Soundcraft 600 help troubleshooting

[wiz1der]

First off, I joined this forum back in the early 2000's and glad to see that the community is still going strong! There is a wealth of knowledge here that you cannot find anywhere else!

I am having an issue with the group bus on my Soundcraft 600 24/8/16.

Group bus #7 is not passing audio. LED's do light up when buttons are pushed, and AFL lights up also, just no sound.

I have taken the physical group 7 channel out and changed the jumper so it would act as group 8, and the channel is functioning as group 8, so the rules out any components on the board.

When I put the group 8 channel that was working in the 8th position, and changed the jumper to group 7, no sound again.

I have also tried different loom positions also to rule out the ribbon cable. Any channel or loom positions works anywhere else, except for when I put the jumper on Jumper position 7.

Thanks in advance for any pointers!

 

[Ike Zimbel]

It sounds like the audio is not actually getting to/through Group-7. I don't have time to dig into the docs right now, but I would say the first suspects would be the Group Insert patch point(s) and the 2nd would be the fader, and the 3rd the actual output jack. So...divide and conquer:
1) See if there is a signal on the Grp-7 SEND. If yes, the Bus is ok. If no...I don't know if the Bus amp is on that module, or located elsewhere in the desk. Need to clarify that.
2) If the Send is good, try patching a signal straight into the Return. If that works, the fault could be in the normalling in the Insert path. Try patching over it (not sure if it's single TRS, or separate Send and Return jacks). If it's a single TRS, plug a TRS cable in there and short the Tip and Ring contacts on the other end of the cable. Anything conductive will do this...I've used a paper-clip in a pinch. If separate jacks, just plug a TRS cable from S to R. If that works, you need to fix those jacks, or leave them patched over.
The Return and the fader are kind of joined at the hip, so if you do not have any action on the return, you will need to take a closer look at the fader and its connections. If possible, swap them with another fader.
3) That's a good start. I'd have to dig further to see how you could check the output jack...BUT, if there is a Matrix on the desk, try routing Grp-7 through it and see if you get signal. If you get it there, but not on the o/p jack, that says the module and slot is ok, but the o/p connector and/or its wiring is bad.

 

[pucho812]

if you swap the channel with a known good one and the issue stays then you have isolated it down to anything in that slot. Whenever working out channel/grp issues on a desk. I always split things up. I'll explain, you take the big and work it down into manageable things.
So for example, your grp has insert send and returns, if you use the insert return and get signal to the grp out, then you know the issue is before the insert. If you send signal and get it at the insert send, then you know the issue is post insert. Take what you know about how it works and start to make manageable bits.

 

[wiz1der]

So, last night I did exactly what Ike Zimbel spelled out for me.

First, cleaned the insert on the back of the board.

At the patch bay, I took the send from group 7 and plugged it into channel line in on an input channel - nothing... - so this points to possible bus amp module? I'm not sure where to look for this.

Also at the patch bay, I took channel line 1 send and patched it into grp 7 return and the audio was present and the meter #7 reacted to the audio.

I feel like I'm getting somewhere!

 

[pucho812]

So you got signal at the group insert return? can you confirm from the group insert return to the output of the group?

You did not have signal at the group insert send when testing? As goofy as it may sound try patching from the insert send directly to the insert return and see what happens.

As we have confirmed, so far the issue will not be on the group module, that was confirmed the other day when you swap group 7 module into the group 8 slot and it worked.

 

[wiz1der]

I did patch the send directly to the return and got nothing, that's when I went from the send to another input channel to check.

In my mind I'm narrowing it down to the signal path from the 7/8 button on all channels to wherever that goes , the wire or part for group 7 is faulty or the wire is broken.