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Turning D8B into control surface (Fanless) or recovering it

Discussion board for Mackie's d8b Digital Console users.

Re: Turning D8B into control surface (Fanless) or recovering

Postby SoundForSoul » Fri Jun 21, 2024 9:55 am

Arjepsen just confirmed that his Traco power traco power txl 035-1515d has the same issue with not correlated voltages between V1 (+16v) and V2 (-16v) and also the fact that adjusting the voltage for +16v is different than on the -16v (increasing with 1 v for the + is actually increasing with 0.2 v for the -, for example), so he's been using succesfully two meanwell LRS-35-15 supplies. We need +16V, gnd ref., -16V. so, using supply-1 for +16 and supply-2 for -16.
On supply-1 he has connected "-V" to ground, and also to "+V" on supply no2 on "V-".
Then "+V" on supply #1 is +16V, and "-V" on supply-2 is -16V.
So your multimeter should measure 32v if put with minus on pin 5 and plus on pin 16 in the big connector or the multimeter's black cable on supply 1 V- and the red one on supply2 V+/
Yup, it makes sense now - I've just measured with a multimeter the Traco power dual 16v with black cable on V1 (+) and red one on V2 (-) and it reads 31.2 v in my case.
So a dual power supply of 16v = 2 single supplies of 16v that are put in serial.
The advantage beeing that +16v and -16v can be controlled individually, the price of two singles is still lower than of a dual one. They take more space, though.

Update with my CPU unit: the big black snake was measured, it delivers +45V (the gnd is the same as the 16v according to the schematics, btw), , +/-16v, +5v - on the given pins, but no 12v, so I guess it's the ATX source that was broken. Will further investigate that.

I am trying to make the master fader's vu-meters from console to show the master fader's vu-meters from cubase, is this possible with probox?
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Re: Turning D8B into control surface (Fanless) or recovering

Postby Y-my-R » Sat Jun 22, 2024 2:20 am

Great to hear about the progress!

Before you go out and buy another ATX power supply, though... two thoughts (and you most certainly know that already, as well):
- Before you go out and buy a new ATX power supply, make sure that the motherboard inside the D8B rack unit has a matching connector where power is supplied to the board. I "think" both motherboards used in the D8B had an ATX connector and that older "side-to-side" single row connector (where you have to place the black wires in the center)... but maybe the old board only has the old style connector. Not sure.
- There's some extra cable coming out of the original "PC-style" power supply. I forgot what that does, but I think somewhere on this forum was a description how to mod another such power supply, to have that extra cable available. You'll see what I mean, if you take that "ATX/-preATX" supply out (...or most likely already know).

As far as getting the master LED meters to work with Cubase on the ProBox... are you using the ProBox in Mackie HUI mode or in Mackie Control Universal mode?
The original Mackie HUI doesn't have a master fader, so I'd guess that it also doesn't transmit the data for the LED meters. Since the ProBox emulates 3xHUI controllers, a master fader isn't part of that.

I "think" that the ProBox should show the LED meters for the Master channel in "MCU" aka "Mackie Control Universal" mode. But since I run mine as a mixer and once it's booted, switch to ProBox use, sometimes the meters get mixed up between the incoming audio signals and what's coming from the ProBox... not even sure how that's possible.
So, I'm not entirely sure what the Master-Channel LED meters are really doing. But they show "something" that looks right on my end.
I'm not using Cubase, though... mostly Studio One and Logic. Maybe that's implemented differently, but I doubt it.

Anyway... great to follow your progress! Very informative about that custom power supply! Thanks very much for sharing your journey with this - very helpful!! :D
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Re: Turning D8B into control surface (Fanless) or recovering

Postby SoundForSoul » Sun Jun 23, 2024 11:44 am

Regarding the master led meters to work, the answer should be in the manual, by adding a generic remote and assign it to MCU port then loading the levels xml provided by Raplph, also described on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdc6yRzRmWU
Update: It seems to work showing ... something that *might* be the master fader or ... smth... The settings on probox being: Emulation: MCU2XT_1 (emulates one MCU and 2 XT with a dedicated serialnumber) , meter mode: full daw, Protocol: mackie.
With the ATX I will deep in further testing before buying a new one (or at least try with an older one that I have around). I guess that after having the phantom power for preamps and sending those as analog to my fireface 802 (which is enough for my needs regarding routing possibilities and dsp) will leave it like that, using D8B for extra preamps when needed and as control surface in the same time.
Regarding the power source needed for Fantom Power, Ralph just confirmed to me that "you can go for the 310mA.
basically you need the power to drive all condenser mics that you use simultan".
I am really glad that this topic would be relevant to others :) The next best thing would be adding some displays on a custom build box similar on top of the one meter bridge.
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