896HD, 896, and 8pre not playing nice

[darrell]

Hi all,

For years I've used an 896HD as my DP input and have had no problems to speak of, excepting one: Viewed from the back, there are 2 firewire inputs and the left one has not worked for a long time (maybe never). No real problem there, but I have recently purchased an even OLDER 896 and an 8Pre (firewire version).

Of course, I want to daisy chain them, but could not get Audio Setup to see all of them at the same time. After hours of trying all different kinds of configurations, I decided I must consult the gurus (that's you guys).

Here's what I can tell you: Looking at both the 896HD and the 896 (from the back), the left-hand firewire socket on each unit does not pass signal, but the right-handed ones both do. The 8Pre passes firewire on both its outputs. That means I can daisy chain one of the 896s, but not both, to the 8Pre. Obviously, I must have them all!

Is there a protocol for hooking up/turning on, etc for these units, or for firewire itself? I remember years ago that the tail-end unit should be turned on first..... Any other ideas, or do you think it's just faulty sockets?

Thanks a lot,
Darrell

[mikehalloran]

Faulty socket at the motherboard has been reported on other units. That makes it the usual suspect. I would also inspect the motherboard for cracks around the socket or cold solder joints.

There's an old post by a guy who said he found it and the voltage regulator at Mouser – said it was a piece of cake DIY install for just a few $. Unfortunately, he was a jerk who wouldn't give a part# or link so that others could know. He talked so much trash that James had to kick him out.

Anyway, if you can figure out the right socket with the correct pin configuration, let us know.

[rockitcity]

Since it's older gear, it might be too expensive to get the interfaces repaired. How about this: Do both firewire ports work on the 8 Pre? You could use the 8 Pre as your primary interface and firewire daisy-chain to the 896 HD. You could then connect the 2nd 896 via optical into the 896 HD so it would just appear as additional digital inputs to the 896 HD interface.

You'd have to be careful with your clock setup with this. Ideally the 8 Pre would be your master clock (so you can control its settings from your DAW software,) with optical going from the 8 Pre to the 896 HD (set to optical sync.) Then you could send word clock to 2nd 896 from the first via BNC connector, and have it slave to word clock.

Don't know if this would all work. Looks good on paper, doesn't cost much to try it out. You'll know its working if you change sample rates in your DAW software and all the interfaces follow.

[darrell]

Thanks guys! I will continue pondering this as I vacuum the living room.

d.a.

[darrell]

Hi again........ I'm still trying to figure this particular conundrum out. I haven't yet taken the outfit to a repair person nor contacted MOTU support. I did try a bit of the lightpipe-possible remedy, but to no avail at this point. I did spend a long afternoon looking at wordclock posts on this forum, and found a bunch of bewildering information.

As I understand the posts and the manuals, there are 4 methods to get the hardware (in my case, 896HD, 896, & 8pre), or, for the time-being, any 2 units, to work together so as not to get pops and glitches:

firewire, lightpipe, wordclock BNC, and ADAT 9-pin synch.

firewire seems the simplest (and faster than LP, and passes info both directions). When I firewire the 8pre to my Mac, it works fine standalone. When I firewire the 8pre to the Mac and firewire the 896 or 896HD to the 8pre, both units show up in MOTU Audio, Apple MIDI/Audio, and DPs configure hardware driver.

I chose 8pre as internal clock, and 896 clock as 8pre. Both show up in MOTU audio, Apple MIDI/Audio and DP. When I configure driver in DP, the window gets confusing. Picking 8pre as driver, the data seems the same, but 896, although showing 8pre as master, still has 896 config in the leftmost window. Going to Tracks window, opening any input of an strip shows only 8pre inputs, both mic/line & ADAT. What I want to see is 8 inputs from 8pre and 8 inputs from 896 (as well as ADAT, if the software requires it.

Any and all help is appreciated!

Darrell A.

[rockitcity]

Did you actually connect an optical cable from the 896 to the 8 Pre? If so, the 896 should just show up as additional ADAT inputs to your 8pre. It won't be listed by name, it just should be digital inputs 9-16. 8 Pre internal clock, 896 should be optical or ADAT. If you change sample rates in your software and both interfaces switch you've got it right. Give that a shot.

[darrell]

That makes sense! The ADAT inputs I am seeing are the 896 inputs.....who woulda thunk......

[darrell]

Well, maybe not.......

I was able (trying just the 8pre and 896), when the 8pre is the master, to get the 896 inputs to show up as adat 1-8, but in the monitor bridge I get a constant, solid red,line, or a pulsing yellow, in each of those 8 inputs....some kind of feedback loop? Also, in the general knowledge category: does the master unit (8pre) send lightpipe either to or from the 896? There are 2 pair of lightpipe in/out on the 8pre. The top in/out pair shows "1-8" between them, and the bottom pair has no labeling.

This is all new to me, and any more help is greatly appreciated.