MFC-101 Red Lights Issue

P

playingitloud

Inspired
Hey Everyone,

I have been reading through all the old threads and I haven't come across this topic where it was fixed.

Situation: My MFC-101 MKIII ends up having all red lights and blank screen if I plug the official power adapter into the back of the AXE FX II XL+ (using a 7 pin midi cable).

It works fine when I power it directly from the wall to the MFC but the lights all turn red when it is done through the back of the XL+

The MFC MKIII is FW 3.08 and the XL+ has 10.01.

Is something missing?

This was purchased about two years ago but I had never taken it out of the box until about a month ago so I don't know if there was an issue (defective) when I purchased it (new in the box).
 
Hi Chris,

It is a HOSA 7 pin midi cable and I bought two of them directly from Sweetwater last month.

It worked fine for powering an MFC MKI through the back of my friend's Ultra today so I am thinking it is wired correctly.

I thought there might be an issue with the cable myself when I found it did the all red light thing a few weeks ago so I decided to just use the power adapter direct with a 5 pin cable for the last few weeks, however, I found the cable worked fine through the Ultra using the phantom power option through the back today :-(

BTW, thanks for all the helpful videos you have provided for all of us over the years (I have been referencing many of them as I have been dialing in the MFC's, Ultra, and XL+).
 
Off-topic but related to midi connections and I am looking into using the FASLINK connection as the next option.

I am using a JMP-1 preamp in the XL+ fx loop.

I am able to switch the JMP-1 presets using a midi cable and midi mapping on the JMP-1.

Any idea of how I would be able to change the presets on the JMP-1 using the FASLINK connection and a midi cable from the XL+?

I am not really familiar with the technology behind the FASLINK connection but I am assuming it's not possible since "midi" messaging is needed for changing the presets on the JMP-1 from the MFC.
 
Shouldn't be a problem. The MFC is a MIDI device so it doesn't matter what cabling type you use .... it's still exactly the same MIDI information being sent from the MFC to (and 'thru') the AxeFX.
 
How long is the cable? The problem is that there is a bit of current drain when running phantom power, and it's worse the longer the cable.

I had this issue with a custom 20' BTPA cable (very high quality). They won't even make a cable for this purpose longer than 20' due to this.

The solution is a power supply with higher current. Or a shorter cable...

The problem there is that the phantom jack on the Axe Fx doesn't support more than 1000ma. I'm using a 5-7 pin adapter cable with my Axe Fx III, and I had to use a 1300ma adapter.

If you can use FASLink, do it - much better because you don't need a power adapter and it's a much sturdier and common cable.
 
Oh, and for passing Midi you'll probably want to set the Echo MFC option to ON in Global settings.
 
@maxdown, thanks.

I tried it just now and nothing changed on my JMP-1 using the FASLINK option (and selected on the XL+ and the MFC), where it worked fine using a midi cable, however, I was using the "thru" (like with midi cables) from the XL+ to the JMP-1.

I noticed that the setting unix-guy mentioned said "MFC ECHO TO MIDI OUT" so I decided to use the "out" instead of "thru" from the XL+ and it worked fine and no issues :)

@unix-guy, the cable is 25 feet, but the interesting thing is that it works completely fine and no red lights issue with the Ultra and a different MFC.

I decided to connect my power adapter and the same midi cable to the Ultra and I found it has the red light issue, so it has to be specific to my MFC.

Well, thank you very much to both of you for your help and suggestions since I was able to get everything to work using the FASLINK option which I actually prefer since those XLR cables are much sturdier than the midi cables and there is no need for a power adapter anymore.

Happy Holidays to you both and your families!!!
 
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