Occasional Screen Flash :/

I’ve only just noticed the screen on the ER-301 flashes brighter every so often. like it triples in brightness.
any ideas what might be going on here?

approximate power draw: 1636 mA +12V / 577 mA -12V / 50 mA +5V
Pitts Structure case: 4A +12V / 3A -12V / 2A +5V

thanks.

My first guess would be that your 12V rail is occasionally spiking to a higher voltage. To test my guess I would move the ER-301 to a different case and see if the flashing still happened.

arg…ive got no cash and one case. [I keep one case only, to stave off module addiction]
It hadn’t done this before. it only just started happening. every single product ive gotten from Pittsburgh has been faulty.

ACTAULLY, now that you made me think about it…I just recently got a new power switch for the case from Pitts, because the switch that came with was faulty. it sounded like it was shorting each time I turned it off. since adding the new switch this flashing has started.

Im not sure how that would affect it…its a pretty basic replacement. but do you think the switch it self might be responsible for the potential spikes? there’s a bunch of surge protection in the PSU inside.

side question: when I turn off the case, all my modules flicker until the residual power drains out of the PSU…so the guys at Pitts say. ive asked several times if this could be damaging to sensitive modules. that assure me its okay. but trust at this point is low.
what are your thoughts on that? I can attach a vid if needed.

I dont have money for replacing anything at this point. especially not the ER-301. adding the lead time. I would be terribly upset if I lost this beauty.

thanks for reply.

I would definitely investigate this coincidence. The cause of the problem could be somewhere else though and the failing of your previous switch could have been the indicator.

I would tend to agree that this is unlikely to damage your modules. Voltage or current that exceeds the specification is what damages electronics not the other way around. However, like the switch it could be an indicator of another problem and I would be curious if this were due to the design (so all units exhibit the behavior) or just a behavior exhibited by your particular unit.

If you have or can borrow a voltage meter, you would be able to gather some very useful data yourself by monitoring the 12V rail voltage during power-on, normal operation, and power-off.

dang…all stuff I can’t really do. :frowning:

at this point their gear really sketches me out.
its been years of issues with them. 3 faulty cases right out the gate.

thanks again for the reply.
ill try to figure something out.

This includes other modules by the way. So, although it is very time-consuming, (carefully) removing all modules and (carefully) adding them back one-by-one could yield more clues. Still I would prefer to do this while looking at a voltmeter rather than using the ER-301 or any other module as the canary.

ive had this setup for a little while. the only new comer is the ER-301.
and ive never seen any other modules with screens flash.

and the ER never flashed before either. just since I switched the switch. but again, I dont know what could be going wrong there. the replacement was beyond simple. and all the connections are well seated.

Im no electrician…so this compounds my issue. :slight_smile:

Take for example one module’s circuit board shorting (or soft shorting) against another module’s circuit board or against a metal part of the case. The possibilities are numerous, so I advise keeping assumptions to a minimum at this point.

And just to be clear, you are of course welcome to send me your ER-301 for analysis but keep in mind that international shipping is spotty at the moment.

Flicker when turning off pittsburgh modular cases is normal and not just you. I’ve been using them for years and never had any problems. I have had issues where a module (morgasmatron) in the corner of a case was somehow shorting against the metal structure that holds the rails. I never could figure out what part of the module was doing it but moving fixed it.

I guess if nothing else racking just the er-301 without any modules, as far away as the metal sides as possible and checking to see if you still get the brightness spikes might help narrow down the possibilities.

thanks guys…

I tried balancing out my power distribution. moved my ES-8 and FH-2 to the lower row, and moved the ER-301 away from the side. I had around 1100mA on top and 550mA on the bottom.

moved stuff around and away from the sides…so far seems good. rack seems somewhat cooler as well.

ill keep an eye on it.

the screens on the 301 have started to flicker again. it will flash brighter.
no mods touching the sides. power balanced top and bottom.

trying to asses if its a fault of the case or if the module is having problems. :grimacing:

so after a long game of musical chairs…ive come to the conclusion that the ER-301 does not enjoy sharing a bus board with the Mordax - DATA and the Expert Sleepers - Disting MK4.

since moving them to another row, I have no more flicker :+1:t6:
at least in my case [meaning the Structure 208]

That is interesting, I have used it with the disting without noticeable flickering.