Topic: Diagnostic Help Needed

[WiFiJeff]

Anyone ever seen anything remotely like this?:

I was running a DPA MMA6000 into a Sony D50, started up perectly fine, MMA6000 green light blinking and D50 signal strong.  I checked the D50 meters just before the music began, they were flat, no signal.  Quick check showed that the MMA6000 was dead, no blinking light at all (and no usual 3 1/2 hours of red blinking light to warn of dying 9V battery).  I tried switching it on and off, changing the gain settings, shaking the little bastard, NADA.  A very dead parrot.  Polite applause as the recital started, I am resigned to getting nothing.  At intermission, I check and see the green light blinking again, and when I download the tape to my computer I see that the signal died when nothing in particular was going on, no bumping or upset, and sprang back to life when the loud applause following the first number came in.  This seems totally weird, not a cable issue as the MMA6000 light was dead.  I sent it in to DPA US, they can't find anything.  Could be battery, but how would a loud signal to the mics bring a battery back to life??

Anyone?

[Walstib62]

Probably a loose connection internally, bad solder joint, etc. The higher SPL thing is probably just coincidental.
I hate intermittent failures. The factory didn't find anything, which means they didn't replace anything, I assume. You may not have seen the last of this one.

[WiFiJeff]

Probably a loose connection internally, bad solder joint, etc. The higher SPL thing is probably just coincidental.
I hate intermittent failures. The factory didn't find anything, which means they didn't replace anything, I assume. You may not have seen the last of this one.

Well DPA US is not the factory, but costs of shipping back to Denmark (it's out of warrenty, I've gotten lots of years of trouble-free use up to now) are an issue.  But I have seen the last of this one, as I took up their offer of a decent price for a new replacement MMA6000.

Jeff

[Todd R]

Are you sure it was dead and not working fine?  The green lights on the D50 are -12db lights, so if the SPL wasn't high enough, they wouldn't be on (which seems likely to be the case).  I think the actual meters start at -50db or so.  It does seem strange not to show some activity on those meters given the kind of music you record, but I record loud concerts that can be 115db or so, and a quiet room before things get started without pre-show music or many people yet assembled could be 50db below that.

Bottom line if your D50 and mma6000 were set to record conservatively at -10db peaks or so, and if the room beforehand was 40db quieter than the loudest part of the music you were expecting, you wouldn't see any activity on the meters, even though everything was functioning fine.

[WiFiJeff]

No, as I said the tape flatlined about 20 minutes during the run, missing first further audience noise, then amplified introduction and polite applause, then the first piece.  It came roaring back during the loud applause after the first piece.  It was not -10, -20 or -50 dB it was stone dead, null complete, past resusitating, this parrot was dead.  Also, I was not ever looking at the D50 green light, what tipped me off to a problem was the stereo meters on it going from about 1/4" "background noise" levels to zilch.  Then a look showed that the MMA6000 green blinker was not blinking.  At intermission when I looked again it was blinking away happily.

Jeff

[Todd R]

This is an ex-parrot.

Ok, gotcha, missed that the first time around.