Avid Pre

[sr1200]

I have an avid Pre (black face) that just died last night during a session. On boot the unit just goes into 8.8.8. on the front panel. I've spoken to two shops both say the front panel board is no longer available. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on being able to salvage the actual preamps from the unit or if theres any way to turn this into some kind of non digitally controlled unit. Seems like a big waste.

 

[sr1200]

Ive gone down the list of authorized repair centers for avid. Most of them said they dont deal with avid anymore lol. The ones that do wont deal with this unit. Bummer.

 

[juanito2008]

Did you checked the power supply ?

 

[sr1200]

Did you checked the power supply ?

Power supply is fine. This is a well known issue with the eprom on the front panel. Something (unknown) causes it to wig out and lose its programming. Avid refuses to release the software or pin out on the chip to reflash it.

 

[nashkato]

is the eprom socketed and / or is the chip made unreadable ?

 

[sr1200]

the eprom is surface mount so it would be difficult but not impossible to reprogram. From what i was told from a very agitated repair shop that is no longer dealing with avid, the ability is there, but since avid wont cough up the software that needs to go onto it, they couldn't do it even if they wanted to. Im not sure if you can rip the code from a working chip or not, they didn't say.

 

[ruffrecords]

Power supply is fine. This is a well known issue with the eprom on the front panel. Something (unknown) causes it to wig out and lose its programming. Avid refuses to release the software or pin out on the chip to reflash it.

Does it have a part number on it?

Cheers

Ian

 

[DaveDC]

The Avid PRE used a TI MSP430F133 microcontroller with internal flash, so there is no EPROM to reprogram. You would need to re-flash the microcontroller using its JTAG interface. TI made a special "MSP-FET" programmer tool for this, so you'd need that in addition to a copy of the compiled source code. That code, of course, is unobtainable. However, the MSP430 runs on +3.3 volts which is generated locally by a subregulator. You might want to check the health of that +3.3V rail. Looking at the TI datasheet online, you should check for 3.3 volts at pins 1 and 64 of the 64 pin LQFP package.

 

[DaveDC]

Oh, and replacing any large electrolytic caps on the front panel PCB might bring it back to life. I would expect one on the +5V rail and another on the +3.3V rail. These would be for bypassing the digital logic, so the cap value is not super critical. You just want to get rid of any caps that may have shorted internally.

You can also poke around the microprocessor and its crystal with a scope to see if there is any activity. Pretty much any activity on the pins will indicate that the processor is alive and executing code. It may be that the processor is okay but just has a problem "talking" with its front panel LEDs and relay drivers. In that case, just look up the datasheets of the nearby ICs and scope their inputs and outputs, replacing any failures.

 

[DaveDC]

Finally, as for reading the code from a working unit and programming it into another unit, doing so would depend on whether or not Avid programmed the MSP430's security fuse or otherwise secured the device. Securing the device essentially disables the JTAG port and thereby disables any code reading.