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•automaticallylooksforallactivetransponders•alsodetectschannelswithverylowsymbolrate•makesfulluseoftheAZBoxMEtuner’scapabilities•findsallactivechannels•blindscanmodecurrentlyinbetamode

Revealing the Secrets of the AZBox ME Super Box

Part 1: Blindscan

FEATURE AZBox ME Receiver Software

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Blindscan for the AZBox MEVitor Martins Augusto

FEATURE

In TELE-satellite 02-03/2012 we introduced the new Open-sat super box by the name of AZBox ME. At the time we were not able to test the blind scan function, as it was not yet implemented. Open-sat has meanwhile released a new version of the receiver’s firmware which features a beta version of the blind scan mode. The updated software was launched much quicker than we expected and thus proves once again Opensat’s commitment and customer dedication. It is the feed hunt-ers among us who will appre-ciate more than anybody else that Opensat always keeps its

promises and does not leave us in the dark as far as new features are concerned.

Naturally, we turned on our AZBox ME right away to have an in-depth look at how Open-sat delivers blind scan func-tionality. The new firmware image needs to be flashed be-fore the amended software is available. Since the AZBox ME comes with a large flash chip that allows parallel installation of up to three different firm-ware versions, we decided to install the new v1.6 firmware in memory bank no. 2.

For the sceptics among you we are happy to reveal that the flash procedure does not

require a degree in engineer-ing: You simply reboot the re-ceiver and as soon as the boot menu is displayed on the VFD display you press the VOL+ button to get the boot loader into flash mode. Next, the re-ceiver’s IP address appears on the VFD display and has to be entered in a web browser. We used Mozilla Firefox, which works best with the web func-tions of the recceiver. If you prefer Chrome or the Inter-net explorer, they can be used just as well in this case.

The web browser then dis-plays a website that is gen-erated by the receiver. Here, you first have to decide which

of the three available memory banks you want to use for the new firmware. In addition, you may access the ‘MICOM Upgrade’ menu to update the front processor as well. Please bear in mind, though, that this should only be done when ab-solutely necessary. Never use a wrong file out of the blue, as this may result in the remote control not working any longer and the VFD staying dark.

The ‘Device Info’ menu item calls up various receiver pa-rameters and ‘Reboot!’ will restart the box. As mentioned before, we had decided to in-stall the new version in mem-ory bank 2, so we selected

1. Browser showing the FlashMeTM Interface. The user can select between three memory-banks for parallel firmware installations.

AZBox ME Receiver Software

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‘Firmware Upgrade (BOOT 2)’. In actual fact, it does not make a difference at all which position you choose – the re-sult always stays the same. All you need to know in the boot loader menu is which num-ber (0, 1 or 2) corresponds to which image.

should avoid by all means to interrupt this process or, even worse, unplug the receiver. But then again, this would not really cause any major dam-age since the boot loader will be unaffected and the worst that could happen is that you have to restart the flash pro-cess for the memory bank in question. What’s more, even with a failed flash process there are still two other intact firmware images in the mem-ory that can be used to boot the receiver. And if the worst case occurs and you manage to screw up both the firmware and boot loader the AZBox ME boasts a kind of panic button on the back panel which acti-vates an emergency image to allow a new flash process.

So now that the new v1.6 firmware was in place we called up the installation wiz-ard to adjust the software according to our require-ments. Instead of initiating a channel search we decided to use the settings list we had saved previously, because we wanted to get a first impres-sion of the revised firmware straight away. It always pays off to have copies of one’s cur-rent settings on the PC as it saves valuable time in cases like that. A number of settings editors for Linux receivers are available from the Internet, but in actual fact all you have to do is copy a directory with the help of an FTP client. The settings can be found in the /etc/tuxbox directory and you may use any standard FTP ap-plication such as Filezilla, for example, to create backups of your existing settings and to restore those backup copies onto the receiver again. The only thing you need to know is your receiver’s IP address to access its file directory. Key in ‘root’ as user name and leave the password field empty by default. If your re-ceiver can be accessed via the Internet you should, however, change the default setting and set a password to protect un-authorised access. With MS Windows press the ‘Windows’ key plus ‘R’ and key in ‘telnet 192.168.1.100’ (make sure

2. On the first step, the user must upload the desired firmware image.3. After the upload, the receiver can be configured to automatically reboot after the flashing process. This is usually a good idea.4. Existing channel and satellite settings can easily be backed up and restored, by just using any FTP client. Navigate to /etc/tuxbox and copy the existing files.

