The chassis expansion anthology for PowerMacs

[IIO]

well i guess for the "protools only" job it is proven that you can pack a 13 slot chassis full with PT cards and run it even with an oldworld mac.

but what, for example, will happen if you try to fill 13 slots with a combination of powercore accelerators and firewire 400 cards? is there a general rule how you can predict where the limits are? how can you make sure that the accelerator (which needs a minimum transfer rate to work properly) has priority over other cards?

[mrhappy]

picked up 2 different 7 slot chassis recently... one was the Digi branded SBS with cable and host card and the other was a Magma with cable but the 'wrong' host card... it had the SBS host card and that's why i bought it... a backup/ spare for the Digi chassis. Haven't hooked any of it up yet as I'm attempting to sort out some other problems first. Don't have any other info as of yet but if I get it working I can foreword the Magma and cable to someone here to experiment with.

[mrhappy]

Just got another Mix Farm card for my PT TDM rig so it's time to see if my Digidesign (SBS) 7 slot chassis is gonna work!?! I'm a little leery of pulling the cards out of the G4 and putting them into the chassis... anyway I guess I'm just looking for any advice on the process... pull them out/ put them all in the chassis at once and say a prayer?? or put them in one by one and test along the way? Sacrifice a small child or pet?? I HATE messing with ANYTHING that works!!

[Protools5LEGuy]

Lots of work!

Using a lot of PCI cards and a Chassis is kind of art...

I would start on a one by one with just the Core card on the mac without the SBS. And run "Be There" or any demo or advanced project.

Then a test with Core + One DSP card (The best looking/more new/without troubles) on the mac without the SBS. Test.

Empty the SBS and connect it to the Bus Mastering best slot. Some claim is the one under AGP. I would research it deeply to know it. Test there (SBS chassis) those 2 know working cards. Run DigiTest there. If OK, reboot and test a project. It is ok?

Then add DSP cards on a one by one basis. Run Digitest, reboot, run a project. Ok? add another one.

That should be the method to determine if a DSP card is  with your setup.

Some people can work with setups that don't pass Digitest. But that is living on the edge.
[youtube]7nqcL0mjMjw[/youtube]

 

[mrhappy]

Well I finally fired up the Digi(SBS) chassis! Did the 'one card at a time' thing and STILL had to fiddle around bunch, but got it working with 1 'Mix Core' card and 4 'Mix Farms'... (it took 4 adult beverages!;D) . I have 2 more Farms to put in there but only have a 5 node cable at this point.

I might look into replacing the fan/fans (I forget if there was one or two) at some point as they're a bit on the noisy side... certainly not MDD loud, but loud enough to want to quiet them down.

[acelera]

You can probably unplug the front case fans on your chassis. I did so in my 13 slot Magma/digi chassis and everything still works as it should, just as cool and without any noise!

Wish I could do the same with the MDD....

[mrhappy]

Yeah I haven't taken the chassis apart since I got it working. Was waiting till I get hold of a ribbon cable with more nodes (or make one out of two 5 node cables). When I add the other cards I was planning on checking out the fan situation and possibly finding a quieter replacement... wasn't thinking about just unplugging the current fan though... THAT seems like it would be an easy solution!!

[acelera]

I even bought replacement fans and while they were shipping, I went on Avid´s DUC forum and many people said they were just unplugging the fans, so that's what I did. 60 seconds job

[supernova777]

we love hearing the easy 0$ 2 second solutions 

[RTIInstaller]

I have the opportunity to buy a MH477 / DD007-R magma chassis from the original owner with all the parts  for $150.

I am running OS9 with 5.1.3
G4 quick silver 1.5 gigs ram
Fire wire for recording with a 7200rpm Seagate drive
Mix Core
Mix Core
Mix Farm
Mix Farm

I have three DSP farms sitting in a box which is why I am interested in the Magma chassis.

The debate is the guy selling it seems to think my system will be limited to 32 tracks or less because of the PCI bottle neck.

From the digi documentation it looks like I should net greater than 32 if I choose the 64 track option in the playback engine settings.

So what is the answer here?

[mrhappy]

The chassis doesn't have anything to do with limiting your track count... the limitation would be with 5.1.3 which is 64 'voices'? I think... if you need more than that, you can be clever and share 'voices' between tracks that play at different times.etc.

That chassis would be SBS and not Magma... just make sure that the 'host' card (that plugs into the computer) is included. The MH477 doesn't need a separate controller card for the chassis itself, as that is already integrated into the Chassis... just plug the cable from the host card into the connector on the back of the chassis.

Load the chassis with the two Mix Cores first, then the Mix Farms and finally the three DSP farms... I think it's from right to left (looking from the back of the chassis)

[RTIInstaller]

The chassis doesn't have anything to do with limiting your track count... the limitation would be with 5.1.3 which is 64 'voices'? I think... if you need more than that, you can be clever and share 'voices' between tracks that play at different times.etc.

