• Registered: 2010-06-03
  • Posts: 2

Topic: Fireface 800 'weeping' Jack Plugs + Input Level Problems

Problem 1.

I have recently bought a FF800 off a trusted friend of mine - he is a location classical engineer and simply didn't have use for it in his rig any more.

After having taken it out of my rack to lend to a friend for a project, I noticed that there was some corrosion around the jack ins and outs on the back of the unit (and on the front too, but less noticeably).

I took the lid off the unit and found that the black plastic of the jack plugs seems to be 'weeping' or 'sweating' a clear/orange liquid. It is no-where else on the board apart from the jack plugs (front and back) - the XLRs and midi sockets etc are all fine.

It seems as though this liquid has begun to corrode the contacts in the jack socket. The 'dirty' connections are causing some level changes and spurious crackles on my signals - something which is fixed temporarily by wiggling the connection - not ideal.

I didn't know if this was a known problem? It seems to me it might be caused by the heat produced by the unit. I can't see that it could overheat in my set up, however, being very well ventilated.

Problem 2.

I wasn't until I lent the unit to another friend (I know, maybe I'm just being too generous??) that I/we noticed a problem with the analogue line level inputs on the rear of the unit (hadn't used them previously). It seems every second channel (all the even numbered channels) are down in level by around 9dB. Oddly, this seems to correspond to the input level gain (impedance?) option on the unit. That is, if I put in a 0dB (I'm guessing dBFS) tone (generated in logic) into each of the inputs, the odd numbered channels will read at just under 0dB, and the even channels will be down, yet if I select the -10dBV input option, the even numbered channels will read just under 0dB and the odd numbered channels will clip.

Seems as though this may be a software problem? I've tried the firmware update and reinstalling the drivers. I'm running the FF800 over firewire 800 into my quad core i7 imac.

Any help on these two problems would be amazingly helpful. Obviously I'm in contact with the guy who sold me the unit, but if these problems are fixable, I'd rather just hold onto it than have to get my money back.

Many thanks in advance.

Jon

  • Jeff
  • Jeff
  • Moderator
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  • From: USA
  • Registered: 2007-05-21
  • Posts: 4,667

Re: Fireface 800 'weeping' Jack Plugs + Input Level Problems

Not heat related, it's an issue with the plastic in a certain batch of TRS jacks. Contact your local RME distributor for service.

http://www.rme-audio.de/en_support.php

Regards,
Jeff Petersen
Synthax Inc.

Jeff's Website

  • Registered: 2010-06-04
  • Posts: 7

Re: Fireface 800 'weeping' Jack Plugs + Input Level Problems

Cheers Jon:

That's EXACTLY what happened to my FF800 soon after I bought it used. At first it was just a couple of analog in/out jacks having level problems, but as time passed almost all of them got the same problem. The jacks also had this liquid on them, and showed corrosion inside, front jacks were not so badly affected (except for the phones one). It also happened that the even numbered I/O were the first to be affected by this signal problem.

I tried to contact RME service here in Chile (www.videomedia.cl) and they never answered my emails, I phoned them and they never gave me any response about my problem... I can say that videomedia SUCKS (sorry, but it's the truth).

Being unable to get some sort of "authorized" service and being at the end of the world, I just contacted a good, very reputable technician who repairs PC motherboards to change all the TRS jacks on the board (22 jacks). I was assuming that was the problem. I ordered the jacks at www.smallbear.com and voila, my tech replaced them all. Now I have my FF800 working flawlessly again.

Take a note that because of how long I took to repair the unit (get yours repaired as soon as problems appear, and don't rely on the "I still can use it with less I/Os" thing as I did ... stupid me), corrosion had already attacked the PC board tracks, so my tech had to re-build some of them. So, whatever you do to repair it, do it quickly.

Of course if you have an authorized and COMPETENT RME service available, your best bet is letting them take care of the issue; but in case you don't, or you have a terrible one like I do, there's still a way to repair it. Just find someone trustworthy who knows how to make fine soldering jobs on PC boards and get the jacks at smallbear.com.

Hope this helps!
Igor

  • Registered: 2010-06-03
  • Posts: 2

Re: Fireface 800 'weeping' Jack Plugs + Input Level Problems

Hi guys.

Thanks for the helpful responses.

I did a bit more investigation. I unsoldered and changed around one of the jack plugs I knew was functioning at correct level with one of the ones that is down in level to see if it was the physical connection in the jack that was causing the problems. Turns out it isn't the jack that is causing the level problems, which is slightly annoying, since it would seem your fix, Igor, might not solve this one ...

Thanks.

Jon

  • Registered: 2010-06-04
  • Posts: 7

Re: Fireface 800 'weeping' Jack Plugs + Input Level Problems

Check if the PCB tracks are also OK. Mine had some corrosion which led to signal loss, so even if I changed the Jacks with new ones, I'd still had that loss.

In my case the portion of the track that goes from the jack connections (contacts) to the first resistor on the board ... it's actually less than 1 cm, but yet my tech had to re-build those. He used a tester to check if they were working properly. To my surprise, more than half of them had signal loss due to corrosion. Of course I asked him to rebuild all of the tracks to prevent some future damage. Now it works like a charm. (though it doesn't look pretty, but who cares)

Seems like those PCB tracks are prone to get corrosion from the jacks

Here you can see the pics of the repaired tracks (it's the website of my tech) ... scroll down to the last ones ... as I told you, it doesn't look pretty, but I definitely prefer ugly+working :-)

http://labotecno.com/sonido/restauracio … reface-800

  • Registered: 2011-10-31
  • Posts: 1

Re: Fireface 800 'weeping' Jack Plugs + Input Level Problems

I'm a victim of the weeping corroding jacks as well although it's a FF400.

I've taken one out hoping to get the part # and manufacture to order some replacements but am so far having no luck.

Does anyone know the part # and manufacturer?

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,779

Re: Fireface 800 'weeping' Jack Plugs + Input Level Problems

Please send the unit in.


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website