Technical Information
In this section, we are going to dig a little deeper into the components that are used so you can get a better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the IgorBox Input 8.
This section is for people with an understanding of electronics and engineering. This information is provided for reference only. If you choose to use this information to do something outside of our recommendations or limits, you do so at your own risk.
Optical Inputs
We use the Renesas PS2815-4-V-F3-A optocoupler to provide optical isolation for the inputs.
The circuit has current limiting resistors rated to dispate the power of up to 24VDC. This means that the inputs can handle up to 24VDC without damaging the optocoupler or the current limiting resistors. Applying more than 24VDC to the inputs will likely heat up the resistors and could damage the optocoupler.
You can read the full datasheet here.
LEDs and Indicators
We designed the system to go dark with the change of configuration in the web interface. This means that the LEDs are software controlled.
If you elect to turn the LEDs of in the web console, the firmware will turn them off and they will stay off until you turn them back on or you go into manual control mode.
Audio
The onboard audio Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) is a Texas Instruments PCM5102A. This is a 24-bit DAC that can handle sample rates well into the audiophile range.
Being audio snobs ourselves, we spent a great deal of time designing and testing to make sure the audio sound is clean and free of noise even at high amplifaction levels.
Beyond this, we support lossless audio formats like FLAC and WAV, so you can be sure that your audio will sound great! (We also support MP3 and AAC for those that need smaller file sizes).
All of the decoding and playback is done on the onboard microcontroller. This means that the audio is not being streamed from the cloud, but is being played directly from the onboard storage. This allows for very low latency and high-quality audio playback regardless of the file encoding.
Storage
The onboard storage is a 64gb SDMMC card. This should be more than enough space for all of your compositions and audio files. We chose this size to give you plenty of room to grow and expand your library without having to worry about running out of space. This card has some special formatting to increase the performance of the audio playback and its not recommended to remove or replace the card as it may cause issues with the firmware.
If you absoultely need more storage on your IgorBox, please reach out to us directly and we can discuss options for expanding the storage with bigger SDMMC cards and how to format them correctly. (Also, swapping out the card is actually kind of a pain, so we don't recommend it unless talk to us first).
Power
The power is regulated using an onboard Point of Load (POL) regulator. This regulator takes up to 30VDC input and converts it to the 3.3VDC for all the onboard systems. This regulator is rated for 2 amps and is more than enough to power the relays, audio, and microcontroller. The 3.3VDC rail is not user accessible and is only used for the onboard systems.
Even though the POL is rated to handle 30VDC, we do not recommend using anything over 24VDC. There are components that use the unregulated power and they cannot handle more than 24VDC. If you use more than 24VDC, you risk damaging the IgorBox and voiding the warranty.
Pass through power
We wanted to make it easy to power devices directly from the IgorBox, so we added a pass-through power section on the I/O connector block. This allows you to jump power from the power supply to the relay channels to power devices directly from the IgorBox. This power is unregulated and unprotected so be sure to check the voltage and current requirements of the devices you are powering. We literally just jumped power from the power connector directly to the I/O connector block, so it's the same voltage and current as the power supply.
The internal systems are protected against reverse polarity. The pass-through power is not. If you reverse the polarity of the power supply, the IgorBox will not be damaged or even turn on.. but anything you have connected to the pass-through power will get the backwards voltage and could be damaged.