19 Dec
2019
19 Dec
'19
12:47 p.m.
Greetings !
My audio device has been an M-Audio Delta 66 + Omni I/O breakout box
that has served me well for many years. Alas, something is now causing a
severe problem with it. When I turn the unit on in the morning the clip
and input lights are solid red and green and remain so for up to five or
more minutes before they go off. Adding to that, my portable room heater
is now causing a terrible hum through my speakers. I tried another
heater, got the same results.
So, is the problem likely the Delta card ? I have a replacement for it
that I could swap out, but I thought I'd check with the experts first.
Or should I get an electrician to check out the wiring in my room ?
I can have sound or heat in my studio but not both at the same time. Grrr...
Season's Greetings to all LAU/LAD members !
Best,
dp
19 Dec
19 Dec
3:14 p.m.
Dave Phillips <dlphillips(a)woh.rr.com> writes:
Greetings !
My audio device has been an M-Audio Delta 66 + Omni I/O breakout box
that has served me well for many years. Alas, something is now causing
a severe problem with it. When I turn the unit on in the morning the
clip and input lights are solid red and green and remain so for up to
five or more minutes before they go off. Adding to that, my portable
room heater is now causing a terrible hum through my speakers. I tried
another heater, got the same results.
Differential inputs no longer differential?
So, is the problem likely the Delta card ? I have a
replacement for it
that I could swap out, but I thought I'd check with the experts
first. Or should I get an electrician to check out the wiring in my
room ?
Sorry, no idea. The hum could be a wiring problem, but the "solid red
and green for 5 minutes" thing does not seem like it unless the wiring
problem disturbs the connection to the PC in a manner making an initial
firmware download (does the card have such a thing?) fail again and
again until the checksum is ok.
I can have sound or heat in my studio but not both at
the same time. Grrr...
Frankly, temperature control always been in conflict with recording for
me. The low frequency of an air condition or the metal retensioning
clicks of a radiator are not what you want in a recording. Nor
refrigerator noises.
Season's Greetings to all LAU/LAD members !
And many returns of the season!
--
David Kastrup
8:04 p.m.
On Thu, 19 Dec 2019, Dave Phillips wrote:
My audio device has been an M-Audio Delta 66 + Omni
I/O breakout box
that has served me well for many years. Alas, something is now causing a
severe problem with it. When I turn the unit on in the morning the clip
and input lights are solid red and green and remain so for up to five or
more minutes before they go off. Adding to that, my portable room heater
is now causing a terrible hum through my speakers. I tried another
heater, got the same results.
So, is the problem likely the Delta card ? I have a replacement for it
that I could swap out, but I thought I'd check with the experts first.
Or should I get an electrician to check out the wiring in my room ?
"clip and input lights are solid red and green" These lights are on the
omni I am guessing and so likely the problem is with that box rather than
the D66 card itself. Using mudita24 (not envy24control) on the Analog
Volume tab do you see high level in? (the level for the input is in text
just under the port name (ADC1-3) and can be reset with the "Rest Peaks"
button in the lower left corner) If there is no level or -inf it shows
"(off)". If you are seeing the same high level right after turn on, try
disconnecting the omni i/o and see if the levels are now (after reset)
"off". This test should show that the problem is in the i/o box.
The most likely thig to be wrong is a capacitor. With the i/o box open
find a larger cap probably close to where the power comes in and after
warm up try spraying this with some kind of "freeze spray" to see if the
problem comes back. replace tha cap that when chilled causes the probalem
to come back. Probably replace the power supply cap just because...
(higher value is ok)
--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net
10:18 p.m.
+1 for dying capacitors.. that is IMHO the most common problem in equipment.
If capacitors can not filter out electrical fields, you will have lots of
hum and buzz.
