EtherREGEN: Installation, Usage, Difficulty, Questions thread

[octaviars]

Got my etherREGEN today (FedEx tried to deliver yesterday). First after it got up to room temperature I connected it to my PSU with variable voltage and it draws 0,6A at 12V and 1,0A at 7V that is 7,2 and 7,0W (no other connections). So I think the heat will be much the same no matter what voltage you use.

 

Now I have it connected to my Devialet Phantom and it will stay there until tomorrow.

I use fiber from my Ubiquiti Router and that worked right away without any hassle. 

 

 

Tomorrow I will move it in to my main system and it will replace a Netgear GS108 with grounded PSU. 

 

 

[octaviars]

Left my etherREGEN over night playing music to my Devialet Phantom (Qobuz) and it was still playing this morning. So I feel the Ubiquiti Router, FS SFP modules and etherREGEN are working well together in my second system. 

 

It was hot to the touch (using stock PSU) with a bare hand so I have borrowed a IR thermometer and will measure it later today to see what temperature it runs at.

 

Tonight I will swap out my Netgear switch and also place the etherREGEN on the wall so it gets better cooling and in my case the air from the fan cooling the cabinet will flow over it.

[octaviars]

6 minutes ago, _JL_ said:

I custom ordered heatsinks for the ER (and also Ultracap LPS).

 

This is something I also have considered if it still runs hot when mounted on the wall.

 

Where did you buy the heatsink?

[octaviars]

I have some measurments of how hot my etherRegen runs, between 47-48C and the cabinet is around 29C and stock PSU.

[octaviars]

3 hours ago, FrankMA said:

Upgraded to Roon 1.7 and both Tidal/Qobuz have empty playlists and streaming fails on those tracks.  Connectivity issues every 1/2 hour.

 

I run Roon 1.7 and Qobuz with zero problems, seems that the problems with 1.7 only affects some setups. Played several hours last night with my eR connected no issues.

[octaviars]

1 minute ago, thotdoc said:

Without setting up another player, is there a way I could tell it is Roon?

 

Have updated Roon to latest version 1.7 build 505?

[octaviars]

@Superdad I will give you a second chance to answer this as it might got missed in the other thread

 

I still wonder about the CE marking of a product that you sell to stores within the EU and directly to customers within the EU, why is there no CE aproval on the etherREGEN?

 

https://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/ce-marking/manufacturers_en

 

"Manufacturers play a crucial role in ensuring that products placed on the extended single market of the European Economic Area (EEA) are safe. They are responsible for checking that their products meet EU safety, health, and environmental protection requirements. It is the manufacturer’s responsibility to carry out the conformity assessment, set up the technical file, issue the EU declaration of conformity, and affix the CE marking to a product. Only then can this product be traded on the EEA market.I

f you are a manufacturer, you have to follow these 6 steps to affix a CE marking to your product:

1. Identify the applicable directive(s) and harmonised standards
2. Verify product specific requirements
3. Identify whether an independent conformity assessment (by a notified body) is necessary
4. Test the product and check its conformity
5. Draw up and keep available the required technical documentation
6. Affix the CE marking and draw up the EU Declaration of Conformity (27 KB).

These 6 steps may differ by product as the conformity assessment procedure varies. Manufacturers must not affix CE marking to products that don’t fall under the scope of one of the directives providing for its affixing."

 

[octaviars]

27 minutes ago, Superdad said:

If I have the right Fredrik (last name starts with letter 'A' correct?) then I see you have purchased at least 5 products from us over more than 5 years, including a JS-2.

So can you tell me why the matter of CE marking has become so important to you just now?

 

The etherREGEN is the first thing I have purchased from Uptone so you got the wrong guy.

 

So you can as a manufacturer outside of EU just ignore the aproval and sell it anyway?

 

Dont get this wrong I just want to know how this stuff works

[octaviars]

2 hours ago, dminches said:

How did you measure the temperature?  Do you have a nifty gauge?

 

With a calibrated IR thermometer so I know it is right. I am not native English so the nifty gauge part what does that mean?

