Using two Creamware cards

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 8:26 am

So a while ago I bought a new Scope project card.

I still have my old Pulsar I card in the old computer.

Logic says I should put them both together in the new computer and have 10 DSP's at my disposal.

My question is this: when they are tied together do I only get the benefit of the 10 DSP's, or do I get access to all the additional ins and outs as well. In other words will the analog, SP/DIF and MIDI connections work on both cards, or just the Project card?

R

[ This Message was edited by: nprime on 2005-06-01 09:26 ]

Music Manic · Post by **Music Manic** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 8:41 am

Yes all works.You'll hve modules in project for each in and out.

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 8:52 am

yippee! That's great news.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Is it a headache to get both cards in their "happy place", meaning the right PCI slots?

R

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 9:26 am

The only thing you have to do is place the newer card further from the video card than the old one. That setup on the S/TDM cable (which you need) will tell the Scope software to make the newer card the primary one. Otherwise you'd have to hack into cset.ini.

Use either end of the cable if you only have two cards. When you've set that up, everything should work great!

Shayne

arela · Post by **arela** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 1:37 pm

Shayne White:

The only thing you have to do is place the newer card further from the video card than the old one.

To my knowledge PCI 1 is closest to the agp slot (graph-card) and will be prefered as primary card.
Not sure, but ....

Post by **Guest** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 2:31 pm

closest PCI to AGP usually share resource with AGP. Not recommaded at all to use 1st PCI slot.

dbmac · Post by **dbmac** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 3:14 pm

Not with the current Asus MBoards. Slots 1 and 5 usually share with each other and nothing else, and work well with 2 CW cards.

/dave

[ This Message was edited by: dbmac on 2005-06-01 16:16 ]

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 5:37 pm

Thanks for all the input guys!

I'm using an Intel MOBO, if that matters.

Of course I want the Scope Project card to be the master.

R

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 9:36 pm

It all depends on the MOBO you have, they are some times quite different from each other. You should get your MOBO manual and learn it by heart, this is your first step. Then everything should be easy.

I don't have a second card, but I know about it by reading so much here in the forum.

dbmac · Post by **dbmac** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 3:57 am

Nestor's right. Intel board's PCI allocation differs from Asus, Abit, etc. I haven't seen slot 1 sharing IRQ with the AGP in a while on any motherboard, but the manual is the only reliable way to confirm PCI resource allocation.

/dave

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 8:27 am

...manual? Now I'm scared...LOL!

This should be fun...I have no idea where it is...a hunting we shall go, a hunting we shall go.

It's an Intel 845 chipset, if I remember correctly.

R

Post by **garyb** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 8:48 am

you don't need the manual unles the card order is messed up. the fix is SIMPLE. you can also take the old card out, restart, install the new card, restart, install the old card, making sure that the old card is farther from the agp slot than the new.

the only rub is that on different motherboards, different slots share irqs with each other or other devices. if you can use 2 slots that share, you can eliminate many irq landmines. really though, it's not that tough. just put in the cards and see what happens. if the irq settings don't work for you, change the slots until you get a happy combo...or check the motherboard's confusing (

) documentation for a map of sharing assignments for the pci slots.

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 5:00 pm

Thanks everyone for the info.

R

synthetic · Post by **synthetic** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 2:50 am

I have my Pulsar2 at PCI4 (Abit IS7).
Later I added an SRB and placed it into PCI5.
Should I put the SRB on PCI3 instead?

I also use 1 STDM-cable with the first 2 connectors connected, should I use the end connectors on the STDM?

My system is quite unstable after added the SRB, the computer sometimes hangs, but I can still play on my CW-synth but not changing program. I will re-install my computer frpm scratch any day now...

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 3:32 am

should I use the end connectors on the STDM?

Yes, it says in the installation instructions to use the outer connectors, leaving the middle one floating free. Also, you should try a second STDM cable as you have two connectors on Pulsar2 so try using them (other people say they have more stable results using just one, but give it a go).

Mr A

[ This Message was edited by: Mr Arkadin on 2005-09-14 04:33 ]

synthetic · Post by **synthetic** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:57 pm

Hmmm, I need another cable then, I gave it to my friend who's not having any cable at all, but now it seems that we have to buy a couple of them.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 1:23 am

your problems result only from the 'dangling cable' end.
CWA's instructions read somewhat like a suggestion, but in fact it's absolutely required to use the end connectors.

Otherwise they act as antennas with all kind of interferences and reflections back into the cable - it's like terminating a scsi disk for example.
The 2nd cable may improve (Scope's internal) throughput under certain conditions, but it's generally unknown when exactly and if at all.

cheers, tom

wolf · Post by **wolf** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 5:47 am

The 2nd cable may improve (Scope's internal) throughput under certain conditions, but it's generally unknown when exactly and if at all.

No, it isn't

For shure more cables are an improvement in any condition and will raise the operability of a multi board setup.
Simply said a 2nd cable raises the max. possible connections inside the routing window (each cable means afair 144 channels, so with two you get 288 max possible connections between the boards).
Perhaps you know the dialogue "no more connections from board x to board y".
The reorganisation afterwards tries to optimize the dsp allocation by collecting dependant algorythms on one board and thus minimizes the need of inter-board connections.
This can be successful or not, depending on your project setup. It is more likely to fail, if there are a lot of connections and lots of devices in the routing window, but using just one cable.
Considering the limited board-connections is crucial in circuit design - especially with bigger devices, as you need to optimize the internal structure for multi-board setups (which is a not an issue for single-board setups in this regard). The STM mixers are a good example in that regard for a well optimized design. They keep the containing effects and routings on one board as much as possible and even offer a possibility to load parts on a dedicated board. This option addresses exactly the problem of not having enough connections between boards left.

Translated into daily usage this means a) to organize the project setup by keeping this fact in mind, b) to avoid too much connections in the routing window and regarding the mixers c) to connect the pyhsical I/Os to these mixer inputs, which are on the same board.
For setups containing a board with only one connector this can be always a bottleneck even leading to the possibility not beeing able to fully load its dsp due to too less channels available to the other board(s).

Post by **hubird** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:54 am

thanks Wolf, that's clear

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 7:36 pm

great addition to the manual

thanks, Tom