828 MKII FW Crash / Whine

[Jez_Wright]

Hey all,

Love the 828 MKII, it's a great standalone unit for running all my hardware through, but as soon as I connect it to a Mac (Apple FW -> TB adaptor + Belkin 800-400 cable) I start experiencing frequent audio engine crashes. The audio drops out and is replaced by a quiet high-pitched whine. It refuses to play audio again until I unplug and reconnect the unit, and it happens after as little as 5 minutes.

It's doing this on both my iMac running Sierra and my MacBook Pro running High Sierra and across all DAWs and applications on either system (iTunes, Chrome, Live etc.).

I've tried reinstalling the latest drivers and firmware and a factory reset.

Any ideas?

[HCMarkus]

I have one on which the Firewire chip took a dump. Not an easy fix. Still works stand alone and will serve as additional i/o via litepipe should I ever need it. Loving the 828es that is now, along with my Mac Pro, the heart of my studio.

[Jez_Wright]

Ah, this is what I'd feared...

I bought this unit for £130 preowned and don't have anywhere near the funds to buy a new 828es.

How fixable is it? Could I order the part and replace it myself? Would it be worth speaking to Motu about a possible repair?

Having it as an additional I/O is a bit overkill for me atm but as I acquire more hardware I could see myself growing into it. Could I hook it up to another cheap (and hopefully working) 828 MKII?

Thanks for your help!

[HCMarkus]

If the Firewire chip is indeed your problem, it does not look like an easy fix. I found a couple of YouTube videos where folks fix a Traveler...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIc-7_7z7wM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmhubbK1MiY

Micro soldering required... beyond my pay grade. It is my understanding that, unfortunately, MOTU no longer offers its flat-fee replacement for the 828 mkII. However, even if Firewire isn't working, your 828mkII will likely still function as an optical expander.

MkII's are pretty inexpensive used, but buyer beware! In my case. my original mkiI. purchased late 2003, still works fine. A second unit I bought used as a back up is the one Firewire failed on. After sitting in a box for years, it failed shortly after firing it up for the first time.

[Jez_Wright]

Yeah I most definitely won't be attempting that...

Looks as though I could get this repaired for £110 + VAT at the link below.

http://musictrack.co.uk/repairs/service ... pport.html

Although at that price though I could just buy another and daisy-chain the two of them...

I've actually found an original 828 MKI for peanuts on eBay. Could I use that as the master interface and then link up the MKII via ADAT? I'm a bit apprehensive about using a lower-class interface as the master unit - I've heard the AD converters are worse and there's no CueMix - but I guess I could still plug all my hardware into the slaved MKII?

[mikehalloran]

Contact the reseller in your country to see if they offer repairs.

There are very few proprietary parts in these but MOTU does not publish parts lists nor schematics. A good tech can sus the problems these have. Burned mother boards around the FW jacks are not uncommon and if that’s the issue, it’s not a difficult repair.

[Jez_Wright]

I THINK I may have solved the issue.

I read somewhere online that you need to open CueMix and push all the faders up to avoid audio dropouts. Not sure why this would be the case but amazingly it seems to have worked. I've saved it as the default hardware preset so it should be set up automatically now when I power the unit on. I'm gonna give it a proper road test tonight but had no dropouts in 2 hours last night!

[HCMarkus]

Sweet! Best wishes.

[Jez_Wright]

Nope, it's back with a vengeance and I've had enough. Time to do something about it.

I don't really want to send it off / pay an inspection fee and still have the same issues.

The idea of daisy-chaining the faulty unit to another working FW / USB unit via ADAT to double my I/Os interests me. Could I do this with say a MK1 or any other interface that supports ADAT?

i.e. iMac <> MK1 <> MKII ?

I regularly use an old Yamaha DX21 in my production setup too, which I run MIDI into, would this still work from the slaved MK II (I realise a Mk1 doesn't have MIDI outs).

Cheers!

[HCMarkus]

Nope, it's back with a vengeance and I've had enough. Time to do something about it.

I don't really want to send it off / pay an inspection fee and still have the same issues.

The idea of daisy-chaining the faulty unit to another working FW / USB unit via ADAT to double my I/Os interests me. Could I do this with say a MK1 or any other interface that supports ADAT?

i.e. iMac <> MK1 <> MKII ?

I regularly use an old Yamaha DX21 in my production setup too, which I run MIDI into, would this still work from the slaved MK II (I realise a Mk1 doesn't have MIDI outs).

Cheers!

Yes to Question #1... the mkII will make a fine i/o expander module, connected via ADAT optical to your main, computer-connected interface. The 828mkII will do the A/D and D/A conversion for it's analog inputs and outputs so, even with an older main interface, conversion quality should be OK. If possible, I'd slave the main interface clock to the 828mkII if using in the manner described here.

No to Q#2... without a direct connection to the host computer, the MIDI ports on the mkII won't work.

[Jez_Wright]

Great thank you!

I just managed to cop a Mk1 for £16... Hopefully the FW ports work on this one!

Which cables would I need to daisychain to MkII? 2x standard Optical Cables?

Also any suggestions for a USB to MIDI solution? I only need one MIDI in and one MIDI out at the moment.

Cheers,

[HCMarkus]

Great thank you!

I just managed to cop a Mk1 for £16... Hopefully the FW ports work on this one!

Which cables would I need to daisychain to MkII? 2x standard Optical Cables?

Yep. remember to make either the Mk1 or Mk2 the master and slave the other accordingly.

Some USB devices also provide MIDI I/o and can thus be used to get MIDI into and out of the computer. Perhaps others can weigh in on a converter.