[octaviars]

It aint the best looking solution but keeps the eR below 40C in a cabinet that is around 30C. Each heatsink is mounted with heat transfer tape.

 

I have the eR mounted on the wall and the cabinet is fan cooled. 

 

 

[octaviars]

2 hours ago, alsterfan said:

can I free the ER from the heat transfer tape?

 

To be honest I dont know I have not used this kind of tape before.

 

2 hours ago, soares said:

Will you please indicate the link for the heat sink.

 

I bought the heatsinks and tape from a company in Germany named Reichelt.

 

Heatsink KS63-100E

 

Tape WL FOLIE 404 12

[octaviars]

6 hours ago, alsterfan said:

P.S. The above shown heatsink weighs 2,6 kg. Would the case of the ER stand it?

 

If you refer to the ones I use they dont weigh much it is just a small piece of aluminium.

As I have it wallmounted tape was the best solution to secure the heatsinks to both front and back. Some sort of thermal compound would transfer heat better but I went from 48C to 41C in a cabinet that is around 30C so I am happy with that. 

[octaviars]

On 12/22/2019 at 12:00 AM, Johnnydev said:

Is this Realy all necessary?

If i understand correctly, Alex has said that this heat is not a problem?

 

I dont think anyone wrote that this is necessary.

 

I can only talk for my own system and with the eR in my cabinet the temp went up and runing the eR around 49C 24/7 over many years I feel more comfortable runing it around 40C.

 

 

There is 120mm fan under the PSU that moves air in to the cabinet and out through a vent in the door.

 

[octaviars]

2 hours ago, BlueDL said:

Could you tell me the dimensions of the thermal tape you used?

 

This is the tape WL FOLIE 404 12 it is one larger piece 200x100mm and I cut two smaller pieces that fit the heatsinks. 

 

https://www.reichelt.com/se/en/double-sided-adhesive-thermal-conductive-foil-100x200-mm-wl-folie-404-12-p112270.html?&trstct=pos_0

[octaviars]

2 hours ago, bailyhill said:

This is one of the most professional and neat installations I have seen.  Great Job.  For me, if it looks right, it probably will

sound right.

 

Thanks for the kind words

[octaviars]

8 hours ago, jean-michel6 said:

I would like to use the second rail to power the er , is it ok to do like that ? 

 

Yes that is ok. To power the eR and other stuff on the A-side will not defeat the isolation. It is when you power stuff on both the A-side and B-side with the same powersupply that there might be broblems if they share -0V for example on their outputs.

[octaviars]

2 hours ago, Pokey77 said:

BTW, I am running AES/EBU to my TAD dac. To me, it is ever so slightly better than USB

 

Nice to see another TAD owner here, is it a D1000mk2 you use?

 

I use a dCS Network Bridge with AES to my TAD, the eR is feed with a 1.2m long CAT7A LAN cable from the B-side. On the A-side i have my Roon server and fiber to my router.

[octaviars]

3 minutes ago, skatbelt said:

My approach is to keep the streamer hardware as minimalistic as possible.

 

I use the same approach.

 

I used to have thoughts about Melco and Innuos but decided to go with a NUC with Roon ROCK in a Akasa case.

 

Today I run fiber (LX 1310 SM modules 10km and Corning ClearCurve fiber) to eR directly from Ubiquiti Router. NUC on A-side and my dCS Network bridge on the B-side. 

 

The latest HD Plex PSU with 4 seperate rails power ISP fiberconverter, router, eR and NUC. 

 

This setup I'm really happy with and streaming Qobuz sounds really good on my TAD system. 

 

 

 

 

[octaviars]

@mourip I have tried different voltages and the heat is the same so not much to gain there.

I run mine at 12v now and before I added heat sinks it was around 47-48C with heat sinks it is around 37-38C.

 

Sound wise in my system I found no differences between voltages and I had only a 12v available rail in my PSU so I went with that.

[octaviars]

@Roasty 

 

[octaviars]

18 hours ago, ASRMichael said:

Where did you get hestsinks from?

