Fader Trouble / Jittery Pan Pots

[RJH_MUSIC]

Wondering if someone with more expertise than me can help me with this. I have 2 1/2 d8b's now. I purchased a used one with CPU on eBay about a year ago and it sat in the box until i finished rebuilding my home studio. Just hooked it up and found that the hard drive was shot so I did the CF Flash with the 5.1 hack with all plugins thingy today. It was very easy. d8b came to life quickly. So the problem is that once the desk boots, there are 4 Faders that are stuck at zero physically and wont move. They do not move by hand or when I raise them in the software with a mouse. If i switch channel banks it gets worse and the majority of them won't move freely. The rotary knobs are also skippy if that makes sense. So I thought it was the console so i swapped out a spare console i have and to my surprise, the exact faders are still having problem and rotaries are glitchy. I am beginning to think the trouble is in the CPU or the BFC. Has anyone experienced this before and how do I fix it short of trying to get my hands on another used CPU. The CPU has the newer motherboard and 3 256 mb sticks in it.

SO while i am on a roll,,,, I cannot get a usb keyboard to work consistently. I tried dropping in a usb PCI card but that does not work. Then i discovered there is an internal usb port inside the CPU on the motherboard so i connected an internal one to that and the keyboard works when it wants to, not when i want it to. Any help on this would be appreciated. Oh and yes i tried the usb to ps2 adapter on the keyboard port and that does not work either.

Thanks

RJ

[Bruce Graham]

Hey RJ;

In trying to help with ruling things out, since the 2nd CPU, on the same console, didn't work, is it possible to try the working CPU on the desk that has the issue? See if the fault is still there or if it works as it should. This should rule out the desk and point to the CPU.

You could also try the questionable CPU on the working desk and see what he results are.

The moving faders can be a problem, usually the Chip that controls the motors. These can be replaced is one knows how to solder on the surface mount parts. I ordered chips but they can from China. I haven't done anything yet so it is a future thing with me. My current desk is working. My spares are the ones that need the chips replaced.

On the Keyboard front, I have tried USB keyboards with little success. I am using a PS2 keyboard with no troubles. Not sure why but rather than fighting an almost 20 year old technology I go with what works.

I have used a USB mouse with a USB to PS2 adaptor and that works. there just seems to be something about the USB and the the 5 pin DIN that doesn't work.

Glad to hear you have Compact Flash working. I hope to get there just not sure of exactly what to get and from where.

Anyway, post back with how things are going.

Cheers
Bruce

[RJH_MUSIC]

Thanks much for the reply. let me clarify. Different console on same CPU repeats the behavior. So i do not think it is the console, except to say one thing i did not check is the pins on the BFC. I wonder if there is a problem there. You did give me a great idea though. Hook up my known good CPU to the console and see what happens. And, the keyboard works on that one. Go figure!

Thanks

RJ

[Bruce Graham]

Hi RJ;
Thanks for clarifying. It appears as you discovered, that the CPU could be at fault. BFC has been known to be the fault of many issues.
As another fault checking procedure, swap only the 25 pin cable in a non working rig. See if that changes things.

Also, check inside the CPU. If you haven't already.
- Clean as many connections and contacts in side as possible.
- New battery (never hurts).
- Reload software.
- Make sure BFC is supported when connected to Desk. No strain on the connector is the best.

Do only one at a time so you know what made it work. Very tedious but these beasts as computers and all it takes is one bad connection.

The keyboard thing could be related, or not. Many signals flow on a signal path in the computer world so a bad connection can cause many faults.

Best of luck.
Bruce

[RJH_MUSIC]

Many thanks Bruce. I will try all of these tonight. Also will do a Fader calibration. My guess is BFC pin problem and or corrupt OS 5.1 . But i am thinking the OS problem is a last resort because if there was a problem with it, everyone would be complaining and i do not see posts on it. Great suggestion on swapping out the data cable. I will try that. now i just have to figure out where to get another one.

RJ

[Bruce Graham]

Hey RJ;

If you can find an electronic supply store (not Radio Shack) they may have db25 male to female cables in stock.

Although Mackie states that the cable is "specific" I don't believe it is. I have used "printer" extension cables (db25 cables) before and they work. The ones I have used are 25 feet. If you have difficulty getting one let me know and I'll see what I can acquire here in Canada.

On the software, even though we share the same version (5.1 build xxx), there have been occasions when the installation isn't proper or "bugs" turn up. I have had to reload my 5.1 a few times to get past an issue that I couldn't resolve. To quote Mike Rivers "When in doubt, reboot, and if that doesn't work, reload".

For me, that was before the "Crack". Now with the Crack is makes things a little more difficult as I can not get the FTP server to work on either my HDR or my d8b, so, out comes the hard drive to have the "crack" file installed, then back into the d8b it goes.

Cheers and best of luck.
Bruce

[RJH_MUSIC]

Hi Bruce;

Well i have some great news. On a few things which is really great news. I unplugged the BFC and jiggled it and straightened it out and re-seated it, as well as the Console Data cable. 2 of the 5 nasty faders came back. So i then went into setup and did a Calibrate function and everything came back to wonderful bliss. Now my attention was focussed on why i could get the keyboard to work in BOIS but not in the OS. I just received in the mail tonight a USB 2 port internal mount that plugs into the motherboard. to the serial port inside the computer, (not into a PCI slot) Still nothing worked. Then while poking around in the BOIS settings again i noticed that i somehow set the USB Keyboard Support to disabled in the BOIS settings. I think it is because all of the instructions on Sonido tell you to do that. Once i set the "USB Keyboard Support" option to enabled, the ports came alive. So i now have a MAC USB keyboard connected to the d8b and working. SO after a week of frustration, i finally got everything smooth.

Good news for everyone wanting to use USB keyboards, there is a way to do it. I will post pictures and a parts list tomorrow to the forum.

You mentioned something interesting to me. You are right about re-boot. But using the CF drive loaded with the crack it is simple to reload whenever you need. I downloaded the 5.1 + Plugins file that i got from dropbox to my windows computer. Using the unpacker software and the CF connected to my windows computer, the entire load took about 2 minutes. It installed the entire OS and plugins along with all of the licenses automatically. The CF drive i bought came the option to mount on the back of the CPU and also came with 3.5" mount. So i used that one in place of the floppy drive. So if there is ever a problem with the CF disc, i can just pull it out and insert into my computer and restore the image any time. Really simple. I am getting ready to clone my other d8b hard drive and repeat the process for that one. I will post pictures of that tomorrow as well.

RJ

[Bruce Graham]

Hey RJ

I am continually amazed that how a computer created in the late 90's can still be doing what it does so well AND be somewhat up-gradable to "close to" today's technology! WOW!

These consoles keep amazing me and the ingenuity of the people in this forum to stay committed to this "boat anchor" also inspires we as well. Job well done RJ.

Let me (us) know which manufacturer of the Compact Flash Kit and card, including size, you have. That seems to be the way to go to me!

Cheers and congrats on getting thing going.
Bruce

[anyhorizon]

There are so many things that can go haywire wiith faders but there are a a few things in this article to avert the jumpiness of the pots .Lasts a long time too: http://www.sonido-7.com/d8b/maintenance.html#Post2

Peter

[RyanShepherd]

I’m also having jumpy fader issues. I only use the desk as a controller with protools. My fader issue has made the desk unuseable. Basically if I move any faders it moves loads of other faders. Do you have any pics of what you did? I’m not clued up on these desks at all since only using as a controller.