NewCS 1.65 error screensaves (for reference)

Plastic card inserted screenshot (so card detect active but no comm)


No power on the Reader screenshot


No card inserted screenshot

NewCS 1.20 (RC13)

Here is a printscreen of a successful 1.20 card load:

HTPC info dump

http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/windows-7-media-center-software/37088-what-causes-pixilation-satellite-feed.html

Re: FIXED What causes pixilation on a Satellite feed?

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Arrh fixed it, basically there is a virtual tuner created by DVBlink which can be seen in 7MC so you need to change its priority to normal and then change the DVB-S (actual) tuner to use first or highest priority, I had them both set to highest priority meaning they were conflicting and causing nasty pixiliation!! This setting is found in DVBviewer under the hardware tab if anyone is having the same issue.
Drew.

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http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=84&TopicId=31967&page_no=4

RustyGonad:

Acamd works with the native interface in DVBViewer so you don't need anything else in the Plugins folder, just Acamd and its files. If you are using SoftCSA get rid of it and most of your problems should disappear. The includes ffcsa or whatever its called.

I use a fresh install of DVBViewer in its own directory ie c:\DVBViewer1 & c:\DVBViewer2 for the second tuner.

When you install each one make sure you select PROGRAM DIRECTORY for the preferences. This makes each instance standalone. This is also critical to making dual tuners work, otherwise both copies share the same preferences, which is likely to cause havoc.

Also in each DVBViewer make sure you select all the devices that aren't being used to DO NOT USE under Options/Hardware. You should only select 1 tuner for each one, and it should be PREFERRED.

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...You just need to adjust the cardclient.conf in Acamd with your IP address, the username/password and the provider id 096A.

Notepad is fine. Just remove the hash from the newcamd line at the bottom and put in your settings.

When your client tries to access a scrambled channel it should connect to NewCS and you'll see a client logon message.

Just one gotcha. Each client connection must use a different username for it to work. So for instance I've got two cards which are set up to allow 3 encrypted sessions each so I use 6 usernames total. These are set up in the NewCS config file which is again a notepad thing.

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http://www.iusmentis.com/technology/encryption/crashcourse/secretkeycrypto/
http://www.birds-eye.net/definition/e/emm-entitlement_management_message.shtml

Protecting pay TV transmissions

Secret key encryption and smart cards are used for example in pay TV applications. Sometimes this is referred to as "conditional access" television. Television programs (usually premium movies, football or soccer matches and adult content) are encrypted using a secret key. To make it difficult for Eve to obtain this key, the secret key is changed every few minutes or sometimes even every few seconds. This way, even if Eve can successfully use a brute force attack to guess the key, she only has a very small portion of the television program. Alice has a set-top box and a smart card that allows her to decrypt the television programs. The set-top box passes the decrypted television program on to the television. Originally these boxes were designed to be placed on top of the television set, hence the name.

Special messages, called Entitlement Control Messages (ECMs), are sent along with the program. These messages contain the secret keys. Of course the ECMs themselves are also encrypted, this time using a key stored on the smart card. Alice's set-top box receives the ECMs and passes them on to the smart card. The smart card decrypts the ECMs and extracts the secret keys contained therein. This allows the set-top box to decrypt the television program.

The keys needed to decrypt the ECMs can be programmed on the smart card in advance. By regularly changing these keys, Alice is forced to purchase a new smart card every month or so. If Eve manages to make a copy of the smart card, or to extract the keys from it, she will only be able to watch the programs for the rest of that particular month.

Another option is to regularly send out so-called Entitlement Management Messages (EMMs) that contain the keys needed to decrypt the ECMs. The EMMs themselves are then encrypted with keys stored on the smart card. The service provider then every month simply sends out a new EMM. This provides much greater flexibility, and Alice does not have to go to the store every month. Every smart card can now have a different key. The service provider sends out different EMMs for all the smart cards in the system. Every EMM thus is readable only by one smart card. If the service provider thinks a particular smart card has been copied illegally, he simply does not send out a new EMM for that particular smart card.

