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Author Topic: DOLBY SERVERS, setting TIME Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 06-10-2014 03:37 AM                     weird. The system clock may be wrong but as mentioned the secure clock is the one that checks the KDMs. And if a NTP server is not found, the system clock is synchronised by the media block (DSP100 in your case) and hence its secure clock. Good to know, but I would have thought it doesn't really matter if the motherboard clock is way off.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-10-2014 08:54 AM                     Allen Barnes... Yes... Mike R. is one of the only really good people there IMHO. He has called me back before as well. I've known him just about as long as I've lived here in Utah... Mark  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 06-10-2014 05:41 PM                     quote: Carsten Kurz Some media blocks have two batteries wired parallel, so you can exchange them one after the other without the clock going down. Others have an additional buffer capacitor that will grant you just enough time to exchange the cell. The Dolphin board used by Doremi has a hard programmed life expectancy of 5 years (as in it will start to nag you after 5 years) and it does have a secondary backup battery. quote: Steve Kraus Just slightly off topic but should I be opening the DSS200 to clean dust buildup? I suppose you know how to handle sensitive electronics, so I do no see no harm in opening it to remove dust buildup, just like you would do with most electronics with fans that suck up a lot of air over the years. Especially dust buildup around fans can get them stuck and cause overheating issues.  |  IP: Logged Sam D. Chavez Film God Posts: 2153 From: Martinez, CA USA Registered: Aug 2003 posted 06-10-2014 07:22 PM                       I remember or think I do that removing the cover will set an error but will not disable anything unless you actually unplug something. You will need to clear the error when you replace the cover.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 06-10-2014 07:55 PM                     I have actually changed the fans in the DSP100...and have a tech note around here on how to do it. Note, the DSP100 uses security screws so come prepared with that too. Again, the two fans are all one can service inside the DSP100.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-11-2014 11:13 PM                     Then it has to be when one removes or undoes the media block card itself that send it into a tizzy...  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 07-11-2014 04:49 PM                     A fellow projectionist recently tried to set his drifted DSS200 clock in the BIOS, but found it to be reset to the same drift amount after a reboot. To me this means the SMS and BIOS clock is synced from the secure clock in the Dolby media block. So it seems that all those DSS200 with large clock drifts do not suffer from bad mainboard clocks, but bad media block clocks. It seems that so far the only option then remains NTP to get the clocks right - as long as the drift has not grown too large to be corrected within DCI specs (6min/year). This is a real pain for smaller locations using scheduled shows. Dolby is completely unresponsive towards end users with this problem, and installers/techs told them there is nothing they can do if there is no TMS. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 07-11-2014 05:31 PM                     I have two DSS200 units were I do weekly reboots to reset the server clock to the LMS clock. Interesting is one server, after a reboot, is still 5 minutes fast while the other synced to the LMS. Both will drift to almost 12 minutes slow in one week. I did mention this to our tech and there is a way to keep these unit synced with the LMS clock. He'll do this sync on his next visit. You would think that an expensive device like these units would have better time keeping software inside, where my ten buck "WallyWorld" analogue special wrist watch can keep correct time for months. ...just doesn't smell too good - like a political thing or similar. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 07-11-2014 05:58 PM                     This drift of 12min per week is probably a combination of media block and mainboard clock drift. I guess that the system clock is synced once during boot time to the media block OR TMS/LMS. Once the server has finished booting, it will only run it's GUI clock from the mainboard clock. I suppose it will not resync during runtime with either NTP/LMS or the media block secure clock. This will then show the large drift you report. DCI only allows for a maximum of 6min per year correction to the secure clock, e.g. by NTP. 12min per week without a daily reboot would make it impossible to adjust the time within DCI constraints. Hence I guess the secure clock on the media blocks will actually have a smaller deviation. Dolbys NTP client implementation also makes things worse, it seems... http://www.film-tech.com/ubb/f16/t001802.html - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 07-12-2014 12:18 AM                     Thx for the link, Carsten - quite impressive reading from the post that Steve G. left for us to read. Dolby definitely likes to make things difficult. Definitely leave that up to our tech to get all figured out since he will be the only one with ADMIN privileges to make such adjustments. - Monte  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-12-2014 03:12 AM                     Monte, you don't need Admin privileges to set the BIOS clock or the secure clock...only if you need to deal with the CAT745 being out of range do you need admin. Me personally, I'd get all of the BIOS clocks and secure clocks correct. That will get about 90% of your servers locking on NTP. It all depends on the BIOS clock as to how well they will stay. With System 4.7.x and beyond...it will be more like 99+ % will lock on time.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 07-12-2014 06:39 AM                     Is there a solution without using NTP? It seems if there is no NTP found at boot time, the DSS200 will always sync it's system/show manager clock to the MediaBlock. If that is 5 minutes late, show schedules will be 5 minutes late and you can adjust BIOS clock as often as you like, it will not change. Then the nasty thing is - if even these secure clocks perform as badly as reported, they can drift more than the allowed 6min per year easily. Then how do you adjust them if there is no manual intervention? You would need to set up you own NTP server with a 'suitable' fake time within 6min drift to get the Dolby closer to the DCI limit. What the heck are they thinking? This is not a new issue. So many operators need to tweak their show schedules to match a drifted server clock... - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-12-2014 10:32 AM                     The CAT862 has a relatively decent clock. It doesn't drift THAT much and it is easily set within the GUI...so keeping a DSS200 on time without an NTP is certainly doable. However, the show clock only syncs to that on boot up in absence of NTP. It is the damn CAT745 that picks the time by rolling the dice. It is guaranteed to run fast! Booting the server with the projector off will ensure that it can't use that "clock" as a reference. Personally, I always insist on a local NTP reference...it is relatively easy/cheap to do and it negates the issue for everything. It is also best when troubleshooting to have all clocks running at the exact same time.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 07-12-2014 12:34 PM                     quote: Steve Guttag The CAT862 has a relatively decent clock. It doesn't drift THAT much and it is easily set within the GUI How? - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-12-2014 12:44 PM                     I'm sure we are miscommunicating on this one somehow. Go to System>Auditorium>click on the "Enable Secure Time Update" tickbox and then set the time. That is the time on the CAT862, DSP100, CAT745.  |  IP: Logged

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