Motu is fried. What to do?

snipeguy

snipeguy

Andy Goldsworthy Wannabe
I posted this over in Mixing/Mastering a got the feeling it was in the wrong place. Here goes:

Yesterday, I went to turn on my 828 Mk1 (the older one) and my Mac wouldn't recocgnize it. It was then that I noticed that telltale electrical burning smell that could only mean bad things. I opened it up and the first IC in front of the FireWire port looks burnt. I am right in the middle of an important project and all of it is on AudioDesk/Motu 828.

My questions are:

-is it worth fixing (or even possible)

-Can I use another interface like a newer Motu and still stay in AudioDesk (this question has since been answered for me; yes, I beleive any Motu will work )

-Should I look for a used 828 Mk1 or upgrade to a better Motu

Please don't tell my analog buddies about this. I'll never hear the end of it.
God this sucks.
 
It should be possible to fix it, but it would require some serious time with a mutlimeter and soldering iron. Plus, you'd hav eto try an order that specific IC, and if it's a FW encoder, it may not be easy to get your hands on.

As for upgrading, well, if you've got he budget, go for it. AD converter techniology, like coputer technology, is always moving, even if the unit "looks" the same. Even something as simple as getting a purer quartz sample in the internal clock will have some effect on the audio.
If you don't have the dough, then just get a used version of what you're used to.
 
cpl_crud said:
It should be possible to fix it, but it would require some serious time with a mutlimeter and soldering iron. Plus, you'd hav eto try an order that specific IC, and if it's a FW encoder, it may not be easy to get your hands on.
Click to expand...

I doubt that something of that age is going to have any sort of integrated FireWire design. Thus, that chip is probably a FireWire PHY. You probably have a bad FireWire cable and it probably shorted out the part.

Is this a chip about the size of your thumbnail with ~48 pins (or maybe up to 90 if it supports more than one port)? Or is this about an eight pin (or fewer) chip about half the size of your pinkie fingernail? If it's a PHY (~48 pins), it's a pain in the backside to do the surface mount soldering, but the part is probably only about $1.50 in quantities, assuming you can find one that's pin-compatible.

If it's a much smaller part, it may very well be the digital equivalent of a fuse (a diode array or similar), in which case if you don't mind risking blowing a PHY, you could just solder jumpers across it.... :D (I wouldn't recommend doing that, mind you....)

Anyway, post the part number as best you can tell, and we might be able to tell you more about what you're looking at.

In the meantime, you might want to read the following articles:

http://www.a-no-ne.com/music/mh/fried_fw/
http://www.medicalmac.com/mac98e.html

Those articles are about FireWire PHY failures in somewhat different kinds of hardware, but the principle is similar.
 
were you hotswapping it? MOTU put a warning out against that a while ago as firewire isn't as hotswapable as initially thought... I burned up an iBook G4 myself before I found out :) (thankfully had 1 week on applecare left)
 
zekthedeadcow said:
were you hotswapping it? MOTU put a warning out against that a while ago as firewire isn't as hotswapable as initially thought... I burned up an iBook G4 myself before I found out :) (thankfully had 1 week on applecare left)
Click to expand...

Yikes! That's not supposed to happen.... There were a few specific Mac logic board models that were reportedly more sensitive than ideal (according to the website I mentioned above), but no iBook G4 was on the list, I don't think.... What type of device were you hooking up?
 
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