Emitor Megalook

[vma]

Hi,

I asked HERE for manuals and firmware files for the Emitor Megalook. I meanwhile found what seems to have ever been made available, so thank you all for your help.

Now, why did I search for these files? Because I bought two such devices from a nice chap in Singapore!

I actually bought one at eBay and then got offered a second unit for a unrefusable price, so I ended up with two.

Well, that was two and a half months ago. The seller sent me the package on the next day, it took one week to arrive in Lisbon and then it took our portuguese post office (CTT) a whopping month to pass it on to customs. There it took another month for them to ask me for the purchase documentation! Then another week for them to clear the device from customs and finally one week for the post office to finally ship it to me. Lesson learned: never ever purchase anything outside EU, except:

1) Cheap chinese stuff (is usually not sent to customs)!
2) If purchasing outside EU, use a propper parcel service, never official post office!

So was it worth it? Was it worth the money I spend (was a good deal, but still not exactly little money)?

Yes it was! I received two brand new looking Emitor Megalook in perfect working condition, except for the batteries, which is understandable. Including the original accessories.

Later on, I will probably sell one unit, as it makes no sense keeping both.

My collection now includes from Emitor:

- Satlook AB
- Satlook Mark III
- Satlook Digital NIT
- Satlook Digital Color
- Megalook
- Digiair Blue

I just opened the Megalook, mainly to see the kind of battery used (NiMH Cell) and made an amazing discovery: believe it or not, inside the Megalook there is not one, but two complete satellite receiver boards, with CI-Interface, Composite-Video/Audio connectors, Power Connector and Serial Port!!!



To my knowledge these two bords are not being used by the current firmware. I *THINK* the purpose would have been to implement something similar to the Emitor Satllok MARK IV FTA, but that has not been completed. Both boards look totally identical and they are connected to a PCB which has connectors to Video and Power for each board, providing the RF signal, too. It may be, that one board has a DVB-C tuner, while the other has a DVB-S tuner. The shield on both boards' tuners are the same size, so I am not sure.

Why on hell is this not active? (After some use of the device, the ST processor on both boards was still cool and I tried to connect directly to the video connector, but got no signal).

Why did they spend money in putting these boards there?

And the main question: HOW DO I ACTIVATE THAT FUNCTIONALITY?

If I had MPEG2 demodulation capabilities on this device, it would be a dream device!

Any info is greatly appreciated.

I will post this on my blog, too, hoping to get more feedback.

Regards,
Vitor

 

[Channel Hopper]

I know somebody in Sweden that used to work closely with Emitor but it would have been over ten years ago. What date of manufacture on the board/chassis ?

 

[vma]

From the Setup-Setup-Version screen of device 1:

Serial Number: 0000XXXX
Manufacture Date: 2007-01-29
Firmware Version: 1.1.3
Firmware Date: 2006-11-01
Video Controller: 0x15
VideoCntVersion: 0x02
Attribute: 0x6540
Battery: Lion

From the Setup-Setup-Version screen of device 2:

Serial Number: 0000XXXX
Manufacture Date: 2007-03-19
Firmware Version: 1.1.3
Firmware Date: 2006-11-01
Video Controller: 0x15
VideoCntVersion: 0x02
Attribute: 0x6540
Battery: Lion

Would be great if you could ask your friend about this!

Regards,
Vitor

 

[vma]

I figured out what those two boards are...

They are two DVB-C/T receivers based on ST chipset, which is basically a SOC (System On Chip). Emitor must have bought these PCB's as bulk and then they changed the firmware to a custom firmware.

The boards are only connected by the tuner and through RS232! When you enter the digital DVB-C or DVB-T mode, the corresponding board is turned on and receives the instructions from the main Emitor board. In return it prints out the constellation diagram, NIT information, MER/BER and the channels list.

If you connect a the composite video output to a monitor, you will see the EMITOR logo and board version number for a few seconds. Then everything remains black.

It's a shame they didn't implement the remaining receiver software, especially because there is even a CI slot on each board.

Regards,
Vitor

 

[Channel Hopper]

Since you have two (working) machines, I would first check that the Combolook (non HD) firmware does not work in one of them.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130313085212/http://www.emitor.se/index_htm_files/CL-HD-S2T2C-18.zip

 

[vma]

Kind of risky - I don't have the firmware for the Megalook as they probably never released an updated firmware.

And copying the flash from one device to the other is probably beyond what I can do:

1) The Megalook is a nightmare to disassemble, like most Emitor field meter. They somehow like to solder some wires instead of using connectors, so to remove one PCB you actually have to desolder wires.
2) The flash IC seems to be soldered directly on the PCB - on the receiver boards it definitely is. I don't feel comfortable using my hot air soldering station to desolder such an IC plus soldering it back requires more experience than what I have at this point. I simply don't have to do stuff like that on a daily basis, so I would have to train on a sacrifice PCB. Too much hassle.
3) I don't have propper adapters for flash IC and I am not sure if my chinese programmer would even support them.

I will leave it as is, since even if the firmware would work, there are no connecting wires to the Video/Audio ports of the receivers!
Also, if my miracle I was able to get everything to work, it would only allow demodulation of DVB-C/T, but not DVB-S.

Simply not worth the trouble.

Still, it seems like a huge waste of resources having TWO fully equiped receivers with MPEG2 capability, only to be used for constellation, measurement and NIT/channel list! On the other hand, such boards probably cost less than 10US$ in China, so any custome development by Emitor will be more expensive in parts alone. This way they just used the SDK provided with the ST SoC controller and hacked a minimalistic firmware. Interesting approach.

Anyway, the Emitor Megalook is a great device. I have much more powerful professional devices, but for dish/antenna adjustment or quick and dirty signal checking, no other devices comes near the Satlook/Combolook/Megalook devices for spectrum refresh rate and intuitive user interface! It looks old fashioned with the numeric keyboard, but it is amazing how one master using it without looking after only a short while. Being able to look at DVB-S/C/T in one single device is pretty cool and the spectrum is really fast. Another great feature on the Satlook Digital/Color/Combolook/Megalook is the automatic parameter detection for DVB-S. The only other field meter that does it as fast is the Deviser S7000 and S7200.

Regards,
Vitor

 

[Channel Hopper]

The only firmware release was 1.1.3 and you can get this from the Emitor site, so I don't see the issue with trying another if the Combo fails

 

[vma]

I must have overlooked the firmware file!

Where did you see it?