WhinyLittleRunt
Member
I usually post in the Analog forum and I didn't see a repair forum so this is the closest...
Not sure how many of you guys are still using original Presonus Firepods in their setup but I have had one for 10 years now and it's been great besides two failures, once in 2008 when I ended up having to send it to Presonus for 80.00 + shipping to fix a problem where the red light stayed solid and never synched with the computer, and tonight, where the light remained blue no matter what, even when not connected to the machine.
I wasn't about to send it out to them again and spend another hundred bucks on something that is so out of date, but for me it works well in my setup, so I wanted to at least attempt to fix it before throwing in the towel and buying something else. There are a few other threads on this if you google it, but basically these things are notorious for capacitors blowing up. Usually, you can tell when a cap is blown (leaking orange guk is the most obvious, or the tops are badly swollen). In my case, either time it had a problem did I see a known leaking cap, which led me to send it in. Tonight when it died again I decided to just start replacing caps and see where it went. I lucked out on the first shot and replaced a 470uf 16V cap directly to the right of the transformer, and the thing was alive again. Pretty lucky shot...
There are a cluster of 470uf 25V caps right under the transformer also, and a 1000uf 35V cap right before the power switch. I had these parts on hand but even if they had to be purchased it would be well under the cost of sending it for repair, if they even still repair them in '14... I just happened to pick the most logical one first and lucked out. I did test the cap once I pulled it from circuit and it did have low resistance so I just assumed it might be the one. There was no indication of a blown or swollen cap anywhere in the unit, so that's why I'm posting this in case anyone else has the same issue down the road.
Not sure how many of you guys are still using original Presonus Firepods in their setup but I have had one for 10 years now and it's been great besides two failures, once in 2008 when I ended up having to send it to Presonus for 80.00 + shipping to fix a problem where the red light stayed solid and never synched with the computer, and tonight, where the light remained blue no matter what, even when not connected to the machine.
I wasn't about to send it out to them again and spend another hundred bucks on something that is so out of date, but for me it works well in my setup, so I wanted to at least attempt to fix it before throwing in the towel and buying something else. There are a few other threads on this if you google it, but basically these things are notorious for capacitors blowing up. Usually, you can tell when a cap is blown (leaking orange guk is the most obvious, or the tops are badly swollen). In my case, either time it had a problem did I see a known leaking cap, which led me to send it in. Tonight when it died again I decided to just start replacing caps and see where it went. I lucked out on the first shot and replaced a 470uf 16V cap directly to the right of the transformer, and the thing was alive again. Pretty lucky shot...
There are a cluster of 470uf 25V caps right under the transformer also, and a 1000uf 35V cap right before the power switch. I had these parts on hand but even if they had to be purchased it would be well under the cost of sending it for repair, if they even still repair them in '14... I just happened to pick the most logical one first and lucked out. I did test the cap once I pulled it from circuit and it did have low resistance so I just assumed it might be the one. There was no indication of a blown or swollen cap anywhere in the unit, so that's why I'm posting this in case anyone else has the same issue down the road.