First Fader returns to zero with NO REASON

[alanpowerParticipant]

hey everybody,
we’re using our Mixrack DM48 combined with our C1500 console with great results.

one issue we still have is when we change the page on the surface, the first fader goes down to minus-infinite (lower position) for NO REASON. no matter which channel the first fader is associated with, the moment we change the page, the first page goes down. and it occurs 30-40% of the time we change the page (not always).

without the console (Director only) it never happens.

any help is well appreciated.

thanks a lot.
Alan

[CharlesParticipant]

Under the Util/Shows button – Utility tab – Diagnostics – Automatic mode

When it happens again, capture a video of the diagnostics on the sliders. I have had to replace all banks of sliders 1x and waiting on the arrival now for complete replacement #2.

This has broken my show more than once when I switch banks and it turns a vocal mic down or if I’m in monitor mix mode it has changed the level of that channel in someone’s IEM. I have the S7000 and had plenty of extra channels to work around it until the replacement arrives.

[alanpowerParticipant]

really I can’t believe it is a hardware problem.
seen the strange behavior I likely think it’s rather a software problem, but who knows!

any help is still appreciated.
Alan

[CharlesParticipant]

I would agree with you because the fader does work at times. This is the solution I’m given.

[BrianParticipant]

I’m not arguing the point here and definitely defer to whatever A&H support suggests, but I also find it hard to believe it is a hardware issue given the symptoms. At least with the Avantis, hardware fader issues (which have been far too common unfortunately) results in faders that DON’T change when you change layers, etc. Obviously this will have a negative affect on your mix too, but I haven’t seen a situation where the fader goes to zero unexpectedly when switching layers. If anything it proves the fader motor is working, buy not getting the correct signal from the software.

[JoeParticipant]

Our S5000 is a little over 3 years old. I’ve seen a similar intermittent issue where the last fader of a bank of 12 (and a bank of 8) will not transition from zero. I can flip through pages back and forth and the issue will happen maybe 25% of the time. However, after the system has been cycled on/off, the issue disappears. It has come back maybe 3 times over the last 6 months, but we now know to reboot if noticed during a sound check. I wish there was a way to fix it in the middle of a show without rebooting!

I do believe that there is likely an underlying hardware problem, but at the same time I think that the firmware isn’t robust enough to deal with aging motorized faders. To me the issue might be with how the console boots up to initialize the fader banks given that the problem disappears for a while after a reboot. But maybe that is just the failure mode in my situation.

@Charles: Thank you for the tip about the diagnostics screen.

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