How-to: Fit an internal drive to a TM5000USB receiver.

[digidude]

Another DW world first, a technomate 5200USB reciever with both an internal hard drive AND the front mounted USB socket. You may be thinking 'whats the point?'

The USB allows you to connect a hard drive to record films etc, it also allows you to update the firmware via patches from a USB stick, which is really handy, no more unplugging everything, take the receiver to the PC, back to the living room, plug it all back in. Just pop a memory stick in and job done. When a hard drive is connected though, the front flap has to be open, and the cable for the hard drive then running from the front of your telly to the hard drive.

People have done modifications where they have relocated the USB socket to the rear of the receiver, handy for hiding the hard drive connection, still a pain when you have to drag it all back out and swap wires around to update.

In light of this, i thought id put a hard drive INSIDE the receiver, AND still have the front socket behind the flap for updates, i also thought id do this with no wires showing and no plugs to swap.

I then also thought id show you all how i did it, in case you fancied a go

Materials required:

1 Technomate 5000USB series receiver
1 USB slimline pocket external HDD (i used a 60G, these need no power supply)
2 DPDT switches
1 LED (optional)
2 small screws (i found PC case screws to be spot on)
1 HDD USB lead

Tools required:

a dremel and 3mm bit
tin snips
soldering iron and solder
multimeter
phillips screwdriver
insulation tape
superglue
sharp knife or file
small wire cutters


(apologies for the size of the pictures, i had to compromise between size and clarity on my phone lol)

 

[digidude]

OK, first off, is the main materials.

Here is a TM5200 (with additional card reader), a 60G USB slim pocket external HDD, and the HDD USB cable. I chose this type of drive as not only is it very compact, but it also requires no additional power source. It has 2 USB plugs for if it needs extra power, which on the 5000 series of receiver, it does, but this is covered later, and a tiny USB plug to connect it all up

 

[digidude]

Lets make a start then

First take the cover off the receiver, its held on by 5 phillips screws, 3 at the back, and one on each side, towards the front. once they are all removed (and kept safe) lift the back of the case and itll come off.

Now for the hard drive. These are normally 2 bits of aluminium tightly pressed one into the other, lever them apart and youll see the drive inside along with its little controller circuit board. Be carefull when removing this as its small and you dont want to snap it. On the same note dont go chopping the case into little bits around the drive, as you will need one half of the case pretty soon.

Once you have the cover off your receiver, and the drive in bits, move onto the next step.

 

[digidude]

In the last step you may have been thinking 'why destroy a perfectly good brand new pocket drive?'

The drive is in a metal case, and theres not really a safe way of securing a smooth case like that inside the receiver, and if it touches the wrong part inside while the power is on, at best itll cause the receiver to crash, at worse its a fire hazzard waiting to happen.

Once out of the case, its a normal laptop HDD, complete with the mounting holes on both the bottom and the sides, this means if we could find some metal strips we could actually make something to secure the drive in place.

Now its time for the tin snips

Take one half of the new shiney aluminium case, and cut 2 strips, about 1cm wide and about 5cm long. round the edges so you dont stab yourself with them, and these will make the drive supports in the next step.

 

[digidude]

On one of the strips, using your dremmel and 3mm drill bit, make a hole approx 5mm from one end, and bend this end on a right angle (90 degrees) so the hole is now in the middle of the bottom of an L shaped strip. Take the receiver, and on the power supply side, about an inch higher, and an inch further back from the existing screw hole, drill a hole with your dremmel, once the hole is drilled, use the drill to open it up slightly, you want it a bit bigger than the hole in your strip, but not huge. Now screw the strip you just made to the receiver case. Not too tightly though, as youll be taking it back off in a few mins.

once its in place as shown, offer the drive to it so you can mark where the mounting hole is, ready for drilling and cutting to size

 

[digidude]

For the next step, remove the entire front panel from the receiver, this is done by removing 2 phillips screws from the top at each side, and the top of the front then comes forward and releases it all, unplug the 2 leads from the main board to remove completley.

Drill the remaining strip like you did the first one, but DONT bend this one. There are 3 raised holes inside the receiver, loosly screw this strip into the one closest to the center of the receiver, now with the drive in place, bend the strip to match up with a mounting hole, and again mark for drilling and cutting.

Once both strips have been marked, take them off, drill where required, cut off the excess strip and screw the L shaped one to the drive using small drive screws. The longer one screw into the base of the receiver using a PC case screw. Now screw the smaller bracket attached to the drive to the receivers case using a PC case screw, and using a small drive screw, screw the longer bracket to the side of the drive.

You have now mounted the hard drive

 

[digidude]

A drive activity light is totally optional for the front of the receiver, but i thought sod it, if im gonna break it, i may as well break it properly lol.

On the drives control board youll see a small LED, now you can either leave that as it is, and skip the next few steps, or you can move it to behind the round display on the front of the receiver. Turn the soldering iron on, you know you want to.

First desolder the original LED from the board, ensure you take note of which way round it is, one side of the LED is flat, and itll only work one way. I replaced the original with a blue one, but this one will be fine. Solder about 6" of wire to the 2 legs, and solder the wires to where the LED was mounted on the control board

 

[digidude]

Take the front panel of the receiver that you removed earlier, and undo the 6 screws holding in the USB socket and the display board, the display board has to be lifted from one side to work it loose.

