Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
just a thought...
Monday, 1 November 2010
Man and Machine part II
Once all the zillions of holes have been done, counter bored and tapped... we turn our attention to the other side... the top side... the side where everyone will get to see!
As the Morpheus Server is available in different colours, we have decided to do away with printing as that can only be done after anodising it... which adds cost and time to complete. So why don't we put all the important logos etc. into the metal, and anything boring like serial numbers underneath with a sticky label... job done!
Next job, we had 2 choices... engraving by man, or engraving by machine. After asking talking to our experienced engraver John on which way to go, he explained that he would prefer doing it by hand. To him the hand engraving adds a final personal touch to each product and we agree!
Here's John in action:
Man and Machine...
OK, so it isn't an amazing video I know, but I hope people now realise that even with computers and machines, these things still take considerable of time to complete, one by one. I remember having to explain to some people there isn't a machine out there that you pour in materials from one end and out comes the finished products from the other end! :)
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Introducing the Morpheus Server!
I'm back!
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Ghosts in the machine...
Morpheus is feeling pretty!
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Necessity is the mother of the Morpheus Server...
Anyway, over the months the Morpheus Server went from concept, show sample to full production and this week, we are shipping the last one out of the first production batch... not bad going for a brand new product! I can think of several reasons for that though... Firstly I think it is a smashing looking product in the flesh, really easy to use and finally I think the market is ready for such a product... Opps... I meant the product is finally ready for the market!
The Morpheus Server was born not from an idea, but rather from necessity. We needed a music server to partner our Morpheus Music centre but we could not find something good enough, reliable enough, or easy enough to use. I mean, is that possible for we are not even early adopters! So after months of searching for a suitable product and failing miserably, one day I joked with Haider: "After spending so much time searching and evaluating, we could have built the perfect one by now!" Well, that was back in September. In October we had a prototype running in the office!
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Montreal was unreal....
Next... hmmm... I know it looked like I have been rather lazy on this blog but not really, I have been documenting the progress of the new Morpheus Server and hopefully over Easter weekend I will have some time to put it all together and if I can work it out, embed some videos too!
(ok if that sounds like a bore-fest... you can always watch the F1 GP this weekend and pray for rain again since the FIA have really, trully, finally and ultimately screwed F1 this time... I feel a rant coming on haha... don't worry I won't subject you to that just yet!)
Thursday, 4 March 2010
MIA
back soon!
Sunday, 24 January 2010
The nitty-gritty.
The less holes there are, the less chance for noise to escape! As mentioned before the buttons are made from cast acryllic but I forgot to mention they are transparent so that we can use them as status indicators, so the production version will no loger have the holes next to the buttons for indicators... less holes less noise to escape from! The production version will also have a velvet curtain over the CD slot as the last hint of noise was heard through the CD slot in the prototype, so we have now addressed that problem too... every little helps!
Notice the side panels are recessed in the server. Apart from showing off the thickness hence sturdiness of the case, these side panels are made from 2mm thick aluminium and shaped to fit the hole. As the case is made from an extruded tube, the holes on these tubes will never be all exactly the same. Hence the side panel will always need to be slightly smaller than the tune's hole, hence the side panels were designed to "expand" when you tighten the side screws in order to seal the tube sufficiently.
Why recess them? Well it was an insurance policy during the design phase. The idea was to allow extra damping material to be added on both side of the side plate should we need to take the noise down another level! Fortunately the pre-production unit proved that was no longer necessary as the noise supression was already so effective, so now it simply leaves scope for the customer to specify a different custom side finish... Penaudio ply veneer anyone? :o)
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Now you don't hear it!
Oh yeah, the first unit made was in a Bordeaux Red... well I like it and thankfully eveyone else did too! Since the unit is all aluminium we can anodise it in any colour we like, so we made a black one too for old time's sake!
The Morpheus server's design specification was really simple:
Simple to use, quiet as hell, small, and green (enviromentally that is).
I have had computers working as servers and NAS drives at home and honestly, never again! The computer was ugly and noisy, and the NAS drive was just plain noisy, especially when you want to listen to your music and relax! So the Morpheus Server needs to first tackle the noise aspect very seriously, infact nearly all the effort was focused on the noise issue!