 

I bought them from a company in Germany called Reichelt. 

 

All my network equipment and Roon ROCK machine is in a cabinet that is fan cooled. 

 

 

 

[octaviars]

5 hours ago, skatbelt said:

those fixation brackets may not be a wise choice in the context of vibration damping...

 

My eR is in a complete different room from my system in a cabinet fixed to a conrete wall so not much vibration to deal with. I have still considered to use some type of rubber damping between brakets and cabinet. 

[octaviars]

2 minutes ago, hpfish said:

How do I connect from the IFI supply to the ER ground screw?

 

You connect the ground screw on the eR to protective earth in the outlet that you have pluged the iFi supply in. The simplest way is to use a grounded plug that you just connect a wire to ground in and connect that wire to the ground screw on the eR and plug it in besides the ifi.

[octaviars]

6 minutes ago, bailyhill said:

This limits the 

drain current and as I understand, the ground is there for safety reasons.  Under a failure, I would thing you would want a direct

 

The ground screw on the eR is not for safety it is a functional earthing. This is a type of earthing forms a functional part of an electrical installation. Interference current can be discharged from the filters on the RJ45 A-side for example.

 

I would not use anything that has a high resistans to ground the eR to a ground in a outlet.

 

[octaviars]

1 hour ago, Roasty said:

I wonder how many people are actually using the ER ground screw.. My other query is when would it be absolutely necessary to use it, given that the B side is going to be "clean" anyways..? 

 

I would say it is never a absolutely necessary to use the ground screw but it can be usefull if you use two copper connections on the A-side so you make a path to drain away leakage that way.

 

I run fiber to my eR and only use one RJ45 port on the A-side and in this case the ground is not needed but it does not hurt to use it (I have tried both cant say that it made any difference). I have a floating PSU that powers my eR).

 

If you use a powersupply that have the -0V connected to ground (like the supplyed SMPS) then the eR is automaticly grounded as the -0V inside of the eR is connected to the same groundplane as the groundscrew so then you already have the eR grounded via the PSU.

 

As @Superdad wrote all of this is covered in the User Guide.

 

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0660/6121/files/EtherREGEN_User_Guide.pdf?99

 

Use of the EtherREGEN’s Ground terminal screw:We have measured high-source-impedance leakage on Ethernet cables coming from various other common network gear and computers.Leakage is common-mode AC current traveling over DC connections. It is pernicious stuff—passing easily along both analog and digital connections in our audio systems—and it is desirable to shunt it away. We address leakage in the design of the EtherREGEN in several ways, including our use of RJ45magnetics having 12 tiny transformer coresper port. And their center-tapsare wired to ground and to theEthernet switch chip through capacitors to maximally block port-to-port leakage. This works best if the EtherREGEN is grounded—either through the power supply or via the ground screw.The DC output 0-volt/-VE (‘ground’/shell)of the UpTone-branded AC>DC power supply included with the EtherREGEN is common to AC mains ground. When our supply is used to power the EtherREGEN it is NOT necessary to use the Ground screw.[Do not assume that 3rd party linear power supplies are like this—some are and some are not. Some multi-rail supplies have separate diode bridges and transformer secondaries and thus each output ground is "floated.” This is easy to test with a continuity/multimeter (be sure power is disconnected.)]If you power the EtherREGEN with a "floating" supply—one whose 0-volt/-VE (‘ground’/shell)is not common to AC mains ground—then ideally the Ground screw of the EtherREGEN should be used. You can do so by running an insulated wire safely to some AC mains ground or to the chassis of a known-grounded component in your audio system. [By the way, our UltraCap LPS-1.2 is a completely "floated" and isolated supply, so if using it with EtherREGEN the ground screw should be used.]Please keep in mind that all of the above regarding grounding concerns only the blocking of leakage from one RJ45 jack on the ‘A’ side to another RJ45 jack also on the 'A' side. Regardless of grounding, zero AC leakage from upstream Ethernet devices ever gets past the full active digital isolation and reclocking ADIM™—to the EtherREGEN’s 'B'-side port.