STDM connection error

[Polarity]

My STDM connection seems to not work anymore.

A couple of months ago I had to remove the Pulsar 1 from case to get access to CMOS reset jumpers and motherboard battery, because the CPU parameters (clock and bus speed) in the BIOS went crazy.
After that when I put back the Pulsar 1 in its slot and reconnected the STDM cable to both cards (the other is a Pulsar 2), and reboot all
this warning message appeared:

Missing STDM connection
Pulsar (ID 1) does not seem to have a STDM connection to the other boards.
Please check the STDM cables.

Scope DSP counter gives just one yellow block in the meter,
the khz clock is empty and of course Scope doesn't emit any sounds.

Tried all kind of things: remove, reinsert and reconnect all many times.
Cleaned the contacts of STDM bus.
Nothing.

So I put it out and went on with just the Pulsar 2 card, that is the one registered with Scope 5.1, the 6 DSPs were enough for what I did during these two months.

Now those missing 4 DSPs would be useful for using the more Scope synths together (or more notes on each one),
so yesterday I tried putting in again the Pulsar 1.
But nothing changed, always that error alert.
Tried again to clean STDM contacts with a deoxide spray, but no difference.

Two months ago I had my left shoulder injured and painful (I have the case under desk in a small space where to operate and the case is heavy to pull it out), so when removing the card (or putting it back)
I could have touched with fingers the STDM contacts, really I don't know.
I moved the cards so many times in these years and nothing went wrong.

I read some of the old topics here, but indeed they are old... 2008, 2009.
so any other update or suggestions?
thanx in advance.

[garyb]

it's a "works or it doesn't" kind of thing, unfortunately.
other than cleaning contacts and trying a different cable, there's not much to do.

[dante]

Did you try another STDM cable ?

[quantum]

Hey, I thought I this could help. So I have the same problem now that my PC is in vertical position. Not only does the STDM connection get lost but I lose clock too because the main card (Pulsar 2) doesn't fit tight into the PCI slot. To remedy this I set the card in the position in which is has good connection and then tightened the PCI slot. If this doesn't work, try placing non-conductive paper in the PCI slot or get a motherboard that fits tight, though that would take ages

[Polarity]

no, I haven't another STDM cable.
with the Pulsar 1 there was anyone when I bought it.
I believe it was one of the first (version 1.01).
The cable came when I bought the newer Pulsar 2 (and it was 2nd hand).

I read in a post that SonicCore has finished STDM cables.

I saw someone has built new STDM cables from old floppy cables.
but I wonder how he did, cause the floppy cables I have have larger plastic connector.

@timotije2000: the slot is the same as before (the lowest one from floor),
but you make me remember that sometimes in past Scope gave me too the clock loosing error. Just a little adjustment of its alignement (grabbing it from the external connector) and then it worked ok.
I will recheck the slot tightening.
non-conductive paper? you mean normal sheet of paper?
do exist conductive paper? I never thought...

thanx to all in the meanwhile

[53E7]

I've had that before. You fix it the way you fix any other edge gold contacts that develop a foggy film over time (like on RAM or PCI or PCIe). You simply take a pencil eraser and rub all the gold edge contacts with the eraser. I prefer to use the white erasers that you get at an art store, but the ones on the back of a No.2 pencil will be just fine. Don't use alcohol or any other liquid. You should actually see the gold contacts brighten up as you rub them with the erase since you will be removing a film. 99% sure it will work after that.

[quantum]

@timotije2000: the slot is the same as before (the lowest one from floor),
but you make me remember that sometimes in past Scope gave me too the clock loosing error. Just a little adjustment of its alignement (grabbing it from the external connector) and then it worked ok.
I will recheck the slot tightening.
non-conductive paper? you mean normal sheet of paper?
do exist conductive paper? I never thought...

thanx to all in the meanwhile[/quote]


It doesn't have to paper. In fact, don't use regular paper. Use non-conductive plastic sheets, like the ones for projectors. I think those are not conductive. Or try cleaning the contacts with a hard eraser like the other guy said.