On the next page you can select the required firmware by pressing the ‘Browse’ but-ton. Once the right file is cho-sen a click on the ‘Upload!’ button initiates the file trans-fer from the PC to the receiver. This process only takes a few seconds and after it is com-

pleted the next page appears on the screen.

On this third page you can determine whether or not the receiver should re-boot auto-matically after the new firm-ware has been flashed. We recommend activating this function because it means you can leave the box unat-tended during the entire up-grade process. Once the new firmware is installed the re-ceiver will boot all on its own with the new software. Sim-ply press the ‘Flash!’ button and let the magic begin. You

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you use your receiver’s actual address!). Use ‘root’ without a password to log in and once you’re in the Linux shell type in the command ‘passwd’. Then you set the password and key it in a second time to make sure it is correct. From now on that password is re-quired for logging in as ‘root’ user.

Now the time has finally come for checking out the new blind scan functions. All fea-tures are seamlessly incorpo-rated in the firmware and can be found in the signal search menu – right where we would have expected them. With the new firmware the ‘Blind Scan’ option is added to the exist-ing ‘Multisat’, ‘Single Tran-sponder’ and ‘Single Satellite’ modes.

Blind scan with the AZBox ME is a three-step affair: First, the tuner scans the en-tire frequency band for tran-sponders. Next, reception pa-rameters are determined for each found frequency. In case ‘Network Scan’ is active all associated transponder data are extracted from the NIT stream. The third step com-prises the actual blind scan, which means the individual transponders are scanned for channels.

In our test we were looking for answers to the following questions:

• How many channels are found using blind scan as op-posed to the pre-defined tran-sponder list?

• How fast is blind scan?• Are channels with low

symbol rates also found using blind scan?

• Are the data of transpon-ders found with blind scan stored in the transponder list so that those transponders will also be found using regu-lar search modes?

To find those answers we started out with deleting all channels transmitted from HISPASAT 30.0W and initi-ated a standard transpon-

5. The new blind scan functionality is seamlessly integrated in the service scan menu.6. Initialisation of the tuner.7. Pass 1: The tuner searches for active frequencies.8. Pass 2: All found frequencies are analysed to determine the correct Symbol Rate and to obtain other transponders broadcasted in the NIT.

der search (‘Single Satellite’ mode) with active network scan. In general, providers take advantage of ‘their’ tran-sponders to transmit informa-tion on other transponders they also use, so that users can be sure their receivers find all channels of individual providers, no matter over how many transponders they are spread. More often than not, pre-defined transponder lists are not fully up-to-date and therefore it makes sense to always use the benefits of net-work mode to make sure your receiver can find all available channels. The search on HIS-PASAT 30.0W took some 24 minutes and yielded a total of 548 channels.

We then proceeded with performing the same search on the same satellite using the newly added blind scan function. Once again, we made sure ‘Network Scan’ was turned on. This time the search only lasted 18 minutes and resulted in 613 identified channels. Needless to say, we were rather impressed with the capabilities of the AZBox ME’s blind scan mode.

We gave the channel list a quick look and stumbled across three channels that might be of particular interest to satellite DXers. (table 1)

Many tuners struggle with symbol rates of around 2000 Kbit/s and if that happens these channels are either not found at all in a search or not demodulated correctly. We were all the more surprised to find out that the AZBox ME seems to be in a league of its own as far as low symbol rates are concerned.

