USB/Mac problem, too much power

Yup, so same exact issue with a powered USB hub. Also tried a 3rd usb cable and a 4th computer, same exact symptoms.

I also swear these USB cables are heating up while they're plugged in, but I could be making that up. I really want to open up the case and take a look at the USB port just to make sure nothing has shorted it out, but I'm not risking my warranty over it :/
 
ChainOfThought said:
Yup, so same exact issue with a powered USB hub. Also tried a 3rd usb cable and a 4th computer, same exact symptoms.

I also swear these USB cables are heating up while they're plugged in, but I could be making that up. I really want to open up the case and take a look at the USB port just to make sure nothing has shorted it out, but I'm not risking my warranty over it :/
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have you tried a Windows PC by chance?
 
Yeah, tried a dell 2-in-1 thing that my wife has. Windows 8.1 I think? That one didn't give me any messages, but it also didn't communicate with the ax-8 on edit or bot.

Fun note on the wiring in my apartment...having a hand on my macbook while sitting with the guitar plugged in to the ax8 creates noise, assuming its a ground loop or some other such nonsense.
 
ChainOfThought said:
Yeah, tried a dell 2-in-1 thing that my wife has. Windows 8.1 I think? That one didn't give me any messages, but it also didn't communicate with the ax-8 on edit or bot.

Fun note on the wiring in my apartment...having a hand on my macbook while sitting with the guitar plugged in to the ax8 creates noise, assuming its a ground loop or some other such nonsense.
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ok. this is good additional info, especially that the PC didn't communicate. that wiring sounds atrocious for audio!

so at this point, because different computer platforms react similarly, i would put this on the electricity/wiring, the USB cables (i know you tried multiple) or unfortunately on the specific AX8 unit, in that order. i only say USB cable because for the Mac issue, the #1 solution was replacing the cable - even after a few tries. not sure why. if the cables are bad, then the problem would be in both Mac and PC. but i'm guessing you use those cables successfully with other gear. still, it's a possibility.

sorry this is happening. this has not been reported for any AX8 since launch, as far as i know. electricity and power are "mystical beings" to me, mostly because they are beyond my control, so i'd look there (unfortunately) first.
 
Yea, I would almost put money on it being the power here. I have a few ideas for how to test it elsewhere and/or through power conditioners and whatnot. I won't be sending this thing back until I can 100% say there's nothing else I can try.
 
Sounds like a short in the USB connector. The problem with that theory though is that we use USB to program and test the unit so if it were shorted we wouldn't have been able to test and program it.
 
Unless something happened during shipping? Might be as simple as a stray strand of wire or some metal shaving or something that could have floated its way in there and jostled itself in just right.

I'm quite comfortable opening up an electronic device and taking a look, its been my occupation for the past 10 years or so...can I do that without voiding my warranty? I'm living in Kuwait & shipping via APO, so I'd reaaaaalllly like to avoid shipping this thing back and forth if I can.
 
ChainOfThought said:
Unless something happened during shipping? Might be as simple as a stray strand of wire or some metal shaving or something that could have floated its way in there and jostled itself in just right.

I'm quite comfortable opening up an electronic device and taking a look, its been my occupation for the past 10 years or so...can I do that without voiding my warranty? I'm living in Kuwait & shipping via APO, so I'd reaaaaalllly like to avoid shipping this thing back and forth if I can.
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Yes, you can do that. It might be underneath the mainboard though so you would need to remove the mainboard and inspect the solder side of the connector.
 
ChainOfThought said:
Fun note on the wiring in my apartment...having a hand on my macbook while sitting with the guitar plugged in to the ax8 creates noise, assuming its a ground loop or some other such nonsense.
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Depends on the nature of the noise. If it's hum at the frequency of he power line or its harmonics, then it's probably a ground loop. If it sounds like something else, it could be electromagnetic interference.
 
Yeah I didn't care enough about that to sort out exactly what sort of hum it is...either way its pretty much unavoidable here I think, bigger issues & whatnot anyways for now ;) But yeah you're absolutely right.

Alright, so in response to Cliff's go-ahead-run on tearing this thing down...thats done. Quite the pretty little machine on the inside, in every badass nerdy electronic way possible.

Under the mainboard, the USB connector has 4 pins. Two of these pins are soldered together, and two of them are soldered to the board individually. It looks very deliberate so I'm assuming that the two shorted together are supposed to be that way.

I have pictures of everything but I won't post those here unless cliff or matt or someone says its all right. Unless there's an issue with those pins (I highly doubt it...there's no way that happened after the testing process and there's no way they tested & installed firmware on this thing if its not correct) then I think this effectively eliminates the ax8 as the cause of my problems. Its what I expected, but I was honestly hoping for an easy 'pull that off of there' fix :/ Tomorrow I'm going to carry it to work with me, I have access to some hefty UPS systems where I can power it isolated from grid over here and see what that does.

edit: She's all back together again, no change in status. I didn't break it, but also didn't fix it ;) Side note, the most nerve-wracking part of that for me was tightening the plastic nuts on the input/outputs, hah... I think I overtightened them a bit.
 
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I've had issues with my Axe and long USB cables, not that issue, but spotty connection. If your cables are longer than a meter you may want to try a shorter cable. After hearing about the connections though that sounds like the culprit. USB should have 4 individual pins (2 for power and 2 for data I believe).
 
Yeah I think I've got like a 2' cable, then 1m and 2m or something like that. Maybe all of them shorter.

Now that you say that about USB, a google search of USB-B pin connections supports the theory...shows digital+, digital-, gnd and V. So it seems that either the voltage is being sent to ground, the digital-/+ are tied together, or one of the digital pins is being sent to ground or to power. However...I guess if there's not supposed to be any power over the USB, it could make sense to short the power to ground so that only data is traveling over the cable. its 545am though so I'm not trying to wrap my head all the way around that one.
 
Sorry to hear that you're having trouble ChainOfThought. Hope it's a simple fix and that you'll have your AX8 running soon! fingers crossed.
 
Shorting power to ground at the unit will cause a short circuit at your computer and draw unrestricted power from the computer. If the AX8 doesn't draw power from the computer then perhaps those pins don't connect to anything in the unit, but they should not be soldered together. You could try putting a tiny piece of masking tape over those contacts on one of your cables so that they don't actually connect to the AX8. I'm not really familiar with USB protocol so I'm not sure if the computer or unit need to sense power before transmitting information, but it might give you the ability to plug in for the time being, just be careful.
 
Issue resolved. Now I'm up & going at 100%. Thanks for all the input here, FAS is absolutely awesome.
 
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Chris@AxeFxTutorials said:
Wow. Sorry to keep suggesting it wasn't the AX8; it usually isn't ;)
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It was too obviously the AX8. Once you eliminate the computer and cables there's not much room left. First step in beta testing, testing, is elimination. I've been a beta tester for another company for something like 15 years!
 
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