A D8B with onboard power supply! (Pics included)

[Marc Girard]

Hello all,

More news in the D8B hacking world friends! A gentleman by the name of Mark Lupton sent me these pictures. He successfully mounted an onboard power supply straight into his D8B board! He's probably got the very first totally silent D8B! Of course, he's using D8Bridge has he bypassed all of the DSP/Audio boards, he uses his D8B to control his Ableton Live DAW.

Congrats to Mark, very good work! Here's the pictures:

Onboard PSU for a D8B!

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Onboard PSU for a D8B! (#2)

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Cheers!

[Badbass780]

Awesome. He should post a guide of how it's done. I'll wait for version 2 in the meantime

[Petersueco]

Nice work.

I wonder how the heat is managed with this mod. Did he make additional ventilation holes in the bottom cover?

As far as I know, B8Drigde v2 will run on the original CPU computer. So this mod should be for D8Bridge v1.1 users only.

Peter Holmquist.

[Marc Girard]

As far as I know, B8Drigde v2 will run on the original CPU computer. So this mod should be for D8Bridge v1.1 users only.

Well, D8Bridge will use the D8B computer as a simple TCP/IP server, it'll convert the CPU in some sort of appliance. It'll be remote controlled by your DAW computer via Ethernet. In theory, I could create a new D8Bridge cable that would use two DB9 ports to fully control the D8B but, it would be too costly to make and distribute. That's why I choose that route.

[deanoh]

Hi Marc,

Since it seems you are the only one who’s in touch with Mark Lupton, could you be kind enough to ask him for some sort of instructions please? And more importantly, if he knows the requirements and how to install a power unit in it, he might be able to supply whatever power is needed to the OP amps IN/OUT and to AD-DA, VFD, DSP, etc., as well. I presume you also know through virtualization or other means to run everything else in a “nowadays PC”, correct me if I'm wrong please.
That then, I think it would work with D8Bridge V2.0 which I guess, is what a lot of us are waiting for and a step forward to ditch the original box/board/PSU, instead of stocking old parts.

You might as well consider the advice of our fellow member Klangarchitekten viewtopic.php?f=6&t=634&start=10, by using a cable (or whatever is hardware related), to eliminate/reduce piracy and finally, you mentioned extra cost. Is that in $, or $$, or $$$ approximately? I believe, if it’s not too much time investment for you to estimate that, we would be grateful to have the option to choose and each one decides whether to keep the old box or get rid of it for an extra expense.

Many Thanks,

deanoh

[Marc Girard]

Hi Daenoh,

I'll invite mister Lupton to come here, so he can answer those questions himself. I'm not a pro at electronic, only have a few skills. I think Mark could contribute better than I!

[maddogz]

Hi marc firstly make no mistake i think what you have achieved and done is totally awesome and as soon as the audio side of things work i will be buying ... but i just wanted to ask a question regarding the d8b upgradability,

How come nobody has written a new o/s for the d8b or rewritten the mackie o/s with new drivers /firmware etc to accept new motherboards ..its properly a stupid question and I'm sure you have thought about it ...and it seems like its only 3x 1.44mb of information unlike todays window 0/s which is gigs in size ..i am just curious as to if that route was at all possible ..or is the mackie os a language only known to mackie ??? many thanks

[Marc Girard]

How come nobody has written a new o/s for the d8b or rewritten the mackie o/s with new drivers /firmware etc to accept new motherboards ..its properly a stupid question and I'm sure you have thought about it ...and it seems like its only 3x 1.44mb of information unlike todays window 0/s which is gigs in size ..i am just curious as to if that route was at all possible ..or is the mackie os a language only known to mackie ??? many thanks

Well, from what I know, Mackie got bought by Loud Technologies and the D8B design team switched companies (working for Presonus now, for reasons unknown). Now that Mackie has a new administrator and that the design team is gone, there's very little support for the D8B left. I tried contacting Mackie for technical details about the D8B and Mackie refused to help me saying that this product is protected under the industrial law or something, I didn't quite get it...

So, that's why nobody really wrote a new OS, Mackie don't wanna release the specs (or help) and the original team is under a new contract with Presonus, leaving us with no documentation or reference work. That's why D8Bridge took so long to do, it's a work a patience and reverse engineering...

[Marknexus]

Hi Guys - Mark Lupton here - appologies for the absence on the forum!

Thanks for the kind words about the mod to fit the internal PSU! I only did it because i bought the console broken as a project to repair and it was missing the psu.

Anyway, I'm happy to help anyone who has any questions - just ask away.

As for the heat management, the switched mode PSU I used is bolted directly to the chassis internally to conduct the heat away, and the analogue voltage regs are also bolted hard down (via a mica insulator) to the internal metal work. The heat is then conducted through the entire console which is relatively massive, and convected to air. The unit does get a few degrees hotter on the side that the psu's are fitted but it's trivial. I should also mention that as part of the mod I disconnected all of the non used digital and analogue circuitry to reduce the current consumption ( and heat load) leaving only the parts working that are needed for D8bridge. (so have spares if anyone needs anything )

As I say, happy to help if anyone needs advice!

Cheers

M

[BrianJ]

Hi Mark!

Well, where to start...I've got an electronics degree myself, but haven't really played much with musical equipment in terms of modifications...most of what I've done have been in the automotive/motorcycle world. But I'm very interested in what/how it was done? Do you have any type of guide or parts list? Any issues at all with the setup?

Brian