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  #1  
Old 09-11-2006, 09:19 AM
Jim Roberts Jim Roberts is offline
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Location: Broomfield, Colorado, USA
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Default Dead ProControl Main Unit

Looking for some help. I have a trouble ticket opened with Digi as of this morning and am awaiting a response. Based on input from friends and researching the DUC, I'm guessing (hoping?) that this is the $200 power supply issue. I figured I'd post to see if any of you have some suggestions. PT 6.9 / OS 10.3 HD4 TDM system......

=================================================

Please give a concise description of the problem:
ProControl Main Unit totally dead - when powered on, faders move up an inch or so
then immediately slam back down. No LEDS, no display. All buttons ineffective.
When unit is "ON" the faders have extreme resistance to touch and do return to their
default position when moved. Other than that, there is no indication that the unit
is on. I do not see any ethernet activity lights either.

I'm in a production environment and had to work around the issue all day yesterday
(monitors, cue mix, transport, etc.). Please help asap. I've read about power
supply issues occuring in other user's systems. Does this seem consistent?

Actions required to reproduce the problem:
I have a ProControl main unit and three ProControl fader packs. Upon booting up
yesterday, all packs cycled through as normal. Prior to use I noticed that the Main
Unit was unresponsive and 'frozen' - some lights on, display on but all buttons
disabled.

Troubleshooting already attempted:
I performed all of the usual troubleshooting. Made sure all cables were seated
properly. Shut down, reboot mutliple times. Tried to disable then enable in
ProTools>Peripherals>Enet controllers. ProTools no longer detects the Main Unit.
It detects the fader packs, but renders them useless since the Main Unit is
'missing'.
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  #2  
Old 02-08-2007, 07:43 AM
BestInMadden BestInMadden is offline
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Default Re: Dead ProControl Main Unit

I'm curious how this worked out for you... I have a similiar problem. The lights do not go completely out but they dim and Pro Tools gives message about unable to communicate with MainUnit. In SetUp>Preferences>Peripherals, the MainUnit is gone as well, on the fader packs are recognized which is useless because the software will not work with the MainUnit.

Was it your power supply? Did you get it fixed? How long did it take and how much did it cost?

Eric A. Stephens
CEO
www.estephensproductions.com
770-455-4596 office
770-455-4221 fax
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  #3  
Old 02-08-2007, 12:39 PM
Jim Roberts Jim Roberts is offline
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Default Re: Dead ProControl Main Unit

I'm almost afraid to reply.....BUT......the problem I mentioned above NEVER presented itself again. After that day, I shut everything down - let myself cool off - started up the next morning expecting the worst and it was gone.

I have since upgraded to 7.3HD (from 6.9), run the system daily and still no problems.

Jim
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Old 02-17-2007, 04:31 PM
Jim Roberts Jim Roberts is offline
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Default Re: Dead ProControl Main Unit

I knew I shouldn't have mentioned anything - BUT - today during a session (I wasn't engineering) I got a report of the Pro Control Main Unit suddenly making some clicking noises, displaying Chinese characters, monitor section passing no audio for a few seconds. Then it came back just as suddenly and has worked perfectly for hours.

Can anybody weigh in on this? Does this sound like the power supply issue and, if so, is it something I can replace on site??

Thanks in advance!

Jim
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Old 02-18-2007, 05:28 AM
Richard Fairbanks Richard Fairbanks is offline
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Default Re: Dead ProControl Main Unit

I had a similar problem, the problem went away for months then returned sporadically, and traced it to the power supply. Actually, it was aged solder points on the supply's bottom where the 5V/12V connections are made (toward the PC's front). The solder had cracked around the connector's pins. In my case, the two pins that carry 5 volts needed to be re-soldered on the supply's bottom side. Before resoldering I was able to jiggle that connector to temporarily restore operation. Resoldering fixed it, and I resoldered all of them just to be thorough. The hardest part of the fix was getting the supply out to access the solder points on the bottom.
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Old 02-18-2007, 06:36 AM
Jim Roberts Jim Roberts is offline
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Default Re: Dead ProControl Main Unit

Richard,

Thanks for the insight. I'll look into that.

Jim
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  #7  
Old 02-27-2007, 01:59 PM
Jim Roberts Jim Roberts is offline
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Default Re: Dead ProControl Main Unit

A quick update - I've broken down and purchased a replacement power supply. I'll let you all know how it goes.
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Old 03-09-2007, 05:01 PM
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Eric Seaberg Eric Seaberg is offline
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Default Re: Dead ProControl Main Unit

AARRGGHH!!! Ours is doing that, too... clicks, random characters, monitors off & on. It's been good for a while, and when it randomly started up again I could usually clear it up by going into VEGAS mode for 5-10 seconds... obviously putting some stress on the +5V/+12V solder points.

So is there an easy way to get to the PS to do this? Is it just as hard to replace the PS?


Thanks....
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  #9  
Old 03-09-2007, 05:31 PM
Craig F Craig F is offline
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Default Re: Dead ProControl Main Unit

any decent tech should be able to recap it w/o to much trouble
of corse it would help to have the parts list (Digi this is a hint)
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  #10  
Old 03-11-2007, 11:45 AM
Bookerv12 Bookerv12 is offline
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Default Re: Dead ProControl Main Unit

Hey folks,

We replaced our power supply 3 times only to find out the culprit was the female multi pin connector.
The 5v pin (if I remember correctly) didn't have good electrical contact. the female plug side was actually burned from arcing.
Every time we replaced the power supply, just removing and replacing the plug scraped it enough for it to work for a while.
Ended up cutting off the female plug, installing a new one, and each of my old "bad" power supplies work fine.
It has been running fine now for a year with the old "bad" power supply reinstalled.
Try this first before you spend a bunch of money.

Good luck,

B
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