Traveler....the 3rd one just went down and Ive had enough

twhelan · Post by **twhelan** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 4:23 am

I bought a Traveler last October. The first thing it did when connected up was blow out the firewire port on my glyph hard drive, making it hard for me to work for a month till the drive got fixed and the Traveler was replaced.

I used the second Traveler with it powered off the mains and no other firewire device attached....made me too nervous. After a few weeks my iBook stopped detecting it. The firewire ports on the Traveler had died. I had to get that replaced too.

I've been using the 3rd one powered directly from the iBook. Now that ones gone down as well!

I've never dared use it for live work...never got it really past the testing stage. Not being able to rely on it has cost me a lot of time, work and money.

I've never had this sort of trouble with a piece of equipment in my life...buying this thing's ended up being the worst purchase I've ever made. I dont claim to be an expert, but I'm reasonably careful, and if I'm doing something wrong I can't work out what it is. If anyone could suggest something,( apart from jamming the firewire lead in upsdie down!) I'd love to hear an explanation before I get rid of it for good. Since other people I know havent had the same problem I cant help feeling there's something really obvious I'm doing wrong but what? MOTU havent been able to point out anything. I use a G4 iBook.

cuttime · Post by **cuttime** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:10 pm

I'm very sorry to hear this story, as my Traveler has been functioning flawlessly for 2 1/2 years continuously. I know I am probably not going to be able to help at this point, because I know too well what it is like to have "had enough" ...but, one thing does come to mind, are you using the same FW cable for all the scenarios? A bent pin could be contributing to your FW port disasters. Do other FW devices work okay on the same cable?

alobonzo · Post by **alobonzo** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 3:09 am

Hi,
I'm sorry man, but my Traveler also SUX.
I know a lot of mates here work with the Traveler.. and it works for them but for me this piece of equipment is the worst one that Motu released, if it works.. it's wonderful but it's been a total nightmare for me.
This is the second unit I return and I'm fed up.
I really miss my old 896, it never failed, NEVER, I sold it because I needed Cuemix for monitoring and I regret every day, hope the new unit works.
It's fustrating when you have a client in front waiting and ready to record, and you are just hearing noise and noise, and the client has to leave because you CAN'T find the problem and solve it.
It happened to me a few times with the Traveler so I thank Motu for making this great quality control of this unit, and make me loose a few clients.

rmhofu · Post by **rmhofu** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 4:48 am

For me it's two and half years later that I am having my first problem. One thing I want to say to everybody is that ensure your firewire cable is working correctly. The other thing is if you don't need to run on bus power, don't! Other than that, the Traveler works unless your setting are wrong. The high pitched noise is normally if your sample rate does not match your PC/Mac or other digital device.

For me, the problem I am having is with the unit hanging at boot with the following message "Initializing Setup Data". Of-course I have tried to do an update and that has failed. I've just contacted MOTU and am waiting for a response.

Anybody had the same problem?

Roy

rockitcity · Post by **rockitcity** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 6:58 am

For me, the problem I am having is with the unit hanging at boot with the following message "Initializing Setup Data". Of-course I have tried to do an update and that has failed. I've just contacted MOTU and am waiting for a response.

Have you tried unplugging the FW cable and then powering up? Mine occasionally hangs after a computer crash, but powering up disconnected seems to bring it back. Might be worth a try.

Bob

rmhofu · Post by **rmhofu** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 3:21 am

Power cycle seems to have sorted out the problem, but that behaviour is too eratic for the studio. The traveler has been good, but I think it's time to make a move and my next move is the RME Fireface 800.

Roy

zolthar · Post by **zolthar** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 5:48 pm

I am in the fire wire boat.

