HD Native Setup help! Won’t see third interface.

[JamesG602]

Hello all.

I’ve recently revamped my home studio (new desk, acoustic treatment, new monitors and all that jazz). Along with my previous setup of an HD native thunderbolt with Omni and HD 8x8 I added an analog HD 16x16.

Now I’m setting everything back up with the new desk and racks and I’m having trouble get protools/digitest to recognize a third interface.

Prior to the revamp, I was running 2018 mac mini Catalina, protools ultimate 2021.7, HD native, Omni , and 8x8 just fine. Adding in the 16x16 seems to be causing some issues as I cannot get the third interface to show up in digitest or protools.

I have it set up as follows
HD Omni primary out to port 1 on native box
HD 8x8 primary in from expansion out on Omni
HD 16x16 primary out to port 2 on native box

Loop sync connected as it should be (already learned that one the hard way).

Problem is in digitest and protools all that’s showing up is the HD native thunderbolt, the Omni, and whatever is attached to the Omni’s expansion port.

I’ve tried swapping the 16x16 and the 8x8 as the Omni’s expansion and both will show up fine when attached to the Omni in that way. Problem is anything attached to port 2 is not showing up in digitest. All digilink cables are working as I’ve swapped them all one way or another and they show up.

Digilink license is on ilok and is working. (Do I need two digilink licenses for two ports???)

Am I missing something obvious here?

I also tried hooking the 8x8 and 16x16 all off of expansion to expansion from port 1 but that didn’t work either.

Any other potential setups I should try?

Any help? I’m desperate lol…

Thanks guys!

[JFreak]

Three boxes daisy-chained should not work even in theory. DiGilink is designed to carry 32 channels in such a way that primary box gets channels 1-16 and expansion box gets channels 17-32.

Try to five OMNI solo access to your HDN first port and test that it works as it should. Then daisy-chain the HD interfaces to second port. See if you lose both HD interfaces or just one. If you lose borh, move the HD interfaces to first port and test without OMNI. If you see both, connect OMNI and see if you see them all. If not then I am afraid second port is fried.


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[JamesG602]

I hooked up just the Omni to port 1 and also just the 8x8 to port 1 and both were seen correctly in digitest.

I’ll try Omni on port 1 and 8x8 on port 2, no 16x16, and see what happens. I’ve never had to use port 2 so I guess it was possibly bad from the start. Good thing it hasn’t been a year yet so should be able to get some kind of recourse on it.

[JamesG602]

Also does loop sync need to be connected as I swap these around or does it not make a difference if I’m just testing to see if they show up in digitest?

Does power on sequence make a difference? Like loop synced master first then slaves in order?

[Darryl Ramm]

Everything is pointing at a dead port 2, as you know.

When troubleshooting Digilink it's always a good idea to simplify as much as possible and I'm pretty sure there is no need to populate stuff on port 1 first. So get one box working on port 1 no other boxes chained to it.

Then take the digilink cable on port 1 and swap it to port 2. Don't undo the cable into the interface box or mess with anything. Don't add any other boxes or cables and no need to mess with loop sync cables (disconnect them). Try some gentle wiggling of that mini-digilink port 2. Always worth looking carefully at a card where these ports don't work to see if you can see damage (but here that would mean opening up the Thunderbolt box don't do that if you have a return option on it).

Power on sequence does not matter in normal setups, this TDM (or strictly TDM2)/Digilink bus protocol is as dumb as a box of rocks, and again all the debugging you need to do can be done with one cable and one interface box, so do it that way.

But because it's a Thunderbolt HD Native box there might be additional suspicion about the power supply to that box.... what Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter are you using? Especially if Port 2 works by itself you might want to try powering the HD Native Thunderbolt box with a seperate power supply.

[JamesG602]

So I hooked my HDX card into a chassis and hooked that up to the three interfaces and after a firmware update on the HDX card everything is working as it should.

So yes seems like port 2 on the Native box might be shot…

I’m using apple adapters and thunderbolt cables to the Native box, so all high quality stuff.

Only other thing or possibly try would be the power supply like mentioned. Anyone know what specs on the power supply is needed?

What’s the process for contacting avid for a warranty repair, it’s been just shy of a year.

Thanks!

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by JamesG602

Also does loop sync need to be connected as I swap these around or does it not make a difference if I’m just testing to see if they show up in digitest?

Does power on sequence make a difference? Like loop synced master first then slaves in order?

During this test, keep Loop Sync cables intact and all interfaces powered on. You only need to figgle between DigiLink cables and ports.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by JamesG602

What’s the process for contacting avid for a warranty repair, it’s been just shy of a year.

Avid Support is here. At least start a case while you are on your first year, let Avid figure it out. I have no idea. Where did you buy it? Directly from Avid? Avid Reseller? 2nd hand?

[JamesG602]

Purchased from sweetwater.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by JamesG602

Purchased from sweetwater.

Start the support case first so you make sure your ticket is when your card is less than one year old. Then while waiting you may want to contact SweetWater in case they know how to speed up the process.