new to forum with HDR question

[Crash]

Finally got back to the board tonight. Pulled, cleaned and swapped the analog I/O cards...did not fix the problem. But I think I have the problem more closely focused. Channels 41, 42, 43, 44 and 48 are not getting a signal to or from the HDR or from another channel on bank 1 when patched by route to tape. Channels 17, 18, 19, 20 and 24 on bank 1 get a live signal from the stage tho'. I suspect that when I cleaned and reseated the internal ribbon cables, one got mis-aligned or not seated correctly. Any thoughts anyone??

Cheers

It would be hard to mis-align a cable as they are keyed and sit down in a recessed header. I would still keep your connections the same on the cards but swap cards 2 and 3 on the d8b to see if the problem follows the card or not. If you do this and the problem channels now become 33, 34, 35, 36 and 40, the problem is not the console but possibly a card or something upstream on the tape return side from the HDR, including possibly the cards in the HDR or the HDR itself. Does this make sense?

[bones]

Casey...I have a 9 pin serial card in the midi slot on the HDR and the D8B cpu. The two are connected together with a cat 5 cable. The cards use a serial - cat 5 adapter for the interface. I checked the connections today - all seems well, but no timecode on the transport. Keyboard commands work with the HDR as advertised. I did notice in the options menu there is a 9 pin menu, I did not have time to look at that. Will look tomorrow.
About 4 years or so ago, the "watch battery" in both the HDR and D8B expired. I replaced both and had to rebuild the CMOS, is there a setting in the CMOS for the midi/9 pin serial?
Until 2 years ago, the D8B board was our live stage board, I rarely used it for recording. If I remember right, the timecode worked before I replaced the "watch batteries." It was a while before I needed to record. I just worked around the problem.

-bones

[bones]

Crash,
Swapped cards, but kept the connections the same...did not solve the problem. Channels 41, 42, 43, 44 and 48 still don't get a signal. The HDR, on playback, shows signals (led meter) on the above channels (a file recorded last year), but the signal does not get to the D8B. With all of the cards swapped, don't think the cards are a problem. since I just opened the D8B and cleaned all of the ribbon cables, that is what I suspect. Hope it is just a loose cable....

-Bones

[Crash]

Casey...I have a 9 pin serial card in the midi slot on the HDR and the D8B cpu. The two are connected together with a cat 5 cable. The cards use a serial - cat 5 adapter for the interface. I checked the connections today - all seems well, but no timecode on the transport. Keyboard commands work with the HDR as advertised. I did notice in the options menu there is a 9 pin menu, I did not have time to look at that. Will look tomorrow.
About 4 years or so ago, the "watch battery" in both the HDR and D8B expired. I replaced both and had to rebuild the CMOS, is there a setting in the CMOS for the midi/9 pin serial?
Until 2 years ago, the D8B board was our live stage board, I rarely used it for recording. If I remember right, the timecode worked before I replaced the "watch batteries." It was a while before I needed to record. I just worked around the problem.

-bones

Bones, if you have the manual for your d8b around, look it over when it comes to hook up. You are saying some things that are off here when it comes to Cat5. Also, you need the midi breakout doohickey to interface your normal midi cables to the 9 pin card. Something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/2x-MIDI-Breakout-Cab ... 0731837582

What are you using for I/O cards?

[Petersueco]

Bones,

You may want to replace the battery too.

That lack of MTC can be a symptom of a dead battery that had led the BIOS parameters being reset to default.

Peter Holmquist.

[bones]

ok gents
Spent time troubleshooting today and double checking connections, cards, etc. I don't have a 9 pin midi card...it is a 15 pin sub D connection card that is listed as the midi connection. The HDR and D8B CPUs each have one and they are connected with a cat 5 cable (15 pin to cat 5 adapter on each card). I have not yet checked the BIOS to see what has been reset to default when I changed out the battery.
Now on to the 5 channels that I can't record to. Today, when I checked the 5 channels that will not receive a signal, one of them was now receiving a signal and passing it to the HDR. The channels that I can't record to are on fader bank 1, channel 17, 18, 19 & 20. I can receive a signal to those channels from the stage, using the route to tape feature, I can send a signal from those channels to other channels, i.e channel 4, 8, 2, 3, etc and I can record. But when I try to send a signal to any one of the 4 channels in question: no signal appears. I checked in the setup menu, midi tab, device ID selection and reset the ID for the three analog cards. No change. It appears that signal flow for these 4 channels is one way at this point: out to other d8b channels, but not out to HDR or receive from any other channel. I don't think it is the analogue I/O card because I can record from channels 21 thru 24. When I swapped cards, the problem stayed on those channels, it did not follow the card. About the only thing I can think to do is open the board and check the ribbon cable connections.

Cheers

Bones

[Crash]

(15 pin to cat 5 adapter on each card)

I have never heard of a 15 pin to Cat5 adapter.... So you are saying your midi cable adapts to a J-45 connection?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uncrimped_rj-45_connector_close-up.jpg

Are you using something like this to make the conversion?

http://www.midilite.com/graphics/midilink1.jpg

[Petersueco]

You could use a cable like this one:

[synthjoe]

I don't have a 9 pin midi card...it is a 15 pin sub D connection card that is listed as the midi connection.

15 pins sounds definitively wrong. The only original card in the D8B that has 15 pins SUB-D connector is the VGA card.

[bones]

Gents,
Found the problem with the 4 channels not recording...it was a ribbon cable not fully seated. Got that fixed..I really hate taking that board apart
Now on to the mystery cards and the cat 5 connection....called the guy that did the original install of the board. He confirmed that the cards in question are midi cards. He custom built the pin to cat 5 adapters to serve as a cat 5 crossover. Sounds crazy, but it worked until we moved the board, recorder and CPUs to the new location. Soooooo...I am going to look at these adapters for any bent pins or broken wires. I will take pictures of the adapters and cards and post them. That should clear things up a bit.


Cheers

Bones