Minor Update Available for Portsdown 2020

[G8GKQ]

I have just issued a minor software update for the Portsdown 2020 (Raspberry Pi 3-based).

The title of the update is "202011280 Correct EasyCap Contrast", and that is exactly what it does. During testing of the Raspberry Pi based video source (to be described in the next CQ-TV) it was noticed that the EasyCap input to the Portsdown crushed the whites on a full 1v p-p composite video grey scale on transmission and streaming. This update corrects that error, but may cause your current system contrast to reduce (by about 15%).

If your contrast is reduced, I would encourage you to correct your video level; however, if you set "contrast=464" on line 81 of rpidatv/scripts/a.sh https://github.com/BritishAmateurTelevi ... s/a.sh#L81 you can get back to the original setting.

No need to take this update if you are happy with the composite video pictures from your Portsdown.

Thanks to Clive G3GJA for alerting me to the problem.

Dave

[g8lce]

I have just tried updating two streamers to this latest update ( using ssh ) and they both crashed halfway through! Maybe I should have switched off the streaming before updating? I should not have done both at the same time! As they are remote I will investigate them more tomorrow. Streams were GB3NQ and G8LCE.
They crashed at different places so probably not the update. One came back half updated then crashed again. I will just redo the SD cards tomorrow with the latest software.

Martin G8LCE

[G8GKQ]

Martin

One of the first things that the update script does is to stop any streaming or transmission, so that was unlikely to be the problem.

Did you take a note of any of the error messages so that we can work out what went wrong?

Dave

[g8lce]

Hi Dave,
There were no error messages! The ssh screen froze in both RPi 3's BUT at different places or lines and contact was lost. I did not take a screen grab. One of them was able to be reconnected so I tried to update again ( as I did not know where the update might have left the program ). It froze again and connection lost. This time there was no reconnection. When I visited the RPi's they had the green LED's pulsing as if trying to read the sd's.
The condition the RPi's were updated from was constant streamer from the Easycap.
Now reloaded the SD's and working again.

Martin G8LCE

[g8lce]

Probably nothing to do with this but I did note that while rebuilding the SD and the RPi's working on it, there was a fatal error clocked. It still went on to work so probably nothing wrong. Here is a screen grab...

fatal leaniio(rx,tx).JPG (87.88 KiB) Viewed 2564 times

I have seen this before while making Portsdown SD cards and ignored it.

Martin G8LCE

[G8GKQ]

Thanks Martin

Yes, that's a non-critical error in leanDVB which very few people use now. But it still works!

Dave

[g8lce]

I did also update my Portsdown 2020 and Portsdown 4 TX machines and both worked fine and I like the corrected video levels. I'll have to adjust the driving DA's back to 0dB gain!!

Martin G8LCE

[g8lce]

I came across this post
viewtopic.php?t=6972
and as I had one I tried it out and sure enough it worked in the easycap mode! Guess what though, the video is crushed so maybe the original settings will work. The sound only works from the mic input...
Just started to investigate the HDMI to USB but I do use it for vMix as well.

Martin G8LCE

PS just ordered 2 from different supplier as the above mentioned post has probably put prices up!!