Fortis 4th generation HD receivers: some info

[Audioniek]

The 4th generation hardware

As mentioned above, the fourth generation Fortis HD receivers are technically quite different compared to their predecessors:

• The dedicated front panel processor is gone. This processor handled the front panel keyboard, the front panel display and the remote control and could be addressed by sending it a specific command and reading the answer for all three tasks;
• The power management is different, especially with regard to deep standby. The SoC (Sytem on Chip) features a hibernation mode which is now used as deep standby mode. The previous generations powered down everything but the frontpanel processor to achieve deep standby;
• External chips for the wired network and the extra USB ports are no longer there, as these are all present inside the SoC. The SATA interface in the upscale models is also part of the SoC;
• The LNB power driver has been changed. So far Fortis used the A8293 I²C driven LNB power controller, but has switched to the STM manufactured LNBH25PQR for the single tuner models. The EPP8000 uses the sister variant LNBH26PQR that has two LNB outputs. The new STM chips are also I²C controlled, and even occupy the same I2C address, but are not code compatible with the A8293;
• The satellite tuner(s) seem to be technically the same and based on an STx0903 chip, because a reconnaissance of the I2C addresses finds a device on I2C address 0x68 as before and the tuners look the same as in generation 3. The exception is the DP6010 which has lost its LNB out connector compared to the HS7119. At the moment I do not have any info regarding the DVB-T/C tuner of the GPV8000;
• The card reader(s) seem to be the same as previously used in the HS7810A/7819 and are based on the ST8024C (also known as TDA8024T). I hope the driver for it needs little or even no modification;
• The controller for the CI-slot(s) in the DP6010 and DP7001 is still the Coreriver CICORE10 also present in the HS7810A/7819, so hopefully the same or slightly modified driver code can be used. The EPP8000 uses a PMT4401B-GC2 chip. In my EPP8000 receiver it has SmarDTV stamped on it as manufacturer, although it is also made by others. As far as I know this chip has not been used by Fortis before, which means a whole new driver or using one from another receiver. For the moment I assume the EP8000 uses the same arrangement, although it is possible it has the CICORE10;
• Fortis has switched back to fixed tuners: no model of the fourth generation has pluggable tuners, which I think is a missed opportunity. Apparently the market dictates low pricing over technically advanced. In the same respect I had hoped for a triple tuner model, but that has not appeared either.

The net result is that the mainboard has even less chips on it than before.

The front panel
The front processor, which in the first generations was usually made by Nuvoton (hence the name of the driver module), has been replaced with a relatively dumb display keyboard driver IC. The LED models use an ET6226, which is I²C driven, the VFD models use a ET16315, that is GPIO pin driven (bit banged). For these chips equivalent versions from various manufacturers with other type numbers are available as well.
The driver chip takes over two of the three original front processor tasks: driving the display and reading the front panel keyboard. Because it is not as intelligent as the original front processor the driver is much more complicated and code intensive.

Because of the changed power management, the power key cannot be handled by the display/keyboard driver anymore but is handled by the SoC directly. It is connected to a GPIO pin and not part of the front panel key matrix. Pressing the key grounds the GPIO pin.

The remote control
Fortis has connected the data output of the IR receiver module to a GPIO pin of the SoC and uses LIRc (Linux Infra Red controller) to receive and decode the remote control keys in their stock firmwares. For Enigma2 and Neutrino the same approach looks as the obvious way to go.

The power management
Because of this whole new approach to the power states standby and especially deep standby, the code for handling the various power states probably needs elaborate changes. At the moment of writing this is largely unexplored territory for me as the SoC data sheets are unfortunately confidential.

Conclusion
New drivers are to be written for:

• The front panel driver chips ET6226 and ET16315;
• The STM LNB power controllers;
• The PMT4401B-GC2 CI controller;
• The remote control;
• The power management.

More on that in an upcoming post (yes, some of that work has been done)...

Regards,

Audioniek.