HP Blackbird 002

[mrbean_phillip]

Hello Guys,
Happy Festive Season to everyone, hope you're all enjoying it.

Not so much an update, as much as putting my thoughts together on where to go with this mod.

A while ago, I got the (pretty decent) TMS-200 from Koolance - for those that don't know, the TMS-200 is simlar to the Aquaero5/mCubed bigNG, where you can install a few temp sensors, and fans, and use curves/graphs/setpoints to automatically control said fans and/or pump(s) to specific measured variables or manual setpoints, or a combination of both.

The problem is, I am running Windows 2008 R2 on this setup, which is a must for the process simulator I have installed on here, and, the TMS-200 doesn't run under Server 2008 R2 I only realised this after I have installed it, made up cables, rewired temp-sensors, et al.

It would have been pretty easy to dump this, and refit an Aquaero5, for example, the only problem is the TMS-200 doesn't use std thermistors - only the later TMS-205 use the same ones as the bigNG and Aquaero5. So it means I will have to replace all custom thermistors-, fans- and pumps cables with new ones....a pretty time-consuming exercise, considering these were all made up of Turnigy silicone wire.

So, to cut a long story short, I need to do something - the system is supposed to be on auto-control, but cannot make changes if the OS is not running the GUI/USB connection is not present.

This in my opinion is a very lame effort by Koolance (sorry boys, had to say it), as one would expect that once you update parameters to the TMS-200, and disconnect the USB cable from the host system, it would function autonomously. Coming from a process-control background, this is essential.

Second issue is your lack of support for Server 2008, and unwillingness to rectify the situation, and paying what we do for these devices, well, let's just say it falls way short from realistic expectations, and designers/manufacturers in this watercooling world gets away with murder.

So, anyway, realising Server 2008 R2 won't allow this software to run -> I have decided on a different tact.

I have left over from my carputer projects, a very nice and small 3.5" Commell LS-373 SBC, sporting 2GB Ram, and running a very powerful (Mac) E8435 @ 3.06Ghz Core2Duo processor.

This little board is the size of a 3.5" harddrive, and blazingly fast. With it, there is also an OCZ Agility 2 40GB SSD, and combined, this will form the basis of a 2nd small computer, hosting the GUI and USB interface to the TMS-200.

I also have left over a very nifty Xenarc 7" Touchscreen TFT LCD. So, you can see where I am going with this.....

I was hoping to get my hands on a Kontron pITX-SP Atom-based board, which will be better for this application, as this particular 3.5" SBC setup is waaayyy overkill, but, such is life.

So, in the next few weeks, I will be manufacturing a new internal hinged side-panel, to replace the existing plastic one in place just above the PSU cover - this panel will be made of a regular aluminium heatsink, and I will bolt the 3.5" SBC, with 7" LCD, directly to it from behind.

I have designed (and a friend CNC'ed) a lovely heatblock, covering both the NB and CPU, and will use some of my Coolermaster Heatpipes to connect this to the aluminium heatsink.

Will work really well, passively cooled, touchscreen LCD, and the only connections to the main rig will be a 12V DC line, as well as the USB connection back to the TMS-200.

Of course, the touchscreen will be the input device on this...

I will design the new side-cover in AutoCAD, and post a rendering here in the next couple of days.

Soz for the long post, without pics, but excited enough to at least share my ideas

Take care, and talk soon.

[brayway]

wow, that sounds awesome!
inception, a pc inside of a pc!

[mrbean_phillip]

Let's hope I can pull it off

Should work well, just a pity I have to sacrifice a very nice 3.5" PC to do the job that should have been taken care of in the TMS-200 drivers.

No Server 2008 support is just unacceptable.

[mrbean_phillip]

Hello Guys,
This afternoon, my HP P800 raid-controller failed, and I have to urgently retrieve files I was working on this morning. I only make weekly back-ups, so...

Card must be PCI-e, I don't know if a P400 or P600 will allow me to configure the arrays from the harddrive to the controller though...maybe...

Any help willbe appreciated, even if I can have a loan-card for a few days

Much obliged!

ps: I will post this message also in my project-log.