Now you hear it! has been our slogan for the longest time but not this time for this bad boy! This unit has to be ultra quiet itself and also vibration free so it would not casue noise to its surroundings. So the first thing was to get rid of the need of fans in the unit. All the main components, power supply unit etc. must also be fanless versions so they can operate indefinitely without needing a fan to cool it... sounds simple until you realise that they are like hen's teeth to find! Only the latest generations of components are thinking along that way to save power and be silent!
Vibration elimination was a bit more complicated! We have 2 fast hard disk drives inside which whirls, crackles, clicks and vibrates like hell, so the way they are mounted has to be carefully looked into. Having been into cars and our office situated not far from a Lexus dealer, I have looked into ways cars have used to reduce vibration, centrifugal or torque issues when mounting their engines! After some experimentation, the hard drives inside the Morpheus are now mounted on 8 rubber damper mountings, selected by sampling several shores and numbers used before deciding on the best combination. The drives themselves are coupled in a way that their individual vibrations cancels each other, inspired by silent shafts used in car engines, and the final result was rather spectacular!
Of course all these efforts can easily be lost again if the box is made like a tin can... but not the Morpheus Server! If you look closely you will see the case is made from a seamless aluminium tube and the walls are 6mm thick. Aluminium is a low resonance material and seamless means minimum noise can escape for the box and it won't fall apart in years to come! Aluminium conducts heat very well which helps the cooling of all internal parts and thermal stability is assured. The fully assembled unit weighs a hefty 5kg and all that weight rests on 4 soft, natural rubber feet, making the unit even more silent and vibration free! Infact when Haider first took one home, he wasn't sure if the unit was on or not cos it was so quiet!
Here are a few shots of the unit:
The eagle eye'd reader will observe that there are only 2 buttons on the unit (specially made from cast-acryllic for the Morpheus). One to switch the unit on and off, the other is to eject the disc in an emergency! I say emergency because the CD is automatically ejected once it has been recorded! We couldn't have possible made this unit easier to use... 2 wires to connect, one button to push and then stick a CD into its slot and go make urself a drink! After a few minutes the CD is ejected signifying that the CD has been recorded and stored into the immense 3TB hard disk. You can then access all your music from your Morpheus Music center or any other UPnP streaming devices!
Are we Green? Oh yes! We never over look the enviromental impact of our products and the Morpheus is probably one of the greenest servers around!
More design details later... :o)
Friday, 8 January 2010
2nd day at CES
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
CES begins tomorrow!
Monday, 4 January 2010
Las Vegas here we go again!
A couple of posts ago I briefly mentioned the server and finally I am allowed to talk a bit more about it yay!!! Well here it goes...
The new Morpheus Server will hopefully serve as the heart of our music system where the user can store all his or her music in one place. It also has a CD ripper built-in so the user only needs to pop it into its slot and go make a cup of tea (or coffee) and by the time the tea (or coffee) is ready, so is the music ready to be served up using the Morpheus Music centre or any streaming device! For those who are disorganised by nature such as myself, it will categorise the music for you together with album art and of course all the details of the Artist etc. As a server, you can stream any song or the same song to multiple devices around your home, controlled by the remote control that came with your streaming device, or using an i-Pod touch or i-Phone running an application called PlugPlayer http://www.plugplayer.com/.
Taking a detailed look at the Morpheus when you have a chance, you will find the Morpheus is rather special. First time you switch it on you'd swear that it is not working! (When Haider borrowed the prototype to play with he actually wasn't sure either!). Why? Because it is silent! If you have ever used a PC or another high-end server, you will probably frown at the amount of noise it makes, and not to mention vibration. They are not products designed to be installed in a living room, or indeed, your listening room... I certainly wouldn't have one of those anywhere near me at any cost.
When designing the Morpheus, the challenges this time are not only surrounding the electronics, but also with the mechanics involved. Think about it, most of servers and especially PC's used as a server will have at least 2 or 3 fans... some of them are exposed outside of the case and they all go like wooooooooooo wooooooooo.... and they also have grills and vents leaking even more noise from within. The Morpheus fan count is ZERO, and it's a sealed unit so no leaks! But what about the mechanical noise? Barring the minute CD noise that only occurs when it is copying a CD, the Morpheus Server also has two high speed 1.5TB hard drives spinning continuously at 7400 revolutions per minute. Like it or not they will create noise and worst of all, they will vibrate and resonate with its surroundings. Now that the real challenge and a half becasue each home is a different surrounding and we cannot predict that!
A little more about the Morpheus mechanics later... I'm tired and I'm flying in 12hours and will have ample time to write about it on the 747... :o)