Faders stuck at zero

[olvaar]

Hi guys,

We have a problem with a pearl 2000 desk which came in for maintainance.

Only a few faders respond/are shown on the dislay, if the fader has been altered, the value stays 00 on the display.

We have check all data buffers with a logic analyzer. And it shows the faders are working correctly. (columnscan, A/D'ed and buffered)

Could this be related to a software prob ? bc. we can not find any hardware probs.

The DMX-broadcasting crashes a lot also (like every 5 mins)

Is there also a possibility to get the firmware for the gluelogic ? (pals or gals)

I've seen on this forum that we could load new soft (2004) into the desk.
Is this available on the website ?

Thanks for any info on this matter.

And 'thank god' for this forum

[CoenCo]

well. there are lots of possibilities, so I'll give some hints/tips, you might have already tried some if this, but at least it's a start.


first of all, hold the AVO-key, press "reduce fixture intensity" then move all faders to 100%, press exit (or reduce fixture-intensity again)check if this fixes the problem. if not, continue:

check if all master faders are up, check to make sure you are not in "blind-mode" again, if no succes, continue:

turn the key to system
select service
display bus errors
if it shows error, select clear errors and reboot

again go to system/service
diagnostics, it now shows a window with all fader values and keypresses. check for all faders if they respond. if they don't the hardware is broken, send your desk in for service. If they do respond, it's software related.
do a Wipeall, check if your desk is capable of running the 2004 software (check the site, -support-, it is pretty well explained) and update. you'll love the new possibilities as well

[olvaar]

@Coenco : i wanted to try the procedure you descriped.

But the desk keeps crashing, and i can reproduce it now.
There are "Dom DMA LED's" on the mainboard, which flash at a constant rate. if i fade the master to zero, the led light up just a little longer, and then stop flashing. Similar with the 2 DMX leds near the output.

But i will give it a second try over the weekend.

The desk's flightcase was punctured by a rack of trusses in the truck (they forgot the brakes). normally only some faders were broken off, and the cover a little dent. this is all fixed .. now this problem is sticking up it's head.

The desk should get a tshirt with the print: " I survived this crew !"

I will keep you informed

[niclights]

Oh dear! Doesn't sound too good. The only thing I can think of is to disconnect all the ribbons that connect the fader boards to the analogue board and see if the board still crashes.

Given that the damage should only have occured to the top of the desk maybe you can then eliminate which of the fader boards may be damaged or have faults. Of course it is possible that the analogue board or mainboard got damaged on powering up.

I suggest you give Ben Miles a call or email @ Avo.

[Ben Miles]

As described, unplugging ribbon cables to the fader boards to isolate where the fault is coming from is a good idea. It could be one PCB causing the problem. Also there are quite a few chips on the analoge board that can be swapped with each other to see if the problem moves or changes.
The best place to check any fader levels is in the 'diagnostics screen'
key to system mode
A=service
B=diagnostics.

Please feel free to contact nickatavolites.com or benatavolites.com or on the Avolites telphone numbers