Modular multi channel DIY AD/DA Box

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I'm sorry. Currently there is no further development because managing the group buy eats a lot of free time and some members seem not to care about their order and that I already paid for them.  :mad:
 
Sad to hear about that  :(, of course this project doesn't seem to be one of the easiest for most people, so maybe that's why they all back up, personnaly, i'll be making your project, and will have a lot of fun i'm sure, maybe even grab a second PCB for having 8 channels, too bad their will be no more development on this, some nice features like USB or Firewire would have been great, but i'm sure there is a way around that, still not into it right now to found out the way to do it...

PS: BTW how many PCB are left in you hands?
 
rkn80 said:
I'm sorry. Currently there is no further development because managing the group buy eats a lot of free time and some members seem not to care about their order and that I already paid for them.  :mad:

Oh crap! I was already looking into configuring this project further with arduino. My first 4 channel input module, AES board and its PSU's are working fine.
 
Oh sorry, I think there is a misunderstanding. Definitely I'll continue with new modules etc. because I need/want them. I just want to say that the progress will be slower due to a lake of time.

Raphael

P.S. I have ~20 PCBs left.
 
Cool, wow 20 PCB's,i understand why you're pissed off, but i think the more this project continues the more people will be interested, of course it's performance will play a game also, but anyway, thanks for pursuing...
 
hoping to get back to this project soon myself.  sorting out power, clocking and maybe limiting in front of 32 channels is a bit over my head at the moment!  suggestions welcome  ;)

Kingston said:
Oh crap! I was already looking into configuring this project further with arduino. My first 4 channel input module, AES board and its PSU's are working fine.
how would you compare them to converters you've used previously?  i'll be using them either way, but i'm curious to hear preliminary opinions.

rkn80 said:
I'm sorry. Currently there is no further development because managing the group buy eats a lot of free time and some members seem not to care about their order and that I already paid for them.  :mad:
unfortunate to hear raphael.  hopefully once a few more of us get ours up and running there will be more incentive for others to scoop up the rest of them.
 
grantlack said:
how would you compare them to converters you've used previously?  i'll be using them either way, but i'm curious to hear preliminary opinions.

I'm not that far yet. Sound is passing through, measurements come out ok and nothing is terribly out of spec.
 
Hi Raphael, great to see you making progress with this!
So you won't be offering DAC/AES in as a kit?
 
I'm thinking about it. Last time I lost money with offering kits :'(. So I'm currently unsure how to do it wihtout being unfair to those who have paid their kits.

Raphael
 
@kingston: Please, can you email me your measurment results? I want to compare them with my results.

Raphael
 
I didn't save any measurements... This was a quick connection test because I have a non-standard PSU (using super regulators) and I was not sure it would work at all. I still have a ground loop issue because of this and will have to redo the PSU wiring before I can show any real results. It's pretty difficult with all the voltage sense grounds of the regulators. I think I will just disable those.
 
Raphael,

I know it's probably not going to be as popular as the AES option, but any thoughts about ADAT in/out?  I've been kind of sitting on the ADC boards I bought from you for a little while because of other projects and the fact that AES isn't useful to me right now.  Thanks!

  Brian
 
horvitz said:
Raphael,

I know it's probably not going to be as popular as the AES option, but any thoughts about ADAT in/out?  I've been kind of sitting on the ADC boards I bought from you for a little while because of other projects and the fact that AES isn't useful to me right now.  Thanks!

 Brian

Brian, Mikkels ADAT boards: http://electronics.dantimax.dk/Kits/Digital_audio/index.html -> OptoRec and OptoGen
 
Ok, anybody else having build a ADC unit?  ???

Anyway, I noticed that clocking becomes quite difficult when you try to make a really big unit. My unit has now 12 inputs and 24 outputs. It was really hard to do that with wires. It is really sensitive. As soon as you touch a wire of the clocks or it is a little bit moved because you have moved the total unit you have distorted sound. Then you have to rearrange your cables by moving them a little bit. :( This problem becomes bigger with more modules you use. Eg. with only using 4 ADC and 4 DAC modules no problem but with more modules the problem rises. Later I changed the problem with redoing the wiring. But it has eaten a lot of time to find the best wiring scheme via try-and-error.
Therefore, I decided to change my plans, and do first the design of a backplane/carrier pcb for the small modules. On this carrier board the modules can be plugged in exactly the combination you need. It will also provide a clean supply voltage for the analog parts. On one side there will be a standard connector for extentsion (eg. if you need more channels) with a second board while on the other side you'll have options for connections to the outside world (Sub-D, XLR, BNC with analog audio, AES etc on it).
What do you think of this? Interested? Useful?

Raphael
 
I have only tested a single ADC unit this far. I have two but haven't tried clocking them together because there has been advices against it (should be done with a master clock unit etc).

which brings me to the question

rkn80 said:
I noticed that clocking becomes quite difficult when you try to make a really big unit.

How did you set up the clocking? Do you have some kind of bench master clock unit, or is one of the boards a master?
 
I tried two setup:
a) Let a SHARC evalution board generate all the clocks (MCK, BCK, LRCK) and configure all modules as slaves
b) Provide one ADC with a MCK and configure only this ADC as I2S master and forwarding the three clocks then to all other boards.
 
I think the whole backplane for a modular unit idea is awesome. Less wiring = always better to me. Count me in for one as long as I can fit in one of Mikkels ADAT boards to get them to talk to my Digi 002.
 
I definitely favor some sort of power/clock backplane. I'm all for a cleaner build, plus if it solves critical issues it seems more a necessity than a luxury!
 

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