The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (BEYOND COOL BUT PIC HEAVY)

[Topcat]

Re: The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (BEYOND COOL BUT PIC HEAVY)

I have had projects like that where I lost count of how many hours I have spent on a given project

I was asked a few months back if I had to put a price on it, how much would it be...I couldn't come up with an answer and still really can't. In parts, I don't have a lot in it; a couple hundred maybe....but sometimes it's what you make those inexpensive parts into that counts.

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (BEYOND COOL BUT PIC HEAVY)

....but sometimes it's what you make those inexpensive parts into that counts.

This is very true and sometimes this is the hard part of a project.
Just figuring out how everything works together is also a challenge this where I spend most of my time in more complex projects

[Topcat]

Re: The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (BEYOND COOL BUT PIC HEAVY)

Of all the stupid crap...the floppy drive went bad. Picked up a cheap P6DGE on ebay with bad caps. Recapped & tested; came back to life (wouldn't POST before). Had a really old BIOS on it and attempted update....read errors.... Cleaned....more read errors...Cleaned again....more read errors....fruck it, replace the bastard!

Fortunately the floppy is very easy to get to without taking anything apart....replaced drive, no more issues.... I knew there was a reason the floppy drive was placed in a strategically easy-to-get-to locale!!

Board BIOS is now updated and the board is baking in the oven. By the time this board's burn-in is complete, it'll be over 600 hours.

[Topcat]

Here's what became of the Sencore MAP 1870 from the cheap scores thread....

This machine in working order was maybe worth a grand or so in live bidding, maybe ~1500 or so if I were patient with a BIN.....but what fun is that....I didn't have squat in it, and I'd rather have some fun with it in it's unusual case. I added it to this thread; as it's now just kind of become "Topcat's test gear thread"...and that's what this machine has been made into. I acquired another machine that had a Tableau T3458is Forensic Bridge in it.... These are fabulous for data recovery; especially this model, it has interfaces for non-standard things these days; such as IDE & SCSI. I don't get many recovery requests from SCSI stuff anymore, but I still get quite a few in here with old non-functioning systems with IDE HDD's in them that they want the data recovered from. The forensic bridge makes it a lot easier & faster! ...and here we go!!



The PC needs some upgrades too. It came with an I7 920 and 3gb RAM.... I maxed it out. 24GB ram and a Xeon X5690.



Getting inside this critter. Very well constructed, but not the friendliest thing to work on.


Original cards in it. THis machine's original function is some kind of broadcast grade transport streamer. It's operation by a production engineer; well above my pay grade.




Coming apart to get to the CPU & RAM.



Finally got there. PSU is a Seasonic 650W. All UCC caps, I didn't have to service it.




CPU & RAM Upgrades installed.



Now for the GPU. Original was a 9400GT 1gb.... That really would have been ok for what this machine does....but I had a Quadro K2200 4GB in the bin....something a bit peppier.



Test firing it with all the new goodies....no problems....but it had a very early BIOS revision on it....so flash-o-rama!



Bada-bing!!



Now time to implement the Tableau interface and all its supporting hardware.... The SSD is the boot drive. There was nothing in this slot before. The optical came with the machine. Of course the Tableau unit, and the hot swap tray below is for a big capacity spinner. I haven't put a spinner in it yet....but that can be done any time.




Everything connected.



Interface cards; which consist of a USB3, SATA, and Firewwire.



Ready to fire!



Installing Win10 Enterprise.


Now time to test the interfaces. SATA:





IDE:



Initialized and accessible now:






Now for SCS...the one I was really curious about. No terminator needed and IO said hello!!



File structure.



All done and really happy how this turned out!!






I packed all the original hardware away and intact; including the drives...it can always be put back to its original form. I also got a hold of the company (Sencore). Fabulous company, they actually gave me copies of all the software that came with it, just incase....but I don't see me doing that. I still have to make cabling for the drives connecting to it, but that'll be easy....and portability so I don't have to have a permanent station set up...when not in use, just goes under the bench....but here's to another fine piece of gear for the shop!!

[Topcat]

A few more revisions on this and its first practical use.....

I needed to clone a Windows install from a spinner to a SSD for a client repair. Before, I always dragged out an old Dell tower with no drives in it....disassembled it, installed the 2 drives...well, you get the idea....so lets see if this can do it!

The 'destination' SSD installed in a 3.5" to 2.5" tray and installed in the removable rack. The 'source' spinner plugged into the 'bridge'.



System booted from Hirens...and drives all showed up...





Easy Peazy!! Cloned without errors.


Awesome machine and the beginning of making cabling & adapters for it.



There are two internal USB headers. I installed a mouse receiver in one; the touchpad is a pain in the ass when dealing with file movements. The other has a USB stick with Hiren's utilities. Default boot is 10 Enterprise that's installed on the SSD. If I need Hiren's, just F11 @ post and select the USB stick as the boot device.

