Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Doremi eSATA card

This is topic Doremi eSATA card in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Pietro Clarici (Member # 4937) on 01-03-2013, 08:01 AM:

I've been told you can just install an off-the-shelf PCI/PCIe controller in a DCP2000 to add eSATA ingest capability, which would be a lot cheaper than the Doremi eSATA/CRU upgrade. Can anyone recommend a specific brand or model?

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 01-03-2013, 09:16 AM:

You shouldn't really need to install a card per se, the official thing that comes with the Ngest unit is just a plate with a eSata socket and an internal cable that you plug into a spare eSata on the motherboard.

Something like this.

Posted by Pietro Clarici (Member # 4937) on 01-03-2013, 06:15 PM:

Thanks, I thought all the onboard SATA connectors were either in use or disabled.

Posted by Richard May (Member # 2627) on 01-04-2013, 09:13 AM:

Not at all. What Pete showed is perfect. I just installed the same ones on both our Doremi servers. Just plug it into an empty socket and you're done.

Posted by Steve Moore (Member # 4753) on 08-02-2013, 01:39 PM:

Any advice on my problem on an older Doremi DCP200? I have fit the eSata Plate that Pete suggested in the link and all appeared fine on my first ingest from Pearl and Dean, and the ads went in in no time at all. Then I tried world's end, which though appeared on ingest manager failed not far in. I took the drive out of the CRU caddy and it said no content to ingest. Tried a reboot, still the same. Tried USBing the CRU and the film went ingested fine.

Then I tried another drive this week via sata and again no content to ingest, however the screen showed up the content from the previous weeks drive. Is there something i should be doing with sata ingest to clear or "eject" the drive with the content (such as command line?) If anyone else has had any problems with this method Id love to know if you resolved it. Possibly due to the fact I have a 1m eSata lead and this is causing hickups?

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 08-02-2013, 04:22 PM:

No, you don't have to do anything, as soon as you don't remove the drive while it's running - and you power it down before removing it using the gray button.

That being said, if you're using the external CRU unit, for whatever reasons I have never been able to have the unit to work with the eSATA plate. Try connecting the unit straight to the motherboard. And also, most of the time the content was taking MINUTES to appear (manually calling the INGEST page would result in "no content found" as you suggest). Wait and see what happens.
I thought my unit was somehow defective, but maybe not?

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 08-02-2013, 04:29 PM:

Be wary of which port on the motherboard you plug in the eSata plate or cable, it does matter;)

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 08-02-2013, 06:10 PM:

I think - can't remember for sure - that in my case it was the only SATA port available.
Which one is the correct one?

Posted by Steve Moore (Member # 4753) on 08-03-2013, 06:01 AM:

On mine there only appeared to be 4 sata sockets, three in use for the raid and one free one, to which i connected the caddy. I desided to give this a try as i had 4 features to ingest in a very short space of time between delivery of the drives and the show, and during the school holidays i have shows all day, so was trying to speed up the process, being just a single screen cinema (cottage road in leeds). The connector is just to the right of the red cable in this picture http://www.film-tech.com/uploads/uploads0503/serverinsideleeds.jpg

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 08-03-2013, 06:31 AM:

Pete,

I did remember correctly then! Did you try waiting a few minutes? I know it sounds silly but that is what happened to me. Stick the drive in, power it on and wait. It should come up eventually.

I think at the time I found out that Linux was in fact recognising and mounting the drive, but the Doremi SW was not (or maybe the drive was recognised but not mounted, it was a long time ago - bottom line, the drive was seen by the hardware)

Posted by Steve Moore (Member # 4753) on 08-03-2013, 06:48 AM:

I did wait and wait...... and wait, however with my adverts it popped up in seconds, but with features (and now ads) nothing. load ingest manager manually and nothing to ingest. Strange. Ive ordered a new shorter sata lead to try now.

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 08-03-2013, 08:32 AM:

Then try connecting the SATA cable straight to the motherboard. A short one will definitely help.

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 08-03-2013, 08:47 AM:

I haven't had a problem with this (yet). I've used it with a CRU bay and with just the eSATA connector on the CRU USB caddy.
With old "black" servers I don't think there's an extra SATA port available on the motherboard though.
Possibly on the 2K4 servers the last one is used for the (usually empty, and can be disconnected if it is) fourth HDD tray.
Possibly you could add an eSATA PCI card, but I don't know if the OS will recognize it, or if the system will automount from it. One is used in Doremi TMS systems for the CRU bays, but that's completely different software and was designed with the PCI eSATA card in mind.
I have found a few bad eSATA cables.
You should connect the CRU drive (or any drive) first and then power it up. Connection is not guaranteed if you hot plug the eSATA cable into a powered drive.

Posted by Steve Moore (Member # 4753) on 08-03-2013, 08:54 AM:

Thanks Dave, will try a few options you have all suggested and see what happens next time i get a new drive. Yes my old black one certainly has one spare sata onboard the MB, and it did work just that once, but will see how it goes direct to board with a shorter lead. Thanks everyone

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 08-03-2013, 04:53 PM:

On the ones I have done ( fairly new, SuperMicro MB I think ) there is a bank if 4 ports clustered together, with 3 cables in. Initially I tried the 4th in that cluster but it behaved as the OP described. In any of the other ports it worked perfectly.

My guess us that the cluster of 4 are RAID only via the BIOS.