FW 1884 production years

[Ben Dardoufas]

Hi all,

My 1884 firewire connection has died, i've tried all the known remedies to no avail, i've had this unit for 14 years so i think i know most of the tricks and it's temperament.

I did not hot plug or insert anything in the wrong way round, just the past six months it didn't always connect with my mac so i had to restart it or warm it up until yesterday when it just died...i really love this unit but don't know if it's worth getting it repaired.

I saw that deeringamps has all the parts i'd need if i chose to replace the fw chip but i have zero soldering skills and shipping parts & service cost here in Greece would amount to around the same as getting another one.

It's fully responsive in all modes except computer which means i can use preamps etc.

Even when my mac's switched off though and firewire is connected it won't do anything but just blink...tried reset but all it did was light everything up and stay that way till i powered it off again.Standalone and firewire disconnected it does everything it usually did.

Anyway what i originally wanted to ask is what year was the 1884 discontinued, i'm kind of looking out for a bargain if i can find one of the more recent models at a fair price.
The later models wouldn't blow out their preamps when phantom power was on (i have 2 blown preamps-i was young...) +sounded a little better apparently.

Any input would be greatly appreciated as i'm soundcardlessless.

Thanks,

Ben

 

[DeeringAmps]

Ben,
There are many "damaged" FW's out there, I'd be careful; shipping to Greece is going to be expensive. If you have not "hot plugged" or inserted the fw cable in upsidedown, I would think you have a capacitor issue on the 5v line. There's a service bulletin,
http://deeringamps.com/fw1884/tascam/0606.pdf that explains it.
Try to find a local electronics shop, take the service bulletin with you and see if they can handle the repair. I have a couple of replacement preamps still in stock, or you can go directly to Machinator. http://machinator.nl/?page_id=601.
Have you tried moving the firewire cable to the other port?
I have heard reports that this sometimes solves the "warm up" problem.
I did so recently, it seemed to help, but I have problems when the studio is below 65 degrees Fahrenheit or so. I kept it "warm" all winter, so I cannot say definitively that it is effective.
Hope this helps,
Tom

 

[Ben Dardoufas]

Hi Tom,

Thank you for your reply and input.

The FW connection has been playing up for quite some time now and i would often switch FW ports to get a connection up until the inevitable happened.

I'm sure a lot of FW devices (not just tascam) have been damaged by connecting them upside down and it's probably one of the reasons FW is obsolete along with other issues that just make it look outdated.

I had all the warm up issues as well where i eventually made it standard practise to turn the unit on 15-30' before powering everything else up.

I've packed up the unit and stuck it in the closet, a friend lent me a small presonus interface and i'm getting used to the more minimal setup as the 1884 does have a pretty massive footprint and honestly i don't have the synth collection i once had so i don't really need all the inputs.So i think buying a small audient is probably the way to go.

It's just the sentimental aspect and kind of sad to see this old friend go even if tascam never updated mac drivers etc i still use snow leopard for audio and everything runs just great.

When i can afford it i will definitely look into repairing it.

Thanks again.

Ben

 

[Ben Dardoufas]

Just a quick update, the unit works again!!

I wanted to connect it via optical to my mac pro to use it just as a DAC.

This didn't initially work because you have to be able to access the software control panel to set outputs etc.

After a while of fiddling around with this i noticed the fw light came back on and has worked ever since...i'm not sure what happened but i think the blinking clock+transport stop lights are an internal clock issue and by connecting the optical input i somehow reset the clock.

Anyway it's good news so anybody with the same issue can try it out.

 

[Steve Fogal]

At the sign of trouble, I think about a hard reset of the unit.

The only time I had a 'warm up' period, was when I was using my FW-1884 or FW-1082 with my Dell laptop with a mini 4-wire firewire, running Vista. With my Lenovo ThinkStation D-20's own firewire ports, there's never been the warm up needed, it connects & the FW light comes on fast. This tells me that the particular computer and a compatible firewire connection for these Tascams can make a difference. I think one time I pressed my FW cable into the FW jack when it wouldn't connect.