The Saga part 2

[csp]

Phil,

Thanks for the reply.

Somewhere in either the d8b manual or one of the plugin manuals, it states that the version on the UFX card is level 1 and then in brackets it states something like "hope this makes you want to try Level 2".

So I have no idea if it was ever released or simply something that was planned but never eventuated !!!

Still working on the stupid donated desk and slowly narrowing down where the problem is, but what causes it or how to fix it I have no idea as there is no reason why it fails if my theory is correct !!!!!

David

[Crash]

The TC Electronic TC FX II was the only TC Electronic reverb made for made for the d8b. Level 1 is the demo mode for it. The level 1, level 2, along with the FX II moniker was confusing.

Page 5 of the TC manual clears it up.

[csp]

Crash,

Thanks for that info and I will look it up during the day.

David

[csp]

Crash,

I initially could not remember where, but that was where I saw the reference to the higher TC FX levels and as it states the version on the UFX card is Level 1 and the paragraph references higher levels, I was wondering if those higher levels were ever released.

Also I think that I read somewhere many years ago, that the red VU section above the Menu button does not work on the version of the programme that is on the UFX card and also why I thought that there might have been a higher level available.

David

[Phil.c]

David, is everything working now?

[csp]

Phil,

NO COMMENT !!!!!!!!!

You will need to wait for my next posting on the topic, when ever that might be !!!!!!!

Or wait to read the headline is any Australian newspaper --- "Wife Murders Husband --- Because of a sound console taking up an entire bedroom's floor space and bed for the past 6 months --- police say it was a justified homocide and no charges to be laid" !!!!!!!!!

I would however really like to know how to place a photo into the body of a post, as the link [url][/url] is very confusing to me when the photo is stored on the computer and not a URL link --- the only time I posted a photo I had to do it as an attachment and it finished up in an entirely different and new topic.

David

[Phil.c]

Go to https://imgbb.com/. Click on start uploading, this should take you to your pictures, select a picture, click ADD, then click upload. Click on embedded codes, bbfully linked, then copy, paste/post that to your message here, but edit the link so you have only [img]………[img] and that’s it but make sure your picture is not too large as it will be difficult to view

[csp]

Phil,

Thank you for that information and I will probably give it a try sometime in the next week or so.

David

[csp]

Believe it or not this was going to be my last post on this topic --- to explain.

For the past 2yrs (received about the 15th May, 2022) that I have been working on this console, the main problem has been that it has been dropping audio and the meters have at the same time frozen -- when this happens the Red LED on the DSP Board goes out and either the Green LED comes on or if already on it stays on. The only fix being to re-boot the desk.

About a month ago I had been doing some pushing/shoving of the various plugs and ribbon cables and the desk suddenly started to work perfectly --- on one occassion I had it running for 27hrs without a problem, on other days it was on for 10 - 12 hrs without a problem, then for no apparent reason, one evening at about 10.30pm I decided to give it one last test for the night before shutting it down and on playing the test song it froze (again at about 30 secs from memory). The next morning I turned on the desk and almoast immediately there were problems --- the meters were at full or near full (booted about 3 time with the same problem) and I really have no idea what causes that to happen, but some years ago I did read about it and a possible solution, but I have forgotten the details.

Then when it did finally boot correctly on playing th HD24 it froze after a few seconds and for about the next week I had the same problems.

To digress --- about a year ago I read an article plublished in 2006 by a chap who I think said that he was either part of the desk's design team or was part of the assembly and testing process and they experienced a problem with some of the very early desks manufactured (I suspect that the donated desk is one of the original desks).

The problem was the stopping of audio and the freezing of the VU metes and the loss of the Red LED on the DSP Board. All that they could think of was that there was somehow a faulty batch of the 5pin Moles type power plugs (J42 going from the Power Distribution Board to the DSP Board), with the suspected faulty batch being basically thrown into the box with the good plugs --- so it was the luck of the draw if you got a good or bad plug. His only suggested solution was to push in the cutting pins on the female sockets and to VERY carefully bend the pins on male plug so as to make the plug and socket fit tighter,

To return to the story --- after almost a week of the desk playing up again I decided to either throw the desk in the dump or to take the drastic step of Hot Gluing the two plugs and sockets --- if it damaged the desk to bad as I was going to turf it anyway.

While pushing the plugs VERY firmly and moving them into a position where they really felt as if they were making good contact, I glued both plug/sockets. After waiting a while for the glue to really set and cool. I booted the desk.

For the next week despite flipping the desk (and some times quite roughly !!!) numerous times, as well as removing all of the external plugs each time, I could not make the desk fault --- why did I not do this hot gluing a year ago !!!

As a result on waking up yesterday, I decided to give the desk one last try and if OK I would remove all of the cables and cable tie them and VERY carefully take the desk to the Centre as a finally working desk. The way I padded the desk I would suggest that it could have been dropped from a plane at 30k feet and it would have still worked.

When fully pack I placed it into my van (Truck for those in the USA) and took it to the Centre where I spent about the next 3hrs installing it and then giving it a good 2hrs testing --- absolutely no problem --- the Centre now finally had its fulling working Mackie d8b desk.

I still had a few cables to run and modify so this morning I returned to the Centre and booted the desk --- I wanted to re-set two fader levels on one of the songs that I had copied to the Centre's HD24 hard drive, so that tonight when the committee arrived for a Band rehearsal I could finally show them the desk and show them what it can do.

To check the new fader level I turned on the HD24 and the Control Room Monitors, hit play and the song started --- again it really sounded great, then at 28secs the sound stopped and the meters froze ---- WHY WHEN THE DESK HAS BEEN WORKING PERFECTLY FOR A WEEK AS WELL AS YESTERDAY AFTER THE MOVE AND INSTALL !!!!!!!

In complete shock, I re-booted the desk only to see all of the meters at or near full on booting. Shutdown the desk, waited a minute and rebooted --- the meters were again at full, so I shutdwon and repeated (actually did this three times). Finally the desk booted correctly and I again played the song and at about 30 secs it did the same no sound and meter freeze, so I shutdown and re-booted again.

This time it booted perfectly, so thinking that there might/must be something strange with that particular song at about 30 secs, I decided to open another session's song, select that song and play it and it played perfectly for the song's entire 5min 54secs. I then decided to load another song but discovered that I didn't copy across its session file, so I simply left the previous session open and selected the third song and played it (by the way there was no automation on any of these songs)--- apart from the song sounding strange because it had the wrong mix settings, it played without a problem, THEN at 3min 41secs into the song the audio stopped and the meters froze.

At that stage I simply gave up and was thankfully I had not mentioned the desk's install to the Committee.

Why when the desk has been working perfectly for a week and it survived the move and install and worked perfectly for at least a couple of hours yesterday, Why when it had simply shutdown and left it overnight (covered in its cover), did it today return to its faulty condition ???????

THIS SIMPLY DEFIES ALL LOGIC TO ME !!!!!!!!!

So "NOT the end of the saga, unless I go to the Centre tomorrow, remove the desk and dump it as I had intended about two weeks ago !!!!!

David

[Phil.c]

Could it be something like an unstable capacitor breaking down???