Overall, quite handy and don't have much in it.

[sam_sam_sam]

TopCat

I bought the same thing for the duplicator from Tableau interface but I only bought the the the interface module and I did get it working
Tableau UltraBay 3D interface with the LCD screen display I have been looking for something to duplicate hard drives and USB flash drives but you I would have to put in a computer and copy it then remove put the cover back on the computer it was to much work

The unfortunate thing about this company that makes this device is very hush hush about there product setup first of all it is not all one place second you have to create an account to get certain information about there product also another issue is that they only have information on the current version of their new product which is the UltraBay 4D which is somewhat different than the 3D version but some of it is the same

One thing that you need to be aware of is that you have to have all the cables installed before you install the software other wise the screen will not function at all

Now I have to makeup some power supply cables for this device because I am putting it in a HP Elite 8300 CMT computer which does not have the old version connector for hard drives so I have removed some from an older switching power supply

I also need to modify the the 5 1/2 bay because this device takes up two spaces plus I want to have the CD drive in there as well so I still have more work to do

I just keep doing stupid shit I managed to fry my motherboard because I did not latch down the PCI card so now I have to get another motherboard before I can continue with this project unfortunately

It does not seem to have done anything to the Tableau UltraBay 3D interface module so it seems like I got lucky with that part

[sam_sam_sam]

Update

I got another motherboard and I now have it up and running now with it being reimagined to the factory settings and the recovery partition on a HP Elite 8200 CMT with the Tableau UltraBay 3D interface duplicator with the LCD screen display and the USB controller board installed with the locking tab in place so the board does not move in the PCI slot installed in HP computer case

Now the motherboard that got fried I going to remove the power cord connectors to the motherboard to power the CD rom drive and the hard drive to also power the Tableau UltraBay 3D interface so I use it correctly and not have it jerry rigged like I had it to test it weather or not the Tableau UltraBay 3D interface with the LCD screen display device worked or not now that I know it works it is time to do it the right way

When I have it up and running correctly I will start a new post about this device and how I am going to be using it

[Topcat]

The 1000 hour update (932.6 to be exact)....and one weird bug to report. This has occurred with 2 boards of the several hundred that have baked in the oven. Two identical boards that are extremely heavy on the 3.3v rail have created false memory failure errors with software (memtest). The 3.3v rail of the TPU is rated at 24A. These boards create a constant ~13A+ load on the 3.3v rail with bounces as high as ~17A; very few & far between... This isn't really a factor for anything, especially anything modern, both of these boards were netburst era Xeons; Supermicro P4DCE+ (RDRAM) to be exact. Two identical boards that created this and when retested on another power supply they tested fine; memory passed... I knew the memory was good to begin with, which is what made me suspicious... I've tested plenty of 3.3v heavy boards without issue, although these two here the highest I've ever seen pulling from the 3.3v rail.... I don't plan on any corrective action for this, as it's not really a factor for anything. I'm not sure what's even causing it. These boards pulled nothing from the 5v rail and lightly from the +12v rail..

[TechGeek]

The 1000 hour update (932.6 to be exact)....and one weird bug to report. This has occurred with 2 boards of the several hundred that have baked in the oven. Two identical boards that are extremely heavy on the 3.3v rail have created false memory failure errors with software (memtest). The 3.3v rail of the TPU is rated at 24A. These boards create a constant ~13A+ load on the 3.3v rail with bounces as high as ~17A; very few & far between... This isn't really a factor for anything, especially anything modern, both of these boards were netburst era Xeons; Supermicro P4DCE+ (RDRAM) to be exact. Two identical boards that created this and when retested on another power supply they tested fine; memory passed... I knew the memory was good to begin with, which is what made me suspicious... I've tested plenty of 3.3v heavy boards without issue, although these two here the highest I've ever seen pulling from the 3.3v rail.... I don't plan on any corrective action for this, as it's not really a factor for anything. I'm not sure what's even causing it. These boards pulled nothing from the 5v rail and lightly from the +12v rail..

Could it be that there's interference getting into the +3.3V rail through all of the accessory wiring and gadgets in the box? How do the rails look under load on an analog oscilloscope with a motherboard in it that flakes out?

[Topcat]

Could it be that there's interference getting into the +3.3V rail through all of the accessory wiring and gadgets in the box? How do the rails look under load on an analog oscilloscope with a motherboard in it that flakes out?

Clean enough, I looked. It wasn't a perfect flatline, there was a 14A load on it....but I've seen stable systems with far more noise. Hard to believe the rail would have been falsely rated given the maker of the unit; but that's the heaviest I've ever yanked on the 3.3v rail...voltage held true, never fluctuated/dropped beyond .2v under loads. Low/no load it's solid at 3.4v. At the highest load it was 3.2v.

Nothing modern really ever touches this rail anymore; I did have an Asus Westmere LGA1366 pull hard on the 3.3v rail, but this board was completely stable in the oven inspite the load. Just wondering if it was just a board being stubborn....I'm out of answers really. It was only this model board (P4DCE+) that ever created this issue; a matching pair of them, both did it.

[sam_sam_sam]

What type of switching power supply did it originally come with look at the specs on the 3.3 volt rail and this might enlighten you what might be going on and it might also be the supervisor ic chip not liking the fact that 3.3 volt is load more than the 5 volt power supply rail it might be 12 volt rail as well <— this is just a guess to what might be going on

[Topcat]

What type of switching power supply did it originally come with look at the specs on the 3.3 volt rail and this might enlighten you what might be going on and it might also be the supervisor ic chip not liking the fact that 3.3 volt is load more than the 5 volt power supply rail it might be 12 volt rail as well <— this is just a guess to what might be going on

It's an Emac 550W redundant server supply with a 3.3v rail rated @ 24A. I forget the model number. I haven't been able to replicate the issue with any other 3.3v heavy board I have here... Probably just write it off as a grouchy motherboard.

[sam_sam_sam]

Probably just write it off as a grouchy motherboard.

I would agree with you as long as you do not run into this issue again but with a different brand motherboard that requires a lot of current on the 3.3 volt rail or maybe find a switching power supply that can handle more current on the 3 volt rail as an option

I can see the benefits this jig that you made to test motherboard and it supporting components this a perfect example of how this setup gives you the ability and the data that is needed and required to be able to troubleshoot an issue easily this is one reason I followed this post very closely and read what you have said about the requirements that you had when building it

[Topcat]

The official 1000 hour update.... I ran a board this morning and checked on it a few minutes ago....clock is at 1004.4. Nothing to report other than one more digit rolled from zero to one!

[sam_sam_sam]

The official 1000 hour update.... I ran a board this morning and checked on it a few minutes ago....clock is at 1004.4. Nothing to report other than one more digit rolled from zero to one!

Are you torching your testing machine it was not that long ago that you put this machine together how much do you run it in a week

[Topcat]

Are you torching your testing machine it was not that long ago that you put this machine together how much do you run it in a week

Depends on the workload and just how much stuff needs to be tested. Not uncommon to bake things in it all night if testing excessively large amounts of RAM or slow stuff.....and of course for longevity testing. If needing to see how well things can handle heat; for example something that'll be in a harsher environment in the real world. I'll run them for hours with the exhaust fans turned down very low or off. Found lots of weird testing derivatives that proven to be quite useful.

[sam_sam_sam]

Depends on the workload and just how much stuff needs to be tested. Not uncommon to bake things in it all night if testing excessively large amounts of RAM or slow stuff.....and of course for longevity testing. If needing to see how well things can handle heat; for example something that'll be in a harsher environment in the real world. I'll run them for hours with the exhaust fans turned down very low or off. Found lots of weird testing derivatives that proven to be quite useful.

So another words you torture test devices interesting I will have to remember that you have the ability and the tools to do this type of testing

[Jose Antonio J]

I acquired another machine that had a Tableau T3458is Forensic Bridge in it.... These are fabulous for data recovery; especially this model, it has interfaces for non-standard things these days; such as IDE & SCSI. I don't get many recovery requests from SCSI stuff anymore, but I still get quite a few in here with old non-functioning systems with IDE HDD's in them that they want the data recovered from. The forensic bridge makes it a lot easier & faster! ...and here we go!!

Hi there!
How do you connect the Tableau T3458is Forensic Bridge to the motherboard??
Is it necessary to have FireWire or IDE/SCSI sockets on the motherboard to operate with front IDE/SCSI sockets??

[Topcat]

Hi there!
How do you connect the Tableau T3458is Forensic Bridge to the motherboard??
Is it necessary to have FireWire or IDE/SCSI sockets on the motherboard to operate with front IDE/SCSI sockets??

IIRC it uses both the USB and SATA. I know there's a SATA connected, don't remember if there's a USB connected but I think there is. I did not use the firewire interface....everything works. I think you can use one or the other between the USB and firewire.

[sam_sam_sam]

I will add something to this as well you do have downloaded the firmware and make sure that your system recognizes the device I personally could not get the FireWire to work correctly but could get the USB 3 cable to work but you do have to get the USB 3 PIC card from them for it to work correctly on older systems and your system needs to recognize it as well in the device manager

If you have a computer that has USB 3 dose not necessarily mean that the device ( Windows 7 ) will be found I ran into this issue with an older system

I also have very new computer and it has no issues with finding the device and working correctly ( Windows 11 )

It will work with this USB 3 PIC card
https://www.ebay.com/itm/315216805876

I have bought several of them from this seller before

One way to tell if you device is working correctly see if you can read a USB thumb drive or not if you can it is working correctly

The issue I have is that is that I cannot use it to copy drives for some reason which I have not figured out exactly what the issue is