New Sky boxes and their IO link port

[Bob Latham]

We've just had to replace our 6 year old Sky+ HD box with a new one.

I was aware that there was no UHF connections on the new boxes and I had
to obtain a little black box called an IO link to get them back. This box
connects to the Sky box by a 10 pin mini din plug.

They do work so OK so far but they're not very good to honest, lots of
hiss on the sound and nothing like as good as the Vision V40 modulator
(thanks Bill).

So I would like to use a V40 and to do so I need audio and composite video
signals. Logically these must be in the cable to the IO Link and appear on
the 10 pin mini din.

Does anyone know anything about this connection, pin out, wire colours or
whatever or know someone who does? Don't mind sacrificing a £10 IO Link to
get the connections.

I've looked in the box, not what I expected at all, doesn't look like a RF
stuff, no coils etc. just chips and capacitors, very surprising to me and
nothing there to give a clue which wire carries which signal.

TIA.


Cheers,

Bob.

[Indy Jess John]

Post by Bob Latham
We've just had to replace our 6 year old Sky+ HD box with a new one.
I was aware that there was no UHF connections on the new boxes and I had
to obtain a little black box called an IO link to get them back. This box
connects to the Sky box by a 10 pin mini din plug.
They do work so OK so far but they're not very good to honest, lots of
hiss on the sound and nothing like as good as the Vision V40 modulator
(thanks Bill).
So I would like to use a V40 and to do so I need audio and composite video
signals. Logically these must be in the cable to the IO Link and appear on
the 10 pin mini din.
Does anyone know anything about this connection, pin out, wire colours or
whatever or know someone who does? Don't mind sacrificing a £10 IO Link to
get the connections.
I've looked in the box, not what I expected at all, doesn't look like a RF
stuff, no coils etc. just chips and capacitors, very surprising to me and
nothing there to give a clue which wire carries which signal.
TIA.
Cheers,
Bob.

Does this help?
http://connector.pinouts.ru/10_pin_mini-din_female/

Jim

[Bob Latham]

Post by Indy Jess John

Post by Bob Latham
We've just had to replace our 6 year old Sky+ HD box with a new one.

[snip]

Post by Indy Jess John

Post by Bob Latham
I've looked in the box, not what I expected at all, doesn't look like
a RF stuff, no coils etc. just chips and capacitors, very surprising
to me and nothing there to give a clue which wire carries which signal.
Bob.

Does this help?
http://connector.pinouts.ru/10_pin_mini-din_female/
Jim

Hi Jim,

Thanks for that, it is certainly the only information I have and there are
4 possibilities there. However, none of them has a low dc voltage marked
for a pin and there must be one in this usage.

I think I'll drop the manufacturer an email, I'm not expecting anything
better than being ignored but you never know.


Cheers,

Bob.

[Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd]

*Subject:* Re: New Sky boxes and their IO link port
*Date:* Sat, 04 Apr 2015 11:51:53 +0100
none of them has a low dc voltage marked
for a pin and there must be one in this usage.

Nor a data channel, the modulator TV channel can be set from the Sky box so
there must be some way to communicate that over the mini DIN.

I just bought one of these IO link boxes, doesn't even seem to work.

Angus

[Bob Latham]

Post by Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd

*Subject:* Re: New Sky boxes and their IO link port
*Date:* Sat, 04 Apr 2015 11:51:53 +0100
none of them has a low dc voltage marked
for a pin and there must be one in this usage.

Nor a data channel, the modulator TV channel can be set from the Sky box
so there must be some way to communicate that over the mini DIN.
I just bought one of these IO link boxes, doesn't even seem to work.

Have you switched on the DC?

Mine does work to a fashion but I have got the DC on, it may be a
requirement, I've not tried it without.

Bob.

[Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd]

Post by Bob Latham

Post by Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd
I just bought one of these IO link boxes, doesn't even seem to work.

Have you switched on the DC?

Yes, it may be my aerial wiring which is very complex and mostly under the
floor, not had time to check carefully.

BTW, the IO link box also receives remote control signals, so at least one
more pin for data.

Angus

[Bagpuss]

Post by Bob Latham
We've just had to replace our 6 year old Sky+ HD box with a new one.
I was aware that there was no UHF connections on the new boxes and I had
to obtain a little black box called an IO link to get them back. This box
connects to the Sky box by a 10 pin mini din plug.
They do work so OK so far but they're not very good to honest, lots of
hiss on the sound and nothing like as good as the Vision V40 modulator
(thanks Bill).
So I would like to use a V40 and to do so I need audio and composite video
signals. Logically these must be in the cable to the IO Link and appear on
the 10 pin mini din.
Does anyone know anything about this connection, pin out, wire colours or
whatever or know someone who does? Don't mind sacrificing a £10 IO Link to
get the connections.

Hope this is useful :

www.skyeye.force9.co.uk/Sky IO Port.pdf

[Bob Latham]

Post by Bagpuss

Post by Bob Latham
We've just had to replace our 6 year old Sky+ HD box with a new one.
I was aware that there was no UHF connections on the new boxes and I
had to obtain a little black box called an IO link to get them back.
This box connects to the Sky box by a 10 pin mini din plug.
They do work so OK so far but they're not very good to honest, lots of
hiss on the sound and nothing like as good as the Vision V40 modulator
(thanks Bill).
So I would like to use a V40 and to do so I need audio and composite
video signals. Logically these must be in the cable to the IO Link and
appear on the 10 pin mini din.
Does anyone know anything about this connection, pin out, wire colours
or whatever or know someone who does? Don't mind sacrificing a £10 IO
Link to get the connections.

www.skyeye.force9.co.uk/Sky IO Port.pdf

That looks like it should be spot on what i need but the link doesn't work
there are two spaces in the string. Could you check that out for me please.


