EtherREGEN: The long development thread. [Some Gen2 dev. pics and update starting on page 92.]

[JohnSwenson]

8 hours ago, wizardofoz said:

@Superdad Just wondering why the DAC in the diagram appears to be a 5 port Linksys switch...I can understand not favoring one company dac over another but maybe something that is more DAC like would be better.

Think of the lights as being 44.1 48 88.2 96 ...

 

John S.

[HumanMedia]

“Clear off the table-tennis table. It’s time.”

 

 

[Superdad]

16 hours ago, HumanMedia said:

“Clear off the table-tennis table. It’s time.”

 

Sure is! 

Almost all the EtherREGEN circuit boards for the first run have arrived. In the morning we’ll begin spreading them out and adhering the heat sinks with the custom-mixed thermal compound, then flashing the microprocessors, testing, etc.  Busy weeks ahead. I’ll post pics as we go.

 

To prepare for the work ahead, I took a relaxing few days away with my dear wife. Some hiking, some meditating, some nice BBQ, and some fine wine and rye. The fall colors were lovely, as was the weather—until our departure this morning, when the temperature dropped, the wind came up, and it began to snow.

 

[stevebythebay]

11 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

Sure is! 

Almost all the EtherREGEN circuit boards for the first run have arrived. In the morning we’ll begin spreading them out and adhering the heat sinks with the custom-mixed thermal compound, then flashing the microprocessors, testing, etc.  Busy weeks ahead. I’ll post pics as we go.

 

To prepare for the work ahead, I took a relaxing few days away with my dear wife. Some hiking, some meditating, some nice BBQ, and some fine wine and rye. The fall colors were lovely, as was the weather—until our departure this morning, when the temperature dropped, the wind came up, and it began to snow.

 

Now that’s the way to get reenergized. 

[Aidagent]

A big moment. I just made the payment to Audiostore for my unit in the first run. I just can’t miss this one!

[tims]

14 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

Sure is! 

Almost all the EtherREGEN circuit boards for the first run have arrived. In the morning we’ll begin spreading them out and adhering the heat sinks with the custom-mixed thermal compound, then flashing the microprocessors, testing, etc.  Busy weeks ahead. I’ll post pics as we go.

 

To prepare for the work ahead, I took a relaxing few days away with my dear wife. Some hiking, some meditating, some nice BBQ, and some fine wine and rye. The fall colors were lovely, as was the weather—until our departure this morning, when the temperature dropped, the wind came up, and it began to snow.

 

Looks lovely – which national park is this?

[Superdad]

1 hour ago, tims said:

Looks lovely – which national park is this?

 

While we live quite near Yosemite National Park, our trip was over the pass--on the east side of the Sierras--to Convict Lake, just a few minutes from Mammoth Lakes (a place we would love to ski someday but the Tioga Pass is closed in the winter and we would have to drive 7+ hours around!). Here is me by a lovely creek--trying hard to not think about EtherREGENs! (Though I can't seem to keep them from haunting my dreams)

 

 

So we got into it fully today:

 

250 cases with feet and front panels attached.

 

Close to $500 worth of custom-mixed 2-part thermal compound/adhesive. The stuff works really well but I'm looking for an electric or pneumatic dispensing gun because it is thick and my assistant's hand was cramping after a few hours. Told her to go home and squeeze a tennis ball for training! 

 

The 3 different size/type of heat sinks we are attaching.

 

 

First 23 boards (all the 50-Ohm units) with their heat sinks attached. Slow going, but I think Tina will get faster after a bit of practice.  Just another 222 boards to go.  And then on to flashing the code onto 'A' and 'B' sides, and then fully testing each unit for function.

 

 

[PYP]

Alex,

if it helps, a bunch of us could drop by and help with a EtherREGEN raising.  You know, work a few hours then hang at your home.  Just a week or so.  

 

OK, just kidding, and hope that nightmare isn't added to your current one.  

 

And Tina probably has 155 members of her fan club right now.  Take care.  

[Middy]

If you have hand press or fly press  you could make a simple holder to dispense the 2 part into a dish. / On a HSink

 

1. Pushing rods Tapped mild steel rods in a plate. Or a simple small wooden block with 2 dowels screwed in. Slightly longer than the syringe..

 

2.Base is just a block to hold the dual syringes. (Drill 2 holes)

4 off feet to raise it off the plate so a mixing tray can fit underneath. Or an upside down heatsink... cocktail stick mix and fit.

Fancy systems use pneumatic or worm screws. 

