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[Mike Diack]

Interesting - has the same test been applied to any of the other low end (or ANY end) digital mixer + CATn + stagebox combinations ?.
M

[Bob Leonard]

As a short term mitigation, they sell conductive anti-static floor mats that you can stand on, but these are not very cheap. They also sell anti-static sprays that you can spray on the carpet to knock down static build-up. perhaps the spray is cheap insurance.

To discharge yourself perhaps harmlessly and painlessly, I used to connect a several MegOhm resistor to a light switch ground screw, to discharge myself. I used to have an old shop vacuum that doubled as a van de graaf generator, so every time I vacuumed my office I was all charged up and ready for a painful discharge.

I do not know if this R would make any difference to the sync issue, and we really need to wait for a response from Behringer.

It would be interesting to see if a static spark to a mic cable ground has the same effect on sync, since that is another likely scenario in use.   

JR

In a pinch you can buy some static cling shit at the grocery store, put a piece of carpet on the bench, spray the bench and the floor. Works good for about 24hrs.
 
Mark, buy the Soundcraft.

[Brian Wynn]

Agreed.

Are you willing to do some more testing?

One thing I thought of that could be a temporary workaround while awaiting a factory solution is to have a grounded plate sitting at the mixer for the operator to discharge upon rather than the console.

Can you take a piece of metal of whatever size, attach one end of a green wire to it, the other end of the wire to the ground pin of an AC plug (not connecting the blades of the plug), plug it into the AC source for the console, and then do the static discharge on it and see what happens? That will tell us if the console is freaked out by a discharge in its vicinity. If not, then having that plate on the side cheek of the console or somewhere similar would allow us to discharge ourselves before causing a problem. Not ideal, but the show would go on.

Another test would be to do the same thing you did but without the S16 involved. The meter lights lighting up make me wonder if maybe the problem is within the console, too.

Another one is discharging to a microphone connected through an analog snake to the console to test if someone on stage can cause the problem.

Can you monitor the outputs while doing your testing, too? A speaker through an amp that's barely cracked open, or a Q Box, or something that won't generate a lot of volume but will still indicate that there was a problem?

Good job on this, and TIA,
Dan

BTW, in my sync issues, I don't believe the loss of sync had anything to do with ESD, as I wasn't in contact with the console.

BBTW, I have a job coming up again in a little over a week where there is lots of carpet, and last Spring when I did it (3 times a year), I was able to cause the console to reboot by inserting a USB stick, which was the only point of contact between my body and the console.

So I have done some more testing tonight. 

Just watch and all of your questions should be answered.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp3NF3AKCWs

[ChristianBoche]

So I have done some more testing tonight. 

Just watch and all of your questions should be answered.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp3NF3AKCWs

My Advice:
Just use Ethernet-connectors and the problem is solved.

Put some of these-->

http://www.neutrik.com/en/industrial/ethercon/ethercon-cable-connector-carrier/ne8mc-b-1

on your CAT cable, and the static will discharge to ground over the X32 chassis.
You can even install the Neutrik connectors by yourself without any crimping or soldering.
Dead easy to do-->

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02dksd-eTzg

Invest 10$ in these connectors and you are good to go:-)
No more drop outs due static.
I can dublicate the dropout problem with simple CAT5/CAT6 cables.
But as soon as you switch to CAT cables with Ethercon connectors, the static will discharge over the X32 chassis like it should be.

Christian

[RYAN LOUDMUSIC JENKINS]

So I have done some more testing tonight. 

Just watch and all of your questions should be answered.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp3NF3AKCWs

Video is blocked now.  Another link?

[Tim McCulloch]

Video is blocked now.  Another link?

Link is working for me, Ryan.  Give it another try.

[John Roberts {JR}]

Link worked for me...

JR

[Brian Wynn]

My Advice:
Just use Ethernet-connectors and the problem is solved.

Put some of these-->

http://www.neutrik.com/en/industrial/ethercon/ethercon-cable-connector-carrier/ne8mc-b-1

on your CAT cable, and the static will discharge to ground over the X32 chassis.
You can even install the Neutrik connectors by yourself without any crimping or soldering.
Dead easy to do-->

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02dksd-eTzg

Invest 10$ in these connectors and you are good to go:-)
No more drop outs due static.
I can dublicate the dropout problem with simple CAT5/CAT6 cables.
But as soon as you switch to CAT cables with Ethercon connectors, the static will discharge over the X32 chassis like it should be.

Christian

Christian thank you for your input but you are wrong.  The ethercon is simply a strain relief nothing more.  In fact if you check continuity from inside the cat5e connector (the little shield connection point tabs on both inner walls of the connector) and chassis of the X32 you can see they are connected.  So they tells me that the AES50 connectors and board are already grounded.  I believe this problem is a daughter-board grounding issue allowing the clock chip to take the hit and lose time.

I use the ethercon connector on all of my cables in a working environment.  I didn't in the video's just to prove the fact that the cable is shielded or non-shielded.

I will retest tonight and post a video of my findings with the ethercon ends on the shielded and non-shielded cables.  Which I have already done off of camera and I know for a fact that it still drops out.

Stay tuned....

[ChristianBoche]

Christian thank you for your input but you are wrong.  The ethercon is simply a strain relief nothing more.  In fact if you check continuity from inside the cat5e connector (the little shield connection point tabs on both inner walls of the connector) and chassis of the X32 you can see they are connected.  So they tells me that the AES50 connectors and board are already grounded.  I believe this problem is a daughter-board grounding issue allowing the clock chip to take the hit and lose time.

I use the ethercon connector on all of my cables in a working environment.  I didn't in the video's just to prove the fact that the cable is shielded or non-shielded.

I will retest tonight and post a video of my findings with the ethercon ends on the shielded and non-shielded cables.  Which I have already done off of camera and I know for a fact that it still drops out.

Stay tuned....

Well...actually the Ethercon Connector on my cables touches the metal part of the RJ45, so there is a grounding. It was designed that way.
Like I said, I can duplicate the sync loss with basic CAT cables. But I tried it two times with Ethercon cables for almost 40 Minutes...not one single drop out.
And guess what...I even got a crappy video of that:-)
Made with my mobile phone, and bad english spoken too - sorry for that-->

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Qo9aH3Ous&feature=youtu.be

In addition. We do have three X32 in our company, did about 200 gig with them and never ever had a dropout due to static...just sayin'
But I'm curious what results your retest will show. BTW: I use these Belden CAT cables-->
http://www.thomann.de/gb/pro_snake_8838550.htm
Christian

[John Roberts {JR}]

Well...actually the Ethercon Connector on my cables touches the metal part of the RJ45, so there is a grounding. It was designed that way.
Like I said, I can duplicate the sync loss with basic CAT cables. But I tried it two times with Ethercon cables for almost 40 Minutes...not one single drop out.
And guess what...I even got a crappy video of that:-)
Made with my mobile phone, and bad english spoken too - sorry for that-->

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Qo9aH3Ous&feature=youtu.be

In addition. We do have three X32 in our company, did about 200 gig with them and never ever had a dropout due to static...just sayin'
But I'm curious what results your retest will show. BTW: I use these Belden CAT cables-->
http://www.thomann.de/gb/pro_snake_8838550.htm
Christian

The static hit may not be the direct cause of the reported sync loss issues. I do not recall others reporting any such correlation with static.  BUT... the fact that it can be made to drop sync from a static hit, gives the engineers something that they should be able to recreate on the bench, and perhaps the fix for this, will also fix the hard to replicate random sync loss issue.

or not... I am not smart enough to know exactly what is going on, but anything that can be reproduced on demand is worth investigating.

JR

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