Don't know my pin - Comag sl35

[bigwegg]

Hello.

I have recently bought my first digital receiver (apart from sky) to see what else is available. Having played about a bit with 19.2 E and German stuff available on the limited analogue transmissions still available (also some french stuff on Atlantic Bird at 5E and a few Turkish programmes on another) I picked up a Comag SL35 for about 14 quid inc p&p from ebay. I have also played about manually tuning sky boxes, but most stuff seems to now appear on the epg anyhow and I am told that sky boxes arn't programed appropriately so as to allow them to be used to receive other transmissions.

The Comag sl35 seems to be a reasonable receiver. It did not come with an RCU so its functionality was a bit limited. However, I have now got an RCU (cost less that £10) and I am using a 90 cm dish (scavenged from a free recycling web site) and a quad LNB from my neighbours old sky multi room setup so the equipment I have assembled is on a shoestring budget.

The problem I have is that I can't get into any of the installer menus so cant get the box to tune any other satellites than 28.2E.

I have tried the default 0000 but to no avail. I have also trawled the forums looking for engineers codes but none are working. I have (since this box doesn't seem to lockout) tried codes from 0000 through 1400 and then possible date month combinations but again, no success and this was quite painstaking and I really can't be bothered to do the other 8600 combinations.

I am an electronics engineer and as such am used to re flashing stuff and programing eeproms. The question is, if I replace the firmware will it clear out the pin code and would I need the pin code before it would allow an update of the firmware?

Also, where can firmware and utilities be found? Custom leads are not a problem as I can soon make them up. Advice and information on this box gratefully received.

Many thanks - Rob

[BGonaSTICK]

Hi Rob, welcome to the forum m8.

Great to see your ingenuity in keeping some stuff out of the skip!

I should just say that the Sky LNB you have is far from ideal, as it's designed for a horizontally elongated dish face like the standard minidish, so you won't get top-notch results, but hey - it's free, right?

Re-flashing the box won't require the PIN, and will reset it to the factory default - I'm pretty confident of this, though I don't have one. Use factory firmware and loader app. to be on the safe side. A standard null modem lead is almost certainly what you need for this.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes. There are a few guides on flashing the box here.

[bigwegg]

Thanks for that info BGonaSTICK. Didnt know that about the LNB but what you say makes perfect sense as the original mini dish is of course eliptical. I still have the original Amstrad LNB from the 90cm dish. I dont think it was a standard SKY issue one either since the bracket is well designed and fixes to the wall at 3 points making it very stable and easy to adjust. However, as far as I understand from my research of the subject, these old LNBs made for analogue systems dont use the same Intermediate Frequencies and don't suppoort this tone burst malarky. Certainly, when I had got the old analogue sat working tuned in using the minidish LNB on the 90 cm dish, I tried it with the the original LNB. Whilst it worked, the channels where not tuned as before, some were tuned to something completely different where as others were no longer tuned. Put the minidish LNB back and all the channels OK again. Not sure if this is down to the IF thing or if its a problem with the polariser.

Anyway, thanks for the advice - good to know that reflash will defeat the PIN. I shall give it a whirl and report back, just as soon as I locate the software. In the meantime, if anyone has any other advice on the matter I would be grateful.

Thank you for a warm welcome to the forum.

By the way, in my quest to get around being locked out of my box, I did take off the lid and try switching JP1. Whilst I have not found much information on the function of this, I suspect it is used when direct access to the flash is required. I thought it might default the box but it doesn't. I can confirm that it does reset the clock and calendar, but this soon corrects, I suspect from the received data from the satellite.

Cheers - Rob

[bigwegg]

Hello All.

Update - for anyone having the same problems as I have had, you might as well just get in touch with Comag in Germany. I used paralink 2 translator to convert English to German and so corresponded in German (this may or may not have helped). Comag have been very helpful and courteous. They do have a contact - worker - franchisee based in Norfolk.

To recap - bought box off eBay with no RCU
Bought RCU from company off eBay then found box locked.

Comag said that they could supply me with an RCU for £10 but by this time I had chanced my money on a copy remote from eBay which thankfully works perfectly. Comag have emailed me with the back door password which worked and has unlocked my receiver.

It has taken me much time to research remotes and pins for this box so if anyone else wants this information, I could put the info on here. However, I am not sure if this is good form or permissible. If the MOD is ok with this - I can add it (I will send as PM and you can determine if the information is appropriate for general distribution).

Thanks to everyone for their help.
Rob

[BGonaSTICK]

Nice one Rob. Yeah, please post it. It sounds perfectly fine



Glad you're sorted. You've clearly been having fun

It's amazing what a polite email or letter can still get you in this plastic inhuman world

I had a similar result a few days ago :clap:

[bigwegg]

Information Re Comag in UK:

Tony Denyer
General Manager (UK)
Comag Handels AG
Unit 1 Longs Industrial Estate
Englands Lane
Gorleston
Gt Yarmouth
Norfolk NR31 6BE

Tel: 08708 900137
Fax: 08708 900138

URL _ http://www.comag-ag.de

As for the receiver code: if 0000 doesn't work, try 3327 - it does!

Also, I can confirm that the Silvercrest SL65 remote works with this box. Though Comag can sell you a replacement remote for £10, I actually got mine from an eBay shop called Genuinecopies. They sell cloned remotes for virtually any device and this only cost marginly more that the original from Comag.

You may be wondering then, why did I buy the clone. Well the answer is that I did not know that I could get one from Comag at the time. I can confirm that most of the universal remotes I tried either didn't work or only worked on one or two of the buttons.

I bought the box (refurbished) from a company called b-electronics on eBay for about £15 including post, though no RCU.

Last night, I was able to tune 5 or was it 6 different satellites. I will now need to look in the manual to find out how to set up my own transponder lists etc. That said, for £25 - £30, I have a satellite system which can get me over 4000+ channels which is quite reasonable considering. I find it quite exciting to pop out into the yard and re position the dish.

I am not looking into getting a collection of locked off dishes for different satellites though my wife says that the garden cannot cope with any more.

Cheers for help.

Hope this information is useful and save a few folk a bit of time.

Rob

[BGonaSTICK]

Cheers Rob