Tascam Midiizer and Tsr-8 sync problems

[novocane99]

Hi folks,

I cant get my midiizer to sync with my tsr-8, midiizer switches on, i can stripe smpte, i see that the midiizer recognises the striped smpte when fed back in - that parts all good

But there appears to be no remote functionality, e.g. i can’t control the tsr-8 with the midiizer, and it’s speed does not change when chasing smpte. When i click the chase button, the ext light flashes on the tsr-8 - the manual says that this means its receiving either the control signal or the 9.6khz servo signal, but not both

Im using a serial connection (accessory 2 homemade cable)

Any ideas on where to start troubleshooting with this?

Thank you

 

[novocane99]

Just to add, the tsr-8 is the slave, im trying to chase smpte from my Daw as master

 

[jpmorris]

Are you sure the serial data lines are on the correct pins? Remember that they need to swap over from one end of the cable to the other.
According to my notes (which I hope are correct) you need to have pin 2 on one end connecting to pin 4 on the other, and vice-versa. Pin 5 is the direction signal, pin 6 is tach. Pin 7 is the servo (this is vitally important and missing from the ATS-500 manual), pin 8 is Common Return (GND), pin 13 is Common Request and pin 14 is END (these two are also undocumented in the ATS manual).

If you've got connections between every single pin that should work, as long as you remember that the TX and RX pins need to be swapped at one end.

 

[novocane99]

So i’ve redone the cable to the correct pin assignment, only difference is now the ext light flashes all the time - i think it’s supposed to do that and then go solid when locked in sync, so there seems to be a slight improvement in communication between the devices, but the there is still no remote connection or any sign of the the midiizer actually moving tsr-8….

Any ideas?

 

[jpmorris]

So i’ve redone the cable to the correct pin assignment, only difference is now the ext light flashes all the time - i think it’s supposed to do that and then go solid when locked in sync, so there seems to be a slight improvement in communication between the devices, but the there is still no remote connection or any sign of the the midiizer actually moving tsr-8….

Any ideas?

Okay, I've not been in a position to try it for a while, but yes. The EXT light is supposed to go solid when the machine is being externally controlled - e.g. when I put it into CHASE mode via the ATS-500, the EXT light will switch from blinking to solid.

If it were me, I'd suspect the serial link. First, make sure that both machines are set to the same baud rate etc, since the TSR-8 has a set of DIP switches to change the comms protocol. I would assume the MIDIIZER has similar. I'd stick with 9600 bps unless you have a good reason not to.

After that, re-check the serial lines on the cable, and also the ground connections.

I'm attaching an old diagram that someone found way back when. Good luck!