d8b Forum

Vary rare but I have also seen a bent pin in amongst the 25!

I had a bent pin on the CPU 25 Pin Connector, Just one. Caused all kinds of issues.

Cheers
Bruce

Jiggling the cable hasn't worked I replaced it with a brand new cable as well to no avail.

Still getting the dsp control card not ready alert message

DSP control card error solved. Ok I connected a male to male 25 pin cable to the parallel on the cpu that is wrong my bad. Although the dsp issue is solved I still do not have a display above the fat channel. Any ideas anyone? Thanks
PS you'll hv to scroll the very bad picture to see that the display does not work.

Sorry about the angle I hv the console open on its side.

If you have the unit open, then I'm sure you already checked that all the cables coming from the display, do connect to their destination as they should? (I wouldn't know where that is, without disassembling mine and looking for it).

Also, do I get this right, that you never saw the display working on this unit? If it DID work, and suddenly wouldn't, then what I'm describing below is NOT the problem.

The display looks completely out in the picture... but just to be sure, have you tried shining a flashlight into it, to see if it actually displays any characters (but very dark)?

I haven't seen this issue on a d8b yet, but old LCD screens usually illuminate the characters via a backlight "foil" (or "EL-foil", that is mounted behind the display. When a display gets old, that foil gets dimmer and dimmer until it finally doesn't light up anymore at all.

You might have seen this on old synths and other gear with LCD screens, where you first have to fiddle with the contrast to make it readable, but eventually it will become useless.

The good thing is, that this kind of EL-Foil is relatively cheap, and usually not that difficult to replace. I had to do this for a couple of my old pieces of gear already (e.g. Dynacord ADD-One), and the display becomes like new again. Another Mackie Control Universal (old version) I have is on it's last leg, very dim, and will need a replacement, soon.

Here's where I ordered the EL-Foil for my Dynacord Sampler at the time:
http://www.midi-rakete.de/eng/elfolie.htm

I didn't look if they have something pre-made for the d8b, but they can make custom sized ones to order, if the backlight is the problem.

Again, I haven't seen this being a problem on a d8b, but could imagine that the display could go bad, if someone leaves the console on for years at a time

...anyway, check with a flashlight. If it displays characters, then it's probably the EL-Foil. If there are no characters visible, then it's something else (display itself, connectors, or any component controlling the display).

That's at least my guess...

Actually... I just read @RJH_MUSIC's most recent post here:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=988

This seems to make a lot more sense than what I'm saying above. Besides, it also makes it sound like the D8B's display is a "flourescent" display and not an LCD display (I don't know the difference myself), so the whole thing I'm talking about with the EL-Foil likely doesn't apply at all.

Y-my-R wrote:Actually... I just read @RJH_MUSIC's most recent post here:

http://d8bforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=988

This seems to make a lot more sense than what I'm saying above. Besides, it also makes it sound like the D8B's display is a "flourescent" display and not an LCD display (I don't know the difference myself), so the whole thing I'm talking about with the EL-Foil likely doesn't apply at all.

Yes, it is a VFD, Vacuum Fluorescent Display. Sometimes they just die. If you can see info. on the GUI screen, you won't miss the VFD in my opinion. Everything you can see on the VFD, you can see on the GUI.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. The pic is bad on my phone but you can scroll to the screen. The channel number VFD is fine right next to the VFD