/Anders
On Thu, Dec 19, 2019, 19:04 Len Ovens <len(a)ovenwerks.net> wrote:
On Thu, 19 Dec 2019, Dave Phillips wrote:
My audio device has been an M-Audio Delta 66 +
Omni I/O breakout box
that has served me well for many years. Alas, something is now causing a
severe problem with it. When I turn the unit on in the morning the clip
and input lights are solid red and green and remain so for up to five or
more minutes before they go off. Adding to that, my portable room heater
is now causing a terrible hum through my speakers. I tried another
heater, got the same results.
So, is the problem likely the Delta card ? I have a replacement for it
that I could swap out, but I thought I'd check with the experts first.
Or should I get an electrician to check out the wiring in my room ?
"clip and input lights are solid red and green" These lights are on the
omni I am guessing and so likely the problem is with that box rather than
the D66 card itself. Using mudita24 (not envy24control) on the Analog
Volume tab do you see high level in? (the level for the input is in text
just under the port name (ADC1-3) and can be reset with the "Rest Peaks"
button in the lower left corner) If there is no level or -inf it shows
"(off)". If you are seeing the same high level right after turn on, try
disconnecting the omni i/o and see if the levels are now (after reset)
"off". This test should show that the problem is in the i/o box.
The most likely thig to be wrong is a capacitor. With the i/o box open
find a larger cap probably close to where the power comes in and after
warm up try spraying this with some kind of "freeze spray" to see if the
problem comes back. replace tha cap that when chilled causes the probalem
to come back. Probably replace the power supply cap just because...
(higher value is ok)
--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net
_______________________________________________
Linux-audio-user mailing list
Linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org
https://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
10:25 p.m.
Hi Len,
On 12/19/2019 01:04 PM, Len Ovens wrote:
On Thu, 19 Dec 2019, Dave Phillips wrote:
Btw, the unit showed the same behavior when I plugged in a floor fan on
the same line. And at this point it's misbehaving even when the room
heater is turned off, so yes, I'm thinking that the Omni I/O is busted.
Fortunately I have an older simple break-out connector for the card,
I'll take a look at the box in the meanwhile.
Thanks for the tips, Len, I'll let you know what happens.
Best regards,
dp
My audio device has been an M-Audio Delta 66 +
Omni I/O breakout box
that has served me well for many years. Alas, something is now
causing a severe problem with it. When I turn the unit on in the
morning the clip and input lights are solid red and green and remain
so for up to five or more minutes before they go off. Adding to that,
my portable room heater is now causing a terrible hum through my
speakers. I tried another heater, got the same results.
So, is the problem likely the Delta card ? I have a replacement for
it that I could swap out, but I thought I'd check with the experts
first. Or should I get an electrician to check out the wiring in my
room ?
"clip and input lights are solid red and green" These lights are on
the omni I am guessing and so likely the problem is with that box
rather than the D66 card itself. Using mudita24 (not envy24control) on
the Analog Volume tab do you see high level in? (the level for the
input is in text just under the port name (ADC1-3) and can be reset
with the "Rest Peaks" button in the lower left corner) If there is no
level or -inf it shows "(off)". If you are seeing the same high level
right after turn on, try disconnecting the omni i/o and see if the
levels are now (after reset) "off". This test should show that the
problem is in the i/o box.
The most likely thig to be wrong is a capacitor. With the i/o box open
find a larger cap probably close to where the power comes in and after
warm up try spraying this with some kind of "freeze spray" to see if
the problem comes back. replace tha cap that when chilled causes the
probalem to come back. Probably replace the power supply cap just
because... (higher value is ok) 
10:48 p.m.
On Thu, Dec 19, 2019 at 10:04:09AM -0800, Len Ovens wrote:
The most likely thig to be wrong is a capacitor. With
the i/o box open find
a larger cap probably close to where the power comes in and after warm up
try spraying this with some kind of "freeze spray" to see if the problem
comes back. replace tha cap that when chilled causes the probalem to come
back. Probably replace the power supply cap just because... (higher value is
ok)
If this is a faulty cap (and it may very well be), then cooling it
isn't going to help. Look for traces of leakage. If there is any,
replace the cap.
