K.
 
You have your opinion and that is fine.

I am just telling you what they told me.

Imo they are both great boxes, but I am not aware of any transponders in Europe with a 49000 SR so I can't test it myself.

The silicon used for the tuner maybe the same, but going by the spec sheet, the Octagon should not be capable of tuning 49000 SR.

As for the Blindscan it is being worked on, they are aware of the issue and trying to resolve it (no timeframe given but hopefully sooner rather than later).
 
Spec sheets have always had errors, and may not reflect updates.

Here is the Si2166D driver commit from 2019:
github.com

[sf8008] updatr driver · oe-alliance/oe-alliance-core@fb3d07d

- Added Low and High SR (Symbolrate) Support: - SR min. 100 - Max. 80000 --> (NULL device *): DVB: adapter 0 frontend 0 symbol rate range (100000..80000000)
github.com github.com

I think you will find other boxes such as uClan Ustym and GigaBlue Trio have similar or identical blindscan/tuner capabilities as the SF8008. They also have Si2166D Tuners.

Just taking a guess, I would say the PULSe4K is made out of parts from around 2015-2016 time frame. These parts probably have the old 2015 year driver for the Si2166D which explains why the blindscan is broken and the symbol rate not going above 45000.
 
Hi,

Si2166D is a demodulator and not a tuner.
The demodulator tells the tuner what to tune.

So probably the tuner silicon is different.
Sf8008, ustym4kpro, viper4k and beyondwiz are identical hardware. That's why they have identical capabilities. (should have a RDA5815M)

Pulse might have the same demodulator and might have a different tuner (the kernel modules seems obfuscated so is not possible to understand which tuner is used).
 
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Thanks for the information Liquid.
Si2166D Is what the receiver identifies the tuner as being. The word demodulator will confuse many. If a customized Octqgon SF8008 image was uploaded to the Internet that worked on the PULSe4K, then this would prove the hardware, tuner, demod...etc was capable. But doing this would not help, so why bother?

We could sit here the rest of the day and week discussing this and it still won't be any closer to being fixed. I don't like paying for features that do not work, so I will be more careful next time I see a new receiver from AB-COM. My PULSe4K has been moved to a back room where it can be used to watch a couple of tv channels and maybe record something on occasions. A Sixty Dollar box would do the same job. Y'all enjoy the rest of your day.
 
el bandido said:
This information can probably be found on fta forum for Europe.
Good to see an effort at improving blindscan. Will test and see how or if it works as time permits.
Click to expand...
within few hours you should find an updated image for pulse4k/mini with included the updated drivers.
 
I guess you could say the PULSe4K blindscan has improved.
On average, the new drivers manage to correctly find one transponder out of 8 transponders and correctly scan the channels on it. Many transponders are missed, and some are found wrong. Enigma2 receivers from 2008 did a better job than this. I only tested two satellites as there was not any use in testing anymore. C band blindscan appears to be completely unusable as the transponder frequencies found in blindscan make no sense.

Most likely, blindscan will be poor in the PULSe4K until they ditch the DMM blindscan and put a binary file in /usr/bin like all the other enigma2 receivers that have a decent blindscan.

A command can be sent through the terminal(telnet) to make the SF8008, Edision MIO receivers, and others that have a blindscan binary in /usr/bin to blindscan. This command is useful when there are problems with the blindscan plugin as the command is not dependent on the plugin to work. It would be nice if there was such a command for the PULSe4K as it would be nice to see what data it is finding (or not finding). I have yet to find such a command for the PULSe4K, but there should be one.
 
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I found a tuner issue on Pulse 4K mini by using normal scan too.Trasponder 12692H27500 3/4 shows no services on Hotbird. I've got 4 Enigma2 boxes more from different manufacturers : using these boxes I can see all services on trasponder 12692H27500, same settings for Pulse 4k mini of course

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luciocol said:
I found a tuner issue on Pulse 4K mini by using normal scan too.Trasponder 12692H27500 3/4 shows no services on Hotbird. I've got 4 Enigma2 boxes more from different manufacturers : using these boxes I can see all services on trasponder 12692H27500, same settings for Pulse 4k mini of course

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Click to expand...
Problem solved by using a cheap SAT signal amplifier , not needed with other Enigma2 boxes. Tuner in Pulse 4k mini is so poor as sensitivity ( or patchy driver?)
 
I made a test with a triple tuner Si 2169D (S2/C/T) taken from my Dm920.
It fitted right into the upper slot of my Pulse 4k combo, replacing the original C/T2 tuner.
But the tuner is seen by the box as a Si2169B tuner, only a DVB S2 single tuner, and not a triple tuner. I need 2 Sat tuner and 1 cable tuner on my Pulse 4k.
Is there any chance to change somehow the drivers so as the tuner will be corectly detected?
 
cristo4 said:
I made a test with a triple tuner Si 2169D (S2/C/T) taken from my Dm920.
It fitted right into the upper slot of my Pulse 4k combo, replacing the original C/T2 tuner.
But the tuner is seen by the box as a Si2169B tuner, only a DVB S2 single tuner, and not a triple tuner. I need 2 Sat tuner and 1 cable tuner on my Pulse 4k.
Is there any chance to change somehow the drivers so as the tuner will be corectly detected?
Click to expand...
no
 
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