Optical Network Configurations

[lmitche]

[quote name=Using a higher voltage for the Fmc at 6v as provided or slightly higher should not cause any difference except for more heat produced and the upper limit of the regulators feeding the FMCs As circuits.Are the 2 psu the same, likely not.

 

There are no components using 6 v directly in the and almost certain the is fmc is preregulated down further by lower voltage regs feeding the various circuits and chips , some maybe as low as 1.5v. I would not try any voltage higher.[/quote]

 

Hi, thanks for your concern about my FMCs. The 9v rating comes directly from the TPLINK MCS210CS spec sheet:

 

External Power Adapter, 9V/0.6A or 5V/1A

 

It's does indeed sound better at 9 volts, I was surprised.

[justubes]

Is the power adaptor with adjustable voltage? There could be some supply impedence difference which would alter the sound.

 

If this was the case and was noticeable, give yourself a shot at better power supplies and you could be in for an even bigger surprise.

[justubes]

I tried to put myself in the DIY audio group buy but got no replies -- I was unsure about some of the options in the order -- I would also like the boards built -- at those prices I'd get a handful or two of them

 

You need to if the xo is a 4 pin version or the typical 2 pin xo which are in the groupbuy.

 

Swapping the out alone the AT cut oscillator would yield improvements. it has vastly superior phase noise over what you find in your fmc. I am looking also for the 4 pad vcxo from crystek or ndk. The assembled board would surely be better which another forumer can assemble for you. you could email him.

 

The biggest issue is getting them to fit in the fmc, that why I plan to start just doing a direct swap.

 

Paul pangs switch from what I see, uses a slightly upgraded vcxo and supply feeding the switch. There does not seem to have any comparisions made so far as to where the zyxel switch stands against to more expensive switches, but conceptually, he is on the right tract with the switch modification.

[John769]

The OEM version of the Diablo is $115 so worth a hack. I've asked Paul Pang to look into this himself. If he isn't interested in doing the mid himself I may break out my soldering iron

 

 

Interested in the Aliexpress item but anything further as to whether PP might do an upgrade? Reluctant to order from China just in case he does, and not up for DIY:)

 

 

An update on my ASRock Q1900M NAA build. First motherboard arrived DOA, so have new one and installed Mellanox card. Working but I'm having trouble iSCSI booting Windows via Mellanox Connectx-2 card -- looks like I might need FlexBoot 3.4 to do this but card has 3.3.500 and unsure 3.4 supported on Connectx-2. if anyone has any suggestions on doing this I'm all ears -- otherwise switching to Intel x520 NIC

 

 

Jabbr, how would you rate the Q1900M in general for audio? They are getting really cheap now- around £50UK

[jabbr]

Interested in the Aliexpress item but anything further as to whether PP might do an upgrade? Reluctant to order from China just in case he does, and not up for DIY:)

 

I haven't heard back yet.

 

Jabbr, how would you rate the Q1900M in general for audio? They are getting really cheap now- around £50UK

 

I can't rate this in isolation because my DN2800MT board doesn't have on board fiber ethernet and is running Ubuntu. The Q1900M doesn't yet have final power supply, has x520 fiber ethernet card and PPA V2 USB and sounds great. I think there are tradeoffs for each board and the cards/memory/cpu etc that goes into each board. The Q1900M was easy to install Windows 10 on and has 3 PCI-e slots in case you need more than 1 PCI-e slot (in mini-itx boards) but as a micro-ATX board, it requires a much larger case.

[victor]

Hi,

 

Yesterday I tried connecting my servers and players using fibre and I got mixed results.

 

When both sides were using 1GB Ethernet cards (HQPlayer PC <---> NAA) it worked flawlessly but when using 1GB Ethernet in one side and 100Mb in the other (Logitech Media Server PC <---> Squeezebox Duet) it did not work

 

Please, have a look to the image below. Is there anything wrong in the 1Gb <---> 100Mb configuration? (I thought that maybe I needed 200Mb transceivers but I cannot find them so I guess that it is not the issue)

 

 

(Click in the image for higher resolution)

 

Cheers,

 

Victor.

[tgb]

hi Victor,

are you talking about this TrendNet ? => TRENDnet | Products | TFC-1000MGA | 100/1000BASE-T to SFP Media Converter

did you open the FMC (using the big steel screw next to the RJ45 port) & put the 2 tiny white switches "on" ?

these 2 tiny switches enables or not the autonegotiation & LLR functions, when I received they were "off".

No reason it should not work with inside switches both "on".

Keep informed if still into trouble

Rgds

[victor]

Thanks for the reply.

 

Yes, both TrendNet are TFC-1000MGA and I did not open the case. I will do tonight as you explain but, do you think that it could explain that it works perfectly in one case and not in the other as per the previous picture?

