I work with this kind of gear daily, so it's nice to hear an engineer's perspective on it. We have over a hundred modular frames and dozens of MPEG encoders. The ASI inputs/outputs are MPEG compressed video on an SDI link. You can use it to multiplex other encoders into a single stream to be modulated onto one RF output. The receiver is a popular option. Because these were used for mobile satellite uplink, the truck operator could downlink his signal to make sure all was well . NDS became Tandberg-Tandberg was bought by Ericsson.
I looks like they watched your video on PCB front panels. The first unit would make a great chesis for building a custom 8-bit, 16-bit, relay, transistor computer.
It always boggles my mind how much value technology (especially in applications like this) looses value on obsolescence. I heard a story about a £70,000 tape machine ending up in a skip at the end of its life.
Just seen those 'Faraday' filters. The factory is/was (?) just up the road from me and where I worked for a few months when I left college. They will be passive LCR filters using tiny toroids or bobbin inductors and broadcast filters were their speciality. We churned thousands of the buggers out and my jobs included hand winding the coils with crochet needles, operating the vacuum encapsulating machine, epoxy dip encapsulation, hand printing the labels with a rubber stamp machine and quality control. One of the most boring places I''ve ever been to.
Any chance of turning the equipment on at least once and showing the startup sequence and displays, LEDs & fan spin up etc. before tearing it down. Many you tuber's all ways miss this step. Very interesting tear-down.
***** Electronic door stops, I've seen enough of them, turn the damn thing on and give us a glimpse of the result of the engineering effort they put in :-)
The multiplexer is called a CWDM or DWDM device. We use them a lot in storage and networking. It's a prism and waveguide. Precision stuff, but entirely passive. EDIT: oops, should have watched till the end. It's written on the box, DOH
UBARRET The passive part it self isn't expensive, a whole LMS ("Light Management System") can be expensive, depending on the specific application. Networking/SAN DWDM's usually go for around 5-10K$ commercially, but it's really depending on the amount of channels, if it does both MUX/DEMUX and wavelengths (and pulse frequency), if you running into some Area 51 space with your wavelengths then it can reach to 5-6 figures as well.
I got one of those Lambda power supplies with the modular output configuration for a special type of gear. It's working fine 24/7/365 since 2006 now. You can order them starting from 1 single piece. Mine though has got Phliips screws, not rivets. IIRC the rivets were came about when they started to make them more shakeproof.
Its only CWDM with 100GHz channel spacing. I would start to care more if it were DWDM with 50GHz spacing, and if it were a 96ch mux/demux. Still, a teeny tiny bit more care so it didnt break apart would have been great, Ive always wanted to know how these things worked since optical networking is a part of my job (but I cant tear down my employers equipment and take a dremel to part of it). The best explanation Ive got so far is "look at the cover of Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon album". :D
The only thing of interest in that entire media converter chassis, an exquisitely designed and assembled little example of amazing precision. Lets take it to bits with a big f'in hammer :(
I've got 4 of those modular psus! One of them uses that modular transformer design, and the others are newer versions, with DC/DC converter modules that can be swapped as they're screwed in! Interesting things
Can you explain in any more detail how they work, or do you have any links to pages that do? My job involves optical electronics, and Ive always wondered how these "prisms" are constructed. So far the best example I can give is to look at the cover of Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon album, but Im sure its a little more sophisticated than that.
that modular secondary thing was used in industrial psu's made by (I think) Coutant Lambda or Farnell or Wier, I forget which, back in the late 80's. PSUs with custom rails could be made quickly for clients.
We run our Servers in the same kind of configuration with 2 seperate power supplies, however usually it is configured in a way of 1x Unprotected supply(straight through the mains with some conditioning and suppression) and 1 protected supply(usually from a UPS) Connecting them to 2 different phases creates the risk of 415v across centers.
Interesting video, thanks for sharing. Does anyone know the reason for the several 'spare' loops of fibre cable on those cards? Is it just for ease of assembly or does the extra length achieve some timing function? Thinking with HFT 1 foot fibre adds a nanosecond latency and is used to keep all machines at the same disadvantage. Don't see how this could be needed with video encoding.
Great Video, thank you. We still use these Flashlink devices among other brands here in Germany. Could it be that these Takamisawa's are audio transformers? They are labeled TR.. and near audio connectors. And broadcast audio stuff is most likely symmetrical.
One point I would add about dual power supply and I think it's also a major point is having redundant power supplies allows for maintenance work, if you have to move the device to a different rack without powering it down. Also you can work on one side of your power plant while the other one is providing power. I work in data centers and dual power supplies are fairly common as well.
SirMo Dual power supply only purpose it's to provide power redundancy (and in some designs also load sharing) in case of something going wrong (the power supply, the mains power ...), not for moving the equipment in the ON state. Explain to me how you move an equipment from one rack to another with all the cable connected.
