Problem with a Linebacker...

[Zeb]

Hi,

 

I managed to pick up another Linebacker to keep on the bench for testing (I'm messing around with Arduinos, Artnet, E1.31 and DMX at the moment)... this time a faulty one, the reported fault was that the display didn't work. Turns out the power supply was u/s! Replacing the power supply has brought it back to life but not 100% (the display just displayed two slightly faded bars).

 

The battery (a Ni-MH one) has seen better days and is now rather fluffy and leaky :-( I've removed the battery and have a replacement on order.

 

Unfortunately this has done some damage to the PCB beneath. Nothing too major, just one track that had been eaten through with some others looking bad but not gone.

 

I've given that part of the board a good clean with IPA and have repaired the broken track by tracing it through and using carefully soldered wire wrap wire.

 

It's now mostly working. The display appears to need replacing as it's fading in places but that's a cheap and easy fix.

 

DMX in and out appear to be working as expected.

 

The main problem is that the cable test doesn't function properly. If I disconnect the input and output boards (the ones attached to the XLR connectors), it'll report 'multiple cable faults'. If I reconnect the boards, it reports 'no cable'. However, when I try it with a known good cable or even a cable with 2 & 3 swapped (I've got some old Martin gear that needs it), it goes to 'Starting DC test' and that's where it sits.

 

Not sure whether this could be caused by another faulty track or maybe something else.

 

This is a unit from 2000 and the board is issue 4, revision 2. It's running version 2.0 of the firmware (9504).

 

The only other thing to note is that this one's got a PALCE16V8H-15 labelled 9602 whereas my older one (issue 2, version 2 board which stays with the gear I take out) has got a PAL16R4A-2CN labelled 9601.

 

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

 

Many thanks in advance,

 

 

Neil.

[KWR88]

Hi Neil,

 

Please PM me on the address below.

there was a change to the components in the DMX circuit that casued the cable test to fail.