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16. Presentation of a saved QPSK constellation diagram
with corresponding information.
17. Presentation of a saved 8PSK constellation diagram
with corresponding information.
18. Configuration menu of the Trimax TM6800+.
19. The channel list editor can be called up from the
constellation menu.
20. USB menu of the TM6800+.
21. Recordings of the currently selected channel can be
programmed for future documentation.
22. An HD channel is shown on the display of the
TM6800+.
23. Additional and more detailed information can be
displayed if required.
24. Once the programmed period of time has elapsed the
recording is finished automatically.
25. Recordings can be played back in a dedicated small
window.
Here are some of the spe-
cial features we particularly
appreciated: The large dis-
play is something we will
never want to do without
again. Even HD channels are
presented crisply and with
amazing details.
The small overall size of
the device makes the display
appear even bigger. The on-
screen menu is designed to
make full use of the display
size as well, which means
the font size is ideal and all
texts and information are
easy to read at a glance.
Another feature that en-
hances user-friendliness is a
backlit keypad – the illumi-
nation can be turned on or
off and comes very handy at
night or in dark rooms.
In everyday use the spec-
trum analyzer did not react
quickly enough to be used as
a real-time spectrum. Only
if you reduce the frequency
span to 50 MHz the spec-
trum’s refresh rates reach
real-time performance.
Nonetheless, the spectrum
mode sports a number of
highly useful features: You
might think that a marker
that can be used to scroll
to a transponder in order to
then initiate a signal scan on
that frequency is nothing out
of the ordinary.
In actual fact, however,
only few signal meters are
capable of correctly han-
dling such a feature and
the Trimax TM6800+ does
not only handle it, but per-
forms brilliantly. Feed hunt-
ers in particular will love that
as it allows them to quickly
find active transponders and
then hunt for transmissions
on those frequencies. For a
job like that the refresh rate
of the spectrum at the full
1250 MHz frequency span is
more than sufficient.
Just like in the constellation
mode it is possible to create
a screenshot of the current
spectrum by simply pressing
the ‘Point’ button. This is a
very helpful function when it
comes to professional docu-
mentation and acceptance of
an installation job. After all,
nothing beats substantiated
evidence in case of queries
at a later stage.
The undisputed highlight
of the TM6800+ is the BNC
connection on the upper
side. It can be used to put
out the current transpond-
er as an ASI stream at any
time. The ASI protocol is
used for the transmission of
DVB transponders, irrespec-
tive of the modulation type.
Broadcasting equipment
such as demodulators, mod-
ulators, multiplexers, head-
ends etc. generally come
with ASI inputs and outputs.
For a signal meter like the
TM6800+ to offer such an
output is nothing short of a
miracle as it allows to quickly
diagnose flaws whenever a
signal does not arrive prop-
erly at a particular device.
It is important to note at
this point that professional
systems cannot be re-pro-
grammed on the fly for indi-
vidual tests, so it does make
sense to use the TM6800+
instead to provide a device
with an ASI data steam for
We pressed the ‘Menu’
button once more to call up
the main menu and to acti-
vate the ‘Memory functions’
from there.
Use this feature to save
and retrieve constellation
diagrams complete with all
corresponding measurement
values such as BER, C/N,
frequency, symbol rate, FEC
and polarisation. Here again
it is possible to export data
directly onto a connected
USB storage medium by
pressing the ‘Point’ button.
Back in the main menu
we proceeded with having a
closer look at ‘System con-
figuration’, where settings
such as language (English,
Spanish, German, Italian,
Turkish), TV aspect ratio,
time zone or display bright-
ness can be adjusted.
The channel list editor can
also be launched from here
and CAMs inserted into the
CI slot can be configured.
We tried out a range of CAMs
(Seca, Viaccess and Dragon-
CAM) and the meter identi-
fied all of them correctly and
offered the corresponding
module menus. Last but not
least, the ‘System configu-
ration’ section of the main
menu must be accessed if
a default reset is required
or to display the currently
installed software, which
in our test unit was version
1.0.3.
From the main menu we
proceeded with calling up
‘USB options’, which consist
of a menu offering the fol-
lowing options:
• Record: Starts a record-
ing if the user has set chan-
nel, date, start time and
duration of the recording be-
forehand.
• Playback: Lists record-
ings available from the con-
nected USB storage medium
and plays back the selected
recording.
• Picture View: Displays
JPEGs that are saved on the
storage medium.
• Soft Upgrade: Updates
the device’s firmware.
• Parameter Upgrade: Up-
grades the settings list that
we pre-arranged on the PC
using the editor software.
To get a well-founded
impression of the Trimax
TM6800+ we exclusively and
intensively tried it out for
several days. After a short
familiarisation period we
were able to quickly align
antennas as well as detect
and also solve problems.