So...

2 blocks of wood and a length of Dowling.  A drill and 6 screws

If you have press handy....?

And a happy assistant who wont crush your hand as you wish her happy holidays..

 

More an excuse to wish you all luck, been lovely watching this take shape.

Have a lovely break.

Kind regards

Dave 

 

PS if in the picture they are black anodised blocks, cutting up the clear trays make free mixing trays....

[nickwill]

https://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/julie926/product-detailiNRQdmMKYEct/China-Silicone-Sealant-Cordless-Caulking-Gun-Battery-Caulking-Gun-Electric-Caulking-Gun.html

 

Something like this? May need modifying 

[Cable Monkey]

 Interesting to think that one of these is mine! 

[pl_svn]

... how can you be sure you were among the first 23 buyers? 😛

[jcn3]

1 hour ago, pl_svn said:

... how can you be sure you were among the first 23 buyers? 😛

 

because he must have ordered a 50 ohm unit (see alex's post above).

[frederick184]

Thinking of purchasing an EtherRegen, but wondering where to put it for best effect.  My system comprises a server on the second floor of my house, and an endpoint (i7 NUC) on the ground floor feeding my DAC.  Between the two is Wifi.  I have an Eero Pro mesh network with the gateway in the same room as the server and two extenders, one in my kitchen and one in my listening room.

 

As the Eero extenders have two Ethernet ports, I thought about feeding the EtherRegen from the Eero in the listening room and connecting the other side to the NUC.  I tried this with a Cisco 2960 switch but didn't hear any difference, but I'm interested in hearing everyone's thoughts.

 

Colin

[Superdad]

5 minutes ago, frederick184 said:

Thinking of purchasing an EtherRegen, but wondering where to put it for best effect.  My system comprises a server on the second floor of my house, and an endpoint (i7 NUC) on the ground floor feeding my DAC. 

 

Hi Colin:

Connect the 'B' side of the EtherREGEN directly to your NUC.  Don't care how or where you feed the 'A' side from. 

[frederick184]

Hi Alex,

 

Understood.  Doesn't matter where it's fed from.  I guess what I was getting at was is it likely to make a difference on the other side of wifi.  I know, buy one and try it 🙂

 

Colin

[skatbelt]

From the User Guide:

 

"If you are going to hear a difference with an Ethernet cable, it will more likely be with the ‘B’-side cable. This is also a good one to keep short."

 

@Superdad what is the definition of short in this regard? What would be the maximum length without a compromise to SQ?

[JohnSwenson]

12 minutes ago, skatbelt said:

From the User Guide:

 

"If you are going to hear a difference with an Ethernet cable, it will more likely be with the ‘B’-side cable. This is also a good one to keep short."

 

@Superdad what is the definition of short in this regard? What would be the maximum length without a compromise to SQ?

There is no way to come up with a definitive answer to that, hearing is different, what you are listening for is different, what you plug it into is different.

 

2 feet is short,

200 feet is long

 

The threshold is going to be in between those.

 

My suggestion is to not obsess over this. If you have a choice as to how close the EtherREGEN is to the endpoint, choose a shorter distance and don't worry about it.

 

John S.

[stevebythebay]

Maybe someone can enlighten us all about cable lengths. My understanding is that 1.5M is the ideal short length of typically mass produced cables to avoid signal wave reflections (return) affects. Apparently 1M is problematic due to the timing of the wave return.  However, I’ll readily admit this was prevalent in the early days of Ethernet, when transmitting devices were far less mature and had trouble making sense of propagation signal origin. 
 

I’ve seen this also come up with HDMI in the video realm, though I’m uncertain how such things work with, say USB or other interface designs. 

[thyname]

I am one of the lucky ones scheduled to receive my EtherREGEN in November. I know there are still a couple of weeks left, but I wanted to make sure I am good to go then, so hopefully @Superdad and others can help:

 

1 - I have a LPS-1.2 already, that I plan to use with EtherREGEN. I remember reading something a long time ago here that I would need to use the 12v setting on LPS-1.2. Is this correct? I know it can also go down to 7v

 

2 - I am using an opticalModule upstream to "feed" the EtherREGEN via optical. I know it's probably not necessary, but I already have it. So I need to buy a SFP module for EtherREGEN. The Uptone site says "gigabit, either SX multi-mode, LX multi-mode, or LX single-mode", which makes it even more confusing. Any way you can post a link (or two) from Amazon on these modules that are compatible with EtherREGEN?