[Stanza]

P400 p600 even p200 .... Even newer p210 p410 should detect and set itself up with your original raid config

If you get stuck, post to borrow one in the storage section... Someone should be able to loan you one

[Stanza]

Oh and p600 is no good to you as it's pci-x

Edit, actually you will need p210 or p410 to connect to your existing cables / backplanes unless you can also borrow some sff-8087 to sff-8087 cables for the p400 to hookup

[admiralranga]

Originally Posted by Stanza

Oh and p600 is no good to you as it's pci-x

Edit, actually you will need p210 or p410 to connect to your existing cables / backplanes unless you can also borrow some sff-8087 to sff-8087 cables for the p400 to hookup

pci-x still works in a pci slot if theres room for the card physically, its just slower.

[mrbean_phillip]

Thanx for the replies, guys, appreciated

Yep, my board can also take PCI-X (SM X7DWA-N), but I would prefer a PCI-e card.

I thought the P400 had the same connector as the P800?

But, I will also ask in the storage-section, thanx Stanza!

[Stanza]

Originally Posted by mrbean_phillip

Thanx for the replies, guys, appreciated

Yep, my board can also take PCI-X (SM X7DWA-N), but I would prefer a PCI-e card.

I thought the P400 had the same connector as the P800?

But, I will also ask in the storage-section, thanx Stanza!

Doh my fault yes sff8087 for the p800 so yes same as p400 p600

[mrbean_phillip]

Ah, no worries Stanza, always good to have someone of your caliber pop in and give advice, much appreciated.

I do have both sets of cables anyway, but, would be simpler just to get a P400 or a P800.

If you stumble across any, give me a holler

[Stanza]

Was it turned on when it died? Or turned off and just wouldn't come back online?

Ie trying to work out for you if it's the card or the memory/ battery packs gone south, the batteries are known to go.... Also but rarer the cache modules.

And some smart array controllers eg p400 do certain levels of RAID with say 256meg and no battery. If you bump them up to 512meg you get another raid level up. Then if say 512meg plus battery pack a further raid level and write back cache etc

How was it configured? Raid 5 ?. Raid 6 ?

Cos I am thinking if say you had it as Raid 6 and the battery died, the controller can only see / do / perform Raid 5..... Max etc

[Renza]

hey mate, i have a p600, i think i may have bought it off stanza :P (edit: nah i bought it off lil^mac?)

anyway its unused at the moment, contact me if you get desperate in finding a way to get your data!

[mrbean_phillip]

Was it turned on when it died? Or turned off and just wouldn't come back online?

Heya Mate, I had just finished a Visio-design, and did a save - next step was to export the Visio-drawing to pdf - this is where I noted the PC started t behave very funny, the export to pdf just sat there, not responding. Then, whole PC just seemed to freeze up on me.

I forced a hard reset, and 2 minutes later when I returned, the system had BSOD'ed. Another restart, this time powering down the system, removing power-cord, etc, and restarted.

P800 failed - this was the message:

HP P800 Raid Controller Failure
Command Failure (CMD=0h, err=00h, dlu=0FFFFh:FFFFh)
1783 - Slot 4 Drive Array Controller Failure

I did remove the controller from the system, removed cache and capacitors (batteries) from the card too.

But, nada, seems card is dead, unless nvram failed - would need to check if I can reset that somehow.....

At Renza: I was wondering if I could borrow that P600, or take it off your hands? Should be ok to at least get my data back....



Appreciate the help, thanx guys.

[ruffnex]

Hey Mate,

I had this exact same error last week on a Proliant DL380 G6. The addresses were slighly different but the error message was exactly the same. I took out the cache module and disconnected the BBU from the RAM module put it all bakc together and it booted however it was in a dodgy state. For me it was stable enough to flash the firmware on the controller which basically rectified the problem.

Not sure if this helps you but it worked for me.

Oh my controller was P410i btw

[mrbean_phillip]

Heya Mate,
Thanx for the feedback

Yeah, I did remove the batteries, as well as the cache - on the P800, you have 2 batteries that connects via edge-connectors to the cache itself - so removed them, then removed the cache-module, as well as the card from the motherboard.

Left it out to discharge for about 10 minutes, but, no-go, same issue.

I was thinking it might simply be a controller-chip failure, these things happen. Was hoping I could flash the card with firmware to see if it cures the problem, but, with the failure up there, don't know if it would allow me to flash.

Do you guys know of a blind-flash utility for these HP cards? Or if it will work - I guess I will google anyway, just thought I'd take a short-cut on this and ask you experts