JD Elliott
Inspired
When I first got my FM3 from G66.EU, I got the dreaded silver USB lead which removed the USB pin protector and thus I ended up unknowingly bending and destroying the pin on my first FM3. G66 swiftly replaced this device and gave me a decent USB lead to go with. All has been wonderful until yesterday when I went to plug in the USB and something was not right, the cable was really loose, I took a look and to my horror the USB Pin protector in the interface was missing yet again, I won't deny, I nearly cried like a pussy!! Luckily I realised the pins were not bent this time, I looked everywhere for the pin protector but could not find it. So I found an old USB hub I had and tried to remove the pin protector, I could not remove this with pliers, I had to near destroy the USB hub to get the pin protector out but managed to do so with it in tact and fitted nicely to my FM3 and all was working again - Phew!
What I want to know is, why does this pin protector keep coming out? I have been very careful removing the USB lead from my FM3 and on other devices such as my cheap little Zoom G3, I could not even remove this with pliers and with force. My only conclusion is there is a batch of FM3's (maybe the first wave of them as I have one without a headphone socket) which IMO I think have defective USB type B sockets. In the grand scheme of things, if this was to go again and the pins bent up then I could still update the device via a MIDI to USB interface which are pretty cheap and get a dedicated USB -C Audio interface and plug the FM3 into it via SPDIF but this is additional expense and not ideal seeing as the FM3 has such a great audio capabilities for recording and not being able to utilise that would be a bitter pill to swallow. I've now ordered a female type A to male type b adapter which I plan to permanently leave connected to the FM3 so I don't have to keep unplugging the USB lead all the time and risk damage, although the pin protector I have put on seems pretty sturdy. Anybody got any other suggestions to prevent breakage of this some what delicate USB interface. Is there scope for a future firmware update to utilise the type A interface on the FM3 to use for USB Midi and Audio rather than the type B interface as this is a lot more robust.
Really hate to post stuff like this as the FM3 for me is a dream come true for my guitar tones and my love for the Fractal Team goes deep
What I want to know is, why does this pin protector keep coming out? I have been very careful removing the USB lead from my FM3 and on other devices such as my cheap little Zoom G3, I could not even remove this with pliers and with force. My only conclusion is there is a batch of FM3's (maybe the first wave of them as I have one without a headphone socket) which IMO I think have defective USB type B sockets. In the grand scheme of things, if this was to go again and the pins bent up then I could still update the device via a MIDI to USB interface which are pretty cheap and get a dedicated USB -C Audio interface and plug the FM3 into it via SPDIF but this is additional expense and not ideal seeing as the FM3 has such a great audio capabilities for recording and not being able to utilise that would be a bitter pill to swallow. I've now ordered a female type A to male type b adapter which I plan to permanently leave connected to the FM3 so I don't have to keep unplugging the USB lead all the time and risk damage, although the pin protector I have put on seems pretty sturdy. Anybody got any other suggestions to prevent breakage of this some what delicate USB interface. Is there scope for a future firmware update to utilise the type A interface on the FM3 to use for USB Midi and Audio rather than the type B interface as this is a lot more robust.
Really hate to post stuff like this as the FM3 for me is a dream come true for my guitar tones and my love for the Fractal Team goes deep