Opto Chips Availability / Pearl 2010 Crash

[Tom Mayer]

Are the 2 opto chips that come with a new Pearl readily available? I mean common to a good electronics store or do I have to order them from a distributor?

I had my 2010 pearl crash this weekend and used a tiger pearl for the show. Later I replaced the 2 chips nearest the outputs and seem to take care of it. What should I look for to prevent this from happening again?

Thanks in advance

[niclights]

The usual reason for this is something bad being happening on the DMX line. Perhaps connection to a non-DMX device/faulty fixture/naughty fixture or power fault. It does happen.

To protect against this most people run through an opto-isolated buffer/splitter.

[Tom Mayer]

I did have the output going to a opto splitter. I'm beginning to be suspect of that splitter as it was was acting up at the prior gig. The other area I was looking at was the cat 5 cable that ran from FOH to the stage I hop on with a sneak snake from TMB. I tested the cat 5 and did not see any continuity issues as I worked the ends where wear & tear would occur.

I also will be putting both FOH and any DMX splitters on regulation to hopefully prevent further issues.

When the failure happened, the console still had the playbacks loaded but I was not able to wipe the desk or load shows or view the patch. Is those chips failure able to cause all those issues? I tried power cycling, external reset and internal reset switch. The LED readout inside said OK after the internal reset but still had no control of functions. Tested the board again today and seems to be behaving.

I did see that the chips are available through several channels. and will replace what I used.

Thanks for the quick response.

[niclights]

Those questions are better directed to service dept. However, if it works ok now...