DTH7000

with removable hard drive rack

 


CAUTION !!! Before doing anything, please read this warning :

IF YOU DECIDE TO DO THIS MODIFICATION, IT'S AT YOUR OWN RISK !

I suppose that this kind of modification suppress the Thomson warranty.

I'm not sure to really discovered yet all the potential consequences of such a modification, especially what is the impact in term of power dissipation of the hard drive inside the rack and the associated consequences on the lifespan of hard drive.
Update : To decrease a little bit the temperature increasing however, I recently added an opened space on top of the disk (see red comment "hole" on image above).

I use to disconnect the disk from the unit after disconnecting it from AC line, and to switch it on again afterward but without any disk inserted into (to be able to play a DVD or listenning music). It works, but, again, I'm not able to guarantee it will always works and with no particular consequences !

You should also know some of the disadvantages :

Hard drive installation outside the case :

essai

In order to be able to read the DTH7000 hard disk on my computer easily, or to use several specifically formatted disks on the same DTH7000, I modified it to place the hard disk outside the unit's case, inside a removable rack.
Due to short IDE cable length, the only solution without replacing this IDE cable was to install the hard drive just below the case, after a 90° rotation.
I plugged a power extension cable, because the original one was too short to go outside the case.
Inside the removable rack, I added a switch to be able to quickly switch from master (inside the DTH7000) to slave mode (inside my PC).

The cover is almost fully mounted, except one screw on the front left side which can't be placed due to cables path.
I added some protection around the cables in the area of the cover edge to be sure that the almost cutting edge won't cut cable after long uses.

To be improved : Before extracting the hard drive, it is necessary to switch the unit off, but there is no way to switch it off easily (no switch on the front panel).
To solve this, I added a switch on the unit AC supply cable.
CAUTION !!! If you decide to do that, please choose a compatible switch built to work on the AC line voltage (220VAC in France for example) and able to handle the current of the unit.

Fast jumper setting :

To fasten the jumper modification (from "master" in the unit, to "slave" in the computer), I soldered 2 wires between both jumper's pins to a dip switch.
This switch is placed close to the hard drive inside the rack and can be easily and quickly manipulate when needed. The rack cover is never used, therefore the temperature decreases a little bit and it gives access to the switch.

jumper location inside the rack      jumper connection details

Theory of operation :

To move the disk from the DTH7000 unit to the computer :

  1. Switch off the computer and the unit.

  2. Extract the disk from the unit

  3. place the jumper at the rear side of the hard drive to the slave setting

  4. insert the rack into the computer (2 racks are needed : 1 below the unit to receive the disk in normal mode, and another inside the computer case to receive it on computer)

To move the disk back from the computer to the DTH7000 unit :

same as previously except that the jumper must be re-set to master setting