Excited by those promising first results we hooked our 1m offset antenna to the AZBox and aligned it towards TEL-STAR 12 (15.0W). This is a po-sition that is not widely known and used in Central Europe as it only transmits few FTA channels. Transponder 10 at 12608H seems to be the most obvious choice – it is used by Globecomm to broadcast BBC Persian, among others.

To be frank, there is anoth-er reason we chose TELSTAR 12 for a blind scan search: It Tabel 1

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blind scan with the HISPASAT satellite configuration still in place. In such a case a regu-lar transponder search would hardly bring a result since transponders on different sat-ellites generally have different frequencies and deviating re-ception parameters.

One of the found channels was TUNIS TV with a symbol rate of 2893 Kbit/s, which goes to show yet again how capable the tuner of the AZBox ME re-ally is. It should definitely be able to meet even the exact-ing demands of feed hunters and satellite DXers.

As our in-depth test pro-gressed we moved the antenna

further west until we reached INTELSAT 905 (24.5W). Apart from NTA International and RTI 1 there are no FTA chan-nels transmitted in the Ku band from that position. There are, however, numerous tran-sponders dedicated to feeds only, which prompted us to perform another blind scan. This time, many transponders were found again in steps 1 and 2 of the blind scan pro-cess, while not a single result was achieved in step 3, when the actual channels should be scanned.

To obtain a second opinion we attached our reference meter (Spaun Sparos 609)

9. Thanks to the NIT, the transponder search is speeded up a lot.10. Pass 3: On the last stage, all listed transponders are scanned for valid channels.11. Blind scan of Hispasat 30.0W.12. Pass 1: Frequency scan. 13. Pass 2: Transponder analysis.14. Pass 3: Channel scan for each of the 55 transponders.15. Ribamontana TV: FTA channel with particularly low Symbol Rate16. The AZBox offers detailed information of the active channel.17. Visualization of the different PIDS used by the current channel. This is important for channel- and feed-hunters: they

to the antenna output of the AZBox ME and looked at the spectrum analyser to find out what was going on. It turned out that the beta version of the blind scan mode has a bug which can prevent the receiver from switching from high band to low band (0 kHz signal instead of 22 kHz sig-nal) in the final step of a blind scan. What happens then is that transponders found in the low band are later scanned in the high band, which of course yields no results.

When we examined the ‘sat-ellites.xml’ file, which Linux receivers generally use to save their transponder list, we

found that details of transpon-ders found using blind scan unfortunately are not added to the general transponder list. Opensat’s software engi-neers are currently address-ing that issue and will offer a fix shortly.

While the new blind scan mode still leaves some room for improvement, feed hunters may nonetheless use it at this stage to write down the fre-quencies of all detected tran-sponders and then perform manual scans using that data. In addition, we have noth-ing but praise for Opensat’s speedy firmware development which keeps adding great fea-

tures to a receiver that never ceases to amaze us. We’re all looking forward to the final re-lease version of the blind scan feature, yet even now the AZ-Box ME is a fascinating box al-

ready. It’s hard to believe such a small and inexpensive satel-lite receiver can offer so many useful functions. You can be sure this isn’t the last time you read about that super box.

can compare these PIDs with the ones specified on popular satellite websites to make sure they did indeed find a new channel and not just an existing channel with a different name.18. Service Info of Ribamontana: the Symbol Rate is specified in Bit/s instead of the usual Kbit/s! Clearly a very low SR, showing the excellent capabilities of the tuner.19. Tunisia 1 on TELSTAR 15.0W. Also a channel with low Symbol Rate. Most receivers are not able to receive such channels.20. Verification of TELSTAR 15.0W with our spectrum analyzer. We compared the number of found transponders with the number of spikes seen on the spectrum (only one image shown, but of course we used all four bands: V-L, H-L, V-H and H-H). The blind scan did not miss any transponder!

is the position of choice for a number of regular feeds which come with totally out-of-the-ordinary symbol rates. To make matters worse, those rates usually are also very low

and hardly exceed the 2000 to 5000 Kbit/s bracket.

To make sure the AZBox ME’s new firmware does not rely on ‘dirty’ tricks or use any shortcuts we performed a