Pulsar 2 periodically completely stops working.

gabrielvra · Post by **gabrielvra** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 9:58 pm

Man! Afonso, I just found it out. Today I was at the desk to solve the problem...I figured out what is going on. The problem is the cable, sub-snake whatever it is called. There is a bad contact going there. I just have to sustain the cable uo with something and then it will work good. If I take the cable out, I wont have samplerate problem.
Ok, now I know the problem "is not with the card", but with the cable. What can we do to fix it? I wonder if any Audio Eletronic Man can fix it, or we will have to live with this problem. Buy another cable???

Post by **garyb** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 1:34 am

you may be able to fix/resolder the cable whip. if not, you can order another.

gabrielvra · Post by **gabrielvra** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 8:00 am

I dont think i will have the hability to resold the cable whip, the pins are pretty close to each other. Taking the point that Im so far from Creamware's head quarter...
I was looking for the cable it self at creamware's home page..couldn't find. How much does it will cost, in euro, dollar...?

Cheers Rasta

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 11:05 am

not shure if the Pulsar One's whip is built the same as yours, but I just opened mine.
There's a lock at the side which you can lift off by a small screwdriver.
It's very unlikely that a solder joint at the connector is broken. The damage is probably in the area where the cable leaves the plug, caused by tear and friction.
Even soldering the connector isn't a big deal as only 3 pins in the middle row are connected, all 'bottom' connections are to the connector's frame and the rest is in the easily accessible top row.

But the peek inside revealed a picture of pure signal horror (imho)

all ground wires are connected to the plug's shield and that way to the computer case.
There's no separate signal and shield ground, as in the A16 (for example).

This explains much of the strange behaviour of the cards regarding noise/ground loop issues. If the case isn't properly grounded due to paint or other surface treatments you'll have a nice antenna here.

at least this explains why my Pulsar analog ins are much worse than they used to be in a different computer and in a different current supply net (other flat)

cheers, Tom

Post by **garyb** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 2:53 pm

i have a classic 20 whip that i can sell you if you pm or email me....

gabrielvra · Post by **gabrielvra** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 3:49 pm

On 2005-04-24 12:05, astroman wrote:
not shure if the Pulsar One's whip is built the same as yours, but I just opened mine.
There's a lock at the side which you can lift off by a small screwdriver.

It looks like the same, sice it has the same lock at the back. I'll check it out.
As Afonso said, if we keep the cable up, sustained by anything, the Samplerate thing will work fine.

..

A friend of mine has a pulsar one, and it seems that he has the same problem with samplerate. I'll talk to him, and check whether the problem is the cable whip..

---------
About the classic 20 whip. My whip is the "plus" one, with XLR, AES/EBU, and General MIDI. I only use the ADAT's I/O's, and the MIDI thing. I'll try to solve my problem here.

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 8:55 pm

I'm glad it isn't the card... the rest is just taking care of the "detail". Happy for you man

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 8:55 pm

I'm glad it isn't the card... the rest is just taking care of the "detail". Happy for you man

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 5:22 am

On 2005-04-24 16:49, gabrielvra wrote:
...
As Afonso said, if we keep the cable up, sustained by anything, the Samplerate thing will work fine. ...

this could also indicate a bad ground connection. As mentioned the ground lines of the cable are soldered to the shield of the plug which is then 'grounded' by the computer case.

If for obscure reasons the case isn't properly grounded itself and catches small voltage drifts (usually polluted by supply hum and PC noise) the clock itself may get messed. You can't hear the hum then as without clock there's no audio.

the worst case would be a broken solder joint of the connector on the circuit board, which could happen due to mechanical stress the whip applies to the connector - it's one sh*t of a construction

A (qualified) TV service can resolder that.

good luck, Tom