Topic: minime overheating issue?

[bearcobb]

sorry if this has been discussed before, but i went thru all 21 pages and didnt find anything...

anyway, on saturday i taped yet another show using my minime, probably around my 50th using it. but what was different this time was that i left the unit inside its padded case as it was a theatre show where instead of bringing in my usual case i just brought in a backpack of what i needed to save space. for protection i left the mme inside its case. anyway, during the second set i as well as the taper next to me noticed a strange electric burning type smell that lasted about a minute or two and really couldnt figure out where it was coming from and really couldnt do much about it being mid set. after the show ended i noticed while unplugging the cables etc that the unit itself was very hot to the touch, much hotter than it had ever been outside the padded case, and upon smelling the unit i am pretty sure that the burning smell originated inside the box. when i got home from the show i pulled out my allen wrench to take the top off the box and by then the smell had pretty much gone and with a visual inspection everything looked pretty normal. also when transferring the tape it doesnt seem to have affected the sound at all, but i havent given it a careful listening yet.

what is going on here? does it seem like there is potential substantial damage? or if it looks fine and still seems to record fine should i just not worry about it? anyone else have a similar experience?

[Chuck]

Oh... Oh...
This could get ugly...

[Chuck]

sorry if this has been discussed before, but i went thru all 21 pages and didnt find anything...

anyway, on saturday i taped yet another show using my minime, probably around my 50th using it. but what was different this time was that i left the unit inside its padded case as it was a theatre show where instead of bringing in my usual case i just brought in a backpack of what i needed to save space. for protection i left the mme inside its case. anyway, during the second set i as well as the taper next to me noticed a strange electric burning type smell that lasted about a minute or two and really couldnt figure out where it was coming from and really couldnt do much about it being mid set. after the show ended i noticed while unplugging the cables etc that the unit itself was very hot to the touch, much hotter than it had ever been outside the padded case, and upon smelling the unit i am pretty sure that the burning smell originated inside the box. when i got home from the show i pulled out my allen wrench to take the top off the box and by then the smell had pretty much gone and with a visual inspection everything looked pretty normal. also when transferring the tape it doesnt seem to have affected the sound at all, but i havent given it a careful listening yet.

what is going on here? does it seem like there is potential substantial damage? or if it looks fine and still seems to record fine should i just not worry about it? anyone else have a similar experience?

In my experience, It doesn't make any difference if you run the Mini-Me in it's bag or not. There is no venting on the outside for it to dissapate heat. Mine has never gotten hot in it's bag.

I do think you should give Apogee an e-mail or a call to talk to them about what happenned though.

[bearcobb]

sorry if this has been discussed before, but i went thru all 21 pages and didnt find anything...

anyway, on saturday i taped yet another show using my minime, probably around my 50th using it. but what was different this time was that i left the unit inside its padded case as it was a theatre show where instead of bringing in my usual case i just brought in a backpack of what i needed to save space. for protection i left the mme inside its case. anyway, during the second set i as well as the taper next to me noticed a strange electric burning type smell that lasted about a minute or two and really couldnt figure out where it was coming from and really couldnt do much about it being mid set. after the show ended i noticed while unplugging the cables etc that the unit itself was very hot to the touch, much hotter than it had ever been outside the padded case, and upon smelling the unit i am pretty sure that the burning smell originated inside the box. when i got home from the show i pulled out my allen wrench to take the top off the box and by then the smell had pretty much gone and with a visual inspection everything looked pretty normal. also when transferring the tape it doesnt seem to have affected the sound at all, but i havent given it a careful listening yet.

what is going on here? does it seem like there is potential substantial damage? or if it looks fine and still seems to record fine should i just not worry about it? anyone else have a similar experience?

In my experience, It doesn't make any difference if you run the Mini-Me in it's bag or not. There is no venting on the outside for it to dissapate heat. Mine has never gotten hot in it's bag.

I do think you should give Apogee an e-mail or a call to talk to them about what happenned though.

alright, will do. but like i said, in the past ive never had any heat issues with it outside the bag. it did get minorly warm while sitting out in direct sunlight at a few shed shows in the summer, but never as hot as it was in the bag. i figured that could have been a major way to keep it from venting.

[jpschust]

sounds very similar to what happened when mine burned up.  i'd check your power cable carefully.  where did you get the power cable from?

[rustoleum]

I always run mine inside a backpack and have never noticed it get unusually hot.  YMMV

[bearcobb]

sounds very similar to what happened when mine burned up.  i'd check your power cable carefully.  where did you get the power cable from?

i got the power cable from sonicsense, when i bought the unit. it is a revision A and i recieved it back in 11/02. it was plugged into a ecocharge ec 90 battery, on the 12v side (the D8 was in the 6v side)...

i remember reading when they were first released that they didnt get nearly as hot as the ad1000 used to get so that was a bonus, and it never got hot before saturday, so this is probably an issue huh?

i think ill power it up when i get home from work today and see what happens...

[jpschust]

this really sounds like an issue for gary at apogee. 

i dont mean to turn this into an apogee bashing thread, but one of the fundamental problems ive had with apogee is getting good service from them- they don't seem to be all that attentive to their end users, but if you go through a top dealer of their product they are much more apt to listen.

unfortunately, i don't believe that ss is a top dealer like dalepro or samash...

[Chuck]

bearcobb:

Please let us know what you find out.

[bearcobb]

will do...might be a little bit before i can talk to him, but i will get back here.

so how is the best way to get a hold of him?

[jpschust]

call sonic sense first, tell them the issue and have them get ahold of apogee.

[Chuck]

will do...might be a little bit before i can talk to him, but i will get back here.

so how is the best way to get a hold of him?

Go to the Apogee site and find the contact us e-mail address. You'll have to fill out a short form listeing the equipment you need help with.
I've had very good luck contacting Gary. He usually e-mails back on the same day.

Good Luck

[marc0789]

sounds very similar to what happened when mine burned up.  i'd check your power cable carefully.  where did you get the power cable from?

i got the power cable from sonicsense, when i bought the unit. it is a revision A and i recieved it back in 11/02. it was plugged into a ecocharge ec 90 battery, on the 12v side (the D8 was in the 6v side)...

i remember reading when they were first released that they didnt get nearly as hot as the ad1000 used to get so that was a bonus, and it never got hot before saturday, so this is probably an issue huh?

i think ill power it up when i get home from work today and see what happens...

yeah, but is it an ecocharge cable, or prodigital. if the plug is a little bigger than it seems like it should be, and there is some play when it's plugged in, it's the prodig cable....and that could explain your problems.

[bearcobb]

oh im pretty certain its an ecocharge cable...

[THE NIZ BIAAAAACH!]

I had the same issue and actually burned mine up.  I think that some of the power cables arc if not plugged all the way in, or if they recede a little bit during the show.  I know that there was an issue with many of the early cables that were made at prodigital.   

[bearcobb]

ok, im not sure who made the actual power cables, they just have neutrik connectors  that say "NCMX".

anyway, i was told to power it up with the cover off and see if it got hot and if i could feel where the heat was eminating from, but after about 15 minutes it stayed cool to the touch...so i dont know anything else really new to share.

[Daryan]

Here'e the direct address for Gary. I guess my experiences with apogee haven't been like Jonny's, mine have all been really really good (though I probably have had about four compared to others )

gary@apogeedigital.com

[bearcobb]

here is the response i got...

If the MiniMe gets hot, this would indicate that
it was receiving power that was either too high
of a voltage, or the power connector was
reversed. Finally, it's possible that the unit
failed.

Does the unit operate correctly at the moment? Does it get hot now?