I have had mine just under a year alas I have to send it back to get sorted.
This unit was the best part of £700 when I bought it and now it is around £450 this goes to show you that even motu understand that this unit has some fantastic functionality and pro standard precision, it lacks build quality and is not a real mobile or portable unit.
Infact any one that does use it for performeing is probably vioding the warranty as it does state in the manula that the Motu Traveler is "for Office use only".
The fire wire may be fast bu to be honest it is not the best connection.
Motu why do guys bring out a version that is designed for live performance.
As a design tip have a look at the Build quality of Audio 8 unit that comes with Traktor Scrath from Native instruments, and no I don't work for them.
After spending the best part of 3 and the thick end £15000 on a studio my MOTU died.
I am relagated to my soundblaster and biting my dear wifes head off becuse I can't work on some beats because my sound Travelr is dead is really TDS.

Sorry for the rsant but I am well miffed off.

FYI I have teasted the unit on four diferent setup and two of my mates have working units (one of which has just been replaced after having the same ailments as my box) and thye work fine on the same cables and Saftware.

I may think twice when I upgrade next..

Dell Precision 670 p4 3.0 3gb RAM, 2 TB storage.
ROCK CTX pro 17 inch unit Core 2 duo 7600 2 GB RAM 2 x 160GB HDD.
MAckie HR824s
Novation SL25
Oberhiem OB12
Turbosounnd 2 KW bass binn + tops n mids
3KW power amps
HD25 Cans
SL1200s
Eclcer SMAC40 (trusted war horse)
Final Scratch
A nice New Studio wher nobody can bother me
And a Busted Motu Traveler.

Matcher · Post by **Matcher** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 1:47 am

I had to return two Travelers. The third one seemed to work, and I send it to Black Lion Audio for modification. It has worked flawlessly. I believe Matt at BLA makes his stuff to last, so I expect this one to function more reliably than the stock units.

dokus · Post by **dokus** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:59 am

My Traveler just died the other day. After two years of running it off the AC adapter, I ran it bus powered from a friend's Powerbook G4 for an evening. It worked fine. The next day, I flipped the power switch on and got nothing. No lights, no LEDs, no relays clicking, no recognition on my Mac. Dead as a cat in a doghouse.

MOTU has taken their sweet time and has yet to even reply to my request for tech support.

I'm sure we didn't plug the FW plugs in upside down, and I really can't imagine why it died. There aren't any moving parts!

macdeath · Post by **macdeath** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 3:47 am

Guys I am very sad to hear such stuff.

I have changed 4 units with none unit to be a fully functional.

The problems I have encoutered are different. THe 1st model was working perfectly, but when I was pushing the rightmost buttons of cuemix the LCDwas moving alongside. The second one had a very strange noise at the preamps inputs (ground loop alike, but the Traveler was powered via its AC connected on an expensive UPS).

The 3rd one had everything perfect but no ouput on headphones.
The one I have now, is cool, but when the preamps need phantom power then again a strange noise like frying bacon.

I have to choices, to get a replacement unit from european distributor or to send it back to Motu. I pay shipping in both and Motu also asks for paying the repair. Realy pro company right?\

ANy sugestions.?

kcinsu · Post by **kcinsu** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 3:23 pm

I feel your pain. I am about to ship off my 828 mkII for the 3rd of 4th time now.

stephen1212b · Post by **stephen1212b** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:30 pm

Never on buss power, Never a problem, so far at least. (How do you indicate crossed fingers?)

macdeath · Post by **macdeath** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 3:30 pm

I haven't seen any problems with bus power. All the issues come the 1st time I switch it on and of course its not powered from firewire.

Its the first time I hear this about mk2.
Its the USB edition?

audio_artist · Post by **audio_artist** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:54 am

this is ridiculous

im on my second unit and its just stopped responding, no audio out

'hardware not responding'

i've re-installed the audio and firewire drivers and now it doesn't even see the unit

i bought mine october 06' too

i want my money back!

fokof · Post by **fokof** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 6:58 am

You guys have all updated the firmware to 1.07 , right ?

MOTUnation.com

Traveler....the 3rd one just went down and Ive had enough

Traveler....the 3rd one just went down and Ive had enough

samo samo