Cheers,

Bob.

[Indy Jess John]

Post by Bob Latham

Post by Bagpuss
www.skyeye.force9.co.uk/Sky IO Port.pdf

That looks like it should be spot on what i need but the link doesn't work
there are two spaces in the string. Could you check that out for me please.
Cheers,
Bob.

It worked for me. Try this link to it:
http://tinyurl.com/k46oghn

Jim

[Bob Latham]

Post by Indy Jess John

Post by Bob Latham

Post by Bagpuss
www.skyeye.force9.co.uk/Sky IO Port.pdf

That looks like it should be spot on what i need but the link doesn't work
there are two spaces in the string. Could you check that out for me please.
Cheers,
Bob.

http://tinyurl.com/k46oghn

That worked thanks Jim.

Must be something to do with spaces in the url.

This pdf tells me what signal is on 4 pins of the port which gives me a
start.

Thanks for that.


Cheers,

Bob.

[Peter Duncanson]

On Sat, 04 Apr 2015 19:40:37 +0100, Bob Latham

Post by Bob Latham

Post by Bagpuss

Post by Bob Latham
We've just had to replace our 6 year old Sky+ HD box with a new one.
I was aware that there was no UHF connections on the new boxes and I
had to obtain a little black box called an IO link to get them back.
This box connects to the Sky box by a 10 pin mini din plug.
They do work so OK so far but they're not very good to honest, lots of
hiss on the sound and nothing like as good as the Vision V40 modulator
(thanks Bill).
So I would like to use a V40 and to do so I need audio and composite
video signals. Logically these must be in the cable to the IO Link and
appear on the 10 pin mini din.
Does anyone know anything about this connection, pin out, wire colours
or whatever or know someone who does? Don't mind sacrificing a £10 IO
Link to get the connections.

www.skyeye.force9.co.uk/Sky IO Port.pdf

That looks like it should be spot on what i need but the link doesn't work
there are two spaces in the string. Could you check that out for me please.

To use a url with spaces in it, treat it as a string of text: select
(highlight) the whole of it and copy/paste it into the url box in your
browser, then press enter. I've just confirmed that that works with the
url above using both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

[Bob Latham]

Post by Peter Duncanson
To use a url with spaces in it, treat it as a string of text: select
(highlight) the whole of it and copy/paste it into the url box in your
browser, then press enter. I've just confirmed that that works with the
url above using both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Thanks for trying to help and I'm sure your words of wisdom are correct.

Trouble is my situation is more complicated than that. I don't read news
on a PC I use ARMiniX RISC OS computer. I then wished to launch the url on
an adjacent PC. The application which can do this is called UriLaunch and
this is very good and useful. You can double click on any normal url on
the RO machine and it will load the page in Firefox on the PC. The only
snag is that it detects the end of a url by spaces or a carriage return.

IMHO, It is not a good idea to use spaces in a url or a file or directory
name. YMMV


Cheers,

Bob.

[Jim Lesurf]

Post by Bob Latham
Trouble is my situation is more complicated than that. I don't read news
on a PC I use ARMiniX RISC OS computer. I then wished to launch the url
on an adjacent PC. The application which can do this is called UriLaunch
and this is very good and useful. You can double click on any normal url
on the RO machine and it will load the page in Firefox on the PC. The
only snag is that it detects the end of a url by spaces or a carriage
return.
IMHO, It is not a good idea to use spaces in a url or a file or
directory name.

I'd agree. IIRC Some URLs can get around this by employing a '%' followed
by the character number for a space. Stops a command from thinking the text
ended with the space in the URL. But it still seems wiser for people to
avoid putting spaces into file names, etc. All too easy for it to trip up
something.

FWIW a while ago I was given a *very* long URL (contained a series of
commands to tell the server control details). This was over 2400 characters
long and littered with examples of a percent sign followed by a hex value
to include characters that can confuse command interpretation. Biggest URL
I've ever seen.

Jim

[David Woolley]

Post by Jim Lesurf
I'd agree. IIRC Some URLs can get around this by employing a '%' followed
by the character number for a space. Stops a command from thinking the text

Linear white space, in general, is not valid in URLs because it can be
impossible to tell whether it is spaces, tabs or newlines, in word
wrapped printed documents. The correct way is to use %20. The correct
way for a browser to handle entered spaces is to ignore them.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) some
browsers have pandered to sloppy HTML by automatically converting spaces
to %20 before they submit the URL to the server (some servers may also
cope with spaces in URI they receive).

+ can also be used for space, but that might only be in form field values.

[charles]

Post by Bob Latham

Post by Peter Duncanson
To use a url with spaces in it, treat it as a string of text: select
(highlight) the whole of it and copy/paste it into the url box in your
browser, then press enter. I've just confirmed that that works with the
url above using both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Thanks for trying to help and I'm sure your words of wisdom are correct.
Trouble is my situation is more complicated than that. I don't read news
on a PC I use ARMiniX RISC OS computer. I then wished to launch the url on
an adjacent PC. The application which can do this is called UriLaunch

Typo alert: UNILAUNCH - I use it all the time

[Bob Latham]

Post by charles

Post by Bob Latham

Post by Peter Duncanson
To use a url with spaces in it, treat it as a string of text: select
(highlight) the whole of it and copy/paste it into the url box in
your browser, then press enter. I've just confirmed that that works
with the url above using both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Thanks for trying to help and I'm sure your words of wisdom are correct.
Trouble is my situation is more complicated than that. I don't read
news on a PC I use ARMiniX RISC OS computer. I then wished to launch
the url on an adjacent PC. The application which can do this is called
UriLaunch

Typo alert: UNILAUNCH - I use it all the time

Correct but

Typo alert: UniLaunch :-)

Sorry couldn't resist.


Bob.