Fairlight-CMI

Hi Joe : thanks for all the brilliant advice :) I am very gratefull to all of you guys for the support. 

With regard to the CMI31 card : it wasnt working anyway : I bought it as spares of a bloke on ebay. It didnt ever work. Still have the electronics on their if i need more parts of it in the future.

With regard to the ribbon terminator : i was unable to remove the Pin, buy cutting the board as you suggest because i couldnt get a good enough angle on it while still attached to the board. 

I have dropped the CMI-32 card off at a electronics company to see if they can replace the connector : I am hoping that with better tools and expertise, they might be able to replace it for me, and have also told them about your suggestion with regard to cutting out the bad pin only. Ill let you know which they choose. BTW : the broken pin is top rightmost :

..........x      pins
...........
_______       Board

I appreciate that the ribbon cable connector cannot be the boot issue : it would boot fine without the ribbon card connected. 

I cleaned the CMI-31 card, and tested the tracks : seems to be ok continuity wise, and re-heated the corroded pins to get them nice and silver again. It still dosnt show any channel cards, unfrtunately. 

Since I last posted, I now have the service manual, so when I get some time I can maybe start checking the timing signals : I dont have a digital extender board however, so any suggestions on a practical way to do this would be appreciated.

With regard to the slots, they seem fine, and I have taken the mainfame panels off so I can manually inspect the cards are going into the slots correctly.

With regard to the blown fuses : I accidentadly knocked out the internal ribbon cable that goes between the VGA converter board and CG3 card which must have done that, as the system was powered up at the time.

As for the internal fuse, I have the MIDI and SMTPE sync boards in the wrong slots, and that could mabe have taken out the +5v fuse.

Cheers again for the suggestions :)

Best : Arron

--- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, Joe Sleator <joe.sleator@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Arron...
> 
> Don't ruin what might be a perfectly good CMI28 or CMI31. The world's short
> of 'em as it is!
> Also, CMI28 is not your problem, from your description of things.
> 
> If you MUST replace that CMI28 pin (which pin is it?) why not just get
> another PCB mount ribbon cable socket from your local electronics store, or
> better yet, simply pull a single pin from another ribbon connector socket.
> They are 'L' shaped pins. You can then cut a slot in the original ribbon
> connector and remove what's left of the old broken pin. Just that pin. No
> sense in toasting the whole board.
> 
> The other thing to do is check which pin it is. The CMI 28 ribbon is fairly
> low priority as CMI ribbons go. Also not every pin is critical in that
> ribbon. They are MIDI/SMTE/SYNC in and out, and are absolutely not required
> to boot up a series III.
> 
> Absolutely certain the symptoms you're seeing aren't due to something wrong
> with the CMI28 or its connector. Like Peter says, sounds much more like the
> channel support card. And of that, I'd say give it a clean and make sure the
> critical signals are coming off it. It's not a very complex card, but it's
> very important as all the waveform buss timing and CC timing comes from this
> card.
> 
> The other general advice is to double-check the slot-keys in your backplane.
> They occasionally fall out and cause cards to mis-seat. It absolutely causes
> boot failures and blown fuses.
> 
> > Im not sure this will be successful though, as the double sided board
> might not survive the
> > removal process.
> 
> You're probably right. And it won't fix your symptoms at all.
> 
> Good luck,
> 
> Joe
> 
> On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 3:24 AM, arroncx <aclague@...>wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > Thanks for the advice Peter : really appreciate it.
> >
> > Im beginning to think that the channel support card is badly broken : there
> > was a fair bit of corrosion on the solder, and it looks in a bad way. :(
> >
> > Also, I found that a pin had broken off inside CMI 28 card, and so Im going
> > to try and replace the ribbon cable terminator with one I have removed from
> > an old CMI31 card. Im not sure this will be successful though, as the double
> > sided board might not survive the removal process.
> >
> > Anyway : enjoy your holiday, and l'll let you know how i get on :)
> >
> > And thanks again for the advice .
> >
> > Best wishes Arron
> >
> > --- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com <Fairlight-CMI%40yahoogroups.com>,
> > "horiprod" <horizontal_productions@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi Arron.
> > >
> > > The CMI does a real basic hardware check of channel cards through the
> > motherboard. However, all the timing clocks for the channels come from the
> > aptly named channel support card, CMI 32. If you can't substitute a known
> > good replacement, check the master clock on this, and then the two delay
> > chips which provide the timing signals. Sorry can't remember what they're
> > called - still on holiday, and spent the evening in a canal side bar in East
> > London drinking the finest wines known to humanity.....
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Peter Wielk
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com <Fairlight-CMI%40yahoogroups.com>,
> > "arroncx" <aclague@> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > HI there :
> > > >
> > > > I feel im getting closer, but still no full boot.
> > > >
> > > > On the startup screen, I always get "Cmi Channel Card Detected : None
> > Detected"
> > > >
> > > > Does any one know how this detection proccess works , and where to
> > start looking for the problem ? All the Cmi Cards have flashing lights on
> > them, so they are at least getting power.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > >
> > > > Arron
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >  
> >
>