Pardon me if this is in the wrong newsgroup.

Has anyone had problems with a Digidesign Control 24 meter bridge? There's
local studio that has one acting up on them. I've isolated it to the
"External Sources In" connector.

When first powered up, the first 8 channels of VU levels remain at full
until I hold the cable up. After that the meters are going crazy and
certainly not in sync with the audio coming through unless I play with the
connection on the back.

By holding the cabling up (and summarily duct taping it to the underside of
the shelf) I can keep it steady enough to make it through a session. The
whole appearance seems to be maybe solder connection related, but it would
seem rather daunting to pull it all apart and not find the beast.

Looking for a possible direction. Contacts have all been cleaned on the
external connectors, cables have all been checked thoroughly, and when the
cable isn't plugged in, it still does the same thing until I manually flex
some of the panels close to it.

--

Thank you!
Jim Richards
Owner
Richards Music & Electronics
Joliet, IL 60436

In article ,
"folgertemp" wrote:

Pardon me if this is in the wrong newsgroup.

Has anyone had problems with a Digidesign Control 24 meter bridge? There's
local studio that has one acting up on them. I've isolated it to the
"External Sources In" connector.

When first powered up, the first 8 channels of VU levels remain at full
until I hold the cable up. After that the meters are going crazy and
certainly not in sync with the audio coming through unless I play with the
connection on the back.

By holding the cabling up (and summarily duct taping it to the underside of
the shelf) I can keep it steady enough to make it through a session. The
whole appearance seems to be maybe solder connection related, but it would
seem rather daunting to pull it all apart and not find the beast.

Looking for a possible direction. Contacts have all been cleaned on the
external connectors, cables have all been checked thoroughly, and when the
cable isn't plugged in, it still does the same thing until I manually flex
some of the panels close to it.

Disclaimer mode on I'm not a Digidesign tech, but I've recently been
inside one of these, and can make a few semi-educated guesses.
Disclaimer mode off

The meters are not driven by audio in the conventional sense. They are
driven by software and show the levels of the currently selected 24
tracks of audio in the Protools session. They get that info thru the
ethernet connection to the computer. I know the faders are controlled by
3 seperate boards (one each for 8 channels), and possibly the meters are
the same...which would provide a clue as to where the problem actually
lies.

I suspect that the board that decodes the data and drives those meters
is located at the back of the Control 24 in the neighborhood of the
"External Sources In connector", and when you stress or flex that panel,
it's torquing a connector or pc board, "fixing" the problem.

Assuming the unit is out of warrantee, it's easy enough to get inside
and look around...

Disconnect everything, and flip the unit over, remove the 28 or so
screws from the bottom panel, and remove. It's pretty spacious inside so
you should easily be able to see what's in the vicinity of the
"External" connector, and poke it, looking for an intermittant
connector. The ribbon cables are probably glued into place, but there
might be something loose, or there might be a bad solder joint on a PC
board...

If the warrantee is still in effect, call Digi and have them issue an
RMA.

Good luck.

Jeff C.

--
Anti-Spam email address in effect.
My real email should be pretty obvious to an actual human being.

Thanks Jeff. I'll give it a look-see and try to make something out of it.
I figured it to be some type of connectivity problem inside on a board
rather than a signal issue. Just the way it responded on power up made me
think there is a "reset" problem.

Again, Thanks for the reply. I didn't want to go in blindly without knowing
just how much was involved.
--

"Jeff Chestek" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"folgertemp" wrote:

Pardon me if this is in the wrong newsgroup.

Has anyone had problems with a Digidesign Control 24 meter bridge?
There's
local studio that has one acting up on them. I've isolated it to the
"External Sources In" connector.

When first powered up, the first 8 channels of VU levels remain at full
until I hold the cable up. After that the meters are going crazy and
certainly not in sync with the audio coming through unless I play with
the
connection on the back.

By holding the cabling up (and summarily duct taping it to the underside
of
the shelf) I can keep it steady enough to make it through a session.
The
whole appearance seems to be maybe solder connection related, but it
would
seem rather daunting to pull it all apart and not find the beast.

