SI dante option card firmware and glitch investigation

aaronlow

I have several SI mixers with dante cards and I am observing an occasional glitch in the audio. I have removed the ethernet switch from the setup and connected directly to a PC using the virtual sound card, but still get the glitches. I noticed that the firmware for the dante card is 1.0.0.

Does anyone know if there are firmware updates available?

If no firmware updates are available what is a good way to determine the source of this problem? I have several recordings of an empty channel with the glitch showing up.

Thanks,
Aaron

Gregedge

Hi Aaron,
2 (most likely) seperate things here. I've had this exact clock/glitching issue for a while and just solved it. The option card manual says to set the clock DIP switch to 'MIX' if the console is the dante master clock, this is incorrect. set the DIPswitch to 'CARD', and then select 'option' for the clock in the console system menu. This should fix the glitching issue. Secondly, google 'SI firmware' for the version you have (impact expression etc) and update it, and then check the dante firmware is the latest (sometimes updated as part of the device firmware, sometime seperate) using the Dante Updater utility in Dante controller

HARMAN_Tder

While i'm glad it solved your issue, this is information is absolutely incorrect and should not be followed by anyone reading this post.

Typically if you have a click or pop issue and your console's Dante card is the preferred master in the system. The following things should be confirmed.

Dante Card Dip Switch is set to MIX
Si Console Wordclock is set to Internal (the default)
In Dante Controller, the SI Dante Card should be set to preferred master AND (this is often missed) Sync to External is checked as well. This essentially tells the Dante card that it is getting its clock from an external source (in this case its the consoles word clock).

The update of the Si Dante Card is managed by the modern versions of controller as we will periodically provide firmware updates to Audinate/Dante which gets implemented in the next build of controller. These updates are generally pretty few and far between.

Again good that your settings got rid of the issue but what is in the manual is correct.

Best,

Tom

@Gregedge said:
Hi Aaron,
2 (most likely) seperate things here. I've had this exact clock/glitching issue for a while and just solved it. The option card manual says to set the clock DIP switch to 'MIX' if the console is the dante master clock, this is incorrect. set the DIPswitch to 'CARD', and then select 'option' for the clock in the console system menu. This should fix the glitching issue. Secondly, google 'SI firmware' for the version you have (impact expression etc) and update it, and then check the dante firmware is the latest (sometimes updated as part of the device firmware, sometime seperate) using the Dante Updater utility in Dante controller

Gregedge

ok, i haven't tried the sync to external option in dante controller. so this means every time the console is used in a different system ie sometimes master sometimes not, you have to pull out the card and change the dip switches?

HARMAN_Tder

RE: dip switch change-Unfortunately Yes... again... if you can get it to work as you have it then more power to you but i would expect to see some clocking issues. Also the scenario you outlined (fortunately) is pretty rare so most folk don't need to worry about it.

I see it more often in mixed use facilities where you might have some sort of simple DSP based mixers (Soundweb, Biamp, Qsys, etc) and often this DSP mixer is the master clock as it is used more frequently/daily and the console is only tied in during special events or performances. Otherwise the console may be used standalone in other parts of the facility (where it may need to be master)