I'm sad... my little labs red eye is almost dying

[kaomao]

I notice this fucking annoying problem when I engage the earth lift button.
Basically the signal to the reamp output goes away.
I have to switch it on and off few times to get it working again.
I hope this is just some bad contacts!!!!
The unit is expensive and has worked great for a few years now (more than 3 years) with no problems at all!
I fucking hate this!
I don't have trusty tech guys around my area to fix this, I think if it dies I'm gonna send it back to the us.
....well actually there is a tech guy, he's good! he fixes a lot of amps and electronics but he always take forever to fix shit! I hate when I have to wait too much (from 2/3 weeks to a full month...)
this fucking sucks

 

[::XeS::]

2 weeks ago I noticed a weird problem too. I was recording somo solos and when I pushed the earth lift button it added hum noise....and when it was not pressed the hum disappeared. The opposite of how it should work.
And more strange...the day before it worked correctly.
Probably it was due by a different socket position of the equipment....

 

[Melodeath]

I used to have that earth lift issue with my Redeye too. Sometimes earth lift in would be better (less hum), sometimes worse (more hum). And without changing any power outlets or anything. It depended on the day

 

[greyskull]

Mail Jonathon Little. He's a nice guy

 

[Omega_Void]

...when I pushed the earth lift button it added hum noise....and when it was not pressed the hum disappeared. The opposite of how it should work.

That's not abnormal. Which position is best for removing hum depends on the system as a whole.

Ground-lifts in electronically-balanced circuits do not disconnect circuitry from system ground, but isolate from ground-line AC with a filter circuit. It looks simple on paper when you're designing one piece of gear, but engaging ground-lift in more than one piece of gear places all these filters in parallel, changing the overall circuit and altering how it behaves.

Transformer-balanced inputs are different and one side can be fully disconnected, but if double-insulated gear with no safety-earth is present... let me quote Bill Whitlock:

Jensen Transforemers Application Note 003
Interconnection of Balanced and Unbablanced Equipment

Its chassis floats above the environmental ground, sometimes over 50 volts above it. If connected to ground, or other equipment that is grounded, a small current (generally under 1 mA) will flow through the connection. If this floating equipment were connected to a balanced input with pin 1 lifted, the common-mode voltage presented to the input could be over 50 volts. This would tax the common-mode rejection capabilities of any input stage. Obviously, allowing the equipment to float is not a good idea. Unless it is grounded elsewhere, it must be grounded through the cable shield at the balanced input. If you should have some well-designed equipment that actually has a ground lift switch, set it to GND.

More data here if you want technical stuff.

Practical upshot is that ground-lift switches should be tried in both positions,lift isn't always better.

 

[chrisjmp]

Mail Jonathon Little. He's a nice guy

Yeah hit up Jonathan, I worked at a Hollywood studio a few years ago and he personally came by when the pcp distro was acting up, definitely a good guy

 

[kaomao]

definitely i`ll email jonathan! I hope i can fix it by myself

 

[Omega_Void]

I hope I can fix it by myself

Just in case you didn't know, if you're planning to open it up, you should make sure the screwdrivers etc. are not magnetised. It's important to make sure the transformer inside (and the shielding can if it's in one) doesn't come into contact with magnetised materials, or performance can be degraded.

 

[kaomao]

Just in case you didn't know, if you're planning to open it up, you should make sure the screwdrivers etc. are not magnetised. It's important to make sure the transformer inside (and the shielding can if it's in one) doesn't come into contact with magnetised materials, or performance can be degraded.

Cool!
Glad you said that! fortunately I don't have magnetized screwdrivers, at least I have to try if the tip of the screwdriver it is.