Looking for a possible direction. Contacts have all been cleaned on the
external connectors, cables have all been checked thoroughly, and when
the
cable isn't plugged in, it still does the same thing until I manually
flex
some of the panels close to it.

Disclaimer mode on I'm not a Digidesign tech, but I've recently been
inside one of these, and can make a few semi-educated guesses.
Disclaimer mode off

The meters are not driven by audio in the conventional sense. They are
driven by software and show the levels of the currently selected 24
tracks of audio in the Protools session. They get that info thru the
ethernet connection to the computer. I know the faders are controlled by
3 seperate boards (one each for 8 channels), and possibly the meters are
the same...which would provide a clue as to where the problem actually
lies.

I suspect that the board that decodes the data and drives those meters
is located at the back of the Control 24 in the neighborhood of the
"External Sources In connector", and when you stress or flex that panel,
it's torquing a connector or pc board, "fixing" the problem.

Assuming the unit is out of warrantee, it's easy enough to get inside
and look around...

Disconnect everything, and flip the unit over, remove the 28 or so
screws from the bottom panel, and remove. It's pretty spacious inside so
you should easily be able to see what's in the vicinity of the
"External" connector, and poke it, looking for an intermittant
connector. The ribbon cables are probably glued into place, but there
might be something loose, or there might be a bad solder joint on a PC
board...

If the warrantee is still in effect, call Digi and have them issue an
RMA.

Good luck.

Jeff C.

--
Anti-Spam email address in effect.
My real email should be pretty obvious to an actual human being.

Just to let everyone know what was found...

One of the ribbon header connectors that jumped between the CH1-8 and CH9-16
VU display boards was partially out of its socket...and glued there.
Evidently in the assembly process it got yanked but then glued in that
position. Only a matter of time after that. Cleaned out the glue, cleaned
the contacts on both, reassembled, and reglued.

Working as good as new...wait....it was a factory flaw......better than new.

Thank you!
Jim Richards
Owner
Richards Music & Electronics
Joliet, IL 60436

"Jeff Chestek" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"folgertemp" wrote:

Pardon me if this is in the wrong newsgroup.

Has anyone had problems with a Digidesign Control 24 meter bridge?
There's
local studio that has one acting up on them. I've isolated it to the
"External Sources In" connector.

When first powered up, the first 8 channels of VU levels remain at full
until I hold the cable up. After that the meters are going crazy and
certainly not in sync with the audio coming through unless I play with
the
connection on the back.

By holding the cabling up (and summarily duct taping it to the underside
of
the shelf) I can keep it steady enough to make it through a session.
The
whole appearance seems to be maybe solder connection related, but it
would
seem rather daunting to pull it all apart and not find the beast.

Looking for a possible direction. Contacts have all been cleaned on the
external connectors, cables have all been checked thoroughly, and when
the
cable isn't plugged in, it still does the same thing until I manually
flex
some of the panels close to it.

Disclaimer mode on I'm not a Digidesign tech, but I've recently been
inside one of these, and can make a few semi-educated guesses.
Disclaimer mode off

The meters are not driven by audio in the conventional sense. They are
driven by software and show the levels of the currently selected 24
tracks of audio in the Protools session. They get that info thru the
ethernet connection to the computer. I know the faders are controlled by
3 seperate boards (one each for 8 channels), and possibly the meters are
the same...which would provide a clue as to where the problem actually
lies.

I suspect that the board that decodes the data and drives those meters
is located at the back of the Control 24 in the neighborhood of the
"External Sources In connector", and when you stress or flex that panel,
it's torquing a connector or pc board, "fixing" the problem.

Assuming the unit is out of warrantee, it's easy enough to get inside
and look around...

Disconnect everything, and flip the unit over, remove the 28 or so
screws from the bottom panel, and remove. It's pretty spacious inside so
you should easily be able to see what's in the vicinity of the
"External" connector, and poke it, looking for an intermittant
connector. The ribbon cables are probably glued into place, but there
might be something loose, or there might be a bad solder joint on a PC
board...

If the warrantee is still in effect, call Digi and have them issue an
RMA.

Good luck.

Jeff C.

--
Anti-Spam email address in effect.
My real email should be pretty obvious to an actual human being.