33 replies to this topic

[WanWizard]

Looking for a bit of advice:

 

I've always used STB's for my subscription cards, but it is always a pain because I need multiple due to the number of cards I have, and the fact that if I need the STB for testing, I lose that card in my house which may impact people watching or planned recordings (or it will impact my development work ).

 

To solve this, I want to switch to a dedicated card server, using Smargo triple readers.

 

My first port of call was my NAS (a Synology DS414 which is already running anyway). I have Oscam installed, I have USBserial installed, I have Oscam see the reader and the cards, it can read the entitlements, but the ECM's seem to have a problem getting to the card (Invalid ecm type for card errors). I find plenty of people online with similar problems, but no one who posted a solution.

 

So the question is what is the next best solution, low power and cheap? A Rasberry Pi? Something else that is guaranteed to work?

[MiLo]

If the board has a "meta" layer for OpenEmbedded, you can build and then run OpenPLi on it (just build the image without GUI, it'll be really small) to maximize the chances that Oscam will actually work.

Not much is needed, so even a rPI is overpowered...

Do these cardreaders work on other things than settop boxes? (i.e. have you ever got them to work properly with oscam anyway?)

Edited by MiLo, 6 January 2019 - 19:22.

[WanWizard]

What is special about a setup box in this respect?

 

These cardreaders require a USB port, USBserial linux drivers (usbserial, ftdi_sio, pl2303), and optionally some udev rules. 

 

As said, I have Oscam running on my Synology NAS, it works up to the point that it can access the entitlements without problems. But for some reason it can't write ECM's to the cards, they are all rejected (no matter which card).

 

The only issue I see on the Synology is:

2019-01-05T22:17:08+00:00 penguin kernel: [  243.446700] usb 3-2: config 1 interface 0 altsetting 0 bulk endpoint 0x81 has invalid maxpacket 64
2019-01-05T22:17:08+00:00 penguin kernel: [  243.455745] usb 3-2: config 1 interface 0 altsetting 0 bulk endpoint 0x2 has invalid maxpacket 64
2019-01-05T22:17:08+00:00 penguin kernel: [  243.464694] usb 3-2: config 1 interface 1 altsetting 0 bulk endpoint 0x83 has invalid maxpacket 64
2019-01-05T22:17:08+00:00 penguin kernel: [  243.473706] usb 3-2: config 1 interface 1 altsetting 0 bulk endpoint 0x4 has invalid maxpacket 64
2019-01-05T22:17:08+00:00 penguin kernel: [  243.482641] usb 3-2: config 1 interface 2 altsetting 0 bulk endpoint 0x85 has invalid maxpacket 64
2019-01-05T22:17:08+00:00 penguin kernel: [  243.491663] usb 3-2: config 1 interface 2 altsetting 0 bulk endpoint 0x6 has invalid maxpacket 64

when it detects the triple reader.

 

What the alternative is I don't really care, a Pi or some other board that can run Linux and Oscam will do fine. As long as it works...

Edited by WanWizard, 6 January 2019 - 19:32.

[littlesat]

Oscam is running on a router that can run openwrt and there are also NASses that can run Oscam....

[sonic1]

Have you tried a different reader such as pcsc ? Never had any problems with ECM or EMM with mine.

[Pr2]

Go to streambord in the french section i wrote tutorials on how-to setup a Raspberry PI as server and another one with the right parameters for the ArgolisTriplereader.

You access the Argolis in the wrong mode I think, mine doesn't need any udev rules and you can reboot the box and the identifier will never change.

 

http://www.streamboa...?threadid=42226

[WanWizard]

Oscam is running on a router that can run openwrt and there are also NASses that can run Oscam....

 

Please read back.

[WanWizard]

Have you tried a different reader such as pcsc ? Never had any problems with ECM or EMM with mine.

 

Nope. I have a triple reader that worked on an X86/Ubuntu setup, but I prefer not to have another 24/7 power guzzler in my house .

 

So I prefer to either find a fix for my NAS setup (preferrably since that is already running) or a low-power alternative.

[WanWizard]

You access the Argolis in the wrong mode I think, mine doesn't need any udev rules and you can reboot the box and the identifier will never change.

 

I don't have that problem either, after a reboot it is always the same. But if I unplug and plug back, it becomes ttyUSB3/4/5 instead of 0/1/2. This issue is adressed with the udev rules (which work fine as well).

