SD CL-9 Powering Up

[Sebi]

Hey everybody,

 

I was just thinking about a small issue I come across almost everyday while shooting with my 788/CL-9 Setup. Every now and then, let's say 2 out of 5 times, the CL-9 doesn't power up when I turn on the recorder. So no LEDs, faders and knobs don't do anything. It is connected though because when I unplug the USB cable, it says that the CL-9 got disconnected. When I plug the USB in again, it usually works fine. Sometimes I have to do it twice and sometimes the CL-9 mutes all the outputs after booting. I don't think it's a flaw that only my setup has because I had the same issue last year on a different 788 with a different CL-9.

Since I'm pretty sure many of you have used this same setup over the past years I thought I might reach out and ask if some of you have made this experience.

 

Best wishes

[JonG]

I’ve never had this issue. I suggest reaching out to Sound Devices to see if it is an issue that they are aware of. 

[ElanorR]

Ive never had this issue either.

[sciproductions]

Just out of curiosity have you tried another cable?

[Sebi]

Thanks for the replies.
Yes, I've tested several USB-Cables. But actually I think I found the culprit which seems to be the USB-Keyboard. On friday, when I came across the issue again I unplugged the keyboard and the CL-9 came to live. Plugging in the keyboard again didn't cause any problem. I started the setup several times without the keyboard and everything seems to work fine. Didn't have the time to check other keyboards and since the one I have is the smallest cable-version I could find, I think I will stick with it and work around the problem.

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

Out of curiosity, which keyboard is that?  I'm also looking for a keyboard the could comfortably live in a bag.

[Sebi]

It's a pretty cheap one from a brand called mediarange. Pretty simple keyboard without the num-pad extension. But it doesn't live in a bag, I use it on my cart. Since the shelf of the Mini-Cart isn't big enough for the CL-9 plus keyboard I actually used velcro and have a "transport position" and a "work position". What seemed to be a quick and dirty solution works pretty well actually.

 

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

Thanks!  Still too big for a bag I think ... I've been looking at thumb keyboard intended for gaming, but they are all bluetooth-based...

Nice setup though!  If I was on a cart, I'd give it a look.

[Ontariosound]

Sebi, I see that your receivers are resting right on top of the 788T.  Do you have any RF spray issues ?  Do you have metal shielding fabric 

under the receivers ?  I run my bag with the 788T on bottom and CL8 on top, then the receivers on top of the CL8 to provide space.

We know that the 788T had less RF spray than the 744T, but there is still some spray.

[noises1]

On 11/7/2023 at 1:11 AM, Sebi said:

Thanks for the replies.
Yes, I've tested several USB-Cables. But actually I think I found the culprit which seems to be the USB-Keyboard. On friday, when I came across the issue again I unplugged the keyboard and the CL-9 came to live. Plugging in the keyboard again didn't cause any problem. I started the setup several times without the keyboard and everything seems to work fine. Didn't have the time to check other keyboards and since the one I have is the smallest cable-version I could find, I think I will stick with it and work around the problem.

SD only recommend 2 keyboards - an A4tech & something else. I've found 788 is very particular about keyboards - my guess is that the 788 is fussy about the keyboard encoder. Remember that the 788 firmware is now 11+ years old & was always "buggy". I did find an A4tech keyboard in UK on ebay

[tourtelot]

I don't remember when I bought my 788T (at least 11 years ago?  I think I bought mine in 2008) but can honestly say I have never had issues with the firmware on that machine.  Ever.  So what was the "buggy" firmware issues with the 788T?  maybe with stuff like keyboards that I never used, so I am not saying it never happened.  Sincerely curious.

 

D.

[noises1]

WRT keyboards - random lockups & only remedy was to remove ext power & onboard battery. I couldn't repeat a sequence reliably to induce the lockup, but removing the keyboard improved. Patience was always required especially with high track counts & long takes. Sorry I can't be more specific. I've just bought a new A4tech & hope that system remains stable. I've used Ambient Masterlockit & phone or tablet for metadata with 788 & that has been stable. I still own & use my 788 for light-weight days. Cantar is main recorder which I love.

[Sebi]

On 11/10/2023 at 7:20 PM, Ontariosound said:

Sebi, I see that your receivers are resting right on top of the 788T.  Do you have any RF spray issues ?  Do you have metal shielding fabric 

under the receivers ?  I run my bag with the 788T on bottom and CL8 on top, then the receivers on top of the CL8 to provide space.

We know that the 788T had less RF spray than the 744T, but there is still some spray.

Yeah I'm aware but it works fine for me in this setup. I decided to put the 788 on top so I can hide the battery for the recorder and sixpack under the CL-8 and make it accessible from the front of the bag. When using sharkfin antennas mounted on the antenna riser of the cart, which is what I do in this setup, I didn't get any RF hits from the recorder when testing it so I stuck with it. Might be a problem though when running the receivers on the whip antennas. Had to go for bag work once every few weeks and as far as I remember I didn't have to deal with unexpected RF noise. Range was way shorter ofc with the Shure UA8 antennas compared to the shark fins on the antenna riser.

 

Does anybody know if the harddrive makes a difference in RF spray? My 788 has been upgraded to an SSD and I could imagine that and HDD might emit some more electro-magnetic spray. But I'm just guessing.

 

On 11/11/2023 at 4:47 AM, noises1 said:

SD only recommend 2 keyboards - an A4tech & something else. I've found 788 is very particular about keyboards - my guess is that the 788 is fussy about the keyboard encoder. Remember that the 788 firmware is now 11+ years old & was always "buggy". I did find an A4tech keyboard in UK on ebay

Might be. I didn't bother to find the recommended one tbh. Except for the issue that led me to open up this thread the keyboard is working just fine and I'm using it extensively with shortcuts programmed for almost every function.