Community Updates for the DG834GT

[James67]

*** Important information about CU1 and CU2 ***

With the release of the new V1.03.87 firmware for the Sky DG834GT, the CU1 and CU2 releases are now redundant. But the good news is that CU3 is now available! CU3 is based on the V1.03.87 firmware, but with the extra features found in CU1 and CU2. Click here for download links, important information and answers to your questions.

[Monday]

thanks james .

[Plusnet suck]

The download links do not work

All working again

[James67]

Hmmm, I've spotted a couple of issues.

There seems to be a problem with setting the target noise margin in CU2. Whatever value you type in, it seems to always set the value to 0.0dB (or more accurately 1/16 dB). I'm not sure if the bug is the same in CU1, but I'll check.

Also, I noticed that although CU2 managed to get through several dawns and dusks without a problem, this evening it didn't make it through and the error rate started climbing up towards 100% without a retrain being triggered. So although the updated ADSL driver code is clearly a lot better, it's not perfect. I do seem to recall when I first joined Sky, one of the things I tried was putting the standard Negear V1.02.09 firmware (which was the latest available at the time) on to the Sky router, and saw improved behaviour, although after a few days, it did get to the point where it failed.

So I need to do a bug fix for CU2 (and possibly CU1 as well) for the target noise margin problem. I need to make a decision on how best to tackle the ADSL problems too. I'll have a look at the driver code on the Sagem and see if it's any better.

Alternatively, I could release a CU3 build which would be based on CU2 but which has the same kind of function as my old stability utility. The stability utility continuously monitors the error rate, and triggers a retrain when it rises above a certain level.

[kamal80]

Hi James just to let you know that the Target Noise Margin problem does not exist in CU1. It's only in CU2.

Anyway thanks for a great update.

[James67]

Ha! I was just about to announce that. Thanks for checking that out.

Anyway, I've fixed the problem and the links given on the first page of this thread now point to the new CU2.01 release. I recommend that all CU2 users upgrade to CU2.01.

[RupertTHEbare]

Originally Posted by James67

Anyway, I've fixed the problem...

Yes you have, and thanks to you I now have for the very first time seen a >3Mb/s sync rate and my Rx noise margin is currently down at 10.6.

V1.02.28 (CU2.01)

adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime
Retrain Reason: 0
Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 448 Kbps, Downstream rate = 2752 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: G.DMT
Channel: Interleave
Trellis: ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 10.6 16.0
Attn(dB): 57.0 31.0
Pwr(dBm): 17.9 12.3
Max(Kbps): 3040 948
Rate (Kbps): 2752 448

Thanks for all your hard work James.

RTB.

[James67]

I was hunting around for the latest ADSL driver code, and noticed that the code in the Sagem F@ST2404 was actually newer than both the Netgear DG834GT (V1.02.13) AND the Sagem F@ST2504:

• Sky DG834GT (V1.02.28) - Version A2pB018e, built 2005-05-23
• Sky DG834GT (CU2.01) - Version A2pB022c, built 2006-11-10
• Sky F@ST2504 - Version A2pB023c, built 2007-04-16
• Sagem F@ST2404 - Version A2pB023f, built 2007-05-19

I've created a new image containing this most recent ADSL driver code: CU2.02 flash image

All the usual cautionary instructions apply - scroll up to the first posts if you need to read them again - but if anyone feels brave enough they can give it a try and see if it improves on CU2.01. I've just started testing this myself, but it would be interesting to get feedback from other people on how well (or badly) it works on their phone line.

[Monday]

I will be "experimenting" with the new FW that uses the Sagem ADSL drivers tommrow. will report back James BTW any bugs yet in the Sagem/V1 FW?

[James67]

The CU2.02 firmware seems to be stable so far, but the CU2.01 seemed stable too, at least for a few days. I hoping that the new ADSL firmware will resolve the remaining problems.

And CU2.02 does include the bug fix that went into CU2.01. I actually checked it!