Tips of the Trade

[groundhog]

Concerned about heat?
Based on a tip from AVSForum, I got some of these flat fan units. I placed my DTivo on top of it, and lowered the temp 8C.

No messing with drilling holes or upgrading the internal fan.

They're pretty kewl...

http://store.yahoo.com/zerus/notebookcooler.html

I found a cheap and effective alternate solution to this. I have my Direct TV Tivo(DSR6K) in a Entertainment Center with an open front(no glass). I bought the biggest/cheapest computer fan at an electronics store. I think that it was 4" x 4". I tye wrapped it to the back of the entertainment center, just above where the cables come into it. I forces air onto the back of my Tivo, and under it. I used an adjustable DC power adapter to power it. Set at 12 volts it was way too loud. I turned it down to around 6 (or 7.5) volts, and it's pretty quite(just a little louder than the hard drives). Lowered my temp by over 12 degrees C! Also, the cool thing about the adjustable voltage is that you can set it higher when you leave the house & cool it by an additional few degrees C.. The fan cost $5 & the power supply cost $3(@ Harbor Freight).

[deadc0ed]

Just a heads up. I bought one of these notebook coolers serveral months ago and it dropped my DTivo (/w 120G 7200 rpm drive) temp about 6 degrees. However one of the 3 fans burned out within two weeks (running 24hrs a day) and one of the remaining fans began to make a horrible noise, so loud I turned the thing off and trashed it. Your milage may vary.

[superzap]

These are the standard instructions:
1) rz send the upgrade.tar.gz archive to your tivo / (root) directory
2) rm -rf /var/hack
3) rm /bin/joe /bin/joerc
4) gzip -d upgrade.tar.gz
5) cpio -i -H tar -d -F upgrade.tar

!!!NOTE!!
If you see that any file did not get overwritten, manually delete
the file or files and do step 5 again

6) /tvbin/reboot
7) mount -o remount,rw /
8) /tvbin/noppv.tcl dump
9) sync
10) mount -o remount,ro /

Tip: add the u option and you won't have to repeat step 5 as noted:
5) cpio -iu -H tar -d -F upgrade.tar

I also tested installing while the drive is in pc:
1) copy upgrade.tar.gz to your C: drive root directory then boot linux from CD or floppy.
2) enter commands:
mkdir /td
mount /dev/hdXY /td
(where X= "b" if Primary Slave, "c" if Secondary Master, "d" if Secondary Slave and Y=number of your root partition, 4 or 7, use dd if=/dev/hdX bs=18 count=1 to find out if you don't know)
mkdir /dos
mount /dev/hda1 /dos
cd /td
tar -xzf /dos/upgrade.tar.gz

(The above steps replace steps 4 and 5 of standard instructions)

[dain_bramaged]

deadc0ed and i must have gotten units from the same run.

i had to disconnect one fan after a month and now a second one is doing a noisy death march. headed for the trash any day now.

i'm in a warm climate and at best it lowered unit 4 degrees.

might be a good product for short interval use but i'd recommend finding another cooling process.

[snj2000]

That notebook cooler seemed like an inexpensive no hassel cooling option, but from the sounds of it, they may not last very long.

Just wondering, how did you power it? The ones I looked at are powered via USB, but I don't have USB near my TIVO???

Thanks...

[donbadabon]

I had the notebook cooler, and it was powered by an A/C outlet.
Mine lasted about 5 months before one of the fans died, and then the others started making grinding and screaching noises.
Unless they've changed something in their design, I would not recommend getting one.

[m5runner]

your tivo has 2 USB ports on the back. take a look and see. by the way, what did u guys expect for 20 bucks?? it was fun while it lasted.


///M5

[Murdock]

I tried one of those notebook coolers too but also decided to get rid of it due to excessive noise. Then I read on the Tivo community forum about the Thermaltake TT-6025A 60 mm case fan, if used as a replacement for the stock internal fan it lowers your temperature by 8 C to 14 C. It says on the box 21 CFM but this is a misprint, it is actually 31 CFM, it comes with a 3 pin connector and includes a 3 to 4 pin adapter. First I tried it at 12V using the 3 to 4 pin adapter and it lowered my Tivo's temperature by 14 C but was a bit loud. Tried it at 7V using the fan power connector from the original fan and it ran 8 C cooler than with the original fan and was not noticeably louder at all.

[BubbleLamp]

Originally posted by Murdock
I tried one of those notebook coolers too but also decided to get rid of it due to excessive noise. Then I read on the Tivo community forum about the Thermaltake TT-6025A 60 mm case fan, if used as a replacement for the stock internal fan it lowers your temperature by 8 C to 14 C. It says on the box 21 CFM but this is a misprint, it is actually 31 CFM, it comes with a 3 pin connector and includes a 3 to 4 pin adapter. First I tried it at 12V using the 3 to 4 pin adapter and it lowered my Tivo's temperature by 14 C but was a bit loud. Tried it at 7V using the fan power connector from the original fan and it ran 8 C cooler than with the original fan and was not noticeably louder at all.

I tried the Thermaltake, too whiny for me, even at 7V. I now have a Vantec that is absolutely the quietest. I have no thermal issues either, but my Tivo's are in the open air, not in a cabinet.

[khomer13]

Bubblelamp...
Can you tell me the model # of the Vantec fan? Also, where i can order/find them at? Do they fit a Sony Sat60 dtivo? Thanx....

[BubbleLamp]

Originally posted by khomer13
Bubblelamp...
Can you tell me the model # of the Vantec fan? Also, where i can order/find them at? Do they fit a Sony Sat60 dtivo? Thanx....

I got my fan off eBay. It's a model # SF6025L. Like I said, the dimensions are correct, but you will need new corner screws to hold it in. (I haven't confirmed it yet, but I think they are 6-32 threads.) Yes, AFAIO the Sony has the same internals.

[FredThompson]

@ khomer13, there are different types of fans from Vantec. You will probably want the Stealth or Thermoflow.

[albcool]

I just noticed that the early Philips Pronto serial cable looks identical to the serial cables we are making for the Tivo. Has anyone tried one yet? Just curious.

Yes thats what use

[cojonesdetoro]

It's nice to keep a bash command history between logins. In order for this to happen your ${HOME}/.bash_history file needs to be writable.

There are two things you can do:

1) If your $HOME dir is / then do:

mv .bash_history /var
ln -s /var/.bash_history /.bash_history

2) or put this in your /.bashrc file:

HOME=/var/hack ; export HOME

You will then need the same .bashrc file /var/hack
EDIT: You will then need the same .bashrc file in /var/hack

Both methods will make it so command history is saved when you log out and back in. I prefer method #2

[captain_video]

This is an old guide but the link to it is no longer valid so I'm reposting it here for the benefit of all you newbies. It contains a lot of basic Linux commands and other pertinent info that should help get you started with hacking your new Tivo. Enjoy!