Antoine's system

[Antoine]

Well it’s that time of ‘misfortune’. Yesterday I found out my SR-7 was outputting only 10.5V or so from the high power output that was set to 12V by Paul. I found out because recently my music server was acting up, I often found it had rebooted itself. But it could run for hours/days without issue as well.

Inititally I focussed my troubleshooting on the music server itself and because in its normal ‘headless’ setup it isn’t connected to a screen I removed it from the system and took it upstairs where I connected it to my HDPlex PSU there it would run without issue (which now makes sense) but in an attempt to resolve the issue I practically rebuilt it. The server (Windows Server 2012R2 in Core mode with AO) doesn’t even run a GUI so it was actually a coincidence I yesterday noticed the low voltage of the 12V sensor. What I was actually trying to find out was if the SSD showed errors.

This afternoon I actually measured the 12V output of the SR-7 and it turned out to be the cause. All other rails were still at exactly the same voltages as before. I opened the PSU and tried to up the voltage using the variable resistor (?) potmeter and I could raise it but not over 11.56V.

So I’ll have to arrange something with Paul. As I read he’s off until the 2nd of January I’ll send him an email and have connected the server again. I’m hoping I at least can keep using it until the issue is resolved.

This is actually in a period in which I started to change some things. I setup the NUC with Audiolinux, bought a Ghentaudio Gotham DC cable for it. Tried to tweaknsome harshness out of that setup by upgrading the Curious USB cable to a Phasure Lush^2 cable. But now I no longer trust the results because of this issue.

To complete my bad luck I’m still waiting for a 2nd hand Uptone LPS1.2 PSU with a Ghentaudio Gotham DC lead. That should have been delivered to me last Wednesday but nothing yet. Tracking indicates it’s in NL but delayed. Could be “lost” as well, don’t know, no one can tell me. The postal company won’t help me either since I’m not the sender but the sender has offered to file a claim. Could just be the busy days before Christmas, perhaps it’ll show up later this week after Christmas.

OK I’m off. Merry Christmas to anyone reading this!!

[Antoine]

Well, my luck seems to have really run out..   

Yesterday I bought two USB sticks (Samsung Bar Plus 32GB), setup the latest version of Audiolinux (0.8) on my DIY music server previously running Server 2012 R2 with AO, disconnected to local SSD drive, restored my Roon database to the USB stick and pointed Roon to my NAS to find my music files. I also reinstalled AL to the new (faster) Samsung USB drive and reconfigured it.

To directly connect the AL endpoint I setup a bridge on the AL server. The script in AL didn’t work but after some troubleshooting I found the script wasn’t complete and found I needed to add some extra configuration files. OK, then the mounting of an external drive (my NAS) over cifs/Samba didn’t work after a reboot but I found out the spaces or ‘ character were to blame, after renaming the share name to ‘music’ this also worked.

When I wanted to reinstall the server in my system downstairs I heard strange ticking noises. At first I heard it coming from the Devialet but later found the source of these ticks (sounded like sparks jumping) was the PS Audio P3 Power Plant...over five years old so out of warranty..aaaaaaargh... 

Disconnecting the devices one by one the ticking remained and they didn’t stop with nothing connected or when I connected the P3 to a diffferent outlet using a different AC cable.

Sick of this I opened the P3 and found the ticking came from a specific part of the P3 and looking closer I found one condensator didn’t look quite right...it should be flat on top!

After removing the entire regeneration unit this morning I’ve desoldered the faulty condensator from the P3 to replace it later, for now the P3 works again, without ticking.

   

[Antoine]

On a more positive note. I contacted Paul Hynes because of the faulty high power output of my SR7 PSU and he replied quickly. 

Since I indicated I’d rather not send the entire PSU back and would be willing to troubleshoot this with him or would be able to swap the modules myself (would this be necessary) he offered to replace the module and send a new one to me.

