Akai DPS24 ADAT expansion card woes: no audio

[FrankF]

All 3 OUT leds, internal, 9-16, 17-24 are solid red, from powerup onwards - that's with no ADAT cables connected.

I guess you've reseated the ADAT card a few times when cleaning the thing?

If you think the card's faulty, you could contact vstservices: I bought several DPS24 cards from them. They advertise on Ebay UK, but not everything they have in stock.

[Anthony gilbert]

All 3 OUT leds, internal, 9-16, 17-24 are solid red, from powerup onwards - that's with no ADAT cables connected.
.

Brilliant. That is most certainly different to mine, and makes perfect sense. My internal port stays on - why shouldn't the external?

I will contact VST services as suggested.

Thanks again.

[forumuser840717]

Sync results
ADAT Inputs
The onboard ADAT input will sync successfully to an external clock.
The ADAT expansion input will also sync to an external clock.

Does this work for both ports on the ADAT expansion board?
Also, when you get sync, do you also get 8 channels of audio on the appropriate port?

ADAT outputs
My RME (using the onscreen Fireface application) detects the internal clock of the DPS24 coming from the onboard ADAT output.

Good - that's what should happen

The RME doesn't detect the internal clock of the DPS24 coming from the expansion ADAT output.

Not so good. Though your explanation of the lack of any lights in the ADAT outputs would certainly explain it. (Incidentally, you shouldn't actually need to clock the RME from the DPS24 (though it's a perfectly valid way to work); everything should work ok with the RME acting as the master clock source (clocking internally) and the DPS24 set to use any working ADAT source from the RME as it's clock source.)

***breaking*** something I have overlooked. The red-LEDs of the expansion DATA output (TOSLINK) ports flash on for the first few seconds of boot up. Afterwhich they go off and stay off. If there isn't any optical port LEDs, there surely cannot be any valid output?

This doesn't explain the lack of function when it comes to INPUTs, but certainly points to a fault with the OUTPUT ports

Correct. One of the nice things about ADAT optical as a format is that it uses visible light so no light in the output socket is a good pointer to no signal.

I don't have one here to check but I'm pretty sure that the ADAT outputs on the expansion board should light up continuously in the same way as the DPS24's internal ADAT output does. The lights going on at boot up does suggest that if there's a fault it's not with the LEDs but them not staying on suggests that something is wrong elsewhere.

Bit of a random one - have you tried removing the card, checking carefully for any bent or broken pins in the edge connector and then re-seating it? (And doing the same to the ribbon cable joining the expansion card back plane sub board to the main board.)

[Kwackman]

Red Herring time....
ADAT can be 8 channels of audio, or a single stereo feed.
From memory RME can switch between these modes in software.

Probably not relevant, but, just in case!

[Drew Stephenson]

Red Herring time....
ADAT can be 8 channels of audio, or a single stereo feed.
From memory RME can switch between these modes in software.

Probably not relevant, but, just in case!

Just to be picky...
The toslink optical connection can carry ADAT or SPDIF. ADAT can be up to 8 channels depending on sample rate. SPDIF is always stereo.
The socket is the same but the configuration isn't and needs to be set accordingly.
[/pedantry]

[Kwackman]

Just to be picky...
The toslink optical connection can carry ADAT or SPDIF. ADAT can be up to 8 channels depending on sample rate. SPDIF is always stereo.
The socket is the same but the configuration isn't and needs to be set accordingly.
[/pedantry]

Drew, have you not got anything better to do, like spotting frequencies in choirs no other humans can hear?

PS. You are correct of course, that was very sloppy terminology on my part.
I'll be in the corner huffing for the rest of the afternoon......

[Drew Stephenson]

I'm sorry about the choir thing too.
But it's definitely there.

[forumuser840717]

Yep, and all the RME's optical ports can function as either ADAT Lightpipe or SPDIF ports, as can the TOSLINK connection on the DPS24 itself. Hence asking whether there was a known working link passing clock and ADAT audio to use as a test source. I wondered whether the RME or DPS24 might be set to SPDIF on all or some of the ports.

If everything were set to SPDIF then obviously they'd sync up but wouldn't pass 8 channels of audio (and they'd show up in the DPS24 patch pages as a two channel link rather than 8 channel). Also, if the RME were set entirely to SPDIF, it wouldn't sync into the ADAT ports on the expansion board (as they don't do SPDIF) but could sync and send two channels into the DPS24's optical port if that were set to SPDIF. Gotta love digital formats!

