Just purchased a new system: Help needed

[BGonaSTICK]

TPS/Multivision may be open with the patch on Hotbird, but you will have to re-patch every week (Friday night). A few other channels are open too.

Yes, applying the patch incorrectly (or applying the wrong patch) can destroy your receiver beyond economic repair, so you need to be a little bit careful. Many people do it though.

I watched the Chelsea match this afternoon, but thought it was rubbish. But then I am a Chelsea fan :'(

[irishweeman]

Just read on a site about an OTA or over the air update for this receiver. The forum seemed to suggest that this was a patch giving access to scrambled channels....Could this be correct??

[BGonaSTICK]

I doubt it - this is usually a method employed by the manufacturers to simply release updated factory firmware, and I did see that fact mentioned in the manufacturers blurb for this receiver.

[irishweeman]

Went to get a null modem cable. The cable i got fits in the back of my laptop but looks the wrong way roud for the back of the phoenix. Are there different types eg male/female conections

[BGonaSTICK]

Is the RS232 connection on the back of your receiver male or female?

It should be male, in which case you probably don't have a null-modem lead, but a serial lead.

If it's female, then you have one of a very rare breed of receivers which need a serial cable instead of a null modem cable, and I apologise for sending you out to buy the wrong cable! ops:

A null-modem cable should be 9-pin female to 9-pin female. This is what the Technomates and virtually every other receiver use.

[BGonaSTICK]

There is a whole bunch of cool stuff posted today on dudez by spammy for this receiver, and it does say that a PATCHED copy of the firmware can be downloaded from Hotbird!

It also says, rather predictably, that the patch won't be as fresh as those you can download from the various forums.

I can't believe that this state of affairs will be tolerated by the providers for very long, and I expect it to be squished very soon.

The FAQ also says that you do need a null-modem lead and not a serial lead.

I'm beginning to like the sound of this box and will be watching it's progress, and more importantly that reliability of the support very closely. It has the look and feel of a good patchable box to challenge the Techno's.

STICK

[irishweeman]

The connector on the back of the phoenix looks the seam as the one on the back of my pc except the one on the back of the pc has little holes for the spiked conector to go into whereas the oe on the back of the phoenix has little spikes .

If that is not clear, the connector on my laptop would slide into the coector on the back of the phoenix....is that as clear as mud

A cable with the same connectors will not work. Is the a male female type one

[BGonaSTICK]

I see. Are you sure that the connector on your laptop that you're trying to plug the null-modem cable into isn't for a monitor?

Standard serial ports on PC's always have male (little pins) connectors.

You may have to get a USB to serial adaptor. Many laptops don't have serial ports these days

[irishweeman]

Bought the wrong lead again. I rekon I need a USB to 9pin serial (female) Does that sound right. I ca oly see a usb to 9 pi serial male on maplin web site. Why is it so hard to get a cable !!!lol

[BGonaSTICK]

If you don't have a serial port on the laptop, then I believe that you need two parts:-

1) A standard null-modem lead, like you had in the beginning

and

2) A USB to serial port converter. I'll post a pic of one of mine in a mo, but it just turns your USB port into a serial port (male).