FC-12 Lockup / Power Issue?

Bill-RTP

Bill-RTP

Inspired
Hey all,

I've got a really bizarre issue with my AxeFXIII and the FC-12 which I believe is due to some sort of power issue, but wanted to throw the scenario out here and see if anyone else has experienced something similar.

We play around 25 shows a year, and I've never had issues except for at one specific venue. Both times at this venue, the FC-12 seems to 'mostly' lock up. I have the FC-12 set up with setlist / song buttons, typically 4 scene buttons and up to 4 effect bypass buttons. When the FC-12 locks up, I can't change scenes or bypass / enable effects, but can still advance to the next song in a setlist, but then those scenes and effects are also locked. The AxeFXIII is fine as I can change scenes from the front panel, but obviously not ideal during a show. The only solution was to unplug the Faslink / XLR cable and re-insert, and then it was ok again......sometimes for a song or two, but then locks up again. We have a spare FC-12 for the band as our bassist also uses one, and that one locked up too.

Once again, I've never seen this happen anywhere else and both times playing this venue I had these type of issues.

I am running everything through a Furman power conditioner.

Has anyone else ever ran into similar issues, and if so, is there a solution other than 'don't play at that venue'?

Thanks,

Bill
 
That's a "poser"!

It doesn't seem like it'd be a voltage problem if the FX3 works correctly. The FC12 takes less power, and that's coming from the FX3.

Does the rest of the equipment, besides your FC12 and the bassist's, work correctly there? Are you running MIDI into the FX3?

Could it be excessive EMI? What quality and how long are the XLR cables going to the FC12? The signals going to the FC12 should be pretty immune to EMI, but a damaged, or too long, cable could cause problems.

Is there anything else special or out-of-the-ordinary that you have to do when playing in that venue?
 
Greg Ferguson said:
That's a "poser"!

It doesn't seem like it'd be a voltage problem if the FX3 works correctly. The FC12 takes less power, and that's coming from the FX3.

Does the rest of the equipment, besides your FC12 and the bassist's, work correctly there? Are you running MIDI into the FX3?

Could it be excessive EMI? What quality and how long are the XLR cables going to the FC12? The signals going to the FC12 should be pretty immune to EMI, but a damaged, or too long, cable could cause problems.

Is there anything else special or out-of-the-ordinary that you have to do when playing in that venue?
Click to expand...
Good points here. I actually did try two different XLR cables, a 20 footer and then switched to a 10 footer, and had the same issue with both. Our bassist doesn't do a lot of switching with his FC-12 and only has a couple songs where he enables some effects from the floor. I am running a MIDI out from the AxeFX3 to our drummer to select his e-drum patches, but I just started doing this and had this same issue the previous visit to this venue.

The other thing I should have mentioned is the venue does bring in some fairly well know national acts, so it's not like a small bar. When i asked them about any known power issues they kindly responded with "nobody else has had issues"....I kinda expected that response.
 
Can you reproduce the issue elsewhere? Do you have access to the venue where the issue occurs?
I would try external power on the FC to see if this resolves the issue. I would also use a multimeter and test the gas voltage and report to support your findings.
 
that's so crazy, I JUST submitted a support ticket with nearly the same issue. My fc12 has been locking up and refusing to switch scenes. I just assumed my son dropped it or something when he was helping me load in, but I've been chasing my tail testing 4-5 different cables, and getting the cpu usage down as low as I can manage. Even a hard drop doesnt really answer all the issues because pulling the fas link and restarting it shouldn't fix an issue with something grounding out or making an intermittent connection.

For me I can't change scenes, but most times it will let me turn individual effects on or off. At least today it was letting me do it, but sometimes it just refuses to recognize any input. At least once it would look like it was switching scenes and then my sound wouldn't change, and I'd look at the axefx front panel and it would show that it's still on the same scene
 
Patzag said:
Can you reproduce the issue elsewhere? Do you have access to the venue where the issue occurs?
I would try external power on the FC to see if this resolves the issue. I would also use a multimeter and test the gas voltage and report to support your findings.
Click to expand...
I was thinking this too, but the venue is out of state so I don't have easy access to test it out. You've got me thinking about the external AC adapter idea. Since you don't need one when running a single FC-12 from the AxeFX3, do you know if an AC adapter would provide any useable power?
 
