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[Kevin Maxwell]

Yeah that's what I'm hoping, It'd be really easy to do a quick and dirty USB extender run using the print server method from FOH to there, so if they ever did lose their settings, it'd only take a few seconds to flash them back in.

I bought an iogear USB extender (over cat5 cable) so I could setup some backstage DLP amps while out at the mixer. It worked just file. There are 2 relatively small units one at the computer end and the one at the amp end and that one has 4 USB ports on it and it came with a small power supply.

If I am remembering correctly the only issue I had was it only worked if I used the power supply on the unit at the computer and not at the amp end. Or was it the other way around? 

[Taylor Hall]

I bought an iogear USB extender (over cat5 cable) so I could setup some backstage DLP amps while out at the mixer. It worked just file. There are 2 relatively small units one at the computer end and the one at the amp end and that one has 4 USB ports on it and it came with a small power supply.

If I am remembering correctly the only issue I had was it only worked if I used the power supply on the unit at the computer and not at the amp end. Or was it the other way around? 

We use something similar in our XTI2 amp rack. Ours our powered on both ends by a wall wart, however, so we don't have the same issue as you. Works out well since we have a dedicated FOH PC in our mixer rack so it all tucks away nicely out of sight and just plain works.

[Taylor Hall]

Ok, I was able to facetime with someone at the church and walk them step-by-step through a couple scenarios (flipping switch on the back vs 'pulling the plug') while ensuring the amps were powered on. The amps do remember their previous power and preset states in both scenarios as Kevin and the manual said, so they're going to get some remote switchable outlets and run some simple controls back to FOH.

It seems that the power recovery routine is quite robust, even over the call I could hear all the relays tripping on and off when power was removed, and then brought back. It also took the same amount of time to power down using the front power button as the other two "ungraceful" options, so it seems that it goes through the same shutdown procedure regardless of how you 'turn it off'. Time will tell if it causes any damage, but given how they behaved during this test I doubt anything will happen.

[Brian Jojade]

I bought an iogear USB extender (over cat5 cable) so I could setup some backstage DLP amps while out at the mixer. It worked just file. There are 2 relatively small units one at the computer end and the one at the amp end and that one has 4 USB ports on it and it came with a small power supply.

If I am remembering correctly the only issue I had was it only worked if I used the power supply on the unit at the computer and not at the amp end. Or was it the other way around? 

You can also build a solution with a raspberry pi that then can connect over TCP/IP. If running a dedicated line is impossible, that's a workaround too.

[Brian Jojade]

The idle current draw is 0.5-0.8A per amp - do you really need to turn them off?

A .8 amp draw would cost over $100/year in electrical costs per unit if left on 24X7.  It certainly adds up over time.

[Taylor Hall]

You can also build a solution with a raspberry pi that then can connect over TCP/IP. If running a dedicated line is impossible, that's a workaround too.

There's a few issues with that depending on how you're suggesting to implement it. If the amps are able to be controlled via IP, controlling them via a pi is more or less impossible since no one makes a *nix distro of their amp controller software, and a pi doesn't have enough grunt to run a full Windows or MacOS install. You could run the Windows IoT edition, but I don't know if that has the necessary features to run full applications needed in this use case. Also using Wine to virtualize the app is more often than not an exercise in futility, especially for apps that require the use of network or hardware controllers. If you're suggesting to use the Pi as a USB extender, that also has drawbacks as only certain USB ports can be used on the pi in such a way (unless that's been resolved in the latest pi4 board revisions), so if you need to control more than 1 or 2 amps, you may as well have just bought the dedicated USB extenders as most pis I've dealt with had instability issues with USB hubs.

I only know this because I went through the same process when setting up our amps racks and had a stack of unused pis in the shop 

[Thomas Le]

I might have missed this but why was a power sequencer not spec'd?

[Taylor Hall]

I might have missed this but why was a power sequencer not spec'd?

Ask the original installer.

[Brian Jojade]

There's a few issues with that depending on how you're suggesting to implement it. If the amps are able to be controlled via IP, controlling them via a pi is more or less impossible since no one makes a *nix distro of their amp controller software, and a pi doesn't have enough grunt to run a full Windows or MacOS install. You could run the Windows IoT edition, but I don't know if that has the necessary features to run full applications needed in this use case. Also using Wine to virtualize the app is more often than not an exercise in futility, especially for apps that require the use of network or hardware controllers. If you're suggesting to use the Pi as a USB extender, that also has drawbacks as only certain USB ports can be used on the pi in such a way (unless that's been resolved in the latest pi4 board revisions), so if you need to control more than 1 or 2 amps, you may as well have just bought the dedicated USB extenders as most pis I've dealt with had instability issues with USB hubs.

I only know this because I went through the same process when setting up our amps racks and had a stack of unused pis in the shop 

No, I wasn't suggesting running the amps directly with a PI. The USB extender solution is an option.  I've successfully ran a rack of 3 amps off a single PI with no issue, other than a little laggyness in screen refresh.

The point being, if you don't have access to a dedicated piece of wire, this could be a viable option if necessary.

[ProSoundWeb Community]