 

Cheers

[Ben-M]

I tried to put myself in the DIY audio group buy but got no replies -- I was unsure about some of the options in the order -- I would also like the boards built -- at those prices I'd get a handful or two of them

 

Where's this Group Buy?

[victor]

Thanks for the reply.

 

Yes, both TrendNet are TFC-1000MGA and I did not open the case. I will do tonight as you explain but, do you think that it could explain that it works perfectly in one case and not in the other as per the previous picture?

 

Cheers

 

I just saw that you already explained exactly this case with the TrendNet in previous page, do not bother to reply again, sorry about it.

[gldgate]

For reference to the TrendNet TFC-1000MGA FMC's, the internal dipswitch positions are as follows:

 

switch 1 "on" = forced mode

switch 1 "off" = auto negotiation

switch 2 "on" = LLR (Link Loss Return) enabled

switch 2 "off" = LLR disabled

 

All my TrendNet FMC's (I have 3 of them) came with dipswitch set to "off" (auto negotiate, LLR disabled)

 

From the instructions, if LLR is enabled in one FMC it must be disabled in the other FMC.

[victor]

Thank you both for the explanation.

 

Mine came with both switches set to off, I set them both to on and, Voilá, it worked perfectly with 1Gb at one side and 100Mb at the other.

 

Now, off to listen...

 

Cheers

[tgb]

hi Victor & gldgate,

sorry but something weird here :

when I received the trendnet I put both switches ON, because I thought it was autonego ON + LLR ON (I was wrong according to the datasheet...)

tonight I check the switches : ON, as I'm wrong I change them both to OFF => I still have music !?

Knonwing that I have : 1Gb SFP on the switch, thus 1Gb SFP on the Trendnet, R45 from FMC to my streamer that works at 100Mb !?

I wonder if my bloody streamer has a 1Gb interface in fact...

I'm confused, but music is oin the air, so that's fine !

 

"Forced" means 1Gb if you have 1Gb SFP in ? right ?

 

Fine if you have music tonight Victor !

Rgds

[gldgate]

After reading the instructions, I think the default settings (autonegotiate, LLR disable) are what I would expect and what the majoritiy of users are looking for. However, as Victor did, no harm in changing settings if Plan A does not work.

[tgb]

Here are some "unboxing" pictures of the fiberoptic switch:

 

Note supply could be either 7.5 or 5V 2A i.e. Anker battery can supply (or LPS).

[ATTACH=CONFIG]19892[/ATTACH]

 

Hi Jabbr,

As you have both switches, GT-Tech & & TP-Link SG5412F. Did you compared them ? Do they sound differently ? One "better" than the other ?

Thanks

Rgds

[jabbr]

Slight preference for the GT-tech. Not night & day but it's also LPS or battery powerable.

[tgb]

Dear all,

First sorry about my really confused last post... I was lost in front that tiny switches of the Trendnet, the FMC in front of the streamer.

 

GOOD NEWS ! It works perfectly & nicely !

I complained about a slightly harsh sound, slighty because only annoying (for me) during long hours of music (just to have music in the house)

Now it's fixed ! The TrendNet mini-switches position was wrong !

When I received the TrendNet, both switches were OFF.

I thought I was right to put them both ON

then the optical networks brought 3D, space, air, precision details etc, fine, but it sounded harsh (unnatural tone/timbre) and was not happy with that.

Thus I had the post-exchange related to the mmini-switches => tried other position => and the winner is :

switch 1 => ON (forced)

switch 2 => OFF (LLR disable)

with that setting : tone is OK, and the other postive point brought by the optical network are still there of course.

 

for info :

- picture of the setting => http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/197117TrendNetboardswitchesfleches.jpg

- on the french forum, I gave the info to Gillight2, another tester of the optical network facing the same tone issue => issue solved => here is his final report & impression : Réseau Optique : Musique dématérialisée - Page 15

 

Really amazing stuff... but only when 2 tiny switches are on the right position !?

We spent quite a long time to sort it out, but it worthed it so much !!!!

Again, thanks to you Jabbr & others to have had that really weird idea to install a fiber network at home ! :-)

[DavidL]

I've been following this thread for some time. I don't envy those who are trying to isolate PCs that play their music: it looks complex and prone to gotchas. I'm fortunate in having a simple system: NAS > switch > bridge > switch > Sonore Rendu > hifi. The first switch links in 3 computers and other stuff and the second switch all my AV stuff.

 

Judging from others' experience the best option appears to be to isolate the last network step from the second switch to the Rendu, so I bought a couple of TP-Link MC100CM converters which I connected back-to-back using 2m of SC-SC multimode fibre (OM2 spec). Initially I could not get a link to the Rendu because the fibre optic cable I bought came as 2 cables and a pair of plastic clips to join the ends to form the SC plugs to insert into the converters and I mistakingly joined the cables so that I had TX connected to TX and FX to FX between the converters, rather than TX to FX and FX to TX.

