My A16 Ultra died!

[CreamWare4Ever]

Hello,

Had a nice session yesterday with A16 Ultra hooked up. Ended session without any problems.

Today, pressing ON button result in, well, just -nothing. No sign of life in my A16 Ultra. I have tried to change power supply, same thing.

Any advices on what I can check/try? Finally, what is my service options? Can I send it to S|C labs for fixing?

Cheers.

[garyb]

Ferrofish can help.
at the top of the page click on "help" and then "contact".

[CreamWare4Ever]

Ferrofish can help.
at the top of the page click on "help" and then "contact".

Thanks man, I didn't knew that.

Cheers.

[garyb]

sure.
Ferrofish is the current A16 manufacturer. the A16 was designed by Ferofish's owner, Juergen Kinderman.

[bosone]

maybe try to see if there is a fuse inside...

[CreamWare4Ever]

maybe try to see if there is a fuse inside...

I will try to open it in a couple of minutes. Thanks for your tip!

[CreamWare4Ever]

Good news people!

I managed to bring it back to life, it seems that is it power supply related, or power conditioner that I use for all equipment. I need to test more to be absolutely sure.

Sorry for false alarm, as always A16 U rocks

Cheers.

[bosone]

that's great!
these things are as solid as rocks! and they rock, too!

[krizrox]

I'm having a slight problem with my unit too. Took it out (for the first time since I owned it) for a live gig and now it's acting up. I'm running with Z-Link option (two firewire cables to the Scope card). The light which should normally be ON indicating Z-Link syncronization doesn't seem to be working. It seems to be intermittent now. When I first put it back in my rack it didn't work. I opened the unit up, saw nothing user repairable or obvious so I closed it up and put it back in the rack. Viola - started working again. A little while later it stopped working so it appears to be intermittent. Doesn't seem to affect the operation of the unit. Just not showing sync on the front panel. The green Z-Link light is not lit up. Trying to manually select the Z-Link light with the push button doesn't work. The light flashes red for a second and then goes out. Both Z-Link lights are shown active in the Scope software so I know it's communicating with the A16.

I'm afraid to ask what the protocol is for getting this fixed and whether I should even bother. Any idea of the turn-around? I assume it goes back to Germany right?

[garyb]

you'll need to contact Ferrofish (www.ferrofish.de).

try another cable....

[krizrox]

you'll need to contact Ferrofish (http://www.ferrofish.de).

try another cable....

Yep tried the obvious stuff already - will give them a hollar - thanks Gary.

PS - if the cable(s) was no good seems like there wouldn't be any communication between devices right? I'm suspecting either the LED is going bad or perhaps a loose solder connection somewhere. Looking at the innerds of this thing - doesn't seem like there is much chance for any home repair. Most of the important devices are surface mount. A gazillion capacitors. With all due respect - I'd say I got my money's worth from this device. It's one of the first gen of the Ultra series (purchased in 2002) and has literally been "on" 7 days a week for about 12-14 hours per day ever since. Stuff like that you wanna hang on to

btw - just got back from lunch and the Z-link LED is on ha ha (better not turn it off lol)

[garyb]

it surely could be a cracked solder on the led, or even an led that is failing. as long as it works....

[jksuperstar]

Typical LED life is 25-50,000 hours. 10 years, 365 days, at 7 hours per day, puts you over 43,000 hours ... Not bad

[krizrox]

I think good news (keeping my fingers crossed):

I tried one last desperate solution yesterday: opened the computer and cleaned and re-seated my Scope cards. Amazingly, everything seems to be working fine now. I will feel better after a week or so of sessions and work, but already the intermittent problem is gone. Everything powered up from cold start this morning and is working as expected.

Juergen from Ferrofish responded to my email quickly. He has replacement parts for the old A16's and can turn them around quickly - which is nice to know. If it came back in for repair he recommended some other parts be replaced to insure continuing operation. If I didn't need this thing on an almost daily basis I would be happy to send it in for inspection and updates.

Not sure why this had an effect on the front panel Z-link lamp - I saw nothing obviously wrong when I opened the PC case. The cards were securely seated. But since the computer had been moved along with the A16, it's possible something had happened. I also cleaned the Z-link firewire connectors thinking maybe some piece of dust had gotten in there. Cleaned all the finger connectors on the cards and STDM connectors.

I don't know. Everything is back to normal now. Thankfully. I love my A16!

[krizrox]

Eh bummer - the light went out again ha ha. I guess cleaning the Scope board connectors wasn't the solution I had hoped for. Will set about the task of having it repaired.