480 gone south
rkettridge
Posts: 4
Why do things allways break at the most inopportune moments.
Our main DSP is a Driverack 480 and i was called into our venue the other day by the guy giving a presentation there (system was only being used to play back a DVD) saying that the system was chirping at him.
Sure enough about every 30 secs or so the system would let out a full volume chirp thought the speakers. Looking at the 480 it appeared that every time this happened, the threashold indicators on all channels with limiters enabled would light and a big clip indicator appeared in the main screen but no input or output meters would show anything and this even happened with all the outputs muted.
To stop any potential damage i turned all the amps off and started investigating. Eventually pulling all the inputs and outputs to the unit failed so stop it so i decided the unit was at fault.
Now i've been reading a lot recently about the 260 suffering from heat and power problems. This is at the top of a rack with 3 DBX 231 eqs below it and did feel quite warm to the touch (fan was still spinning in it though). So i shifted the unit up in the rack as much as i could which left a 1/2u gap below it and 1.5u above it (apart from at the front where there's a 1u racklight so there's only a 1/2u gap.
This seemed to help make the unit cooler and powering it back up again it all looked ok. So i left it on a soak test for a while and went back to what i was doing only to come back in later and find that now the indicators were on perminantely. I haven't plugged anything into the outputs to see if it's making any noise still.
Although this is on the same supply as the amps in this case they weren't actually running and by the end of trouble shooting they weren't on at all.
Now the problem is that i've got a contempory dance show loading in on wednesday and we haven't been in since friday (bank holiday over here plus council consessionary day off today) so i'm not gonna get too much time to fiddle with it.
I've spoken to my dealer and he's being great and trying to get me a loaner unit to get me through the show but i was just wondering if anyone had anything i could try when i get in tomorrow because it would save having to transfer settings between units (he can't get hold of another 480 in that time). I'm thinking maybe a hard reset would help? (i know that doesn't help with not having to copy over settings but i can do that using the driveware software)
TIA
Rob Kettridge
Our main DSP is a Driverack 480 and i was called into our venue the other day by the guy giving a presentation there (system was only being used to play back a DVD) saying that the system was chirping at him.
Sure enough about every 30 secs or so the system would let out a full volume chirp thought the speakers. Looking at the 480 it appeared that every time this happened, the threashold indicators on all channels with limiters enabled would light and a big clip indicator appeared in the main screen but no input or output meters would show anything and this even happened with all the outputs muted.
To stop any potential damage i turned all the amps off and started investigating. Eventually pulling all the inputs and outputs to the unit failed so stop it so i decided the unit was at fault.
Now i've been reading a lot recently about the 260 suffering from heat and power problems. This is at the top of a rack with 3 DBX 231 eqs below it and did feel quite warm to the touch (fan was still spinning in it though). So i shifted the unit up in the rack as much as i could which left a 1/2u gap below it and 1.5u above it (apart from at the front where there's a 1u racklight so there's only a 1/2u gap.
This seemed to help make the unit cooler and powering it back up again it all looked ok. So i left it on a soak test for a while and went back to what i was doing only to come back in later and find that now the indicators were on perminantely. I haven't plugged anything into the outputs to see if it's making any noise still.
Although this is on the same supply as the amps in this case they weren't actually running and by the end of trouble shooting they weren't on at all.
Now the problem is that i've got a contempory dance show loading in on wednesday and we haven't been in since friday (bank holiday over here plus council consessionary day off today) so i'm not gonna get too much time to fiddle with it.
I've spoken to my dealer and he's being great and trying to get me a loaner unit to get me through the show but i was just wondering if anyone had anything i could try when i get in tomorrow because it would save having to transfer settings between units (he can't get hold of another 480 in that time). I'm thinking maybe a hard reset would help? (i know that doesn't help with not having to copy over settings but i can do that using the driveware software)
TIA
Rob Kettridge
0
Comments
Gadget
Thing is i could take this as being it needs to be cooler, but the
driverack PA which is sitting directly above the 480 in the rack, and is
therefore at exactly the same temperature if not higher, is working
flawlessly.
Also done a soft and hard reset on it to no avail.
Currently in discussions for it to be send away to be looked at.
Rob Kettridge
That was the first thing i checked, fan was spinning fine and the inside of the unit was clean as anything. It's been off back to Harman now and is back and appears to be working. Trouble with this fault is that it can run fine for days / weeks, and then just one day will start doing it again if the conditions are right. But it's got through a show week with usual high temperatures in this place (no money for air con