Geniatech T230C

Geniatech T230C

MyGica T230C, PCB in case

MyGica T230C PCB (top)

MyGica T230C PCB (bottom)

eyeTV T2 PCB (top), note the missing IR receiver (bottom right)

eyeTV T2 PCB (bottom)

The Geniatech T230C (also branded as MyGica T230C with a black case instead of a white one) is an evolution of Geniatech T230. Although it has the same external appearence, it uses different hardware, and is not supported by mainstream 2016-grade kernels. The MyGica-branded device can be found on websites that ship hardware directly from China.

The eyeTV T2 is the same device, just without IR. Targetting a Mac OS audience, it is 5 to 6 times as expensive as the MyGica T230C which does feature IR support (and comes with a 28-button remote control). The eyeTV T2 case is silver/grey with a transparent cap.

The device can be used with the PadTV HD app on Android if connected via a USB OTG adapter. That app supports H.265, but the phone must be fast enough. On Windows, 28 Jun 2017 drivers (shipped with some devices in 2018) are required to prevent frequent blue screens in nearly all apps.

Overview/Features

Components Used

The following components are used on the device

• USB interface: Cypress CY7C68013A-56LTXC
• Demodulator: Silicon Labs Si2168-D60
• Tuner: Silicon Labs Si2141-A10

Driver support

As of kernel 4.4, drivers are not included in the kernel (at least not in Raspbian 8). Kernel 4.9.24 included in Raspbian 8 (installed when upgrading packages through apt-get) does not support the driver either. However, the driver dvb_usb_cxusb fully supports the device, and can be found in the Video4Linux project. It is possible to build it using CrazyCat's media_build tool.

The T230C appears as a 0572:c689 device

usb 1-1.3.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0572, idProduct=c689
usb 1-1.3.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 1-1.3.3: Product: EyeTV Stick
usb 1-1.3.3: Manufacturer: Geniatech
usb 1-1.3.3: SerialNumber: 160421

To be confirmed: it looks like this device is better integrated into LibreElec system (see here how to use the Crazycat-CC driver pack).

Building the driver

The following procedure works (at least) on a Raspberry Pi running 4.4.43-v7+ or 4.9.30-v7+ kernel (but does not seem to work with the 4.9.24-v7+ kernel). It should be pretty similar on other distros and/or with other kernels.

Run apt-get install raspberrypi-kernel-headers to get the correct headers (i.e. the headers corresponding to your exact current kernel build) into /lib/modules/<some folders about your current $(uname -r) kernel version>/. In my case, 2 folders were created: 4.4.43+ and 4.4.43-v7+. In case it does not download the right kernel version headers (there may be a mismatch between uname -r and the folder names in /lib/modules), you can grab the raspi sources by running:

# get the rpi-source tool
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/notro/rpi-source/master/rpi-source
chmod u+x rpi-source
./rpi-source --dest /somewhere/that/has/free/space

# Older versions might need to have linux-headers installed into /usr/src and symlinks everywhere in /lib/modules
# This is not needed anymore (since mid-2017? Was it even needed at some point?)
ln -s /somewhere/that/has/free/space/linux /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)
ln -s /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r) /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build
ln -s /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r) /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/source
...and do the same with uname -r, but without the trailing -v7+ (eg 4.4.43+ if uname -r is 4.4.43-v7+)

Check that a correct .config file (corresponding to the exact current build of your kernel) is available at /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build/.config It should normally have been fetched by rpi-source. If it was not the case, run modprobe configs, and the .config file that you want is available in the compressed file /proc/config.gz

Now we have the correct sources and .config file, we can fetch the driver sources and build it by using CrazyCat's media_build tool:

git clone https://bitbucket.org/CrazyCat/media_build
cd media_build
./build --main-git

Be sure to have some space left, as it downloads a part of the kernel tree.

In case the build fails about frame_vector.c: No rule to make target '..../v4l/frame_vector.c' , comment the following lines in media_build/v4l/Makefile, so that they appear like this:

#ifeq ($(makefile-mm),1)
#-include $(obj)/Makefile.mm
#endif

Then you can install the drivers by running sudo make install

The process should have installed the correct corresponding firmwares into /lib/firmware. If it is not the case, grab and install the needed firmwares from https://bitbucket.org/CrazyCat/media_build/downloads/dvb-firmwares.tar.bz2.

Firmware

The Geniatech T230C requires these firmwares (available in https://bitbucket.org/CrazyCat/media_build/downloads/dvb-firmwares.tar.bz2):

• dvb-demod-si2168-d60-01.fw
• dvb-tuner-si2141-a10-01.fw

They must be copied in /usr/lib/firmware.

IR Remote Control

If the device is unable to initialize, you may want to prevent the IR from loading:

# cat /etc/modprobe.d/dvb_usb.conf
options dvb-usb disable_rc_polling=1

A reboot is needed to take effect.

Supported streams

This DVB-T stick supports every French DVB-T channel (i.e. both HDTV and SDTV, broadcast as MPEG4). They are succesfully processed through tvheadend.

It should support DVB-T2 (it is advertised on the package), although this has not been tested yet.

DVB-C is advertised on the package and is recognized by tvheadend, however this requires the model that includes DVB-C.

Contributions are welcome.