JCBitB said:
that's so crazy, I JUST submitted a support ticket with nearly the same issue. My fc12 has been locking up and refusing to switch scenes. I just assumed my son dropped it or something when he was helping me load in, but I've been chasing my tail testing 4-5 different cables, and getting the cpu usage down as low as I can manage. Even a hard drop doesnt really answer all the issues because pulling the fas link and restarting it shouldn't fix an issue with something grounding out or making an intermittent connection.

For me I can't change scenes, but most times it will let me turn individual effects on or off. At least today it was letting me do it, but sometimes it just refuses to recognize any input. At least once it would look like it was switching scenes and then my sound wouldn't change, and I'd look at the axefx front panel and it would show that it's still on the same scene
Click to expand...
Very interesting. It's unfortunate that you're experiencing this too, but at least I'm not the only one that has seen this....not sure that's good or not. For my issue it seemed like it was more likely to fail if I switched more than once quickly, almost like I switched once and then switched again before the screen finished switching. One of the times it froze last night was in tuner mode, but the tuner still worked on the FC-12....I just couldn't switch off the tuner to anything else. So weird.
 
My FC-12 locks up from time to time. Had multiple FC-12s and each have done this. Usually happens as I have mine always in stomp mode and it always happens when I have a momentary held stomp like a phaser and if I hold it down for long periods of time, the button will stop working. Only way to reset/clear this issue is to pull the fastlink cable and to plug it back in and then it works fine. Very intermittent but this does occur.
 
BDer said:
Hey all,

I've got a really bizarre issue with my AxeFXIII and the FC-12 which I believe is due to some sort of power issue, but wanted to throw the scenario out here and see if anyone else has experienced something similar.

We play around 25 shows a year, and I've never had issues except for at one specific venue. Both times at this venue, the FC-12 seems to 'mostly' lock up. I have the FC-12 set up with setlist / song buttons, typically 4 scene buttons and up to 4 effect bypass buttons. When the FC-12 locks up, I can't change scenes or bypass / enable effects, but can still advance to the next song in a setlist, but then those scenes and effects are also locked. The AxeFXIII is fine as I can change scenes from the front panel, but obviously not ideal during a show. The only solution was to unplug the Faslink / XLR cable and re-insert, and then it was ok again......sometimes for a song or two, but then locks up again. We have a spare FC-12 for the band as our bassist also uses one, and that one locked up too.

Once again, I've never seen this happen anywhere else and both times playing this venue I had these type of issues.

I am running everything through a Furman power conditioner.

Has anyone else ever ran into similar issues, and if so, is there a solution other than 'don't play at that venue'?

Thanks,

Bill
Click to expand...
Just replace the XLR-cable 😜
 
I would also check how securely stable the cable sits in the XLR port. Does it wiggle at all when plugged in all the way? Or is it solid? I always felt XLR ports are the Achilles heal of floor units.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
Could it be excessive EMI?
Click to expand...

This is my guess. I'd guess everything's shielded well in anything Cliffs put together so it seems like a far fetched answer, but many years ago we gigged regular at a club where the owner was a notorious cheap bastard who had an affinity for old neon signs and 1940's house wiring....screw in fuses, you get the picture. Rhythm player had a piece of gear that'd reset mid-song many times at every damned gig there, to the point he had to bypass it in future gigs there. It only happened there, it may have been a rockman som'n or other...but we all had Furman PCs.

Anyhow, EMI was always assumed the culprit. I guess maybe buy a reasonable EMI detector, but that may be overkill. That it only happens at that one gig brings back anxiety nightmares and great memories at the same time. Good luck, hoping to hear the fix/find/results when ya get there.
 
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