That chassis would be SBS and not Magma... just make sure that the 'host' card (that plugs into the computer) is included. The MH477 doesn't need a separate controller card for the chassis itself, as that is already integrated into the Chassis... just plug the cable from the host card into the connector on the back of the chassis.

Load the chassis with the two Mix Cores first, then the Mix Farms and finally the three DSP farms... I think it's from right to left (looking from the back of the chassis)

Thanks,  Well this is the answer I was hoping for anyway, I was only hoping for 64 channels anyway.  Say I don't need any additional drivers for this do I? My understanding is that it is basically plug it in then Digi test to confirm?

[Knezzen]

You can use 64 tracks with your current setup as well. Just fire up Pro Tools and switch from 32 to 64 voices under Setup --> Playback engine.

Im running 7 Farm cards in a Magma chassis connected to a Dual 1.5ghz PowerMac G4 MDD.
No issued to report, as long as you stick to the built in controllers for your hard drives.
Don't use a PCI SATA or PATA cards with the system, there just isn't enough bandwidth on the bus for the Pro Tools cards and PCI hard drive controller to co-exist.

[RTIInstaller]

You can use 64 tracks with your current setup as well. Just fire up Pro Tools and switch from 32 to 64 voices under Setup --> Playback engine.

Im running 7 Farm cards in a Magma chassis connected to a Dual 1.5ghz PowerMac G4 MDD.
No issued to report, as long as you stick to the built in controllers for your hard drives.
Don't use a PCI SATA or PATA cards with the system, there just isn't enough bandwidth on the bus for the Pro Tools cards and PCI hard drive controller to co-exist.

I am in 64 track mode now with out an expansion chassis. The chassis I am looking at is as mentioned above not considered a "magma" but a standard SBS digidesign 7 slot expansion chassis built in 2000. I am using FireWire for recording

[mrhappy]

You don't need any additional drivers but you'll probably have to 'fiddle' with card seating and ribbon cable to get it all working properly... Speaking of the ribbon cable, if one is not included, you'll have to find one of those. The 5 node cables are easy to find, but the larger variations are harder to find. I'm searching for components to make my own, as I only have five node.

[RTIInstaller]

You don't need any additional drivers but you'll probably have to 'fiddle' with card seating and ribbon cable to get it all working properly... Speaking of the ribbon cable, if one is not included, you'll have to find one of those. The 5 node cables are easy to find, but the larger variations are harder to find. I'm searching for components to make my own, as I only have five node.

I am working with a company called Redmond cable to make me a seven Node cable. I am going to give them a spare 5 node to tinker with, but from first glance they say it is a Centronics 60 pin connector. I asked them if they could just use the parts from the spare cables I already have they said no. Typical responce.

[supernova777]

if you guys could attach pictures of your ribbon cables maybe that would help ?

[RTIInstaller]

if you guys could attach pictures of your ribbon cables maybe that would help ?

I installed all cards into the expansion chassis, the PCI card in the G4, fired it up ran digit test and it all works like a champ. I am getting 64 tracks no problem.  I am now about to head down the cable fabrication house to see what it is going to cost to build me a 7 node cable for the expansion chassis.

Note! It says in the digi documentation that older DSP farm cards with older  serial numbers wont work in the expansion chassis, I just tried it with an old DSP farm serial FF06475 and they do work so long as the AMCC chip number ends in QC or QE. I cant say this is true of every single card but it is working from me.

[mrhappy]

Hey that's good news! Loading up that chassis will give you some decent horsepower... I have 5 Mix cards installed and a few more to load up my chassis with when I get my cable thing sorted out. Let us know how you make out with the 7 node... If the price is reasonable, Redmond could become a good resource for PT Mix people!

[RTIInstaller]

Hey that's good news! Loading up that chassis will give you some decent horsepower... I have 5 Mix cards installed and a few more to load up my chassis with when I get my cable thing sorted out. Let us know how you make out with the 7 node... If the price is reasonable, Redmond could become a good resource for PT Mix people!

I went to the cable place, they are going to get back to me on a price. They need to decide if they are going to transplant the existing connectors to a longer chunk of cable, or if they are going to insist on new connectors. I said I was willing to pay for the transplant and take my chances. They don't however have the chuck of 30 conductor cable in stock, and mentioned they would have to buy a 100 foot spool of it, with me footing the bill :-/ 

So I went looking for the raw cable and found a local source for a $1.50 a foot  standard 34 conductor ribbon, the cable maker says they can just peal off 4 conductors which is probobly how the original cables were made anyway (they said), so I am going to pick that up and take it over to the cable makers.

I already have 2 X 5 node and 1 X 4 node cables so I have enough extra parts for a 7 node.  I informed them that there were a lot of people looking for 7, 8, and 10 node cables so if this one works out I would be sending them more business, I hope this gives them incentive to speed things up.