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 Output 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.
Relays
The Output 8 has two tiers of relay channels.
High power channels
Channels 1 and 2 are rated for 3 amps of switched DC load. We chose this rating to keep a healthy safety margin under the channel's maximum design load.
Lower power channels
Channels 3 through 8 are rated for 1 amp of switched DC load. Same approach — we keep the published rating well inside the channel's design envelope so it stays reliable under continuous use.
Do not use these channels to switch mains power. Mains power (what comes out of your wall) is dangerous and these channels are not designed for that use. If you need to control mains power, follow all local electrical codes and regulations. If you use the Output 8 to control mains power, you do so at your own risk.
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. This allows us to change the behavior of the LEDs based on the configuration of the relay. As an example, why setting a channel to "normal closed", the firmware will turn the relay on and the LED off. This way, the LED will show the state of the channel (based on your composition or manual control), not the state of the relay.
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 Output 8 plays back high-quality 24-bit audio with low noise even at high amplification levels. Supported formats include lossless FLAC and WAV, as well as MP3 and AAC for situations where a smaller file size matters.
Audio plays back directly from the onboard storage rather than streaming from the cloud, so you get low latency and the show keeps playing even if your internet drops.
Storage
The Output 8 has plenty of onboard storage for compositions and audio files in a typical attraction.
If you need more storage than the Output 8 ships with, contact support and we can talk through your options.
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.