Control 24, Story About Fader #3

[Strat62]

Hi friendly people
Please don't throw rocks on me for bringing up another Control24 fader issue, believe me, i've looked everywhere to find answers, i've collected them, and now trying to confirm the problem to you guys before cracking open my board.

PROBLEM:
My Control24 never done this before, it worked perfectly with no cracks n pops, until yesterday...
fader #3 suddenly acted crazy.. just this one fader.
I can move the fader on the board, and the fader on PT screen also moves. it seems like there's no software issues.
BUT when i move the fader on PT screen (using mouse), fader on board won't follow (sometimes follow but not all the way).
Another case, when i create 4 new tracks on a new project, fader 1-4 on the board will jump to zero as usual. But fader #3 will slowly continue to go up. i found that a little creepy

WHAT I DID:
1.go to Utility>Test>Fader>Touch
Result: Fader #3 responded to my touch. it showed T on the screen.

2.go to Utility>Test>Led>Vegas
Result: Fader #3 looked like a dumb dancer compared to other faders. fail!

3.go to Utility>Test>Fader>Step
Result: Fader #3 shot along with others, but won't come down when the others went down. instead, it did that creepy thing (going up slow but sure)


WHAT I PLAN TO DO:
it seems like the problem is 100% hardware... maybe it's the fader motor, or PSU cable, or just need to be tightened.
i'm planning to crack her open, swap the cable with Fader #4, and see what happens.


WHY I POSTED:
I'm really scared cracking her open.. i need second opinion..
please help me, and kindly share your thoughts
thank you very much for your time reading.

[tgauge]

Hello, sorry for resurrecting such an old thread but I have the EXACT same issue that just started last week. I've gone through everything other form of troubleshooting I could find on the forum but nothing else has seemed to work for me as of yet. I was hoping Strat62 that you found a remedy to the problem that you had. Everyone else is complaining about whole banks of channels, and all other kinds of oddities where my Control 24 is doing what yours did with the slow continuous creep upwards, etc.

I hope this will alert you that I made this post and that you figured something out that worked for you... If anyone else see's this and has some kind of solution, that would be greatly helpful as well.

Thank you in Advance!
-Taylor

[Top Jimmy]

It seems that issues like this usually have to do with the fader connections in the console. Those who have solved this sort of problem for themselves do it by opening the console and exercising the connections. That is, they unplug and plug in the connections a few times. Also, a little treatment with Caig Deoxit doesn't hurt.

[tgauge]

Thanks for the reply. I took the back off and inspected everything, "exercised" the connections, no change. Then I disconnected and moved the non-working fader over one and placed the working one in the slot where the non-working one was and the same channel was acting up still (i.e. the non-working fader was now working in the other slot and the working fader was not) so I was able to rule out the fader motor. I guess I will get some Deoxidizer later and give that a go. It's hard to tell because everything on these pretty much are SMDs, but nothing looks worn, fried, or even out of place at all. I've owned this Control|24 for 10 years now and it has never even given me a hiccup in operation (not even the PSU issues common for this version) so I guess I can't be too upset, just trying to figure this out. I have a few days off until I have my next client in so I would like to have this working by then if possible.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

-Taylor

[Top Jimmy]

Exercise all the connections and check the screws that hold the circuit board to the chassis to make sure none have come loose. I've seen it where one loose screw bonding the ground plane of a digital circuit board to the chassis led to some behavioral weirdness.

[tgauge]

Thanks again Top Jimmy!

I deoxidized the connections and it still didn't work. Because of timing I just put it back together for my session yesterday. I didn't get into the power supply area because of how tight it was and not having enough time to deconstruct that area. I'll disassemble again get into that area and deoxidize and check all connections.

The deal is, with this Control 24 I have two options at this point... a) I trade it in for very little money against a new controller, or b) I ride with this thing until it literally does not work anymore or Pro Tools doesn't support it at all (I know it's officially past it's end of life, but it still works with my rig). So, going with either of those options I need that fader to work so I can still use it to mix, or get more money on a trade up.

I'll report back soon. Hopefully I can figure this out and leave the result for others that run into the same problem.

-Taylor

[Midix]

I have the same exact problem with Fader #4. In fader test mode it shows "T" next to value of the fader (for example T023, instead of 1023). Its driving me crazy. Here is what all I have to try to diagnose this:

-Changed 2 47000uF capacitors, and 2 15000uF capacitors on power supply (mine is not the skynet power supply) as they had swollen tops with brown residue.

- Swapped fader board A (1-8) with fader board C (17-24) and problem gets transferred to fader #20 and #4 behaves normally. So its not fader #4.

- Reseated all wires on all fader, cup board, and power supply and cleaned.

- Here is the weird part: in Pro tools fader #4 is non responsive to change in value upon start of session until I touch a metal frame of a patchbay on my argosy desk with my finger, then protools recognizes the values of fader, however there is no motorized fader movement when volume is moved in protools on fader #4 while other faders are normal.

Suspecting a ground problem I have checked my ground connections in the studio receptacle with tester, and reconnected the green ground wires inside the control 24
I have heard that the firmware maybe corrupt. How do I reset the firmware on control 24 to one prior to 1.08? I have done the system reset from utilities, and tried holding channel select, solo, mute buttons while powering up and firmware still shows as 1.08.

Anyone else figured this problem yet?

[Bill Denton]

Probably not relevant here, but worth being aware of...

When touch-sensitive faders first came along, some of them had a problem with guitar players...

Turned out, the thick callouses guitar players have on their "fret" hands interfered with the capacitance effect that makes the touch-sensitivity work.

So, if you're a guitar picker and testing touch-sensitivity, you might also try using your "non fret" hand...

[Midix]

Update...After pulling half of my hair trying to figure out why one of my faders would not work I finally replaced the fader board associated with the non working fader and everything is back to normal. This has been a learning experience, as I removed, tested, soldered new capacitors, resistors and swapped op-amp on fader board, and swapped fader card positions and faders, and tested the components of my control 24 trying to figure this out....hope this info will help others with same issue as there seems to be no posted solution for a single stuck fader other than cleaning/tightening the connections.

[crizdee]

Originally Posted by Midix

Update...After pulling half of my hair trying to figure out why one of my faders would not work I finally replaced the fader board associated with the non working fader and everything is back to normal. This has been a learning experience, as I removed, tested, soldered new capacitors, resistors and swapped op-amp on fader board, and swapped fader card positions and faders, and tested the components of my control 24 trying to figure this out....hope this info will help others with same issue as there seems to be no posted solution for a single stuck fader other than cleaning/tightening the connections.

Hi,

Where did you buy the fader board and what does one cost?




Chris