Mixers/Consoles Behringer X32 - Bad AES50 Card

[jonliles]

Has anyone experienced or heard of a failure of the AES50 card on their Behringer X32? A local HoW I work with had a power surge during a storm that knocked out some of the LED house lights and the AES50 in the X32.

Their typical set is X32 AES50>S32 Stage box.

Does anyone have a lead on repair parts?

 

[FMEng]

I don't think that's a card or separate module. Have you tried the the other AES50 jack? It could also be the S32, so you may need to try another stage box for thorough troubleshooting.

 

[jonliles]

I don't think that's a card or separate module. Have you tried the the other AES50 jack? It could also be the S32, so you may need to try another stage box for thorough troubleshooting.

The board was already offsite by the time they called me to trouble shoot. I read in a another forum that the AES50s are daughter cards. Sadly, they are not using shielded Cat5e cables - they cheaped out on the install.

I've suggested to them that they try different board/stage box for trouble shooting. We'll see. Ball is in their court. The current Worship Leader is trying to correct several years worth of band-aids, and he reached out to me for help. We've been family friends for nearly 2 decades.

 

[RonHebbard]

The board was already offsite by the time they called me to trouble shoot. I read in a another forum that the AES50s are daughter cards. Sadly, they are not using shielded Cat5e cables - they cheaped out on the install.

I've suggested to them that they try different board/stage box for trouble shooting. We'll see. Ball is in their court. The current Worship Leader is trying to correct several years worth of bandaids, and he reached out to me for help. We've been family friends for nearly 2 decades.

Let's hope this doesn't end your friendship.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[jonliles]

Let's hope this doesn't end your friendship.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

As long as he is providing the bourbon, er , um, I mean sacramental wine, why would it?

 

[StradivariusBone]

Sadly, they are not using shielded Cat5e cables - they cheaped out on the install.

That's probably a main issue there. We had a similar setup using an M32 and a DL32 with a Dante I/O card installed. Couldn't use the Dante clock without the AES50 line perpetually dropping out, and even with the internal clock it was persistent issues of signal dropout or noise in the Dante feeds. There are a number of threads and videos about the AES50 interface on these boards having issues mitigating static discharges and it's funny to see this thread now as we just experienced a pair of dropouts while using a shielded ethercon.

The X/M32's are fine boards, but I personally won't recommend using them with stageboxes because of these faults. It's definitely the Achilles heel. Following this thread, but past trying the B port, I'd recommend upgrading to a shielded cable.

 

[TimMc]

IIRC the AES50 card is a daughter board in the full size X/M32. If it's out of warranty there are a handful of shops that might have/can get parts, presuming they're available.

I'd start by swapping AES "A" output of the S/DL32 to the B input of the console. Fail? Try B to A. Fail? Try another cable and repeat. Fail? Borrow another X32 and/or an S/DL 16/32 and repeat, swapping until you find the one that that doesn't work with any of the other devices.

edit ps: do these go bad? Yes. Not ESD but from lightning or PoE voltage on the CAT5e. A few have spontaneously died. Reports of both are in low numbers relative to the 1m+ units sold.

 

[jonliles]

IIRC the AES50 card is a daughter board in the full size X/M32. If it's out of warranty there are a handful of shops that might have/can get parts, presuming they're available.

I'd start by swapping AES "A" output of the S/DL32 to the B input of the console. Fail? Try B to A. Fail? Try another cable and repeat. Fail? Borrow another X32 and/or an S/DL 16/32 and repeat, swapping until you find the one that that doesn't work with any of the other devices.

edit ps: do these go bad? Yes. Not ESD but from lightning or PoE voltage on the CAT5e. A few have spontaneously died. Reports of both are in low numbers relative to the 1m+ units sold.

Thanks, @TimMc . Unit is only 3 years old, so just out of warranty. I send them the name of a Music Tribe/Behringer authorized repair shop nearby. I suggested the same trouble shooting to at least ensure the S32 is working correctly.

@StradivariusBone They hand a lightning strike that took out other equipment as well. Shielded cable is cheap insurance for future failures of this type. I've never had an issues using my X32Compact as a stage box to another board or using the S16s as stage boxes, but then again, I have shielded cable in inventory for my use. I'm considering buying an Midas stage box just to get the cleaner preamps, not that their is anything wrong with the Midas pre's in the X32.

 

[StradivariusBone]

Dave Rat has a video where he tears down an M32 and an X32 and it's really interesting the differences between the two. The Midas build is definitely a step up.

Is the conduit under the slab? I've seen that tend to pull lightning into devices a bit more. In any event, the issues we've seen is that the board loses sync with the boxes. It will generally correct after a power cycle, but it is finicky about which gets powered on first a lot of the time and more recently we witnessed a complete lose of signal after running for a period of time, though it still recognized the stage box as connected with the green box on the console display. Just my personal anecdotes, I don't trust the AES50 on these consoles with the experiences I've had.

 

[jonliles]

Dave Rat has a video where he tears down an M32 and an X32 and it's really interesting the differences between the two. The Midas build is definitely a step up.

Is the conduit under the slab? I've seen that tend to pull lightning into devices a bit more. In any event, the issues we've seen is that the board loses sync with the boxes. It will generally correct after a power cycle, but it is finicky about which gets powered on first a lot of the time and more recently we witnessed a complete lose of signal after running for a period of time, though it still recognized the stage box as connected with the green box on the console display. Just my personal anecdotes, I don't trust the AES50 on these consoles with the experiences I've had.

Sadly, The Cat5e unshielded is running outside (both>wall>outside>wall>S32) via incorrectly grounded conduit.

 

[FMEng]

A shielded cable doesn't do much for lightning. Lightning will kill whatever it wants to. If lightning is the concern, unplugging cables from the equipment is the most reliable damage prevention.

The shielded cable will prevent sync unlocks from static discharge, provided it has ethercon connectors, and those connector shells are properly installed to have continuity to the cable shield. If you don't put ethercons on both ends, don't waste money on the shielded cable. The connectors divert energy to the chassis and away from the circuit board.

In some cases, glitches with an S32, or other stage box, occurs because the firmware in the stage box is not up to date. Many people keep the console firmware current, but forget to do the stage box.