Line6 Relay G90 digital out possible?

This is tremendous information, thank you. Please let us know if Line6 replies, as getting this working would be amazing.
 
@Martin Silbernagl

Very interesting information, if we knew the missing parts I surely would get a G90 and try to retrofit the digital out(s).

... The DIT4096 probably wouldn't need any firmware support.

Yes, the DIT4096 has a hardware mode... if that is the mode it is set to, I would assume no firmware support would be required.

... One hair in the soup: there doesn't seem to be a provision for a master clock input.

Do you address a master clock input from outside the G90 or a master clock signal generated by the G90 itself?
 
Looks like all that's missing is a TI DIT4096 (where it says U28), two oscilators (Y5 and Y6), three transformers (T4, T5 and T6), a bunch of resistors and capacitors and another IC (U27) that shouldn't be so hard to figure out.

The DIT4096 probably wouldn't need any firmware support. It basically requires power and the audio bitstream.

I have two G90s: I think I might open up a case with Line6 to see whether they would share the parts list for these components and try to upgrade at least one of them.

The only alternative I can see (sennheiser EM6000) costs EUR 3500 for the receiver and another EUR 2000 for the body pack. Sure makes this upgrade path worth pursuing.

One hair in the soup: there doesn't seem to be a provision for a master clock input.
Having the traces is one piece of the puzzle, having firmware support is the other piece. If there's no option in the firmware to use the trace as an input signal, all the soldering in the world isn't going to save you, right?

Interested to see how the sacrificial lamb turns out when you get to trying this.
 
Hi guys!

Sorry for reviving an old thread, but it's incredible that Line6 has never released to this date a version that has digital outputs. What is more incredible is that all the other manufacturers also don't care about digital outputs on their digital wireless systems.

Digital effects processors are on the rise, most offer such incredible performance that it just makes more sense than using the analog counterparts. The vast majority offer digital inputs (mostly SPDIF, some offer AES also) so it really makes no sense to use analog signals to transfer digital signals. The major reason: D/A and A/D conversions add some delay. Two minor reasons: you need to think about your gain settings (i.e. signal levels), also the signal quality is always slightly degraded.

So after a lot of digging about wireless systems for instruments, retrofitting the missing components on the G90 looks like the most cost effective solution for now.

After looking more closely at the PCB traces from the picture provided in the previous posts, the pinout of U28 don't match what was previously suggested (TI DIT4096). We can see that the transmit pins are on pins 25 & 26. Also, U28 is a transceiver IC, not a transmitter IC. So after some more digging it looks to me that U28 is actually a Cirrus Logic CS8427. Y6 and Y5 look to be DIP-8 half size precision oscillators for 22.5792 MHz and 24.576 MHz respectively but the pinout doesn't seem to perfectly match (VCC and GND look inverted...).

I have tried to figure out the U27 IC but no luck on that. It looks to be some kind of input selector for switching between AES and SPDIF inputs. Since this is for digital input, it can be ignored...

Some have suggested that there might potentially be an issue regarding the firmware support for the missing components, that could be true since if U28 is the CS8427 than it's used in software mode (pin 24, looks like it's connected to GND). Nevertheless, since they did not bother on removing the pcb traces, there is a chance that they did not bother on altering the firmware (also possibly no need to...).

Figuring out the remaining components regarding capacitors and resistors should not be too difficult, there is an evaluation board for the CS8427 called CS8427EB and accompanying datasheet that has relevant circuit diagrams with values for these components.

So if I ever get my hands on one of these units, I'll let you know if the digital output can be retrofitted. In the meantime, if someone is interested in retrofitting a digital output on their G90, please let me know! The only tricky part is figuring out which oscillator goes where, but since there are only 2 ways it's not a huge issue. There would also be a need to make a hole in the metal chassis for the AES connector, but for testing purposes a XLR cable can be soldered to the pcb instead.

Since I spent most of today thinking about this I hope someone out there will find this useful. If so, please get back to us on how it turned out!
 
Just to let you know that I have purchased a G90 unit! It has the same PCB with the missing components as the one that was shown in this thread so I have ordered some of the missing components that I think are going to fit. But it's going to take some time for the shipping and I am not sure when I'll have the time to play with this but I'll let you know if I get any progress.

I presume that after almost 10 years from the original post most of you have lost interest in this topic. The unit is out of stock almost everywhere except on zzounds.com so it also might be out of production at this point...

It's just very odd that in this digital age we don't have any wireless system that provides SPDIF or AES outputs. Most people probably don't care or don't know how to make it work but I care and I think I'm not the only one. It would have been a great selling point for the G90, especially today with the Helix Rack, Axe-FX III, Kemper Rack but also plugins on PCs...
 
I presume that after almost 10 years from the original post most of you have lost interest in this topic. The unit is out of stock almost everywhere except on zzounds.com so it also might be out of production at this point...
Nonetheless, looking forward to your findings. :)

It's just very odd that in this digital age we don't have any wireless system that provides SPDIF or AES outputs
+1
 
Hey guys, I also would be very interested in having a digital out on my g90. However I need to fix it first, as it doesn't turn on anymore. Figured out hat the L1 resistor on the power pcb exploded. Can anyone of you tell me what's the value of the L1 resistor? I see the color code orange/white/red/silver (3k9 10%) but I don't know if there's a ring missing because the whole resistor is in two halves.

Would really appreciate if any of you guys, could have a look. Btw, it's a european version (230v)
 
Hey guys, I also would be very interested in having a digital out on my g90. However I need to fix it first, as it doesn't turn on anymore. Figured out hat the L1 resistor on the power pcb exploded. Can anyone of you tell me what's the value of the L1 resistor? I see the color code orange/white/red/silver (3k9 10%) but I don't know if there's a ring missing because the whole resistor is in two halves.

Would really appreciate if any of you guys, could have a look. Btw, it's a european version (230v)
Line 6 support seems like the people to talk to, better than here anyway.
 
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