PCI Express x1 to PCI/PCI-X Adapter Card

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Music Manic
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Re: PCI Express x1 to PCI/PCI-X Adapter Card

Post by Music Manic »

asktoby wrote: Sat Jun 26, 2021 5:41 am OK I'm going to try this out, I've ordered one of these PCI riser boards:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255022730528

I've also modelled an external case for my two Pulsar IIs from bits I found on thingiverse:
Image
https://www.tinkercad.com/things/l8xkVt ... -pci-riser
Before I 3D print this, do you think two Pulsar IIs would need active cooling?
Please let us know how it performs. It would be great to have Ryzen and use the audio outs of the Pulsar boards.
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asktoby
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Re: PCI Express x1 to PCI/PCI-X Adapter Card

Post by asktoby »

So the "PCI-E To Dual PCI Riser Card" arrived: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255022730528
After a bit of whittling to get the SATA power connector to fit (it was clashing with the Pulsar) I have it all plugged into my machine.
The cards show up in Device Manager!
That's as far as I got though :(
I have two Pulsar cards and got slightly different errors depending upon if I installed on, the other, or both:
Image
The common thread was "Timeout waiting for acknowledge from DSP 0"
So it seems this is a no-go.
I guess I'm not surprised, but I did have a little bit of hope.
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astroman
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Re: PCI Express x1 to PCI/PCI-X Adapter Card

Post by astroman »

The case pictured in the middle is regular if you try to import with identical source and destination key file.
Just duplicate the source and Scope will accept it. ;)
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asktoby
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Re: PCI Express x1 to PCI/PCI-X Adapter Card

Post by asktoby »

I'm not sure I understand your instructions but, anyway, the case in the middle was also complaining about "Timeout waiting for acknowledge from DSP 0" (highlighted in green) so no amount of valid keys would solve that
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astroman
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Re: PCI Express x1 to PCI/PCI-X Adapter Card

Post by astroman »

Never mind... iirc I‘ve seen that message a couple of times when moving an existing (valid) keyfile to the Scope/Bin directory before installing (as a shortcut), but the installer still insisted on import.

The problem with all those PCI-PCIe adaptors is in the FPGA programming that translates one protocol to the other.
In theory a perfect transition is possible, but it depends on that programming (commonly called IP), which is usually licensed.
There is no documentation about details and even if such doc existed, it wouldn‘t be readable by us mere mortals... :D
So the whole thing is kind of gambling.
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asktoby
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Re: PCI Express x1 to PCI/PCI-X Adapter Card

Post by asktoby »

The main chip on the PCIe Riser I bought is marked P17C9X 111SLBFDE 2015GT. There are a few other types on the market with different chips, for example:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000384523691.html

I wonder if it might be worth gambling again on a different riser. Maybe a different implementation would be better.
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astroman
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Re: PCI Express x1 to PCI/PCI-X Adapter Card

Post by astroman »

well, that Chip is a PCIe (1x) to PCI reversible bridge (as they call it), featuring 4 different modes (if I understood correctly after just a quick glance).
I‘m no expert in this domain, but guessing from your errors timing seems flawed because that bridge may itself be bridged on the mobo to the CPU, resulting in too slow transfers.
The examples mentioned in the data sheet are quite different from Scope‘s near realtime bi-directional data exchange.
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