My Focusrite Twintrak exploded today!

[Steve Conner]

I was just listening to some music through it, and suddenly all the panel lights came on at half brightness and there was a loud hum through the speakers. Then it went completely dead with that dreadful smell of burning semiconductors...

I don't need any help repairing it (I hope) - I just want to grumble about it. I've owned it for a few years and I'll probably find that the warranty expired yesterday! The unit has always run really hot, and the manual says that this is normal and it needs lots of ventilation. I'm guessing that the power supply will have overcooked itself and blown a rectifier, a regulator or whatever.

[Enzo]

First make sure the power is connected.

Make sure the switch is set to "ON." (In some cases this is indicated by a "1.")

Make sure the speakers have the correct impedance.


Blah blah blah...

I hope that helps.

[tboy]

My advice would be to get a known-good matched pair of chopsticks, and eat something.

[Steve Conner]

Thanks guys! I followed your advice and I feel much better now. It's still broken, but I like Chinese food

http://www.focusrite.com/products/pl.../twintrak_pro/ It doesn't even have power amps inside, it's just a channel strip, but somehow Focusrite managed to make it get as hot as a toaster...

[Enzo]

Well there's your problem, right there. Too many knobs. Get rid of some of those.

Steve, you can thank me later, but what you really need is one of these:

PI 14 Pseudoacoustic Infector

[tboy]

How about one of these? It's much cheaper, and only has one button:

[Enzo]

yeah, but the PI14 has separate Power and Glory switches, I mean come on...

[Steve Conner]

If I open it and there's one of those bullshit buttons inside, I'm not going to be happy!

Seriously, I'll post some pictures of the guts if anyone is interested. I remember the PR blurb for the unit mentioned an "Air" circuit based on a "Genuine wirewound inductor". As opposed to the other inductors you can get that aren't made out of wire.

[Enzo]

I think they are all made of wire, but some are not wound. They just pile up a bunch of wire and cram it into the inductor. it improves the soundstaging.

[Steve Conner]

Oh, yeah, I forgot about those non-inductively wound inductors. They're really big in Japan right now

[Steve Conner]

Fire in the hole!

[bluefoxicy]

The amp I'm building in my Epiphone Valve Jr. right now is a result of me messing with the V1 crap board a while back. Something in the board warped, bridged, and when I turned it on it caught fire.

And to think, just last year, people screamed at me every day on the Internet and IRL about how I was going to die if I kept it up... someone even freaked out when I had my fingers in the positive lead off an 8A rectifier (passing 1.06A off a 1.65A rated lead) and the other hand holding the chassis (connected to negative rail as common ground).

Go figure. Electronics are dangerous, they explode sometimes. Wear goggles.

[ake]

Well there's your problem, right there. Too many knobs. Get rid of some of those.

Steve, you can thank me later, but what you really need is one of these:

PI 14 Pseudoacoustic Infector

Funk Logic ~ Rack Filler Panels with a Bunch of Stuff All Over 'em

[Enzo]

I love the funk logic guys!

The Palindrominator is my favorite.

[R.G.]

Steve, I believe your problem is cosmic.

Cosmic ray, that is. Occasionally, a cosmic ray will hit an indicator Light Emitting Diode (LED) right in the junction. The resulting ionization of the active region destabilizes the doping for a few microns around the actual strike, and the active current keeps the population inversion going. This allows the destabilized inversion region to spread, causing a reversal of the junction operation in a few milliseconds. What had been a Light Emitting Diode becomes a Darkness Emitting Diode, or "DED" as they're known among the pros.

So check for darkness coming out of your indicators.

If that is actually the problem, take a 100 pound note and rub it repeatedly on the indicator until it lights up again.

That should fix it, whatever was initially wrong.