 

Thanks!

[jcn3]

21 minutes ago, stevebythebay said:

Maybe someone can enlighten us all about cable lengths. My understanding is that 1.5M is the ideal short length of typically mass produced cables to avoid signal wave reflections (return) affects. Apparently 1M is problematic due to the timing of the wave return.  However, I’ll readily admit this was prevalent in the early days of Ethernet, when transmitting devices were far less mature and had trouble making sense of propagation signal origin. 
 

I’ve seen this also come up with HDMI in the video realm, though I’m uncertain how such things work with, say USB or other interface designs. 

Did you read John S's post right above yours? Net, net he said to not worry about it. 

[LowMidHigh]

27 minutes ago, stevebythebay said:

Maybe someone can enlighten us all about cable lengths. My understanding is that 1.5M is the ideal short length of typically mass produced cables to avoid signal wave reflections (return) affects. Apparently 1M is problematic due to the timing of the wave return.  However, I’ll readily admit this was prevalent in the early days of Ethernet, when transmitting devices were far less mature and had trouble making sense of propagation signal origin. 
 

I’ve seen this also come up with HDMI in the video realm, though I’m uncertain how such things work with, say USB or other interface designs. 

 

That theory--that I recalled vaguely was debunked--applied strictly to coax cables.

[Superdad]

22 minutes ago, thyname said:

1 - I have a LPS-1.2 already, that I plan to use with EtherREGEN. I remember reading something a long time ago here that I would need to use the 12v setting on LPS-1.2. Is this correct? I know it can also go down to 7v.

 

Lowest current draw by the EtherREGEN will be with 12V input.  An LPS-1.2 can power an EtherREGEN when set to 9V or 12V (but not 7V as current draw gets too high), but please use 12V setting.

And because the UltraCap LPS-1.2 is a "floating" supply, you may want to use the Ground screw of the EtherREGEN if you have multiple other copper network attachments on the 'A' side. This is well-covered in the User Guide.

If the only 'A'-side connection you are making is via the optical SFP cage, then you do not need to use the Ground screw.

 

22 minutes ago, thyname said:

2 - I am using an opticalModule upstream to "feed" the EtherREGEN via optical. I know it's probably not necessary, but I already have it. So I need to buy a SFP module for EtherREGEN. The Uptone site says "gigabit, either SX multi-mode, LX multi-mode, or LX single-mode", which makes it even more confusing. Any way you can post a link (or two) from Amazon on these modules that are compatible with EtherREGEN?

 

Sure. Here are the cheap ones that I have been using--for experimentation between my Cisco Catalyst and the EtherREGEN, and now at our production Q.C. station to confirm SFP port function of each unit:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U77VPX2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1   

 

Here is the TP-Link version which Sonore sells for $20, but which for some reason is $57 on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/TL-SM311LM-Multi-mode-MiniGBIC-interface-distance/dp/B003CFATYM/

 

The above are for use with Multi-mode fiber.  If you have single mode fiber cable then here is the TP-Link for that:

https://www.amazon.com/TL-SM311LM-Multi-mode-MiniGBIC-interface-distance/dp/B003CFATYW/ (yes, I know that the URL text says Multi-mode, but the 'W' at the end brings up the Single-mode version).

 

The important thing is that the modules used at each end be the same type--but they do not have to be the same brand.

 

 

[thyname]

28 minutes ago, Superdad said:

And because the UltraCap LPS-1.2 is a "floating" supply, you may want to use the Ground screw of the EtherREGEN if you have multiple other copper network attachments on the 'A' side. This is well-covered in the User Guide.

If the only 'A'-side connection you are making is via the optical SFP cage, then you do not need to use the Ground screw.

 

Thank you so much @Superdad ! much appreciated.

 

I am only using the A-side with optical from opticalModule (the B-side will feed my audio), so I should be OK with no ground wire / screw. Thanks for clarifying.

 

I will go ahead and order an SFP optical transceiver module from Sonore. 

[thyname]

On 9/29/2019 at 3:31 AM, octaviars said:

If you are going to connect a external clock that "shoud outperform in theory" the internal clock you most certanly will have to use good quality cable with crimped (soldering is not a good way of doing BNC connections) BNC connectors so the cable and contact dont affect the 10MHz signal

 

I just ordered this cable for this purpose:

 

https://www.ghentaudio.com/part/e07.html

 

it's cheap enough for me to experiment and try clocking the EtherREGEN with my MSB Discrete DAC world clock output