Procontrol Fader Pack Has Power but No Lights

[rforrest]

Hi, I'm still using a Procontrol to finish up some projects before switching over to PT12. Two weeks ago one of the Fader Packs lost connection with ProTools had to be reset. When i cycled the power the faders moved up and down but no lights. Nothing at all. I have resoldered the PSU, replaced the header panel on the PSU, resoldered all the power connections on all the boards inside the unit. All the power connections are getting 12 or 5 volts. I am at a complete loss here. Any help would be great.

[rforrest]

I replaced the power supply ( lucky enough to find online ) and still the same outcome. Unit powers up, faders move up and down and no light, no "Welcome to Pro Control" acrossed the scribble strip. If you move the fader up it will return to zero.

I did notice that the fader control board has 4 leds thats after it finish its power on cycle the first LED will just blink. The communications board has the same set of LED's but on power up all flash and they never come back on.

Could the communications board really be bad?

[mrhappy1997]

I'm relatively new to PC and have been reading through the PC threads... it looks like you've addressed the most common power supply type issues... perhaps look into the LED circuit board/ connections and whatnot. User 'Delta Music Belgium' has stated that this board contains a chip that identifies the whole unit to ProTools... maybe all of the led lights are powered through this board. Just a guess but I'd probably poke around up there. I'd probably message Marc Schellekens ('Delta Music Belgium') to see if he could help?... He's become quite the PC problem solver with MANY real world tips and solutions!

At any rate, report back your findings as it will help other users with your not so common problem! Hope you're back up and running soon!!

[rforrest]

Thanks for the info!! I've been literally all over this thing! Soldered resoldered, checked connections you name it I've done it! I'll get in touch with your reference and let you know what I find out.

[Delta Music Belgium]

I'm still alive and kicking rforrest was able to contact me and the problem was actually a bad communication board. He will try to repair it or replace it with a spare one.

[mrhappy1997]

Marc you are the man!! ... my hero since I got a 32 fader PC!!!

[mrhappy1997]

Oh yes, and thanks for reporting back with the prognosis!! The Legacy PC section is a valuable resource for us 'second wave' of ProControl users!

[rforrest]

Many thanks to Marc for helping me take the time to figure this out. It was in fact a faulty communications board. I suspect a failed microprocessor, failed capacitor in the power feed circuit, or corrupt firmware. I'm going to rework the board with a hot air rework station and see if its fixes it. I was able to find a communications board here in the states so all is well in the universe again!!

I ended up pulling the communications board out of my main unit and installing it in the fader and it fired right up.

I did however remove every board from the fader pack and ended finding about 15 busted solder joints other than the ones on the powersupply that i had fixed earlier.

These are the videos that i sent to marc that shows the problem on the communications board.

This was the problem with the Procontrol intially.

https://youtu.be/NkHO6Romav0

This is are the LED's on the communications board

https://youtu.be/7V1U-P8tuNg

This what the sequence on the LED's should look like

https://youtu.be/LzYmh_dD8RA

[mrhappy1997]

Originally Posted by rforrest

I'm going to rework the board with a hot air rework station and see if its fixes it.

Pretty 'fancy' stuff there rforrest!!

I was unaware of that whole led sequence deal... nice to know.

Glad Marc could help you get sorted out and thanks for posting back with the video links, etc. It will be a great help to others who bump into this problem!!