Barix issues

[OKCRadioGuy]

I'm having a certain degree of hell with some a set of Barix 100s. First, I'll say that I am sending audio from one AM facility to another. I have had an extreamer fail due to heat issues, but that's a side note. Now that I've switched the extreamer out for another one, I have to every so often reset the extreamer to get audio back. I have had it do the wierd digital buzzy noise once or twice, but normally it's just dead air. I'm using streaming puller at the extreamer end and internet radio at the instreamer end. I thought I was maybe having packets dropped at the insteamer end because occationally I will get a audio glitch out of the extreamer so I have ATT test the DSL line/modem to make sure that the AM wasn't creating problems. All tests OK. Does anyone have some ideas on why I'm having failures every so often? It's beginning to really irritate me enough to make me want to give the owner 600 bucks and tell them to either buy something from Comrex or Tieline, or find someone else to babysit this mess... LOL!

 

[Tom Wells]

Buzzy and dropping out? I'd say check the exstreamer's power supply. It is very likely a switching mode power supply.
If the filtering caps begin to fail, there will be AC mixed in with the DC, which certainly could cause the buzzies, and if it's enough
AC, it will cause digital lock failures. Most logic likes a clean DC source. If it's too noisy, the data gets lost in the switching glitches.
Then too, have a good look at the incoming AC for purity and noise spikes on the AC waveform. If it's ugly, put an isolation
TRANSFORMER on it, forget about a power line conditioner, which can be more trouble than help.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

Hi Tom. The power supply is ok. When I said buzzy. I'm only referring to a metalic buzzy wierd loud noise it produces when locked up at times. It's not the normal 60 cycle induced buzz noise etc. The supply is supprisingly smooth. This is a older unit so it has the 9volt dc supply furnished by Barix back then.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

Hi Tom. The power supply is ok. When I said buzzy. I'm only referring to a metalic buzzy wierd loud noise it produces when locked up at times. It's not the normal 60 cycle induced buzz noise etc. The supply is supprisingly smooth. This is a older unit so it has the 9volt dc supply furnished by Barix back then.

Call barix and get the 12v supply. End of story. Had a remote unit, 1 hour away, do this for over a year. Life was pure Hell. I normally only caught the lockup part then spent a day at the site trying to figure it out. Could not remotely reset either. Since you have at and t dsl you should be able to remotely reset this, right? Same unit, 12v supply, no problemo now.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

Thanks. I'll try the 12v supply

 

[RolfTaylor]

Hey guys.

I can't claim to know all the settings of the competition, but if "Internet radio" mode is TCP/IP then it is likely that is your problem.

A number of IP codecs allow this option, and it is NOT what you want. You want to use UDP or RTP/UDP whatever they call it on your codec.

APT strives to not offer options that can get you in trouble, and this is a perfect example!

Best of luck.

Rolf Taylor

Applications/Support Engineer

Worldcast Systems - APT

 

[LA_Guy]

Raw TCP and TCP/IP are not there to "get you in trouble" they are there to make sure that you can listen to the units with Winamp or Windows Media player. Raw UDP, RTP and BRTP (a 'pull' version of RTP) are also there.

Just today I had a person who was using BRTP. His connection had big time packet loss, that was knocking him off the air. I changed him over to TCP/IP and it got him back on. If he had been using another product he would still be off until they fixed his Internet connection.

By the way....the 9 volt DC power supplies stop working properly after about 18 months to two years. The filter capacitors inside them dry up. The new supplies are 12 volts AC.