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HTPC URLs

NewCS files:
Download:
http://www.skystar.org/arsiv/index.php?dir=cardsharing/newcs/&sort=a&sortMode=f

Configuration example from a Geekzone user:
(Note: Final working file name needs to be 'newcs.xml')
http://upload.info/m88y523bg935/newcs.xml.GZuserExample.xml


ACamd files:
Download:
http://www.dvbskystar.com/

Configuration example from a Geekzone user:
(Note: Final working file name needs to be 'cardclient.conf')
http://upload.info/4m5suvuu2bev/cardclient.conf.GZuserExample.conf

PC Fan Controller

While looking into building my first mini-ITX PC, I found the two motherboards of choice (Intel DG45FC & Zotec 9300 ITX) had problems with fan control. I therefore decided to build fan controllers to allow standalone analogue fan control.

In searching the net for ideas I found cpemma's excellent site which went offline shortly after I found it (don't you hate it when that happens!). I did however read enough to decide I liked the Micrel Low-Dropout Adjustable Regulator (MIC2941ABT) and this became the basis of my controller.

After building a couple of test rigs the following circuit was settled on:

By including a NTC (negative temperature coefficient) resistor the voltage output varies depending of the temperature of the Rntc (the thermal sensor). I also included a facility for "sliding" the voltage output by including Radj. Parallel resistors were also added to linearise the response of Rntc and also to desensitise Radj.

This circuit results in a full-speed voltage of 11.6V and a low-speed voltage of 1.25V. The following graph shows a representation of both 5V/12V Voltages with respect to Temperature Vs. Radj:


This graph is also a design tool allowing the total Radj value to be selected for a given temperature range.

I also decided that there was no point in allowing the voltage to drop lower than 5V, as most fans would either stall or cause other problems at this low voltage. Utilisation of the PSU +5V line and a couple of Schottky diodes took care of this (these diodes only drop 0.2V).

Another facility I wanted to retain was the ability for the motherboard to continue to read the fan RPM. This was easily accomplished by feeding the Fan RPM line back out to the motherboard's fan RPM sense pin (referenced to Ground).

And finally I wanted this circuit to be housed in as small and neat a package as possible. This was accomplished by using a potting-box of 20x30x15mm and potting the circuitry when I sure it was working satisfactorily (potting still to be done).

Here is a picture of the "version II" circuit in test operation mounted (via double-sided tape) in my Soltek SFF (the controller is the black box in top left corner):

And here is a close up of the controller itself (the plug with exposed pins allows the controller to be plugged in to the PSU's floppy-drive power socket):

After leaving this running in my PC for a week I can report it works perfectly, complete with fan RPM feedback to the motherboard.

A list of materials for this project is as follows:

a) 20mm x 30mm x 15mm Potting Box (RS Components Stock No. 509-024)
b) Micrel Low-Dropout Regulator (RS Components Stock No. 254-383)
c) NTC Chip Resistor (RS Components Stock No. 247-7503)
d) Veroboard (strip board)
e) 2.54 Molex PCB Headers (Jaycar Electronics Cat No. HM-3413)
f) 47uF SMD (surface-mount to save space) Tantalum Capacitors (Jaycar Electronics Cat No. RZ-6574)
g) 0.22uF Monolithic Capacitor (Jaycar Electronics Cat No. RC-5494)
h) Various metal-film resistors
i) Ribbon-cable (HDD IDE cable "recycled")
j) A super-fine tip soldering iron and steady hand (as much of the soldering is done inside the potting box).

The next step is to "pot" the circuit and for this I will use a RS Components thermally conductive potting compound. This wil provide heatsinking for the Micrel voltage regulator, although in testing I had the controller running into three fans and the worst the regulator heated was to around 45 degree C.

I hope this post helps somebody :-)