The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

[brethin]

We will see in time I'm sure. $400 unit becomes a ...............?

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by brethin

We will see in time I'm sure. $400 unit becomes a ...............?

No it wasnt. See THIS POST as to why.

Trust me, if I could have gotten that, it'd have been gone! This thing was completely worthless as it was. I did sell the motherboard out of it (X7DAL w/ 2x x5450's & 32gb RAM as a workstation in a normal case)....which paid for the things I bought for it plus some, I'm still up about ~$200. I'm a little more clever than you think...you underestimate me!!

[Topcat]

Some more stuff.... Rubber grommets....and some more pushbuttons.



More switches. I doubt I use all these....but it was cheaper to buy a 4 pack than it was to buy just one or two....



Junk amassing!





Nothing this awesome could be completed without an hour meter!



So far I've still been paid to take all this stuff......and the fun hasn't even begun yet!

[momaka]

I see a big hot melt glue gun in the background. 0.o
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1605913445
That's how we know the project has truly begun.

Originally Posted by Topcat

More switches. I doubt I use all these....but it was cheaper to buy a 4 pack than it was to buy just one or two...

Those blue DPDT toggle switches are real nice, so I'm sure you'll find a use for them, eventually.

I bought similar ones from Radio Shack before it closed. They were supposed to have a 50% off sale, but apparently not the one I visited (said they weren't gonna close then... which was a lie - they closed 2 weeks afterwards.) Were kinda pricey, but at least they are good switches, unlike their slide switches. Those were quite crappy - contacts would oxidize and not make good connections anymore after a few years.

[Topcat]

I've added a few more features & functions to this contraption that I've run it out of panel space on the mock-up!!! Now it gets interesting & fun!!

[Topcat]

To make this thing even more complicated........



I picked that up on ebay for the cost of shipping (don't worry brethin, I'm still in the black by a good $160 for this project), the seller had no idea what it was....hell, I'm not really sure what it is, I was more interested in the case.... There's very little information out there about it....but it seems to be some kind of broadcast grade signal streamer from yesteryear (was made ~2001). Useless.....but inside there's a working 'system on a board' and its complete backplane. The system specs are a pentium classic @ 233MHz 256mb RAM. It's an Intel HX chipset, which can be ran up to 1gb. Whatever this thing is, has WinNT4 loaded on it.....but it'll run DOS with glee, even NT4 (obviously), which opens up some more possibilities with some modifications!







Ohh the possibilities and such a fun waste of time!! My ohh my, what it can turn out to be with these two built into one!

[Topcat]

I got up this morning, and this machine wouldn't POST. Of course checked the PSU first, it was fine. All caps were Nichicon PL, voltages present and clean on the scope. Looked over the SBC (single board computer), none visibly bad....but noting the brands (Canicon), I was suspicious. Pulled and checked on the LC102, got an 'error7', which indicates a capacitance out of the meter's range....which basically indicates they're open....this issue was probably why the machine was taken out of service to begin with. It's cured now.

Fresh caps and an IDE CF Card upgrade...



Removed the unneeded cards that made this thing do whatever it was supposed to do....



...except this one...it could be fun attempting to manipulate it... Through the test software on the machine, I can make it do things....It can read bus voltages and there's 8x controllable relays on it....I just have to tinker around with it....but it could add in some interesting factors for this 'creature'.



The panel test window after installing Win2k. It originally had NT4 on it....but the SBC supports USB, which NT4 doesn't.... I have the original 6" panel from the DP600 (same size as this one) I want to implement that has a USB touchscreen digitizer.... Win2k isn't the greatest on this CPU, but its very usable for what I have in mind.

[Topcat]

The awesome ISA control board:







I searched the only numbers on this board and it came vaguely back to the company that makes the SBC backplane, PICMG. This is ~20yrs old, I couldn't find any info about it on their site or this card on their site....but its standardized industrial tech. I emailed them for information, doubtful I get anything back, I highly doubt they'd give up the whitepapers or the sourcecode for the software...but for its age, you never know...worst case scenario they don't respond or tell me to piss off. If this thing could be mapped out, it could open up some really good ways to waste more time on this thing for additional gadgets! I can actuate the relays and TTL I/O's with the test software, it would just be a crude method of adding function. Coding is not my thing.....but I'm sure it's all done in C....someone surely could!

[ratdude747]

Nice. I used to know C, but not for windows (I was doing Atmel AVR's, like the arduino, in C in college). I haven't touched it in years... so don't look to me. But from my understanding, ISA isn't too tough to access in code for low-level control, other than IRQs being a PITA.

[TechGeek]

Just make sure that ISA PnP is switched off in the BIOS and all ISA cards have their IRQ/DMA settings manually set up and you should be good.

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by TechGeek

Just make sure that ISA PnP is switched off in the BIOS and all ISA cards have their IRQ/DMA settings manually set up and you should be good.

I wish it were that easy. I'd need the whitepapers for the card or the source code for the software that runs it... I have the driver, from the original HDD (which I did a dump of, and then locked in the safe).

The GPU OTOH was interesting. It has an internal interface fr the panel, which appears to be a modified 50-pin SCSI ribbon. The card is a Chips Technology 65545 ISA/VL card. Windows 2000 didn't even detect it. The device manager showed no video card or even an 'other device'. True legacy device! I had to go in an manually configure the driver for it.

[sam_sam_sam]

Originally Posted by Topcat

If this thing could be mapped out, it could open up some really good ways to waste more time on this thing for additional gadgets!

You had me laughing with this comment

[TechGeek]

Originally Posted by Topcat

I wish it were that easy. I'd need the whitepapers for the card or the source code for the software that runs it... I have the driver, from the original HDD (which I did a dump of, and then locked in the safe).

The GPU OTOH was interesting. It has an internal interface fr the panel, which appears to be a modified 50-pin SCSI ribbon. The card is a Chips Technology 65545 ISA/VL card. Windows 2000 didn't even detect it. The device manager showed no video card or even an 'other device'. True legacy device! I had to go in an manually configure the driver for it.

Could you bridge it to conventional PCI and let the PCI/ISA bridge handle the PnP?

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by TechGeek

Could you bridge it to conventional PCI and let the PCI/ISA bridge handle the PnP?

I would still need the card whitepapers for that.....

The touchscreen test was a success.

This 'test software', even with the touchscreen would still be a clumsy/crude way to control things versus simple switches....but it sure looks cool!!





The relays on the card are SPDT rated at 2a, couldn't carry much of a load....so anything that would carry a heavier load would have to be run in a sequential setup....such a wasteful but fun way to overkill something. If I were to ever figure out how to modify the software that controls the relays, it could be streamlined into something good....but that's not one of my strong suits.

[TechGeek]

Did you write that software yourself? Or did you download it from somewhere?

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by TechGeek

Did you write that software yourself? Or did you download it from somewhere?

As mentioned earlier, its what was on the HDD for the device. It's their 'panel test' software....

[TechGeek]

Oh ok.

[Topcat]

I'm working on a few other ideas in my head for this as well. This SBC backplane in a 4U case that's built like a tank is a big game changer to my original design!!

[TechGeek]

I'm gonna take a wild guess as to what this is gonna be: Home automation controller.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by Topcat

I'm working on a few other ideas in my head for this as well. This SBC backplane in a 4U case that's built like a tank is a big game changer to my original design!!

I'll let you be the one to give details, but keep in mind that it's not just one of them...

If you don't mind (delete this if you do), here's a sneak peak of what's coming from my junk pile... I've had this board for over 10 years. $2 Goodwill score, didn't know what it was good for or what use I'd have (but I knew it was worth saving from the scrapper!).