Bell Express Vu Atmega Card Programming Tutorial

1) The first thing you will need to do is insert your Atmega Card into your Atmega Card programmer, which is connected to the printer port on the back of your computer via a male to male printer cable . The Atmega and Programmer are pictured below:

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                                                            Programmer (above)                              Atmega Card (above)

2) Now connect your computer to the internet, whether it be Cable, DSL or Dial Up, as long as you are connected to the internet.

3) Once you are connected to the internet, double click on the "Jeepers" folder on your desktop. If you don't have a Jeepers folder, basically we want to look for the folder where you have your Jeepers program stored.

4) Once you are in your Jeepers folder, double click on the Jeepers icon.

5) After you have clicked on the Jeepers icon, you will see the default window open as pictured below:



6) In the Jeepers program window, you will want to click on the drop down menu next to the Enabler field, & select Express VU.


7) Once the Enabler is set to Express VU, click on the drop down menu next to the Board field, & select CLK 18.432 MHz. For older Atmega cards, you may need to select 18.00MHz in the Board field. Basically this is the speed of your Atmega chip, mine is a newer one, which requires me to set the Board field to 18.432MHz.


8) Once you have set the Board field to CLK 18.432 MHz or whatever the speed of your Atmega is, click on the Actions option at the top of the screen, & scroll down & click on Get Keys.


9) You will notice that the AUX 0 & AUX 1 fields near the top right turn gray, this means Jeepers grabbing the keys off of the internet for you. As well, you will see near the bottom left side, a website address Jeepers is getting the keys from.


10) Once Jeepers has finished retrieving the latest keys, you will notice that the AUX 0 & AUX 1 fields will now be filled in with the keys Jeepers has grabbed for you.


11) The next thing you want to do is set the Time Zone, so click on the drop down menu, next to the Time Zone field & then click CST/MDT, this is the Central Standard Time Zone, which is the zone I am in. Or alternately adjust this field to whatever time zone you are currently in, this ensures that the guide on your TV displays the correct time.


12) Now that the Time Zone is set, go back to your Jeepers folder & double click on the file called 2700 Copy & Paste Information.txt, this is a text file where I store my IRD#, Cam ID, Box Key, and Postal Code. I keep it in a file so I can copy & paste this information, eliminating any errors that can be made if manually entering in this vital information.


13) Now you should have two windows open, one for the Jeepers program & one for 2700 Copy & Paste Information, which will look like the picture below. Now you can begin to copy & Paste the IRD#, CAM ID, BOX KEY, & the Postal Code from the text window into the matching fields in the Jeepers program window. If you are not sure how to copy & paste, you can simply just enter the values in manually, making absolutely sure you have input all the information correctly. Any mistakes will become evident when you try to watch TV, because no picture will come up or you will only get the preview channels.


14) Once you have copy & pasted all the information correctly, it should look like the picture below. Once you have verified all the information is correct, simply click on the "Full Monty" button down on the bottom right hand side.


15) Once you have clicked on Full Monty, the Jeepers program window will turn all the available fields to gray except for the Program & Network fields near the top left hand side. Near the bottom left hand side of the Jeepers window, you will see the progress area, the first thing you should see is Jeepers stating that it is Building Images.


16) Keeping your attention near the bottom left, which again is the progress area, Jeepers will go from Building Images, to Writing program to ATmega128.


17) Once Jeepers finishes writing the program, it will then switch to Writing EEPROM memory to ATmega128.


18) Once Jeepers is finished Writing the EEPROM, a window will pop up stating "Full Write Complete". Click "OK"


19) Now you can simply close out of the Jeepers program window, & close down any other windows that may be open at this time. Finally, take your Atmega card out of the Atmega Programmer & insert the newly programmed Atmega card into your Bell Express VU receiver & start enjoying all the channels Bell Express VU has to offer!!!!

Additional Information

Here are a couple of websites of interest to you, where you can view the current status of people running Bell Express Vu on Atmega cards & also download the latest fixes which may be needed from time to time, to reprogram your Atmega card:

http://www.sattech.ca/index1.php <------This is the website I use most, for fixes, & to keep up to date on what may be happening with Bell Express Vu, to the extreme right hand side of this website, will be a heading called "BEV - STATUS" this is where you can tell how things are running with people using an Atmega cards. To download fixes from this website you must also register, which I would recommend very highly, but use a fake name, address, and whatever else it takes to register, but use a valid e-mail address, try use a Hotmail, Yahoo, or other internet based e-mail address.

http://www.sattech.net <------This is another site I use, but not quite as much as the above website. I use this site sort of as a back up. In case the above one goes down. Both have the most recent fixes for Express Vu, but I prefer again the one on top, because it provides status reports. Wouldn't be a bad idea to register with this site as well, again using fake registration information, but with a valid Hotmail or Yahoo e-mail account.

http://www.maestra.tv/english/ <------ This site is the last site I use to check Bell Express VU status reports. Down the left hand side of this website, you will see the heading "Emulation Status Reports" & below that will be a Bell Express VU section, this is probably the easiest website to go to for determining if there are any problems that may be occurring with people running Bell. The section for Atmega under the Bell heading, will have a red light, yellow light, or green light. A green light is always good news, meaning that there are no current problems reported for Bell/Atmega users. A red light, is a pretty good indicator that there is currently problems with Bell/Atmega users. To read more, simply click on the traffic light next to Atmega under the Bell heading & another window will pop up give you detailed information as to what is happening at the current time with Bell/Atmega users. This site also contains the latest files to use to program your Atmega card.

Last but not least, the files you use to program your Atmega is called a PFG file. These are the files that you will be downloading at some point in the future when your current Atmega does not work no more, how will you know it is not working, you will usually get nags on your TV, like the error 104. Error 104 messages can easily be temporarily fixed by powering down your receiver, and then removing & re-inserting your Atmega card. However, doing this fix, only works for an hour or so. The best thing to do when you get an error 104 is do the temporary fix, & then hit the internet to check out the latest status reports, & if there is a problem reported, you may need to download a new PFG file, it will usually tell you which one to download. Once you have download the latest PFG file or in other words the latest fix, simply place that downloaded PFG file in your Jeepers folder. Once your current PFG files no longer work for you, you can simply download the latest fix and place it in your Jeepers folder, but prior to downloading a new fix, delete any old PFG files that are currently sitting in your Jeepers folder. This will eliminate any mistakes that can be made in the Jeepers window when selecting which Program to use. Below is the is a picture of how Jeepers will look with the NAwapoM15c.pfg & NAwapoM16.pfg files or fixes sitting in your Jeepers folder. In most cases, the Program field near the top right, should only have one option or fix or PFG file to select, if you have too many PFG files or fixes in your Jeepers folder, this field can drop down a very extensive list, increasing your chances of selecting the wrong fix or PFG file when programming your card. Myself I keep only two PFG files or fixes in my Jeepers folder, one I currently run & one that I can go to once my current fix no longer works for me. Again, once all the fixes in my Jeepers folder no longer work, I hit the net in search of the latest PFG files or fixes to download and test.