There's a lot of HW that uses switched PS today, which means some
caps will be on the 'hot' (i.e. mains voltage) side. Trying to fix
those is not something I'd advise, unless you know very well what
you are doing. Better replace the whole thing.
There may be other causes for this sort of problem, e.g. bad ground
connections due to corrosion.
Good luck,
--
FA
22 Dec
22 Dec
6:49 p.m.
Le Thu, 19 Dec 2019 21:48:29 +0100,
Fons Adriaensen <fons(a)linuxaudio.org> a écrit :
On Thu, Dec 19, 2019 at 10:04:09AM -0800, Len Ovens
wrote:
I have a Siemens documentation for their best quality
electrolytic capacitors. It date from the time Siemens/Fujitsu was
making the best electrolytic caps of the world. It is written than,
after 10 years of service, you you want to be sure the caps are still
in the range of their specification, you have to change them in all
cases.
Old caps are a major cause of failures in electronics, especially into
cheap electronics where it is a real nightmare when it is a lot of them.
As are contact corrosion and bad soldering points.
--
If you have a problem and you are not doing anything to fix it, you are
at the heart of the problem.
The most likely thig to be wrong is a capacitor.
With the i/o box
open find a larger cap probably close to where the power comes in
and after warm up try spraying this with some kind of "freeze
spray" to see if the problem comes back. replace tha cap that when
chilled causes the probalem to come back. Probably replace the
power supply cap just because... (higher value is ok)
If this is a faulty cap (and it may very well be), then cooling it
isn't going to help. Look for traces of leakage. If there is any,
replace the cap.
19 Dec
19 Dec
11:36 p.m.
Greetings,
Great thanks for the help, folks ! I've switched out the Omni I/O for
the simpler box, audio is back on track now. Clearly the Omni is the
culprit, it lit up when there was nothing connected to it. It's a handy
unit, I'd like to keep it so I'll see about getting it fixed.
Ah, warmth and noise, it's all good again.
Best regards,
dp
20 Dec
20 Dec
8:14 a.m.
On 12/19/19 4:36 PM, Dave Phillips wrote:
Greetings,
Great thanks for the help, folks ! I've switched out the Omni I/O for
the simpler box, audio is back on track now. Clearly the Omni is the
culprit, it lit up when there was nothing connected to it. It's a handy
unit, I'd like to keep it so I'll see about getting it fixed.
Ah, warmth and noise, it's all good again.
Best regards,
dp
If the lights, and others, are as bright as they usually are,
and are not flickering or cutting out, the power supplies are
likely mostly OK since the lights are powered from a low voltage,
meaning voltages that are higher such as the ones powering
the operational amplifiers driving the LEDs and processing
input are likely OK too.
Also, op-amp power supplies can vary quite a bit, being low or
having moderate ripple, before they start to do nasty
things like that. I note that it does this with no input,
so lack of supply headroom wouldn't likely be a problem here.
Always good to replace some power supply capacitors, but...
The immediate problem may be one or more small electrolytic
input coupling capacitors to the op-amps, leaky or weak,
passing Direct Current to the sensitive op-amp inputs,
slamming their outputs full on, lighting the lights.
Very easy to check with a can of freeze spray or compressed
air duster turned upside down, with the plastic 'straw' given.
Leave the unit on until working (or speed up the process with
a hair dryer on the caps).
Then give the caps near the op-amps a short freeze blast,
as if the unit was starting from 'cold'. If the caps are
the problem, you'll soon notice if those lights come on again.
No physical contact required.
Anything else unusual to report?
Good luck with the venerable unit. Hope it's not expensive
if you take it somewhere. It should be repairable, trust me.
Virtually all symptoms like that are.
Send it to me if no-one else will touch it. Canada, eh?
"Don't fear the repair"
And may your noise always have warmth ;-)
Tim.
1800
days inactive
1803
days old
linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
8 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
Anders Hellquist -
Dave Phillips -
David Kastrup -
Dominique Michel -
Fons Adriaensen -
Len Ovens -
Tim