FW-1082 master fader weird issue

alfredokiwi

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FW-1082
Hi folks, I´m newbie in this forum and my question is a bit long. Last week I purchased two TASCAM FW-1082 units for parts & repair. After doing some maintenance fixing the power supply changing all the panel switches on the first and repairing a broken PCB on the second both units are working again. But the strange issue on the first unit is the master fader behaviour. When I press the master fader 0db button it doesn´t work sending at the same time on FL Studio a permanent fader midi event because the faders are MIDI events and touch sensitive. After 30 minutes of unit warm up the master fader starts to work properly meaning that the touch sensors and motor circuitry are working fine.

My big question is if this issue maybe relates to a faulty flash EEPROM due constant sector writing and chip aging. Because the FW-1082 unit memorize the last faders movements positions writing every surface control change data to the internal flash memory after months or years of use the FW-1082 starts to fail because most memory flash devices have a life endurance of only 100.000 writing cycles.

To avoid issues related to sectors aging on flash memory devices manufacturers datasheets recommends to move/rotate the storage data to an new unused memory sector for example every 50.000 writing cycles. For that free unused flash memory space and a software counter is required.

The move data procedure is performed by the firmware code but sometimes this feature is not implemented on some devices and after months or years depending of the hours of use the unit start to fail because the retrieval of the flash memory data on same sector is corrupted.

The other big problem is when the firmware code is upgraded. In the case of properly data rotation by the firmware code using a counter this information is lost if the upgrade process don´t read and write former counter data, meaning that the whole TASCAM design idea using the flash memory as device for permanent faders/MIDI data control changes storage is not appropriate.

Sounds a bit strange my questions here. I want to know if someone experienced weird issues with the FW-1082 not only on the faders.

Summarizing I don´t like the "faders memory feature" using the flash memory if this was not properly implemented on the firmware code doing the data rotation to a new sector to avoid data corruption.

Former devices use a conventional static RAM and lithium battery for user data storage and retrieval avoiding any type of sectors data write issues but the story on new flash devices (IC flash memory, pen drives, SD cards, HDD solid devices, etc) is totally different.

I really appreciate if someone knows more information about such issues. Regards.
 
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Hi everyone,

I have good news about the issue finding the root causes. With a hairdryer I heated the faders and the issue is gone meaning that humidity is maybe the root causes affecting the touch sensitive sensors. So in the case of strange behaviour on the faders on winter's days or humidity areas is a good idea to dry before the faders surface. Also a good house heating in winter or air conditioning in summer to dry the room studio first would be useful, but the best I think is to take a hairdryer always and pre heat a bit (40 to 45 celsius) the faders surface before recordings.

On FW-1082 user manual was stated that humidity affects the faders touch sensors.

I will stay in touch with news about that. Thanks very much.

Regards.
 
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