Vladulescu Adrian I have 20 something years experience working in data centers with gear that has dual supplies. If you have a piece of gear you need to move to a different rack dual supply comes in very handy. You unplug one of the supplies and then plug a long power cord into it. Now you can disconnect the 2nd supply because the power will be supplied from your power cord you plugged into the 1st supply. Move the device and perform the same steps in reverse order. Voila. You moved your device from one rack to the next without ever powering it off. The gear also has redundant network card so the same can be done with network cables. The gear tends to be very heavy though but we have a server lift that makes the whole process much easier. We have servers with 12+ years uptime despite reorganizing and upgrading the data center multiple times over the years.
Vladulescu Adrian The other reason for dual power supplies is so that you can perform maintenance work on your power plant. You can shut off one side while you're performing upgrades or repairs.
Regarding the maintenance work I agree with you, but it's the first time I hear that someone uses the dual power supply system to move devices between racks while being in service. I work at a major ISP so naturally we have a couple of data centers.
Vladulescu Adrian Yeah, no piece of equipment should be so important that it can't be scheduled to be out of service for maintenance. Moving while powered is very risky for something so important.
Thought the construction of the NDS Encoder looked familiar. We have some similar boxes with the Tandberg name. Ours are HD-SDI to Mpeg with SMPTE 310 and ASI outputs. Not quite sure how NDS and Tandberg are related. Acquisition or partner? Looks like it may all be owned by Cisco now. (Edit: Tandberg Television is part or Ericsson now)
Basically taking a rainbow as input, turning it back into a single color, then fanning it back out on the other side. www.fiber-optic-transceiver-module.com/fiber-saving-wave-division-multiplexing-wdm-technology.html
useless1997 The modular frame is probably over 5 years old, but the fact that it supports HDSDI and Gigabit ethernet means it is still useful. The encoder looks to be over 15 years old. Tandberg TV bought NDS in 1999.
I work with this kind of gear daily, so it's nice to hear an engineer's perspective on it. We have over a hundred modular frames and dozens of MPEG encoders. The ASI inputs/outputs are MPEG compressed video on an SDI link. You can use it to multiplex other encoders into a single stream to be modulated onto one RF output. The receiver is a popular option. Because these were used for mobile satellite uplink, the truck operator could downlink his signal to make sure all was well . NDS became Tandberg-Tandberg was bought by Ericsson.
I looks like they watched your video on PCB front panels. The first unit would make a great chesis for building a custom 8-bit, 16-bit, relay, transistor computer.
It always boggles my mind how much value technology (especially in applications like this) looses value on obsolescence. I heard a story about a £70,000 tape machine ending up in a skip at the end of its life.
Just seen those 'Faraday' filters. The factory is/was (?) just up the road from me and where I worked for a few months when I left college. They will be passive LCR filters using tiny toroids or bobbin inductors and broadcast filters were their speciality. We churned thousands of the buggers out and my jobs included hand winding the coils with crochet needles, operating the vacuum encapsulating machine, epoxy dip encapsulation, hand printing the labels with a rubber stamp machine and quality control. One of the most boring places I''ve ever been to.
Any chance of turning the equipment on at least once and showing the startup sequence and displays, LEDs & fan spin up etc. before tearing it down. Many you tuber's all ways miss this step. Very interesting tear-down.
***** Electronic door stops, I've seen enough of them, turn the damn thing on and give us a glimpse of the result of the engineering effort they put in :-)
The multiplexer is called a CWDM or DWDM device.
We use them a lot in storage and networking.
It's a prism and waveguide. Precision stuff, but entirely passive.
EDIT: oops, should have watched till the end. It's written on the box, DOH
***** Absolutely.
detaart too bad it was teared apart. But on the other hand: We've learned a lot. Very interesting.
UBARRET The passive part it self isn't expensive, a whole LMS ("Light Management System") can be expensive, depending on the specific application. Networking/SAN DWDM's usually go for around 5-10K$ commercially, but it's really depending on the amount of channels, if it does both MUX/DEMUX and wavelengths (and pulse frequency), if you running into some Area 51 space with your wavelengths then it can reach to 5-6 figures as well.
I got one of those Lambda power supplies with the modular output configuration for a special type of gear. It's working fine 24/7/365 since 2006 now. You can order them starting from 1 single piece. Mine though has got Phliips screws, not rivets. IIRC the rivets were came about when they started to make them more shakeproof.
Chip Guy Vids I'm sure this PSU will cost 500 Euro (or even GBP) used. I've sold some different models for such an amount.
ultra precision optical wavesplitter, meet Mr Hammer...... Thud........ ;-)
Its only CWDM with 100GHz channel spacing.
I would start to care more if it were DWDM with 50GHz spacing, and if it were a 96ch mux/demux.
Still, a teeny tiny bit more care so it didnt break apart would have been great, Ive always wanted to know how these things worked since optical networking is a part of my job (but I cant tear down my employers equipment and take a dremel to part of it). The best explanation Ive got so far is "look at the cover of Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon album". :D
The only thing of interest in that entire media converter chassis, an exquisitely designed and assembled little example of amazing precision. Lets take it to bits with a big f'in hammer :(
I've got 4 of those modular psus! One of them uses that modular transformer design, and the others are newer versions, with DC/DC converter modules that can be swapped as they're screwed in! Interesting things
Did I hear a Photonicinduction reference whispered there? "Where's my Hammer" :)
Great video as usual.
