D-Control faders all dead

[Mikey MTC]

I think I'm hosed here, but I'll ask the question just in case.

I've got a 32 fader D-Control and the faders on the left fader pack are dead - dead as in the motors completely do not work. The faders themselves respond to touch and control Pro Tools fine but they don't move themselves.

Obvious things to note:
(1) Turning the fader pack on DOESN'T instigate the normal faders up/down power up.
(2) Doing a fader recal kicks the other 17 faders up and down but not on the affected fader pack.
(3) I've killed the firmware and re-installed the latest firmware to no avail.
(4) I've done that local thing where you power up the affected fader pack while holding certain modifiers and done all the diagnostics that go along with that. Nada.

I guess I'm probably looking at a controller board or something like that but are hoping for the cheapest outcome possible. I know the faders and motors themselves are really expensive so hopefully they're all fine seeing they all went out at once.

Thanks if anyone can come up with something else to try before hitting the service desk.

[Chris Lambrechts]

Originally Posted by Mikey MTC

I've got a 32 fader D-Control and the faders on the left fader pack are dead - dead as in the motors completely do not work. The faders themselves respond to touch and control Pro Tools fine but they don't move themselves.

Hey M,

Interesting. Going to do some thinking out loud here which hopefully helps :

I doubt there's anything wrong with the actual faders here so that's the first 'positive' news.
FMC (fader motor controller) board would be a suspect but I doubt that as well in this case. Would be surprised to see both of them go dead at the same time as well. There's 2 of them in that fader pack. One for each block of 8 faders.
The comm board ? meh .... not yet either. Unit still responds and faders seem to even control the soft so ... nah ... comm board should be fine for now.

So .... Fader PSU would be suspect number 1 here. There's the ever so slight change that things go wrong at the power distribution level, which is part of the comm board but no reason to look at that yet at this point.

They are a bit of work to get to these PSU's. You'll likely have to remove the fader pack from the stand to get to it.

Chris

[Mikey MTC]

Interesting thoughts - thanks Chris.
I forgot that the two banks of 8 faders are independent, so the culprit is something that affects all 16 and not a single bank of 8.

Obviously my wish is to get out of this as cheaply as possible, but I don't think I can avoid having to physically pull the fader pack out and take it to the Australian authorised repairer, who thankfully is only 15 minutes from me.

If you think of anything else Chris, feel free though I think I'll be making some calls in January when everyone comes back to plan the next move.

Thanks .....

[Mikey MTC]

Hey Chris - if you're still following this thread.

I find it interesting that when I reset the firmware on the offending fader pack using 'select-solo-mute' while powering up, upon checking the firmware after the reset, the "COMM" version has indeed reset but the "Motor" is still on 10.0.0.0.

Assuming this refers to the fader motors - the source of my problem - this makes sense. Shouldn't this firmware reset too?

Also it's curious that when I do fader cycle or step tests, this fader pack "thinks" it's all working fine because the LEDs are reading out the fader position on the fly, just like the working fader pack. It's just that the faders won't move.

Oh well - I've spoken to the local tech and for a fair but hefty fee, he'll sort it all out when I get to him.

[Chris Lambrechts]

Originally Posted by Mikey MTC

I find it interesting that when I reset the firmware on the offending fader pack using 'select-solo-mute' while powering up, upon checking the firmware after the reset, the "COMM" version has indeed reset but the "Motor" is still on 10.0.0.0.

Assuming this refers to the fader motors - the source of my problem - this makes sense. Shouldn't this firmware reset too?

Actually no. The reset only resets the comm board, not the FMC's so what you're seeing is correct.

Originally Posted by Mikey MTC

Also it's curious that when I do fader cycle or step tests, this fader pack "thinks" it's all working fine because the LEDs are reading out the fader position on the fly, just like the working fader pack. It's just that the faders won't move.

Oh well - I've spoken to the local tech and for a fair but hefty fee, he'll sort it all out when I get to him.

but the faders still respond to touch and control PT right ? Just the motors that are not working ?

Still think it is the fader psu then.

Chris

[Mikey MTC]

Originally Posted by Chris Lambrechts

but the faders still respond to touch and control PT right ? Just the motors that are not working ?

Still think it is the fader psu then.

Thanks Chris. You're right - the faders do respond to touch and control PT fine.
The fader PSU is what the tech was suspecting too, just over the phone.

You wouldn't have a ballpark figure of what a replacement one of those goes for would you? Are we talking low hundreds or worse?