Question for resident computer gurus

[AtlPackFan]

Anyone know of a SATA signal repeater? Company I work for has an application where the SATA signal needs to travel farther than the prescribed 1 meter. We need to find - if available - a signal repeater that can be put in line with the cable, will read the signal and then repeat it back to its original strength. Something like what was done with coax cable networks.

Anyone know of hardware that is available to do that???

Thanks!

[Deputy Nutz]

Anyone know of a SATA signal repeater? Company I work for has an application where the SATA signal needs to travel farther than the prescribed 1 meter. We need to find - if available - a signal repeater that can be put in line with the cable, will read the signal and then repeat it back to its original strength. Something like what was done with coax cable networks.

Anyone know of hardware that is available to do that???

Thanks!

Sure there is a product called xcaourse3. It is good stuff.

[AtlPackFan]

Anyone know of a SATA signal repeater? Company I work for has an application where the SATA signal needs to travel farther than the prescribed 1 meter. We need to find - if available - a signal repeater that can be put in line with the cable, will read the signal and then repeat it back to its original strength. Something like what was done with coax cable networks.

Anyone know of hardware that is available to do that???

Thanks!

Sure there is a product called xcaourse3. It is good stuff.

Thanks DN. Do you have a link to the product or the manufacturer?

[Deputy Nutz]

I was hoping someone else would have called bullshit on me before you responded. I don't know what the fuck you even said.

[Zool]

Sounds mostly made up to me Nutz.

Whats the max length on an eSata cable? I havent been able to find the spec. Wouldnt a NAS be a much much much....much....much better solution than a really long cable?

[AtlPackFan]

I was hoping someone else would have called bullshit on me before you responded. I don't know what the fuck you even said.

Well I bit.

I'm in a bit of bind so I'd have looked even if you called it UpShitCreek_w/o_APaddle3....which may describe me at this point. :oops:

[Freak Out]

Check here.

http://www.cooldrives.com/index.html

[AtlPackFan]

Sounds mostly made up to me Nutz.

Whats the max length on an eSata cable? I havent been able to find the spec. Wouldnt a NAS be a much much much....much....much better solution than a really long cable?

eSATA is 2 meters...I think. But our application is limited to internal. It has to do with our customer using a hot-plug SATA caddy and how its inclusion affects signal integrity. That is why we need to find a repeater...or lose the customer.

[AtlPackFan]

Check here.

http://www.cooldrives.com/index.html

Thanks Freak Out!

I found lots of SATA stuff but no repeaters...at least not that I could see on a quick check. When I have more time I will go back and look deeper.

Again, thanks!

[Zool]

Weird, so a case with a hotswap drive bay thats farther than 3ft from the sata plug on the MB. Thats a big case.

I have never seen a signal repeater for sata. I remember seeing one for ATA133 and SCSI LVD back when I worked for Western Digital but there was all sorts of data integrity issues. Maybe you could call Seagate/Maxtor/WD's customer support and ask to talk with R&D. See if they have any suggestions.

How is your app limited to internal only?

[AtlPackFan]

Weird, so a case with a hotswap drive bay thats farther than 3ft from the sata plug on the MB. Thats a big case.

From what the engineers tell me, Intel specs the max distance a SATA connector can be from the southbridge on a computer. From that distance a user is then supposed to be able to add a 1 meter cable to a drive and be within a reliable communications distance. "Distance" is affected by a lot of different things, including connectors. Because the SATA connectors on our motherboard are toward the outer edges of Intel's spec and because the customer has introduced an extra connector (Sata Drive to hot-swap caddy connector) to the equation, the communication between drive and computer has become unreliable. If we could find a repeater to put inbetween the cable and our connector, we may be able to fix the problem.


How is your app limited to internal only?

We aren't integrators, we only manufacture single board computers and backplanes so we have no say in the customer's design. This particular customer is using a single chassis with hot-swap caddy's only so he can quickly swap out drives if need be.

That is all probably as clear as mud. :oops: Not sure my explanation is 100% correct.

