Random Thing

Adding Comtrend Powerline ethernet adaptor to network

During a recent move one of the Comtrend DH10PF Powerline units(uses DS2 chipset) died terminally so I got another pair of Comtrend 902 Powerline units. Basically I used the 902 units for the BT Vision and the old DH10 unit for my P4 PC.

Seems to work OK – just a bit fiddly to get them synced up.

Basically just used the A unit of the pair as the master for the HH2 end, did a reset for 20 sec until status light started flashing then did the reset on the other slave units until the light flashed and then they all sync'd up (maybe I was are lucky). I did this with the units all plugged into a multibox to avoid running between rooms, breaking legs, neck or whatever because the flashing light on the master only stays in that state for c. 30 seconds.

I later found out that the units can be accessed by web browser by typing the IP address into the URL bar (the password appears to be ‘admin’).

The old DH10 units supplied by BT had a BT tailored firmware and the 902 units had a standard Comtrend firmware but the BT Vision works just fine over them.

BT Vision installation

Powerline ethernet units worked OK.
Plugged in the router end first and lights showed -

Fired up BT Vision box and power light was flashing and harddrive "hunting" for a long time after initial screen.

Clearly not working. After waiting quite a while and a few resets later I got the following -

NR01 Experiencing difficulties screen (ring 0845 600 7030)

Then after a while -

BE01 Error has occurred screen (ring 0845 600 7030)

Being the frugal type (0845 calls cost money) a bit of thought was required.

The fix was to enable DHCP in the HomeHub and things progressed a lot better.

Recommended procedure:

Ensure Hub has DHCP enabled and ethernet port 1 is available.

Plug in Powerline ethernet adaptors and connect router end first (becomes AP on adaptor - Access Point)

Ethernet through to TV end should be OK.

Fire up BT Vision box. It may start at the NR01 screen but just wait and it will pick up the IP address and do a whole lot of stuff (possibly downloading again from BT servers), eventually it will recover and give a screen with two cogs and a progress bar).

The next screen will give Connecting to Registration server.

If registration is OK then will ask "Press Select" which kicks off the channel scanning etc.

Note:

Once the DHCP is enabled two devices should appear against Ethernet 1 in the hub status. I got -

Unknown-00:13:96:12:2C:5D 192.168.1.65 Powerline ethernet device

RM4100 192.168.1.66 Philips BT Vision box

F/W of the Hub was 6.2.6C

Telefunken TV with no sound in the UK

Recent experience whilst trying to resurrect an old Telefunken P150C colour TV.

Basically when I moved from NZ to Scotland I took my old 14" TV set with me ( I hate chucking good stuff out) however when it was switched on I got good picture but no sound.

It seems that NZ uses PAL B/G with VHF and UHF whereas the UK uses PAL I with UHF so the sound issue is a typical problem (the sound carrier frequency differs slightly - 6.0 MHz v 5.5 MHz). Luckily I have found that the TV will work fine when used with a Freeview decoder unit (DVB-T) - brilliant!

The old Telefunken remote was a bit worn so I've replaced it with a One for All 4 Universal Remote  Control unit (URC7740).

The manual has a list of all the manufacturer remote codes and a later listing is available on the web site also.

Telefunken P150C        TV  0109 worked
Digilogic Freeview        Sat  1284 worked

Note: There was no listing for the Digilogic unit (DSTB 1000) but the code for Logik worked fine.

All in all I'm quite happy with a set obtained in the 1980's and gives a better picture than all the rubbish LCD and Plasma stuff sold today. Just have to wait for HD TV to arrive.

Diva MP3016W MP3 player

These are quite choice little machines. However I did find that I couldn't get the USB connection to work on my P4 running XP and Abit IS7 mobo (I used the USB 1.0 connectors too).

Problem: I would plug in the USB cable and the display would show the firmware and memory as per usual and then start playing the tracks. Funnily enough the USB connection was OK most of the time on my old PIII running XP. The MP3016W was running 2_19WE firmware.

There is a later load of firmware (2_22WE) available on the Daisy Multimedia site (www.daisymm.com) which seems to fix this issue. I can only think that it was related to the USB hardware since both the PC's were running on XP. The firmware load also improves operation with USB 2.0 connectors which most P4 mobo's have in spades.

To do the update -

    Copy software.sys file to the players internal memory (eject the  CF).

     Switch off the unit.

     Press and hold down the Vol up, Vol down and Play buttons.
     The display will show PROG and a timer indicator
     then show READ and a timer indicator and finally
     will show DONE (takes about 1-2 mins).

Seems to run SanDisk 256MB CF and Transcend 512MB 45x CF OK