User Manual

9.667 Tandberg-Alteia

This page describes the device driver and the device window for Tandberg Alteia IRDs. The actual version of the driver supports the Alteia / Alteia plus series satellite receivers, not the terrestrial receiver and pure demodulator models.

Device window pages

The following table shows which device window pages are available with this individual device type. Tool-bar functions not mentioned here are described at the general description of device windows .

--- Contains the main receiver settings and status display.
--- Contains the conditional access parameters.
--- Contains the parameters concerning the video output (Analog video format selection, output level).
--- Contains the parameters concerning the audio output (Language selection, L/R/Mono routing, Level).
--- Contains the MPEG / transport stream routing parameters for the digital output of the receiver.
--- The faults page.
--- The device info page.
--- The maintenance page. The configuration parameters described below are set at this page.

Configuration parameters

At the maintenance page of the device window there are a couple of configuration parameters which must be set to make the software talk to the Alteia IRD.

parameter	description
address	You must set the device address of the IRD here to make the program talk to the device. The device address is a three digit number which must be entered with leading zeroes. The factory preset address at the IRDs is "000" but may be set to any other value at the IRD frontpanel.
lbandInputs	Select the number of L-band inputs the receiver provides (depending on the model 2 or 4 intputs)
lnbPower	Select if the IRD shall apply LNB power to the actually selected input. ATTENTION:
The IRD applies this setting to the input you actually have selected, only. In order to define the LNB power setting for all four inputs, you have to select the input and set the LNB power mode for each of the inputs in turn.
loFreq	Once you enter a value here, the IRD treats the current L-band input as a "single LNB" input and accepts RF input frequencies according to the LO frequency you have entered. ATTENTION:
The IRD applies this setting to the input you actually have selected, only. The setting is internally memorized by the IRD and used if this input is selected. In order to set the LO frequencies for all four inputs, you have to select the input and enter the LO frequency for each of the inputs in turn.
berThreshold	The BER threshold value. The IRD raises an alarm if the bit error rate exceeds this value.
sigThreshold	The signal level threshold value. The IRD raises an alarm if the signal level drops below this value
deviceComment	An optional text entered here appears as an addition to the tooltip which is shown while the mouse is placed over a device icon in the GUI. The "\n" character sequence is translated into a newline character, splitting the text into multiple lines.
Serial	Remember to set the line parameters for the serial interface connected to the IRD. The proper setting is 9600,N,8,1 .

Operating multiple IRDs at one RS485 interface

The Alteia IRDs use a "multi drop" capable protocol for remote control. If you select a RS485 interface for this, you may control more than one IRD through this interface. To do this:

Using the IRD's front panel control, set each device to use the RS485 interface.
For each device at on RS485 bus, select a unique device address. If you operate more than one IRD at a single interface, you should be aware that communication becomes very slow. The computer has to poll a lot of information from each IRD and the line speed is fixed to 9600 baud.

Using dual LNCs and voltage controlled polarization switching

The Alteia IRD is capable to produce different LNB voltages for polarization selection and automatically add a 22 kHz signal for dual LNCs. To make use of these features, configure the IRD as follows:

At the IRD front panel, configure each input (or at least the input you are going to use) for dual LNB mode, provide the correct LO frequencies and the switch over frequency.
Enable the LNB power. The IRD now automatically will select the LNB from the RF frequency you enter. It is important not to enter any value to the "loFreq" configuration parameter. This parameter shows the lower LO frequency for the actually selected input, as soon as you change this value, this input will be reset to "single LNB" mode.

To control the polarization by changing the LNB voltage, a hidden parameter calls "polarization" has been implemented with the device driver. If you are using the IRD together with a link management software, you may want to direct the link RX polarization value to this parameter. To change the polarization manually, the fastest way is to enter the low level command at the maintenance page of the user interface: "TUN:POL=HOR" and "TUN:POL=VER" are the quite self-explanatory command you have to enter.