Now to get the LED in the right place, youll need to remove the window and chrome bezel. To do this squeeze the 4 black tabs and push it all out.

using your dremel and 3mm bit, drill a hole between the 2 existing LED holes

Now put the LED in from the back, and glue into place

 

[digidude]

Next put the display board back on, with the wires for your LED coming out of the bottom.

you could even connect the drive to your PC while its like this (even though its a pain lol) to check your LED works

 

[digidude]

Now in order for something to recognise 2 seperate devices, when its only designed to work with one, we need some way of switching between the 2, and totally isolating the one thats not being used at the time. As USB uses 4 cables its not as easy as flicking a switch (i know with a relay it would be, but im keeping this as simple as possible) so to achieve this, ive used two DPDT switches (Double Pole Double Throw). These are capable of switching 2 supplies between 2 outlets at once, so 2 switches will switch, and isolate at the same time, 4 wires, nice.

These need to be mounted somewhere out of the way, but easilly accessable. Open the front flap (and if you have a CI model then to the right of the CI slot and above the USB port) and there is a blank space perfect for 2 small switches

 

[digidude]

Gently pull the front flap off and mark the back ready to cut holes for the switches. cut the holes slightly small (i used the dremel again) then either trim away the slight excess with a sharp knife, or file it away with a needle file.

Once the holes have been cut to size, put the switches in place. The ones i used i inserted from the front, then glued in place at the back.

 

[digidude]

This is the bit where you now start cutting stuff up inside your receiver. First off, cut the hard drives USB lead, you want about 9" from the drive. Cut the lead, strip it back to expose the 4 wiresNow take off the receivers USB socket,

starting with the black wire, cut it off and solder that to the middle bottom connection of the left switch

The wire next to that cut off and solder to the middle top connection of the right switch

The next wire cut off and connect to the middle bottom connection of the right switch

and the next wire cut off and solder to the top middle connection of the left switch. Leave the 5th wire in place

strip some unused USB lead, and solder a red, white, green and black wire (as shown) to the receivers USB socket

 

[digidude]

now this is where it gets a bit confusing, and im looking at the pictures, and actually did it, but thinking how to word it so mobody fries their drives lol

PLEASE NOTE!!!! THE FRONT PANEL HAS NOW BEEN TURNED AROUND FOR THIS STEP. PLEASE LOOK AT THE PICTURES AND READ A FEW TIMES TO ENSURE THERE IS NO CONFUSION

now each switch will have 2 input wires, and 4 output wires. Switch 1 has the power, USB red and black, on the middle inputs, then the right outputs go to the front socket, and the left outputs go to the hard drive. I used the bottom row of contacts for red, even though the main supply is a black wire and the top for black, however, the receivers USB port doesnt supply enough power for the drive, so for now leave the red wire disconnected from the hard drive, we'll come back to it soon.

So, from the receivers USB socket, the red wire goes to the right bottom connector of the right switch. the black goes to the right top connector of the right switch. The white wire goes to the right top connector of the left switch, and the green goes to the right bottom connector of the left switch

The cable from the hard drive, the black wire goes to the top left connector of the right switch. the white wire goes to the top letf of the left switch and the green wire goes to the bottom left of the left switch. For now the red wire is not connected to anything

 

[digidude]

Nearly done

back to the receiver. Coming from under where you have mounted the drive, youll see a bunch of cables going from the power supply to the main board, about 7 white ones and a black one. strip a bit of the insulation from the black wire using a sharp knife, and solder the red wire from the hard drive cable to it, and cover the joint. put the front back on the receiver, and plug the control board into the hard drive.

 

[digidude]

plug in the display circuits connector, and the USB connector thats now attached to your switches, also put your card reader back in (if required)

 

[digidude]

Replace the lid of your receiver, and thats it. Now you have to use both switches for this to work. put both switches to the left, and power on your receiver. check the menu and itll tell you no USB device, flick them both to the right (it doesnt have to be at exactly the same time) and USB initialising will appear on the screen, go inot management and format your drive ready for use.

when you want to update using a stick, flick both switched to the left, itll say USB device disconnected. WAIT FOR THIS MESSAGE TO DISAPEAR!! insert your stick, itll initialise and you can update. remove the stick and again wait for the device removed message to vanish. flick the switches the other way, the hard drive will initalise and your all ready to record

Internal drive

External socket

 

[digidude]

You MUST wait for the device removed message to vanish off the screen before flicking the switches, or you could damage your drives

Happy modding peeps

digidude

Im over half way through doing it to a 3500, the drives all fitted and wired, just waiting for the control boards to finish it off, pics soon, and have just started on a 6900 as well

 

[bro]

excellent post mate,i am sure a few people will be interested in trying this,hope your next next project is a dreambox lol

 

[digidude]

just looking back, it actually took me longer to get this tut online, then it did to do the modification lol

im sure ive overlooked some things, if you notice anything (like i forgot to mention putting the front flap back on ) please feel free to drop me a PM, or if you feel theres something needs clarifying just ask

if you are unsure of any of the above, dont attempt it as you may damage your equipment

@ bro, i been playing with dreamboxes for the last 2 years or so now m8, but not everybody likes or wants one. post me a 500 and £250 and ill turn it into a 600pvr for you now theres a bargain, and you knows it lol

 

[bro]

500 and £250 and ill turn it into a 600pvr for you now theres a bargain, and you knows it lol

and there was me thinking you was doing it for the love of it,what happened to helping peeps for free on this site and send me £250 and i will send you a 600pvr and some change after my beer tokens have been taken out:Cheers:

:roflmao: