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Author Topic: Alchemy hard disk drives models? Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 03-14-2018 06:45 PM                     Did they give you any reason why the drives or carriers are not included with the refurbished model? I would understand why they take out the drives, but usually there is no reason to not include the carriers. Other than that they just want a second set themselves - but then this means quite some disadvantage for the potential buyer. The 3*1TB full drive set has once been quoted to me at around 2500€...hefty... Yes, I guess for a while you could get away with some d.i.y solution. The SATA connector is rigid enough to allow that. But call Barco first. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Tom Bert Expert Film Handler Posts: 134 From: Belgium Registered: Apr 2010 posted 03-15-2018 01:55 AM                     We don't offer the trays as separate spare part. They're not really something that breaks down in the field. However, when you order a set of HDDs from Barco, they come in their trays. R9801142 = 3x 2TB HDD SET R9801143 = 3x 1TB HDD SET  |  IP: Logged Ioannis Syrogiannis Expert Film Handler Posts: 147 From: Reykjavík, Iceland Registered: Jun 2005 posted 03-15-2018 01:57 AM                     When there is a replacement, they ship the ICMP without HDDs, but that is only in case of replacement, not in case of a sale...  |  IP: Logged Tom Bert Expert Film Handler Posts: 134 From: Belgium Registered: Apr 2010 posted 03-15-2018 02:09 AM                     quote: Ioannis Syrogiannis When there is a replacement, they ship the ICMP without HDDs, but that is only in case of replacement, not in case of a sale... Correct: that is because in that case we don't want to charge the customers for new disks when they can re-use their old ones.  |  IP: Logged Juan Jose Garcia Calvo Film Handler Posts: 64 From: Pedrajas de San Esteban, Spain Registered: May 2003 posted 03-15-2018 04:06 AM                     Thanks a lot, Dave. Your pictures are very useful. I googled for these words and any combination of them: "2.5 hot swap tray bay caddy HDD", and I found hundred of pictures but there is not the same latch in front of the trays in the pictures I found But: In your pictures it seems that is the HDD drive itself connected inside the bay, there is NO special connector, so, in the bay hole must be a standard SATA and POWER connector. If this is right, I think the problem is not a big problem. We can make a homemade tray that can be introduced inside the bay, even if there is a simple homemade latch to fit it inside. These drives will installed once and rest there for ever (except possible fails). What do you think? Carsten: This is the question. The sale was "HDDs not included". I think the word HDDs mean this, the drives itself, not the whole cartridge. I thought the trays would be included and I only had to buy the recommended hard drives from WD. I see for Barco, HDDs mean the whole HDD+tray Regards  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 03-15-2018 05:11 AM                     Yes, the connection inside the ICMP is the normal sata combo data+power receptable, a drive can plug into it immediately. You can also see that the carrier does not take much space adopting the disc, so there is a smaller risc of mechanical complications. Still, I would ask Barco for a quote of the full 3*1TB disc set first. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-15-2018 11:19 AM                        The usual term for this is one of the following: "drive carrier," "drive bracket," or "drive sled." Unfortunately, there is no standard for these, and every manufacturer has a different variant. quote: Dave Macaulay Technically you could just push a drive into the bay and fiddle it until it plugs in... but it's going to be flopping around with nothing to hold it in. True, but sometimes the drive mounting hardware is part of the cooling mechanism for the drive and/or the chassis. To leave this out could be poentially problematic. (I don't know if it is in this case.)  |  IP: Logged Ioannis Syrogiannis Expert Film Handler Posts: 147 From: Reykjavík, Iceland Registered: Jun 2005 posted 03-15-2018 12:22 PM                     Using a custom tray as a permanent solution is not a good idea. As much as I understand the frustration of having to pay a significant percentage on top of the "out of the shelf" price, the original thing may save you more money in the form of tickets, customer and user frustration or ability for support. Customizing may be good for a last moment solution, or a temporary one, but not for the "long play". Don't forget (on top of the possible issues mentioned by Scott) that the HDD status LEDs appear there. HDD errors, RAID (controller) errors etc. are not as rare as we would like them to be and the indicators can be a big help there, giving us time to be proactive.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 03-15-2018 09:19 PM                        Was the original poster's projector and ICMP bought from Barco or from a third party? I doubt it's from Barco, because they know that (a) it's useless without drives in it, and (b) they only sell the drives and trays as a package, not separately. I'm guessing it's from a third party - maybe someone who upgraded from a mk. I Alchemy to a mk. II, who wanted to keep the drives as a spare set.  |  IP: Logged Juan Jose Garcia Calvo Film Handler Posts: 64 From: Pedrajas de San Esteban, Spain Registered: May 2003 posted 03-16-2018 07:08 AM                     Hello.. The projector + ICMP comes from Barco, not third party. The problem is that these equipment are advertised as "NO HDDs included" As we are a very little company, operating in very little villages, we need to economize as much as possible. That's why we thought we could buy and instsall the HDDs by ourselves. We discovered too late that where BARCO sayd "HDDs" they meant "HDDs+Tray", that's the whole cartridge... Now we need to solve this with in the most economic way. Thanks!  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 03-16-2018 07:48 AM                     I am with Ioannis in that this should not become a permanent solution - but it may be possible to build your own trays and then start looking on the internet for alternative sources. The annoying thing is that these carriers are really simple, unlike e.g. the CRU carriers, they do not include any active parts, as far as I know. While Barco may certainly have chosen a higher quality type of carrier system, these things shouldn't cost much more than 5-10US$ on the normal IT market. It's 'just' the problem to source them. I was able to source the Doremi 3.5" RAID disc carriers at around 10US$ in small quantities. But these were available from official Dolby/Doremi sources as well. Juan - I will later take out one of our carriers and take some more photos and measurements for you. While Ioannis is right about the activity and error indicators being important, those visible on the carriers are just simple plastic light-pipes picking up LED signals from below the disc frame. So, if you make your own carriers, I guess you will still be able to see these indicator lights. Needless to say, if you make your own carriers and insert them into the ICMP, you will formally void your warranty. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 03-16-2018 02:29 PM                     Hi Juan, it seems the email address you configured in the forum profile is no longer valid. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Juan Jose Garcia Calvo Film Handler Posts: 64 From: Pedrajas de San Esteban, Spain Registered: May 2003 posted 03-17-2018 05:54 AM                     Thanks Carsten. I just updated my email adress (terra.com was obsolete). I will send you my email through PM. Regards  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-17-2018 07:23 AM                     After a closer look - the drive "tray" is part of an OEM assembly with three 2.5" bays on one PC board with the drive connectors across the back. The tray itself is just a sheet metal (20 gauge as a guess, but Chinese sheet metal is a metric thickness not a gauge size) "U" with a faceplate and its latching mechanism. I didn't see any lightguide, I don't have them with me now to look for that. Someone messed up buying servers with no drives, but Barco should make it clear these ICMP models - sold for replacement of a failed ICMP or as a spare - don't come with the trays: the reduced price is appealing and they should be very clearly described as not suitable for a new installation. Maybe if you explain the situation to Barco you can get the drive set for the price difference up to an ICMP with drives, rather than the spare parts cost of a drive set? It's exactly the same small cardboard box with three drives in trays, whether you purchase a server with drives or get a replacement set. Anyway the slide is very simple to "fake". You only have to make up the sheet metal thickness on bottom and sides for the drives' rear connectors to exactly mate. The front panels of the slides are grills but cooling air is all crosswise from the projector fans plus maybe some leaking out the front grills. The slide's metal plates definitely carry heat out to the bottom/sides but it doesn't look like it's engineered as a cooling solution (steel sheet metal isn't an excellent heatsink), "bare" drives in the airflow should cool OK (in my opinion). As far as warranty goes... how would anyone know what was in there? Obviously the drives aren't covered by the server warranty, and I don't see how drives in "fake" slides could damage the rest of the unit. The logs will only show the drive details, not if they are on a factory slide. Warranty replacement servers are sent without drives.  |  IP: Logged Juan Jose Garcia Calvo Film Handler Posts: 64 From: Pedrajas de San Esteban, Spain Registered: May 2003 posted 03-17-2018 07:55 AM                     Thanks Dave. I will be very happy to get all the info about how these trays are made, but as far as this is a public forum, and in order to not have problems with the warranty, I will never use other than official barco trays with the ICMP we are going to receive next week. A friend of mine not using his Barco ICMP will lend me these trays for the next 6 months. Once I said this, thanks again all of you for the help. We can continue talking about how anyone can make himself or get some spare trays. Regards!  |  IP: Logged

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