tower direction in mythconverg channel table for antenna

[deschmit]

I was wondering if I could add a field to the mythconverg channel table. I want to add a new field containing compass degrees (0-355). The field would help me aim my antenna rotator to the appropriate location based on the location of my house. Problem is I don't know if the extra field will break MythTV or cause problems with upgrades. Does any one know if this is safe?

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythTV_System_Events
shows I can get the CHANID of recordings about to start and feed that information to a script. In my case I'm writing a perl sript that will read the mysql database to pull information from the channel table. If it is safe to add new fields to the database, it seems like a good place to store tower location information. If it is dangerous, I'll probably just code the compass degrees into my perl script with some hash table based on the CHANNUM or FREQID.

[dekarl]

I have not researched it, but the DiSEqC 1.2 motors have to get their heading from somewhere, maybe you can just store it there?

[stuarta]

You are better off creating a new table, and referencing the mplexid from that. That way your data is self contained, and you still know which "tower" it was sent from.

[deschmit]

I think you all are right. I'll store the information outside the table. That way I have no chance of messing things up.

By the way, I'm actually aiming stacked UHF and VHF antennas. I have one of these for the rotator.
http://www.rcaaudiovideo.com/search/?ks=rotator
I'm using a LIRC blaster to control it.

I've never messed around with satellite, but it might be fun to try some day.