Motu 8 pre not recognized as optical converter

[Moisturizer]

Hi, i am trying to hook up my 3 thrusty 8pre's (fw version) to an RME Raydat to overcome the firewire driver dependency.
The sample rates match, the signal is visible on the 8 pre's led but no signal is flowing into the Raydat.
I have two other preamps (Behringer ada8000) and they do connect just fine. So the Raydat works
What on earth am i missing?
Shouldn't the 8 pre automatically switch to converter (and thus slave) mode when not connected via firewire?
The led says it is in converter mode.
I tried it with all 3 units i have, i switched them on and off, i even reconnected via fw so to set the clock source to the Raydat before disconnecting but no dice.
I'm sure it is my fault since the manual states this is in fact possible.
I opened a ticket with motu but since we are talking about an ancient product i have no high hopes.
Anybody here who has the experience?
Thanks in advance
Thomas

[mikehalloran]

Other than everything needing to match, I don't know. I was able to use my 2408 and 828mkII as stand-alone Analog/ADAT converters for my FOSTEX FD8 — only way I could record all 8 tracks simultaneously. Then I used them as ADAT inputs so that I could transfer all 8 tracks of the FD8 into DP on my Mac simultaneously.

When Sweetwater sold me the setup in the late 1990s, the rep said, "You want to do what?!?!?" I told him that I'd read carefully and expected it to work–and it did. My analog front end was a Mackie 1604 — yikes!

Anyway, my only recommendation is to search the pdf manual and see if you can find something that doesn't match your setup. It will surprise me if you haven't overlooked something in your 8pre—there are so many variables. I agree that it should just work. Searchable PDFs are my friend for things like this.

https://cdn-data.motu.com/manuals/firew ... de_Mac.pdf

[bayswater]

Shouldn't the 8 pre automatically switch to converter (and thus slave) mode when not connected via firewire?

Not sure why that would be. Like Mike, I had a 828, 2408 with a 1604 at the front and used ADAT to connect to several other units. A long time ago, but I remember have to tell units they were slaves, or masters, and had to give each a clock source — some things had to use ADAT as the clock source.

[Moisturizer]

There, fixed it! I reinstalled the last firmware on all 3 units (pretty sure they were already up to date) and i had to swap adat in and out. Pretty confusing. I did test both directions before the firmware update. Probably i did reset something reinstalling the firmware....Weird but hallelujah they work. No retirement for those units any time soon!

[mikehalloran]

There, fixed it! I reinstalled the last firmware on all 3 units (pretty sure they were already up to date) and i had to swap adat in and out. Pretty confusing. I did test both directions before the firmware update. Probably i did reset something reinstalling the firmware....Weird but hallelujah they work. No retirement for those units any time soon!

Good. You would have reset to factory specs in the process. I meant to include that in my previous post but got distracted.