Blank C24 scribble strip

[Guy McDude]

Hey Folks,
On occasion my C24's scribble strip goes totally blank.
Everything else works fine.
Ive read reports of parts/ areas of the strip going dim or dead, but this is the whole thing.
Its been remedied by rebooting the C24, but Im wondering whats behind the issue.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

All the best,
Sean

[musicman691]

If the scribble strip is a plugin led display or set of separate plugin displays what happens is the contacts can oxidize over time. Sometimes cycling the power works as you've found out. What you could do if you have the tools and gumption is to pop open the C24 and reseat everything you can in the unit - cable connectors, displays, etc. Make sure you unplug the unit from the AC power first!

Texas Instruments used to make led displays years ago that would habitually have oxidization on their contacts. Don't know if Digidesign used TI or someone else's displays.

[Guy McDude]

Originally Posted by musicman691

If the scribble strip is a plugin led display or set of separate plugin displays what happens is the contacts can oxidize over time. Sometimes cycling the power works as you've found out. What you could do if you have the tools and gumption is to pop open the C24 and reseat everything you can in the unit - cable connectors, displays, etc. Make sure you unplug the unit from the AC power first!

Texas Instruments used to make led displays years ago that would habitually have oxidization on their contacts. Don't know if Digidesign used TI or someone else's displays.

thanks Jack.
Im a little low on gumption, but I appreciate the tip.

Warning, Im total non tech, but even if the connectors are mated, and the desk hasnt been moved, the oxidation can still cause an issue?

thanks again,
Sean

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Guy McDude

thanks Jack.
Im a little low on gumption, but I appreciate the tip.

Warning, Im total non tech, but even if the connectors are mated, and the desk hasnt been moved, the oxidation can still cause an issue?

thanks again,
Sean

Yep. On the TI led displays I'm talking about they apparently didn't use a plating on the pins to prevent oxidation. It gets even worse if there's wide humidity changes.

[Guy McDude]

thanks

[MikePotter]

Well, my C24 just started having a similar problem. Everything works except for the scribble strips. It seemed to go in stages. Two days ago channels 1-8 were showing rapidly changing characters and "hash". I restarted and all was fine. Today channels 1-8 were blank and channels 9-24 were showing rapidly changing whacky characters and "hash". I restarted and all 24 are now "dead". But not really dead - the character blocks look like they're all "on" - solid blocks of yellow, but no characters. I'm fairly adventurous so I'm going to open it up tomorrow. Thankfully no jobs for the next couple of days (thought I'd never say that). Any insights or advice from those who have opened up a C24 would be very much appreciated!

Thanks in advance
Mike Potter
Orion Studios
Baltimore, MD

[MikePotter]

Well I removed the bottom of the C24 and fairly easily found the ribbon cables that run to the led scribble strips. I removed each connector (had to peel off some hot glue) and cleaned the pins off with some de-oxit and a tissue. I then re-seated everything and all was well. For a day or so. At the current time the first strip is now "blank" while the other two are working fine. The middle eight channel strip will very occasionally flash some "hash" but just for a second or two. It would seem that cleaning the connections and re-seating the cables did help - though obviously not definitive proof. When I get time I'm going to open it up again (LOTs of screws to take out!) and see if I can get that first scribble strip working. Many times when I first fire up the controller it will show the "C24 Offline" message - but within a minute or so will degrade to showing "hash" and then to simply being "blank". For the time being it appears the other two (channels 9-16 and 17-24) are okay - and everything else is working fine.

[nhaudio]

Hey MikePotter... did you end up having more success when you opened it up again? I've just had the exact same symptoms show up on our C|24. Rebooting is hit-and-miss. Don't have time to open it up just now, but if it worked for you, we'll find an opportunity to do the same.

Thanks,
n