ping John Rice - Fostex D-824 question

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

agent86 wrote:
>
> I'm trying to make my mobile recording rig a little bit more mobile. I'm
> also one of those paranoid types who always leave an empty rack space above
> ANY piece of equipment that has vents on the top (two spaces for power
> amps).

First of all, you want the cooler gear below the hotter gear, so the rising heat from the hot gear doesn't cook everything. Then you want an empty space or three on the very top with ventilation panels and possibly fans over those top spaces.



> I'm not rumming any of the fostex expansion cards, I could probably take
> off one of the card slot covers on the back & jury-rig a duct to the fan,
> or even jury-rig a small fan into the card slot itself).

Where does the Fostex take in its air? If it's from the front, you can let it out the back of the rack. If it pulls from one side of the back and pushes to another, you may need a barrier to keep the hot air from feeding back to the inlet.



A 2U panel with some low-RPM 80mm fans on the top coupled with a perforated panel on the bottom can do wonders for equipment health...

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Hi Agent86 ( and everyone . . I've been hiding . . sort of . . . )

Anyway . . . .

I think you will be fine without leaving an empty space above your D824.
The hard drive is the only thing that generates any significant heat as far
as I know. I had actually installed a fan cutoff switch in mine because I
was concerned about noise when recording in close proximity to it. I
accidentally left the fan off over night and while the case and rack rail
did get fairly warm, the unit continues to work flawlessly to this day (
although I haven't used it in a while ) I DO NOT recommend leaving the fan
off for extended periods, Fostex put it in there for a reason, but I'm
saying that even with no extra rack space over it with the fan running, it
should be fine.

I didn't use mine outside of my studio ( although I intended to ) You might
be thinking of someone else. Maybe Ronnie Morris who hangs out in the Yahoo
group FDUG??

Best of luck!

John L Rice
Drummer@ImJohn.com

"agent86" <maxwellsmart@control.gov> wrote in message
news:USBQc.2298$923.1466@bignews1.bellsouth.net...
> Kurt Albershardt wrote:
>
> > Where does the Fostex take in its air? If it's from the front, you can
> > let it out the back of the rack. If it pulls from one side of the back
> > and pushes to another, you may need a barrier to keep the hot air from
> > feeding back to the inlet.
> >
> >
> >
> > A 2U panel with some low-RPM 80mm fans on the top coupled with a
> > perforated panel on the bottom can do wonders for equipment health...
>
>
> Thanks Kurt.
>
> The Fostex is an odd unit & it seems to be designed more like a computer
> than a real piece of audio gear. (Which I guess is logical, since that's
> essentially what it is.) The only vents are top & bottom & the bottom
> vents seem to be strategically placed for convection cooling. The only
fan
> is a 2" unit on top that blows DOWN (I think) on the hard drive. I
really
> suspect it was designed to sit on a tabletop & the rack ears were an
> afterthought. But I remember John posting some time ago that he had used
> 824s & 1624s on the road pretty extensively & that the main heat issue was
> on the botton (where the rectifiers are mounted).
>
> The unit mounts in the bottom position of my case without removing the
> feet, so I figure I've probably got enough air underneath (If we can
assume
> that the design itself is OK). I've been leaving an open space above, but
> I would REALLY like to get everything into a little smaller case IF I can
> do that without cooking anything. I don't think the Fostex makes enough
> heat to cook anything else in the rack. I'm mainly worried about putting
> another unit too close to the vents so the hard drive doesn't get enough
> air.
>
> I've had the thing open & there is a LOT of empth space inside. So I was
> considering removing one of the expansion slot covers (which I'm not
using)
> & adding a duct so the fan can pull air from the BACK instead of from the
> TOP.