Access module Dragon Cam

Dragon Cam - it is a new and quite promising cam module produced by Dream Multimedia company. Let's get back to the past. The famous Magic Module was the forrunner of Dragon Cam. This module came out in 2001 and became very popular amoung sat tv amateurs because it can open the most possible quantity of the paid channels. It had even the appropriate image on the front side - "Magician".

The modules were selling out very quickly, the software came out regularly. All this could not but alarm the operators and owners of restricted access systems. Under their pressure Dream Multimedia had to stop the production of Magic cams. In fact the license for production of these modules was sold, possibly to China. As to Dream Multimedia company it started working at a more promising project - Dreambox receiver. Linux was chosen as an operating system so that it was very difficult to find fault with breach of copyright. And the conception with the open software code is not only the possibility for realization of your own ideas but also quite a different juridicial aspect.

But we are carried away a little by the past recollections. So, Dragon cam version 3.1. When we received the first consignment of these goods we were surprised at the good quality of the module body and the cover on it. The front side (photo 1) and the back side (photo 2). The famous "Magician" is now like a shade situating on the back side of Dragon.

photo 1	photo 2

In order to harden the construction the body of Dragon Cam is partly made of plastic and tin. The module iron is made up very carefully and doesn't has pins. By the way, in the last consignments of X CAM and Premium Cam modules the leading strips were badly worked up and it brings to hand cuts.

The module is technically perfect inside (foto 3). ARM processor of Atmel AT91R40008 company is the module's heart. This is a new 32-bit RISC processor, 256 Kb RAM (the maximum memory is up to 64Mb), its abilities are great. Flash memory is A29L800UV-70 : 1M X 8 Bit / 512K X 16 Bit produced by AMIC company. The core memory is located inside the processor. CSA decoder, PIDs selector are integrated on the microchip with the interesting logo “Predator” (photo 3). Smart-card interface is integrated on the chip Atmel at83c24 and has all the necessary features for communicating with various smart-cards.

Taking into account the development rate it is clear that we will soon have all these independent devices in one chip. Such attempts have been already made but at present time they all use external flash and external RAM (the examples are the chips IBM SetToBox, LSI Logic Lsi2002, STI5518).

On the back side it is clearly seen the reader of smart card contacts and there are also technical contacts for programming of the module (photo 4). Flash can be programmed by using of JTAG extension of the ARM processor.

It is necessary to mention that the quality of soldering and chip is high.

But now some words about software for this module. The modules support the FireCrypt encryption system, DreamCrypt in the past. But in fact this encryption is only interesting for porno channel amateurs. It is more advisable to reprogramme Dragon Cam in firmware "Predator 3.04” or more fresh version, the module starts working as multi-system, in addition you get the support of all the original smart-cards including NDS viasat. The presence of the EMU will not leave your screens black. Software comes out regularly that is certainly good for sat tv amateurs. The new software for Dragon you can get in our DOWNLOAD

In conclusion we would like to note that in this article the version 3.1 is described. Now a new version of Dragon 4.1 appeared on the market. The difference is the additional card-reader for the second smart-card, but about this we will talk next time.

фото 3	фото 4

The review was made by: Yaroslav Sevitskiy
Copyright : Spektr-tv.ru
Date : 01/03/2005