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Scope Boards on Thunderbolt working!

Posted: Thu May 05, 2022 1:16 am
by Mcal27
The main issue I’ve had with my scope boards is finding a pc new enough to run them! I want to use two Pulsar 1’s and a Powersampler and I didnt fancy buying some ageing Workstation when I have a number of recent machines available. So I found the Startech PCIe to PCI chassis available quite cheaply, but how to connect it to an Intel NUC Canyon I wished to use as it only has TB3 not PCIe? Well i decided to try using an old eGPU chassis to bridge between the thunderbolt ports on the NUC and the PCIe card the startech uses. Amazingly it works perfectly! Not pretty as yet, but scope 7 runs great! The Pulsar Boards as too long so I am going to have to dremel a hole in one end of the startech to allow the Pulsar’s to fit, but I’m happy todo it.

https://imgur.com/a/CPAF4Ql

Re: Scope Boards on Thunderbolt working!

Posted: Thu May 05, 2022 2:48 am
by valis
Masterverb test?

Re: Scope Boards on Thunderbolt working!

Posted: Thu May 05, 2022 5:42 am
by Mcal27
Not yet, I seem to be getting some issues when I have more than two boards installed now :( Tried all combinations of powersamp, Luna and either of my two Pulsar 1's. Two cards appears fine.

Re: Scope Boards on Thunderbolt working!

Posted: Thu May 05, 2022 6:18 am
by Mcal27
OK seems stable with two cards..bit annoying. masterverb seems ok so far, not tested in an active session as yet, just passing audio through. As I was going to have to hack a hole in the back of the Startech chassis to fit the pulsars in, I think I'll just keep the luna and powersampler in there and put the pulsars in a second system maybe

Re: Scope Boards on Thunderbolt working!

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2022 9:04 am
by fraz
Wow - You've got PCI to PCI-e bus working through thunderbolt 3 / USB-C - This is real experimentation !!! - And it's working.

From memory the Power Sampler / Luna cards have a 4 pin floppy power connector - Would it help matters if you got some power from the PSU - to the Power Sampler ? - (speculation) OR.....

Is there a bandwidth problem from the external box through USB-C / thunderbolt - ?

More speculation - If a PCI-e USB card was put into a slot of the motherboard and one of the cards put into that may help ?

But you mention an NUC - Which is an all in one PC (small box) with no more connection possible -

Re: Scope Boards on Thunderbolt working!

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2022 2:06 pm
by valis
More power is a good question, I have always gone via max power specifications based on the PCI card keying and what a slot would provide.

Re: Scope Boards on Thunderbolt working!

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2022 4:37 pm
by fraz
https://www.startech.com/en-gb/cards-adapters/pex2pci4 <<<<<< 4 PCI SLOT shorter box
https://www.startech.com/en-gb/cards-ad ... pex2pcie4l <<<<<< 2 PCI SLOT longer box

Please ignore the price of these boxes on StarTech website - I've just put these in as examples - Magma also made a box in 2012 which is bigger and features 7 PCI slots - overkill - but it was made.

I ask, is there anything (technical) from preventing 3 x PCI cards from working in one of these boxes? - The original poster above mentioned two of this cards worked but not 3.

Above is a StarTech box with two PCI slots and another with four - Any thoughts -

BTW I gave up on the PCI-e to PCI converters for the individual slots as they lifted the PCI cards too high - But an expansion box with two or three Scope cards in could prove useful on any number of chipsets and platforms - That is if they work - :)