Slink Connected but no ready light on AR2412

[FaithFamilyIT]

Hey,

We recently replaced our AR2412 which has a hardware failure. (In the interim we rented a AR2412 from a local AV supplier, which worked perfectly).

Connected the replacement AR2412 the Slink light flashes and the SQ6 desk indicated it is connected but the ready light does not come on and all patching is ‘Unavailable’ in the I/O menu.

Not entirely sure why this is happening as I have swapped them out 1:1.

Any advice would be appreciated!

[Tobi]

Have you waited ling enough for the AR24 Tobias Update Firmware?

[Jim King]

Hey there and first of all sorry for my bad english. I´ll try my very best…. 😉

Yesterday i had exactly the same issue. Connected a completly new AR2412 to a SQ5, Slink lights were flashing but the ready light did not turn on and patching was not possible. So i waited for a longer time, did all my cabling on the stage, setting up microphones etc….but still no ready light came up.
The Quick Start Guide wich came within the new AR2412 says, the firmware update on the AR2412 is done automatically when linked to the desk and can last up to 2 minutes. I waited much more longer but it didn´t work.
For the reason that it was the band´s own SQ5 i took a look at the firmware on it. And it wasn´t the latest version, but also not a very old one (1.5.0 i think). So i updated the SQ5 and then it worked with the new AR2412.

So far so good, BUT: what is the real problem? Was the firmware on the very new AR2412 already a later/”better” one than on the SQ? Unfortunately there´s no way to see the firmware version on AR2412 (or other stageboxes), or do i just don´t know how to do it? AND, shouldn´t be firmware backwards compatible?
I think, the best way would be, that a stagebox should always check firmware versions on the connected desk and should “update” to that version, no matter if it´s the latest one or an older one. For the reason that it does the “firmware check” automatically when it´s connected, i cannot see, why it should be a problem to program it like that….
Maybe i my thoughts are wrong, then please tell me. Otherwise i´ll suggest that to A&H for upcoming updates….

[Tobi]

Yes your thoughts are wrong. Release notes clearly state that current SQ Firmware ist needed for latest AR24.

Best Regards,
Tobias

[ken.cunningham]

Your thoughts are right. I had the same issues. Flashing Lnk/Err light and no Ready light. Waited much longer than the suggested 2 minutes for the AR2412 firmware update and reboot. I was not able to activate patching and the dSnake connection would eventually drop. I tried shutting down and rebooting many times. I then found this post.

I was on firmware 1.5.0 and updated to 1.5.10. The Ready light was active immediately after I powered on the system.

Thank you!!!!

[Brian]

The stage boxes will communicate with the console and automatically update it’s firmware to match what is running in the console (whether it is an “upgrade” or “downgrade” of the stage boxes’ firmware). The problem comes in because the hardware versions have changed in many of the devices (not just stage boxes, but consoles, I/O cards, etc) due to the availability (or lack of availability) of various electrical components used in the manufacturing process. When the components changed in the hardware, the firmware also had to be updated to work with the new hardware version. While the overall user experience between the old hardware versions and the new hardware versions is the same, the old firmware is simple not compatible with the new hardware revisions. Therefore whenever a newly manufactured piece of hardware is introduced to an older system, it is likely that the console’s firmware is going to need to be updated as well.

Long story short, the stage boxes do automatically change to match the console’s firmware version, but due to electronic component changes in the manufacturing process, many of the new devices require the console to have the most recent firmware version to work. If your system is running an older firmware version, a new stage box (or I/O card, etc) probably won’t connect or even be recognized by the system until the firmware is updated. These hardware changes are not very common, so it’s kind of a “one off” problem that won’t occur again unless there are future hardware revisions.

EDIT – second post because my initial reply disappeared when I attempted to edit it. (Perhaps one day A&H will update this forum software to something released in this century).

[Author]

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