MIDI Phantom Power and FASLink

[vkhavin]

Hey guys, I'm hoping someone here can shed some light on this for me. I've had an XL+ for a couple of years and I've been using an older DMC Ground Control board to control it. That takes a 7-pin MIDI cable and I plug in the power block for it into the back of the AxeFX to provide phantom power. I recently picked up a second-hand MFC 101 mkIII which I would like to also use. (I have two projects. I bring my AxeFX with me from space to space, but I would prefer not to drag the pedal board around as well.) The question is... that phantom power port that has been powering my old board; is it separate from the FASLink port? Can I leave that block connected or do I need to unplug it every time? I know the MFC power block is not supposed to be plugged in when you are running FASLink, but is this the same thing?

Additionally, I've noticed that while I got the MFC working fine most of the time, I will periodically get into a name timeout state. At that point, if I power cycle the AxeFX (and the MFC since that's what's powering it) I am back in a good state and I can continue using it just fine. Until it unpredictably happens again. When I'm noodling around at home it's annoying but not the end of the world... but I can't have that happen on stage. So this intermittent communication issue; is this a case of I need a different cable? (I'm using an older but seemingly solid Whirlwind XLR cable.) Or is this a fact of life with FASLink?

 

[unix-guy]

As far as I am aware there should be no concern with leaving the wall wart plugged in while using FASlink.

On the communication timeout I don't have an answer, but it seems to be a common issue for some people... I never had the issue using FASlink. Do some searching here, you'll find some threads.

 

[vkhavin]

Thanks, unix-guy. That'll save me from forgetting to plug it back in and then wondering why my controller isn't working!

As far as the timeout issue goes, yes, I've read that a lot of people have them though it appears that for them they are all-or-nothing situations. As in the MFC turns on and times out right away. When I search for intermittent issues (as in it starts working fine but then suddenly stops working without powering down) there was not a whole lot about it unless I just completely missed in my search. The only thing I've seen so far was that Neutrik connectors work better than others. I'll slap some of those on and give it a go, but I'm wondering if there is anything else contributing to it.