SEQ V2 flashing leds

[mjproc]

Hi

  I've just finished my Seq v2, and all funtions are ok, still..... The leds are flashing, both the steps and the leds near the buttons.

I've vired all the ground's together on the leds, same with the buttons and the encoders-pots (the leds ground is not wired together with the encoders, nor the buttons)

Just powering on, and not pressing play, the leds start to flash..

As the sequencer works 100%, this is not a partykiller, but it's quite annoying.

Anyone else experienced this?, is so.... what did you do to reslve it?

Kind regards

Ole Peder, Norway

[TK.]

Hi Ole,

nice to read that at least the rest is working! :)

With which frequency are the LEDs flashing? Or do they flash in inperiodic cycles?

Is a LCD connected to the core? Maybe you are inside a special menu?

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[mjproc]

Hi

  It seems that the "problem" rise when the unit is "hot" / after an hour or so.

Typica symptom is:

When in song mode, the led above (pattern) flashes in a high frequency, the led above pattern again flashes too, but not as bright as pattern led, same thing with track 1-4 and layer a-c.

The steps leds is quite the same manner as above, the led next to the selected step, flashes.

It is not in sync with the beat.

One other thing.... when the flashing happens (after some hours in use), the buttons for step 9-16 stops to work, I have to power down/up the unit, to get them operational again. Same thing happens with the encoders.

When the unit is cold (from powering on) it all works ok. But pressing and holding ie the song button, creates the same flashin as described above.

I'm powering the unit with an external power adapter with the spec: 9VDC / 600mA

Can this be caused by too little poweradapter in combination with overheating of the 7805 ?

I've adjusted the pots for the brightness @ the lcd's down to keep the heat of 7805 down...

I have not mounted the buttons / leds on any pcb, but hard wired them directly to the multiwires (scsi-hard-disk-type), the ground is a common wire that run in line with the leds/buttons.  The common ground is not connected between other units, but ie 8 step leds connected, 16 step buttons connected together etc... same with encoders.

Hope this is helps

Best regards

Ole P

[TK.]

Hi Ole,

in general it's quite normal that depending on the menu page you are the GP, track and layer LEDs can flash with a different frequency independent from the beat. In this case they allow special selections. E.g., in the pattern page, you can select the pattern number (A1, A2, ... B1, B2...) with the GP buttons, and the track group with the track buttons (instead of the track). LEDs are flashing to notify the special selection mode.

I will document this much better for MBSEQ V3 (I must say that I don't know the exact behaviour of MBSEQ V2 anymore, too much played with the new one in the meantime...)

But it isn't normal that one or more LEDs are not so bright anymore like the other ones after 1 hours. Yes, of course, this could be related on the weak PSU. Not sure of 600 mA is really enough - assumed you've 2 backlit LCDs running, and 32 LEDs, then this already can consume ca. 1 A!

So, it makes sense to try a stronger PSU. I'm also using a heatsink for my 7805

Best Regards, Thorsten.