The lack of output LEDs on the DPS24 expansion board isn't a good sign though.

[Anthony gilbert]

I wondered whether the RME or DPS24 might be set to SPDIF on all or some of the ports.

Thanks again for the suggestions. It's set to ADAT. One of the nice things about the RME software is it displays the source type and sample-rate of the incoming signal it syncs to. I've had previous RME Digiface products and they remain pretty good.

The lack of output LEDs on the DPS24 expansion board isn't a good sign though.

Agreed. I've had the DPS24 open over my lunch break. I've checked the pins of the DPS24 option interface PCB. I've also checked the micro-ribbon cables to the interface PCB. The other end of these go underneath the main PCB and aren't visible. A strip-down looks to be a "fair job", and one which may break more items than it may fix.

Next step is to try another IB-24ADT expansion card, or find someone to test mine. I've made an enquiry with VST Services.

[forumuser840717]

Thanks again for the suggestions. It's set to ADAT. One of the nice things about the RME software is it displays the source type and sample-rate of the incoming signal it syncs to. I've had previous RME Digiface products and they remain pretty good.

I'm a big RME fan. Since getting my first RME card - a Digi96/8 PST in about 2002 (still got it and it's still working fine in an old WinXP machine), I went on to get another one the same (sold a few years ago), then in 2005, an HDSP-MADI and, later, HDSPe-MADI and HDSPe-MADI-FX Triple MADI cards (all now gone in favour of external interfaces to make it easier to move them between computers). I currently have 19 assorted RME boxes - mostly MADI related - and couldn't be happier with them. If only all manufacturers were as reliable and straightforward.

A strip-down looks to be a "fair job", and one which may break more items than it may fix.

Definitely try another expansion board if you can get one, before taking everything apart. It's not terribly difficult to strip it down but it is generally fiddly, involving more screws than a screwy thing and, as the DPS is getting on in age now, there's lots of potential to accidentally make things worse so it's best avoided until you eliminate other possibilities.

If you don't get any joy with VST Services, it might be worth trying a post in the SOS Reader Ads Wanted section.

Failing that, I don't know whether you've tried it but there used to be a really good user board for the DPS products. I don't know how functional it still is but there's what looks like an archive of it here. If it's still running, there might be some sources of parts there or current users who might be able to help.

Please do let us know how this develops and any outcome as it'd be good to know what's wrong for future reference. All this chat about the DPS24 has reminded me what a great bit of kit it is and how much I miss mine. It took me ages to sell them as, even when I'd stopped using them, every time I started the sale process I was reminded how much I liked them and kept changing my mind

One other thing - do you have the ak.Sys TrackView DPS24 PC software for the DPS24? It probably needs a fairly ancient PC to run it - mine was on WinXP - but it does have some useful facilites that make things like metering and editing clearer. There might be a version floating around online but if not and you think it'd be useful I probably still have it lurking on an old hard drive somewhere.

[Anthony gilbert]

Please do let us know how this develops and any outcome as it'd be good to know what's wrong for future reference.

I certainly will do.
I thought I was an RME fan! It's not cheap but a classic case of getting what you pay for - especially the longevity of driver support. That's a rare thing these days.

This was my first post on the SOS forum and the response, knowledge and helpfulness has been quite overwhelming.

I've been an SOS reader since the days of Electronics & Music Maker. Never thought to ask the forum before today, and I'm now wondering why.

The DPS24 continues to impress (other than the obvious exception). I get 20 live mixer channels currently (12 analogue and 8 ADAT), using the old trick of armed track channels. I can output to the RME using an 8-buss output, or multi-passes of track-per-channel. Above all, I find it still delivers musical results whilst being intuitive and tactile.

I'll certainly keep on hunting for a solution to keep the old thing alive.

Thanks again everyone for your time and assistance.

[Anthony gilbert]

Quick update and a question...

I've been scouring all the usual places for a replacement ADAT expansion card to try. No luck to date.

This creates the question: what if it's not my existing expansion card? I've done continuity and power checks on the expansion card and it's all good. It is also detected by the DPS24.

Is anyone willing to test my existing ADAT expansion on their DPS24? I will gladly post it for "field trials", and supply it with some beer/wine funds...