Optimod 8600: PSU Temperatures

[chrisg]

Hello,
I'm working at a station running an orban Optimod 8600HD (running the newest firmware v4.5.5.2).
Unfortunately, the PSU of this unit is getting pretty warm. Sometimes, I can barely touch the Optimod case in the PSU region, as it gets so hot.
Does anybody here have ideas why this unit is running so hot and what we could check for errors in order to get it run cooler again?
Some of my colleagues have contacted the Optimod support already a while ago but the only thing they stated is that we would have to send the Optimod to them in order to get it checked which is not an option for us as we do not have a backup unit available at this moment.
Thank you in advance and greetings from Namibia .

 

[frankberry]

Can you arrange for Orban to send you a loaner (or a rental)? Better to arrange for a temporary replacement rather than wait for your unit to quit.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

I would guess the most likely problem would be failing capacitors in the power supply. Higher resistance capacitors will result in more heat.

But I know very little about the 8600. I'm pretty sure I've never had that model open on my workbench.

 

[chrisg]

Thank you very much for your answers, I'll discuss that with our station management.
One big problem is the power in our studio building, sometimes it's very unstable with complete blackouts (of course the Optimod is UPS-backupped) or lots of brownouts which for sure do not really make the PSU problem better. I know that it's very hard to say but from your experience do you maybe have some info about how long the current PSU will still kind of work before breaking completely?

 

[DavidEduardo]

Thank you very much for your answers, I'll discuss that with our station management.
One big problem is the power in our studio building, sometimes it's very unstable with complete blackouts (of course the Optimod is UPS-backupped) or lots of brownouts which for sure do not really make the PSU problem better. I know that it's very hard to say but from your experience do you maybe have some info about how long the current PSU will still kind of work before breaking completely?

How difficult and expensive is shipping between Namibia and the USA? Are there customs and fees involved, even if you get a loaned unit? Will Orban loan internationally? Or can you just order a power supply and then send the old one for rebuild?

Your risk in just replacing the power supply is that there is something "overloading" it elsewhere and the problem will not be solved by replacing the p/s.

 

[chrisg]

How difficult and expensive is shipping between Namibia and the USA?

I cannot really tell anything about the pricing for sending the entire Optimod, but I'm pretty sure it would be very expensive. But the biggest problem is NamPost here, they are very unreliable so I'm pretty sure that the Optimod would just never return to us again as they loose parcels all the time.
Same thing applies to sending a power supply down here, it'll just get lost somewhere.
As far as I remember, my colleagues asked ProSound (South African orban dealer) back then if we could just buy a new PSU, but they weren't too happy with that.
But in addition to that I also don't know the orban pricing and I'm pretty sure our station management is not that happy on spending hundreds of bucks on a 12 year old Optimod.

 

[Kelly A]

But in addition to that I also don't know the orban pricing and I'm pretty sure our station management is not that happy on spending hundreds of bucks on a 12 year old Optimod.

In the meantime, make sure there is at least 1-RU of open rack space above and below your processor. Hemming it into the rack with other heat-generating devices top and bottom will only make the problem worse.

 

[DavidEduardo]

In the meantime, make sure there is at least 1-RU of open rack space above and below your processor. Hemming it into the rack with other heat-generating devices top and bottom will only make the problem worse.

I have also seen (and even, embarrassingly, used) cases where a device that is running hot has been kept alive by taking an old computer power supply and hooking up an array of computer fans to it to get some spot cooling until parts or a replacement could be ordered.

I even saw a station that had run out to Home Depot and bought a small kitchen fan and mounted it in the rack below the unit that was running hot. When stuff like that works, it has a bad habit of never being fixed, particularly if the problem device is in a country far from the manufacturer of the unit.

 

[chrisg]

In the meantime, make sure there is at least 1-RU of open rack space above and below your processor. Hemming it into the rack with other heat-generating devices top and bottom will only make the problem worse.

Space is not that much of an issue in our rack. above the Optimod are 2 RU of space and below 5 RU, so it should have enough space.

I have also seen (and even, embarrassingly, used) cases where a device that is running hot has been kept alive by taking an old computer power supply and hooking up an array of computer fans to it to get some spot cooling until parts or a replacement could be ordered.

We've also thought of adding a fan until the unit gets repaired but has not happened so far.

When stuff like that works, it has a bad habit of never being fixed

That's what happens at our station, as long as something kind of works (no matter how broken it is) it'll not be fixed.

But I'll see with what our station management comes up, maybe we will just switch to a software-based processing like BaOne or StereoTool as we currently have a capable PC "lying around" and I think that'll just be cheaper than fixing the Optimod (but no worries, I'll come up with a plan that this nice Optimod is not just somewhere on a shelf collecting dust).

 

[MM797]

The 8600 and other Orbans use a linear power supply which makes them very unique. I applaud Orban for doing that. I really liked the 8600 sound and I do remember that it ran kind of hot temperature wise. I suggest using a laser thermometer and take a measurement at a particular area of the chassis, note also the ambient temperature and convey those to Orban's tech support department. You may find that this is perfectly normal.

All of the other processor brands use switch mode power supplies which use high frequency pulsing to downregulate the voltages. The advantage with switch mode PS is no heavy expensive transformers are needed and the efficiency of operation is better. Switch mode power supplies still tend to let the high frequency electrical noise that they generate pass through and ride on the DC voltage. As the electrolytic capacitors that filter the output age and their ESR gets higher and they pass more noise. Many of these capacitors are jammed together with hot heat sinks that slowly cook them and age them faster.

The other processor brand the begins with the letter O and the model of it that ends in 6 is well known to me to have it's sound quality degrade as the power supply capacitors get worse with age. This happens slowly and you may even think that the trashy sound you become used to is normal. You can fix that and should consider doing so if you have these on the air.

 

[chrisg]

The 8600 and other Orbans use a linear power supply which makes them very unique.

The linear power supply might actually be the cause here, as it's normal for them to run hotter than switch mode ones, especially with such unstable power like we have in our office.
That might also explain those different temperatures, as sometimes the PSU is even a bit below "normal" and sometimes it's pretty warm - maybe that's just unstable/dirty input from the grid.

Thank you very much for the tip!