He will add it to the build queue and it will be build in two weeks. All free of charge and I don’t even need to send the old module back!!! Now that’s great service, couldn’t hope for a better solution, all the more since the SR7 has been out of warranty since 5 months or so.

[baconbrain]

When it rains, it pours .... Funny how it always seems that stuff breaks in batches (for me, mostly 3 things at once)

On the positive side, it sounds like your luck is now turning back in your favor.

[Antoine]

When it rains, it pours .... Funny how it always seems that stuff breaks in batches (for me, mostly 3 things at once)

On the positive side, it sounds like your luck is now turning back in your favor.

So true, unfortunately! The Hynes PSU and PS Audio P3, that’s two and I did not mention one of my teeth also cracked back then, which was three!   If I would add the LPS1.2 I bought second hand that is still lost in the mail (since december 15th, I did get a refund) that would be four.

Hynes said he would add a new module to his build schedule over two weeks ago but Hynes being Hynes: I’m still waiting. But since he does it free of charge I guess I can’t complain.

Since I had some other priorities lately all wasn’t given very much priority but I ordered ten new 2700uF/63V/105degC replacement caps from Mouser yesterday so I can replace all nine of them in the P3 in one go.

I also ordered the NUC7i7DNHE NUC, 2x4GB of RAM and and Akasa Plato X7D fanless case for it earlier this week to replace/complement the NUC7PJYH.

And finally I replaced two FMC’s and one switch in my office room with a D-Link DGS1210-10 managed switch which has two integrated fiber ether ports to get rid of the clutter of three wall warts (the switch is AC powered), the FMC’s and two extra ethernet cables. It was an ‘open box’ deal from Amazon and dirt cheap so I thought why not.

[Antoine]

The module in the SR7 previously powering the DIY music server got worse progressively. Today I was forced to get my old HDPlex 12/19V PSU (v1) out of the closet again since the server would either not boot completely or reboot after just some minutes of uptime. 

Doesn’t sound bad at all! The brightness/brittle highs that had crept in seems to be gone..but so are the amazing micro and macro dynamics, air and liveliness. Still 3D but it’s a more intimate sound now. Anyway, it’s all useless descriptions, can’t wait to go/get back to my baseline system state. At least I could listen to some music this afternoon. 

[Antoine]

I’ve replaced four caps in the P3 so it’s back to its original filter reservoir capacity. Perhaps I’ll change the other original caps at a later time using a better soldering iron because it was very difficult to get them all of the board without damaging the board itself.

Yesterday after work I picked up the NUC7i7DNHE, 2x 4GB Kingston HyperX LT (2400MHz, CL14, 1.2V) memory and Akasa Plato X7D fanless case. Building it was again very easy and it works using the same AudioLinux USB stick so an easy drop-in replacement of the NUC7PJYH NUC that’s currently my Roon endpoint. Should also work using my Roon Server/AL USB stick except I then won’t be able to use the network bridge as this NUC has only one ethernet interface.

Of course I disabled -everything- in the BIOS not needed and set it to low power mode which disabled the CPU turbo, hyper threading etc.

   

[Antoine]

Picture of the inside. Just the bare essentials connected/added so I removed the WiFi card and did not hook up the serial port and USB2.0 ports. I shielded the cable connecting the power button and LED’s to prevent it from working as an antenna.

Also applied some EMI absorber material (3M AB5100HFS) on the connectors. The Akasa case already has some other shielding material on the front and back where the connectors are. I’ll apply some more later covering the RAM modules like Innuos and other manafacturers do and perhaps use some in the case or on other IC’s too. I want to ‘baseline it’ first like this.

   

[thumb5]

Nice, looks very clean

Purely out of interest, how much power can the case dissipate?

[Antoine]

Nice, looks very clean

Purely out of interest, how much power can the case dissipate?

Thanks Ian!

Regarding the max power the case can dissipate; I’m not sure. Akasa specifically specifies the NUC models suited for each case they make and they have a lot. So this is different from the likes of HDPlex and Streacom who make generic cases. It does take out the guess work.