[Zool]

It makes sense. Just wonder what the data integrity would be like on a cable thats 6cm's longer and would reach.

[Partial]

Why not use firewire, then? Or some sort of digital connection where noise and signal length won't be factors.

[Zool]

Internal firewire?

[Partial]

Internal firewire?

Wait I am confused. Why is he using eSATA if its an internal drive?

[Zool]

I asked about external. He said in a post that internal is the only option. Thats the issue. Externally, there would be no issue.

[AtlPackFan]

Why not use firewire, then? Or some sort of digital connection where noise and signal length won't be factors.

Not sure. Its the customers call. We don't have firewire connectors on our single board computers I guess because we haven't had a call for them from any of our industrial customers but this customer could certainly add a firewire card. Interesting thought though. Wonder if I would get an "attaboy" if I suggested it. :wink:

For that matter, they could probably add a PCIe SATA card and everything would be fine?! Of course that would add a cost to their chassis they probably don't want to incur.

[Zool]

This (http://www.usb-ware.com/fusion-4-bay-esata-hot-swap-enclosure-d4.htm) would be ideal for hot swapping, but his company makes backplanes so recommending an external solution would be like MS recommending OSX.

http://www.usb-ware.com/images/fusion-400-2-esata-4-bay.jpg

[AtlPackFan]

Internal firewire?

Shows you what I know. I didn't even know you couldn't do internal firewire. :oops:

[Zool]

Internal firewire?

Shows you what I know. I didn't even know you could do internal firewire. :oops:

There are no internal firewire drives.

[Partial]

Why not use firewire, then? Or some sort of digital connection where noise and signal length won't be factors.

Not sure. Its the customers call. We don't have firewire connectors on our single board computers I guess because we haven't had a call for them from any of our industrial customers but this customer could certainly add a firewire card. Interesting thought though. Wonder if I would get an "attaboy" if I suggested it. :wink:

For that matter, they could probably add a PCIe SATA card and everything would be fine?! Of course that would add a cost to their chassis they probably don't want to incur.

I would explain to them that their case design is flawed and that no such repeater exists. I would then recommend possibly making a switch to the more reliable and faster firewire, where they'll have less issues with data integrity to begin with.

[AtlPackFan]

This (http://www.usb-ware.com/fusion-4-bay-esata-hot-swap-enclosure-d4.htm) would be ideal for hot swapping, but his company makes backplanes so recommending an external solution would be like MS recommending OSX.

http://www.usb-ware.com/images/fusion-400-2-esata-4-bay.jpg

Actually, we would have no problem with that...as long as it was hooked to one of our computers. :wink:

Here is a link to our website...just so you know what we do.

http://www.trentontechnology.com/

[AtlPackFan]

Why not use firewire, then? Or some sort of digital connection where noise and signal length won't be factors.

Not sure. Its the customers call. We don't have firewire connectors on our single board computers I guess because we haven't had a call for them from any of our industrial customers but this customer could certainly add a firewire card. Interesting thought though. Wonder if I would get an "attaboy" if I suggested it. :wink:

For that matter, they could probably add a PCIe SATA card and everything would be fine?! Of course that would add a cost to their chassis they probably don't want to incur.

I would explain to them that their case design is flawed and that no such repeater exists. I would then recommend possibly making a switch to the more reliable and faster firewire, where they'll have less issues with data integrity to begin with.

I probably wasn't very clear. I'm pretty sure the customer is just buying a COTS case and popluating it with our single board computer (SBC), our backplane and then their cards, drives, etc. which includes hot-swap caddies for their drives so they can swap drives out with taking the case apart.

[Freak Out]

I think these guys need some help as well.....retrieving lost emails and such.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011703575.html?nav=rss_email/components

[AtlPackFan]

I think these guys need some help as well.....retrieving lost emails and such.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011703575.html?nav=rss_email/components


They were probably using SATA drives with hot-swap caddys for storage. :mrgreen:

[Tyrone Bigguns]

I think these guys need some help as well.....retrieving lost emails and such.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011703575.html?nav=rss_email/components

Move along folks, nothing to see here. :roll: