DM4800 CF card unit

I tend to agree with you Charlie. But I can't imagine what kind of hardware failure can lead to not recognizing a windows formatted card. I rather would expect the DM formatted card not to be recognized by the unit with the failure. ???
 
Frans,

Greetings! One of my cards is a Kingston 256MB from my old Kodak digital camera and the DM3200 formatted it without an issue. He also mentions that the sometimes the DIM and Talkback buttons randomly lit and unlit. If it is a hardware issue, it's likely the controller portion of the CF board that has failed and definitely a component level repair if the board can't be replaced. If you can somehow try a card that is already working in another DM and it still doesn't work, that would prove conclusively that the CF board has failed.

Charlie
 
Today I opened up the DM4800 to try, once again, to find a simple problem that would fix the CF card issue. The firmware is 1.6.

I took out the CF card unit and ribbon cable and cleaned all the contacts with anti-oxident, including the pins on the card where the ribbon cable connects on the base of the mixer. I cleaned the CF pins and used an old CF card to insert and remove several times to scrub the pins after cleaning. I also removed and reconnected all of the cables in the output board area to see if I could stop the intermittent LEDs on the DIM and Talkback buttons.

Outcome 1. DIM and Talkback buttons are now solid so the cable work seems to have solved that one.

Outcome 2: While I can get the CF unit to "see" the CF card and recognize it as "unformatted," when I go to format it there is a consistent "format failed" error. I tried three different brand new (Tascam approved) CF cards and they all responded with the same error. I even tried hitting the "retry format" button 25 times in a row to see if it might work after repetition. I tried pushing on the CF card while formatting, everything. No luck.

So I tried resetting the DM4800 to factory settings using the reset procedure.

No luck.

Anyone have a spare DM4800 CF card board they are willing to sell me?

WK
 
Is there reason you haven't upgraded to 1.70 or higher? Not saying that would fix the problem but how about trying that anyway just to rule it out.
 
Thank you for your message, Charlie. As always, I appreciate it.

Don't I need to be able to use the computer software via MIDI to update the firmware? If so, I can't until the CF card unit is working since it just gives me an error when the CF card is not functioning on the DM4800.

If I'm wrong, I'll try updating to 1.7.

Thanks!

Bill
 
Again I'm pretty sure it's not going to fix anything but worth doing regardless.

improvements of 1.70 over 1.6 are:

New features:
1. It supports IF-AV/DM (Aviom Pro16 A-Net Interface).
2. It supports IF-CB/DM (Cobra Net Interface Card).

Improvements and Bug fixes:
1. Digital Signal was not come out from Digital Output if the Fs Converter was set to On and Digital Input signal was not come to Digital Input. – fixed –
2. Studio Out signal did mute momentarily when SOLO was changed. – fixed –
3. When the RS-422 command (Sony P2 control) was sent, unexpected function might happen on the target machine. – fixed -
E.g. Pressing REC key during recording on target machine made Punch Out (Record off). It should keep Recording.

The TMC tool is used to update the firmware. Download firmware from Tascam website. Pretty straight forward.
 
Can anyone confirm that the CF unit in a DM3200 is the same unit as that in the DM4800? I'm looking for a used replacement part. Thanks!

Bill
 
I would imagine it is.
 
Thanks for posting that, cmaffia. I had read them before I posted originally.
 
cmaffia said:
I'm wondering if the DM3200 is just about to be discontinued and Tascam only has units in inventory for sale? If they were still manufacturing these then they would obviously have the part. What's more concerning is the DM3200 hasn't been discontinued yet and they don't have this part for replacement.... a part that would seem to cripple the unit if it's not working...
Click to expand...

@cmaffia As I am actively considering the purchase of a used DM-3200 the part where you say "cripple the unit if it's not working" has me a little concerned. The functionality of the CF reader is most definitely something that I must consider testing. I am not quite clear as to what exact purpose the CF reader serves but do plan on looking that up in the manual if there is a chapter or section dedicated to that
 
Continuing saga...

I updated the firmware to 1.7. This did not affect the CF card problem.
 
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So you've went from "sorry your SOL" from Tascam to now having the option to purchase 1 of 2 available replacements. Let us know if there's a happy ending to your saga :).
 
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What are friends for after all!
 
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Thanks! I we purchased the card on Ebay and it will arrive Monday. Once I've installed it I'll report here on our success. Thanks again for the heads up.
 
@TU_CTL Great to hear. Hope that everything works out for you. Best of luck!
 
Well, I'm back. :)

After installing the used CF card unit and rebooting the mixer, everything worked well for about a day. Then we started getting exactly the same behavior from the CF card as reported above (won't read, won't format CF cards). I special ordered several smaller CF cards that are on the approved list (make, manufacturer, and size) to no avail.

I am also getting intermittent flashing LEDs on the DIM and Talkback buttons. Sometimes I can read and write but then it stops again. Sometimes I can backup/restore to the computer software sometimes it reports no CF card. Mostly now it doesn't read/write/format so I'm stuck again.

And, there's some new fun. The LCD display now has two horizontal lines across it near the bottom of the screen.

But the best news is that I am getting a MIDI Rx error that keeps me from being able to click any interface button without just incrementing the error count (202, 203, 204, etc.) so I'm hoping the group wisdom can point me the way to fix this.

I have tried disconnecting the MIDI USB cable, rebooting but that didn't do anything. I checked to be sure no other MIDI connections are made on the back panel. I can't change any internal MIDI settings because the error message blocks this.

I'm hoping someone might tell me "I know what that is. It's the XX ribbon cable that just needs to be cleaned and reattached" or something wonderfully fixable like that.

Here are the troubles:
1. CF card is not able to format, read, or write but rarely it does work, then it doesn't again.
2. DIM and Talkback buttons flash intermittantly without being touched.
3. Lines on the LCD display
4. MIDI Rx error keeping the interface from responding.

As always, all help is greatly appreciated. I like this mixer a lot but I just need it to work again.

Thanks!

Bill
 
To me it appears that the problem has to do with the system board that the CF PCB plugs into. Something is obviously killing your CF PCB's or causing them to malfunction. If the CF plugs into the Main Board then that's the source of the problem. If I am correct, you're looking at replacing both the Main Board and possibly another CF PCB (assuming both of your CF PCB's have been permanently damaged). An issue with system board would also explain the other anomalies you're experiencing that have nothing to do with your CF reader woes. Lines in the display is a well documented issue with the crappy LCD's used in this and previous mixers. You'll need to replace that if you don't want lines ($200+ replacement from Tascam directly) or install the 2SeeMy adapter option. Unless you can find these items second hand (I think the person who sold you the CF reader may have a mainboard as well), this may either be a very expensive troubleshooting effort or an impossible fix if parts aren't available.
 
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