Learnt something new in the for couple of minutes! awesome !
Wow, I used to work for the company that makes these CWDM cubes (12:50m)! Used to assemble them, even tested the adhesives...
Can you explain in any more detail how they work, or do you have any links to pages that do? My job involves optical electronics, and Ive always wondered how these "prisms" are constructed. So far the best example I can give is to look at the cover of Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon album, but Im sure its a little more sophisticated than that.
Took me a while to notice but video is used twice in the video title.
Spinning that lazy susan looks very satisfying.
Great upload. Thank you Mike.
that modular secondary thing was used in industrial psu's made by (I think) Coutant Lambda or Farnell or Wier, I forget which, back in the late 80's. PSUs with custom rails could be made quickly for clients.
Quality moment at 13.45 nice touch with that hammer. J Clarkson would be proud.. Nice vids keep em coming even if i don`t understand half of it..
Someone else commented on videoguard... Is this just an mpeg2 encoder or is it a pay TV encryption thingy?
"So we got some sort of optical voodoo going on here" lol
We run our Servers in the same kind of configuration with 2 seperate power supplies, however usually it is configured in a way of 1x Unprotected supply(straight through the mains with some conditioning and suppression) and 1 protected supply(usually from a UPS)
Connecting them to 2 different phases creates the risk of 415v across centers.
Thanks Mike, a welcome distraction.
Interesting video, thanks for sharing. Does anyone know the reason for the several 'spare' loops of fibre cable on those cards? Is it just for ease of assembly or does the extra length achieve some timing function? Thinking with HFT 1 foot fibre adds a nanosecond latency and is used to keep all machines at the same disadvantage. Don't see how this could be needed with video encoding.
Great Video, thank you. We still use these Flashlink devices among other brands here in Germany.
Could it be that these Takamisawa's are audio transformers? They are labeled TR.. and near audio connectors. And broadcast audio stuff is most likely symmetrical.
One point I would add about dual power supply and I think it's also a major point is having redundant power supplies allows for maintenance work, if you have to move the device to a different rack without powering it down. Also you can work on one side of your power plant while the other one is providing power.
I work in data centers and dual power supplies are fairly common as well.
SirMo Dual power supply only purpose it's to provide power redundancy (and in some designs also load sharing) in case of something going wrong (the power supply, the mains power ...), not for moving the equipment in the ON state. Explain to me how you move an equipment from one rack to another with all the cable connected.
Vladulescu Adrian I have 20 something years experience working in data centers with gear that has dual supplies. If you have a piece of gear you need to move to a different rack dual supply comes in very handy. You unplug one of the supplies and then plug a long power cord into it. Now you can disconnect the 2nd supply because the power will be supplied from your power cord you plugged into the 1st supply. Move the device and perform the same steps in reverse order. Voila. You moved your device from one rack to the next without ever powering it off. The gear also has redundant network card so the same can be done with network cables.
The gear tends to be very heavy though but we have a server lift that makes the whole process much easier. We have servers with 12+ years uptime despite reorganizing and upgrading the data center multiple times over the years.
Vladulescu Adrian The other reason for dual power supplies is so that you can perform maintenance work on your power plant. You can shut off one side while you're performing upgrades or repairs.
Regarding the maintenance work I agree with you, but it's the first time I hear that someone uses the dual power supply system to move devices between racks while being in service. I work at a major ISP so naturally we have a couple of data centers.
Vladulescu Adrian Yeah, no piece of equipment should be so important that it can't be scheduled to be out of service for maintenance. Moving while powered is very risky for something so important.
Thought the construction of the NDS Encoder looked familiar. We have some similar boxes with the Tandberg name. Ours are HD-SDI to Mpeg with SMPTE 310 and ASI outputs.
Not quite sure how NDS and Tandberg are related. Acquisition or partner? Looks like it may all be owned by Cisco now. (Edit: Tandberg Television is part or Ericsson now)
very cool :)
some video video equipment ehh??
Broadcast gear... oooooOOOO
poundland air duster??
I spy a Dallas ds1644. How old is this thing?
Do you reuse any of the parts from these boards? (uControllers, RAMs FPGA/CPLD...)
Anything video guard related on here?
Basically taking a rainbow as input, turning it back into a single color, then fanning it back out on the other side. www.fiber-optic-transceiver-module.com/fiber-saving-wave-division-multiplexing-wdm-technology.html
Apple watch?
Can somebody tell me how old these things are?
useless1997 The modular frame is probably over 5 years old, but the fact that it supports HDSDI and Gigabit ethernet means it is still useful. The encoder looks to be over 15 years old. Tandberg TV bought NDS in 1999.
Chris W
That's interesting, thanks a lot.
Chris W The Flashlink modular frame is still for sale. It is now called Nevion. nevion.com/products/flashlink-2ru-frame/flashlink-2ru-modular-frame
useless1997 Date on PSU say december 2002.
why are there raytheon chips?
Raytheon makes alot of microwave RF stuff they bascially invented the microwave oven
manufactured:
month: 12
year:2002
video video ;d
Vv
Quit using your finger as a pointer!