 

Once I corrected this, the system worked fine. The effect on sound quality is a definite but subtle improvement in my setup: better definition, ‘cleaner’ treble and more detail particularly at low volume settings.

 

So I'd strongly recommend this approach to anyone using a NAS as a music server (I use Minimserver) and playing it back directly via ethernet. Very good value for the money - switching to a high-end interconnect would cost a lot more.

[ted_b]

So the Rendu is the only source device I haven't "fiber-ized" yet, mainly due to the 10/100 category it sits in (i.e incompatible with giagbit only). So....can this TP-Link 10/100 box co-exist with my Diablo fiber switch; i.e. can I add the required dual SC SFP's to my Diablo box and have it handle both SC and LC SFPs, cuz I have 4 or 5 SFP slots remaining?

 

Edit: or is the Trendnet TFC-1000-MGA a better match for my Diablo (and Rendu)?

[DavidL]

Can't answer your question about fitting in a gigabit fibre network, but certainly no problem with a wired gigabit ethernet.

 

I should have mentioned that I replaced the SMPS that came with the TP-Link converters by linear power supplies. I guess this contributed to the sound quality improvement.

[tgb]

hi ted_b,

you're right : the TrendNet is the one you need!

- a 1Gb SFP into your Diablo

- a 1Gb SFP into the TrendNet

- a fiber in between

- open the TrendNet to set the mini switches as I mentioned above, see picture.

- This TrendNet powered by a simple power bank

- no device plugged on the rj45 port of the Diablo

and that's it!

Rgds

[jabbr]

If you have an SC device on one end and an LC on the other use a cable that has that.

 

However if you have a 100base-sx device -- that is designed for 100 mb fiber speed, you may need a 100/1000 SFP and even then may not work with switch

 

My advice is to use 1gbs on the fiber end

[tgb]

hi ted and jabbr,

to deal correctly with the rendu, a 100mb device,

you need a fmc that is able to deal with 100mb on its rj45 output.

1. the tplink 10/100 have a speed of 100mb on its rj45 output, its fiber input is 100mb too.

thus on the other side of the fiber, on the switch, you need another 100mb SFP.

But the Diablo accepts only 1Gb SFP. So it can't work that way.

A Tplink switch, can't remember its reference have combo 100/1000 SFP slots, with such a switch you can put a 100mb SFP. The switch will deal with it and do the auto negotiation.

2. The easy way is to use the TrendNet, the way I mentioned above. It's what I and Gillight2 did here, and the result is bloody good :-)

regarding LC or SC SFPs, as usual LC are cheaper and more common than SC.

Rgds

[jabbr]

hi ted and jabbr,

to deal correctly with the rendu, a 100mb device,

you need a fmc that is able to deal with 100mb on its rj45 output.

1. the tplink 10/100 have a speed of 100mb on its rj45 output, its fiber input is 100mb too.

thus on the other side of the fiber, on the switch, you need another 100mb SFP.

But the Diablo accepts only 1Gb SFP. So it can't work that way.

A Tplink switch, can't remember its reference have combo 100/1000 SFP slots, with such a switch you can put a 100mb SFP. The switch will deal with it and do the auto negotiation.

2. The easy way is to use the TrendNet, the way I mentioned above. It's what I and Gillight2 did here, and the result is bloody good :-)

regarding LC or SC SFPs, as usual LC are cheaper and more common than SC.

Rgds

 

Yes that's right, although I'm not sure there are SC SFPs ... at least not any that I've seen. If its SC its likely an XFP module which is older and won't work (different size). But yes the Trendnet FMC is clearly the one to use.

[sm31]

hi ted and jabbr,

to deal correctly with the rendu, a 100mb device,

you need a fmc that is able to deal with 100mb on its rj45 output.

1. the tplink 10/100 have a speed of 100mb on its rj45 output, its fiber input is 100mb too.

thus on the other side of the fiber, on the switch, you need another 100mb SFP.

But the Diablo accepts only 1Gb SFP. So it can't work that way.

A Tplink switch, can't remember its reference have combo 100/1000 SFP slots, with such a switch you can put a 100mb SFP. The switch will deal with it and do the auto negotiation.

2. The easy way is to use the TrendNet, the way I mentioned above. It's what I and Gillight2 did here, and the result is bloody good :-)

regarding LC or SC SFPs, as usual LC are cheaper and more common than SC.

Rgds

So if I'm understanding right, there's no advantage to the tplink over the trendnet; that if you want flexibility of 100mb or gigabit on the RJ45, you get the trendnet?