Variables defined by this device driver

name	type	flags	range
info.driver	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
lowLevel.cmd	TEXT		StringRange
lowLevel.reply	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
faults.99	ALARM	R/O	AlarmFlagRange R/O (Communication)
faults.commstat	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
info.type	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
info.port	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
info.frame	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
info.model	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
info.serial	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
info.ca.casid	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
info.ca.codeversion	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
info.ca.bootversion	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
info.ca.modelno	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
info.ca.hardware	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
info.ca.manufacturer	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
info.ca.download	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
config.lbandInputs	CHOICE	SAVE SETUP	EnumRange (4 2)
config.lnbPower	CHOICE	SETUP	EnumRange (OFF ON. BST)
config.loFreq	FLOAT	SETUP	DoubleRange (0.0 .. 0.0)
config.berThreshold	TEXT	SETUP	StringRange
config.sigThreshold	INTEGER	SETUP	IntegerRange (0 .. 255)
config.errFrame	CHOICE	SETUP	EnumRange (FREEZE BLACK)
config.deviceComment	TEXT	SAVE SETUP	StringRange
internal.numServices	INTEGER	R/O	IntegerRange R/O (0 .. 0)
internal.numAudio	INTEGER	R/O	IntegerRange R/O (0 .. 0)
internal.ack	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
internal.flags	HEX	R/O	HexRange R/O (0 .. 0)
internal.scnt	INTEGER	R/O	IntegerRange R/O (0 .. 0)
input	CHOICE		EnumRange (1 2 3 4)
polarization	CHOICE		EnumRange (HOR VER)
frequency	FLOAT		DoubleRange (0.0 .. 0.0)
dataRate	FLOAT	R/O	DoubleRange R/O (0.000 .. 0.000)
symbolRate	FLOAT		DoubleRange (0.000 .. 0.000)
modulation	CHOICE		EnumRange (BPSK QPSK 8PSK)
fec	CHOICE		EnumRange (1/2 2/3 3/4 4/5 5/6 6/7 7/8 8/9)
programNo	INTEGER		IntegerRange (0 .. 99)
programList	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
audioList	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
actualProgram	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
video.fmt625	CHOICE		EnumRange (PALI PALB PALN)
video.fmt525	CHOICE		EnumRange (NTSC NTSN PALM)
video.level	INTEGER		IntegerRange (-30 .. 30)
video.test	CHOICE		EnumRange (NRM 625.1 625.2 625.3 625.4 625.5 625.6 625.7 625.8 625.9 625.10 625.11 625.12 625.13 625.14 625.15 625.16 525.1 525.2 525.3 525.4 525.5 525.6 525.7 525.8 525.9 525.10 525.11 525.12 525.13 525.14 525.15 525.16)
audio.1.program	INTEGER		IntegerRange (0 .. 0)
audio.1.routing	CHOICE		EnumRange (NRM MON LFT RGT)
audio.1.output	CHOICE		EnumRange (ANALOG AES/EBU SPDIF AC3)
audio.1.level	INTEGER		IntegerRange (6 .. 18)
audio.1.language	TEXT		StringRange
audio.1.test	CHOICE		EnumRange (NRM TEST-1 TEST-2 TEST-3 TEST-4 TEST-5)
audio.1.info	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
audio.2.program	INTEGER		IntegerRange (0 .. 0)
audio.2.routing	CHOICE		EnumRange (NRM MON LFT RGT)
audio.2.output	CHOICE		EnumRange (ANALOG AES/EBU SPDIF AC3)
audio.2.level	INTEGER		IntegerRange (6 .. 18)
audio.2.language	TEXT		StringRange
audio.2.test	CHOICE		EnumRange (NRM TEST-1 TEST-2 TEST-3 TEST-4 TEST-5)
audio.2.info	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
tsout.routing	CHOICE		EnumRange (PRE-CA POST-CA)
tsout.fibre	CHOICE		EnumRange (ON OFF)
flags.lock	BOOLEAN	R/O	BooleanRange R/O (true false)
flags.ca	BOOLEAN	R/O	BooleanRange R/O (true false)
flags.video	BOOLEAN	R/O	BooleanRange R/O (true false)
flags.audio	BOOLEAN	R/O	BooleanRange R/O (true false)
flags.ber	BOOLEAN	R/O	BooleanRange R/O (true false)
state.ber	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
state.signal	INTEGER	R/O	IntegerRange R/O (0 .. 255)
state.aspect	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
state.lines	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
state.state	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
ca.status	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
ca.service	TEXT	R/O	StringRange R/O
ca.rasmode	CHOICE		EnumRange (DISABLED FIXED DSNG SEC-CA)
ca.bissmode	CHOICE		EnumRange (DISABLED MODE 1 MODE E)
ca.bisskey1	TEXT		StringRange
ca.bisskey2	TEXT		StringRange
ca.bissbits	TEXT		StringRange
ca.dsngkey	TEXT		StringRange
faults.01	ALARM	R/O	AlarmFlagRange R/O (Temperature)
faults.02	ALARM	R/O	AlarmFlagRange R/O (Signal level)
faults.03	ALARM	R/O	AlarmFlagRange R/O (Video lock)
faults.04	ALARM	R/O	AlarmFlagRange R/O (Audio lock)
faults.05	ALARM	R/O	AlarmFlagRange R/O (High BER)
faults.06	ALARM	R/O	AlarmFlagRange R/O (Demod Lock)
faults.07	ALARM	R/O	AlarmFlagRange R/O (Conditional Access)