 

I don't know what you mean by "wrong mode", what is "wrong" and how is it corrected to "right"?

[WanWizard]

Fixed the communication problem with the triple. Turns out the ports on the back of the Synology are USB 3.0, and the Triple reader doesn't work in those.

 

I've now connected it to the USB 2.0 port on the front, and the cards started working. Sort of, there are a lot of timeouts, making it not really usable. It looks like the issue starts when I insert the second card...

[WanWizard]

Turns out that one card works fine, as soon as I activate a second reader on the triple, I get timeouts on that second card:

2019/01/07 15:39:51 6307239E r   (reader) TVV [seca] ERROR: IO_Serial_GetStatus: ioctl(TIOCMGET): Connection timed out
2019/01/07 15:39:51 6307239E r   (reader) TVV [seca] Error getting card status.
2019/01/07 15:39:51 6307239E r   (reader) TVV [seca] card ejected
2019/01/07 15:39:51 6307239E r   (reader) TVV [smargo] card detected
...
2019/01/07 15:40:10 6307239E r   (reader) TVV [seca] ERROR: IO_Serial_GetStatus: ioctl(TIOCMGET): Connection timed out
2019/01/07 15:40:10 6307239E r   (reader) TVV [seca] Error getting card status.
2019/01/07 15:40:10 6307239E r   (reader) TVV [seca] card ejected
2019/01/07 15:40:10 6307239E r   (reader) TVV [smargo] card detected
...

and the first card starts giving very slow responses (1500-2500ms), so not really usable either...

[WanWizard]

Looks like I've got it to work now.

 

Only config that will work:

protocol                      = smartreader
device                        = TripleP1;Serial:00000abc

all other protocol and device combinations out there (with or without udev rules) failed to work.

[Pr2]

Looks like I've got it to work now.

 

Only config that will work:

protocol                      = smartreader
device                        = TripleP1;Serial:00000abc

all other protocol and device combinations out there (with or without udev rules) failed to work.

 

That's what I mean by you were using the wrong mode (before), in this mode (smartreader) it the triple reader is working really fine and stable. ;-)

Sorry I was busy the whole day so I cannot point to it this sooner but you find it.

[HPPli]

Looks like I've got it to work now.

 

Only config that will work:

protocol                      = smartreader
device                        = TripleP1;Serial:00000abc

all other protocol and device combinations out there (with or without udev rules) failed to work.

 

Maybe you can also use the mouse protocol like this; 

 

[reader]
label                         = Stinger1Lower
enable                        = 1
protocol                      = mouse
device                        = /dev/ttyUSB1

 

In this case I'll use for many years a Stinger-reader connected for an inhouse OscamServer build on a BananaPi.

Will be a lowpower 24/7 super OscamServer for dedicated service to all my Inhouse STB's.

If you build such a OscamServer don't forget the extra rules wich necessary for the updates !!

[WanWizard]

Nope, I tried that (mouse protocol), didn't work either.

 

It still isn't 100% stable now, every now and then I have a freeze because it takes 3000-5000ms for an ECM to be processed. No idea how and why, so the original plan of alternative hardware is still on the table.

[Pr2]

Hi,

 

Run your triple reader on a STB running OpenPLi and check the response time. I didn't encountered this problem on my triple reader connected to my Solo4K.

If you have the same problem there, then there is something wrong in your configuration.

 

Pr2

[WanWizard]

I know, but I don't want that, the main goal of this excercise was to be independent of any STB, as if I need to test with that STB, I loose my cards...

[Pr2]

I understand but this is just a test to define where you so low response time came from.

If you have good response time with the same setup on STB then it is the Synology which cannot handle it properly.

If you have also so slow response time then it is a configuration issue.

 

The Raspberry PI is I think an efficient alternative.

[WanWizard]

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear. My response times aren't high, they are fine. Only occasionally (say once every half hour or so), the response time goes to 1500-4000ms for one or two requests, after that it is back to normal.

 

Still fast enough for my SECA cards, but to slow for my NDS card.

 

I'm pretty sure it is because of something specific to the NAS, but I can't pinpoint the problem yet. And even if I could, I would probably not be able to avoid it, hence my remark that eventually I will have to consider a Pi or something anyway...

[HPPli]

Did you have any low-powered devices such as RaspberyPi, BananaPi or BeagleBoneBlack ?