Procontrol Faderpack is acting strange. SMPS

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andre tchmil

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Jun 4, 2004
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hi, One of my faderpacks is acting strange lately.
Weird flashing leds and sometimes complete shutdown of the unit.
Power cycling brings it back to life only for a moment.
I searched the web and found out that many people have the same trouble .Resoldering bad traces on the PSU will often help. But not here I'm afraid. I'm suspecting a bad component but PSU is a switched type , so my question is: where do I have to look at ? regulators ? or is there some sort of standard protection build in a SMPS ?

thanks
 
Probe the outputs of the PSU.
If the PSU is causing the issue, regardless of whether it's a switcher, the problems will manifest in the output rails.
Look for some basic things first, like steady DC (in the pro control you'll probably have mostly 5V and maybe 3.3V).
See what happens to those rails when the pro control starts acting up. If they still "appear" to be pretty steady, measure ripple with your DMM set to AC+DC to see if it seems unreasonably high...this could be a result of caps downstream drying up, but it could also indicate an issue with the PSU.

If it turns out to be the SMPS, get a replacement...Don't even bother trying to repair the SMPS.
 
Ethan said:
Probe the outputs of the PSU.
If the PSU is causing the issue, regardless of whether it's a switcher, the problems will manifest in the output rails.
Look for some basic things first, like steady DC (in the pro control you'll probably have mostly 5V and maybe 3.3V).
See what happens to those rails when the pro control starts acting up. If they still "appear" to be pretty steady, measure ripple with your DMM set to AC+DC to see if it seems unreasonably high...this could be a result of caps downstream drying up, but it could also indicate an issue with the PSU.

If it turns out to be the SMPS, get a replacement...Don't even bother trying to repair the SMPS.


ok thanks , will check and report back

 
Yes - i,ve repaired a couple of these - both with really bad quality solder joints - especially 5V at the psu AND the logic board end!!
 
Checked and resoldered all joints on all boards.
Voltages are stable.
I'm suspecting the main board (where the ethernet connection is )
There are 4 red control Led's there. If all is OK , only one should be lit.
When faderpack acts weird, either none of them is lit  or the two outer ones flash dimmed.
Think this time it's above my knowledge. :(
 

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