GadgetNewsBlog

Q: What is the maximum number of duplicator towers you can daisy chain together? With daisy-chainable towers, can you have the second, third, etc., towers all slave units then (with no hard drive)? Or, can only certain units be chained together?

A: The term daisy chain refers to the serial connection that connects towers to one another: Tower One is connected to Tower Two, which is connected to Tower Three, and so on. The benefit is you can duplicate a large number of discs from a single master – even if you linked together 100 towers.

For information on daisy chaining duplication towers, I turned to Amber Yu at ILY Enterprise Inc. ILY is a pioneer in advanced duplication systems.

According to Amber, you can theoretically link an unlimited number of towers together. In practical application, however, you are limited by electrical power (which decreases with each subsequent tower that is added to the chain). “The most we’ve tested in our facility is 20 units,” she said, “and we’ve had several customers who have purchased 10 or more at one time.”

You’ll want to look for duplicator towers that specifically say they are daisy chainable in the product description. For ILY, that’s the Spartan Pro Plus series of towers. Linking two towers of with different brands of drives (for example one Pioneer and one NEC) is not recommended. The towers’ burn specifications may not be compatible with one another.

Use the daisy chain cord that is provided with your unit or recommended by the manufacturer. Longer cables may slow-down your transfer rate and could damage your tower.