Barco - icmp x - caddies

[Stefan Scholz]

My eyes nearly popped outta their sockets when I saw $760 for two liters of Barco coolant.
I'm sure there must be a reason for charging that price. (Other than "because they can" )
But to me it just looks like two bottles of diluted antfreeze/ethanol, and some plastic tubing
and a syringe that looks exactly like some of the 'hardware' I got for free from the hospital
when they sent me home after a surgery a few years back.


BarcoCoolant.jpg

I'm

What you are showing is the complete kit including "bicycle" pump, syringe, plastic hoses and coupling connectors. A lot of "valuable" hardware, not only 2 liters of Blue Diluted 1,2 Ethanediol (Antifreeze), as it is written on the bottles. It also states 1/3 Ethanediol, 2/3 Water. A Brenntag product (is one of the suppliers or motor car antifreeze), filled and labelled for Barco Kuume, Belgium.

You need to buy the hardware kit once only, and afterwards just buy regular antifreeze in blue color for 50 cents a liter.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I believe that the ICMP-X caddies are exclusively manufactured for Barco by Advantech SRL, a subsidiary of Advantech based in Romania. Has anyone noticed that the ICMP-X servers most likely come from the same factory ?

I've bought integrated appliances from Advantech in the past...

I haven't done a comparison yet, but their 3.5" caddies look pretty similar to the Barco ICMP ones:

StorageReview-Advantech-ASR3100PP-Micron-In-Caddy.jpg

[Allan Barnes]

Thanks i will check out this supplier

[Christos Gartaganis]

I've bought integrated appliances from Advantech in the past...

I haven't done a comparison yet, but their 3.5" caddies look pretty similar to the Barco ICMP ones:

StorageReview-Advantech-ASR3100PP-Micron-In-Caddy.jpg

I am not sure if they are still available for purchase through Advantech. The ASR 3100 servers are End of Life.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I am not sure if they are still available for purchase through Advantech. The ASR 3100 servers are End of Life.

Yeah, but they still offer similar server appliances that feature 3.5" SATA slots. I doubt they redesigned those caddies for those. So, I'll drop a line to the sales representative tomorrow and will ask him if they offer those caddies as a stand-alone product and if they're willing to ship a sample.

The thing is though, Advantech works with volumes, it may be hard to source low volume numbers from them, especially for stuff like this.

[Leo Enticknap]

I seem to remember a thread a few years ago in which we were trying to identify the OEM part for another server's drive caddies (possibly the DolReMi IMSes). We did, but also discovered that there was a minimum order of 1,000 from the factory, and no-one reselling them individually or in smaller quantities that could be found online.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I've dropped them a mail, they're going to check if this is a part that can be ordered individually. Like Leo indicated, chances are they'll require a minimum order, if they offer it separately at all.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Short update: Those caddies can be ordered with a minimum quantity of 500... Price per caddy is about USD 15.00 excluding shipping and import/handling fees. Still, no guarantee they match. They're looking if they can provide a sample.

So, for now, buying overpriced disks from BARCO still is cheaper.

[Leo Enticknap]

So the only realistic way anyone is going to get a set other than through Barco is if a cinema equipment vendor or reseller buys a batch of 500, and then sells them on at a reasonable markup, but not as big a one as Barco charges. That's what we do with the CPC quick release hose couplings when we do a repair that requires one, though a minimum order of 20 is a much smaller inventory burden than 500.

[Ryan Gallagher]

So the only realistic way anyone is going to get a set other than through Barco is if a cinema equipment vendor or reseller buys a batch of 500, and then sells them on at a reasonable markup, but not as big a one as Barco charges. That's what we do with the CPC quick release hose couplings when we do a repair that requires one, though a minimum order of 20 is a much smaller inventory burden than 500.

The only community alternative to that would be to start a group buy thread where people register interest and quantity, perhaps even pre-pay into a funding pool, and only order when the minimum is reached. Assuming they are even the correct caddies, that manufacturer sample would be useful there.

[Carsten Kurz]

ICMP caddies use a light-pipe to feed drive activity from a SATA-backplane mounted LED towards the front of the caddy. They're not necessary technically for drive operation, but I found that quite unusual.

[Marcel Birgelen]

ICMP caddies use a light-pipe to feed drive activity from a SATA-backplane mounted LED towards the front of the caddy. They're not necessary technically for drive operation, but I found that quite unusual.

That's actually quite common for quite a few of those caddies, as many of them are 100% passive. The status LEDs are on the backplane and the only connector is the SAS or SATA and power connector on the drive. The bracket itself can be 100% passive this way and the light pipe is just a cheap piece of transparent plastic.

More fancy ones, like those HPE caddies with "animated LEDs" on them require extra circuitry and an extra electrical connection with the backplane, just another piece of technology that can break, all for a rather useless spinning disk animation.

I've requested a sample, lead time will be anywhere between two weeks and a month.