[garyb]

don't rub too hard, just until they brighten a bit.

if the slot is really loose and making poor contact, i'd try another slot and if that didn't work, get another motherboard. stuffing paper in the slot might work, but it's not the best solution. also, there are contacts on both sides...

[Polarity]

pencil rubber? I never imagined people used it for gold contacts...
yes, I have white rubbers already (always preferred white ones for drawing infact).
I'll try it on the STDM contacts.

Thanx to all.
I'll let you know.

[krizrox]

should be possible to ohm out the STDM cable to determine if in fact that's the culprit. Anything's possible. Those insulation displacement type connectors are notorious for going bad over time although mine are going on 10 years and never had an issue.

For what it's worth I made a custom set of STDM cables using the cables that originally came with my Scope cards (I've been through a few of them so I had one or two spares). Used some spare IDE floppy drive cable. Pop open the top of the STDM connector and then gently - GENTLY - pry away the old cable. Be very careful doing this. If you're not careful you can actually pull the connector pins out of the plastic housing. Then just lay the new cable into the slot and press down until the connector blades pierce the insulation. Replace the top and press down. Trim away the excess. I think I used a large flat blade screwdriver to force the cable onto the connector pin blades. I worked slowly and did a little at a time until the entire width of the cable was making contact. In the factory they have specialized tooling to do this work. Good luck!

PS - yeah the pencil eraser trick works fine and should remove any oxidation on the PCB traces. I kinda doubt this is the problem but no harm to do it anyway. And a little contact cleaner inside the STDM connector should do the trick. Frankly, if it ohms out ok and the traces are clean and it still ain't working you got a bigger problem I'm afraid.

[Strattosphere]

I was having problems with lost sync. I did all the cleaning tricks; pencil eraser, isopropanol etc, but I also had some alcohol impregnated card reader cleaning cards that I cut to size to fit into the pci slots and STDM cable sockets. I inserted them a few times and I've had no problems for a year so far.

Stratt

[Polarity]

OK thanks for the advices.

I only cleaned with the pencil rubber till now, but didn't try to mount the Pulsar 1 in the case yet.
I've my shoulders hurting after the 2nd week of physiotherapy, so I avoid to strain it for some days (yeah, in past months also a little strain as just inserting cards in slots made the pain got worse).
Maybe I will try on tomorrow or on monday.

[Polarity]

I tried.
The pencil rubber didn't work.
Still the STDM error.

>card reader cleaning cards >
don't know what they are. I think I've never seen them.

[garyb]

you can try a new s/tdm cable. after that....

[Polarity]

not sure it's a cable issue (it seems in good shape), but I will give it a try.

[Polarity]

wow, 13 months have passed since I got this problem with my Pulsar1, and I just found the time to give a new chance just today.
Well, with a new STDM cable (kindly given to me by another user) I tried already a year ago but that didn't fixed the problem, so I gave up till now.

I put the Pulsar1 on the original motherboard I used for it years ago, an ASUS P4P800 deluxe, with the XP OS hard disk that has already its SFP 3.1 installed ...
well, Pulsar1 doesn't work here neither!

It's simply doesn't clock and the system window remains with "--.-" symbols and no khz rate appears; DSP meter is empty as well, even if I add some Masterverb units.
Everytime I change ULLI latency and retry the sync pressing SLAVE or MASTER a 44.1 khz appears (even if I have set 48 or 96 khz) for a while but then disappears...
and updates the DSP load if I have inserted some Masterverb units.
But if I add or remove Masterverb it does not change the DSP load.

So, at this point...
any chance to fix or repair easily this Pulsar1 card, or is it better to not waste other time and consider its glorious services terminated??
There are a few cheap second hand deals here in my country for Pulsar2 cards...
and I was already considering them, perhaps getting two of them.

Thanks for every advice.
All the best.

[garyb]

no, there's probably no repair for the card.

[Polarity]

I guessed.

indeed the truth about the issue has been revealed: a chipset broke/lost a leg, see the photo, and also the 1st leg is not touching the board.

[53E7]

I think this can be repaired. The far leg could definitely be soldered back on. The inner one where the leg actually broke off might have enough metal left to solder a small jumper cable to patch it back onto the board. You may have to scrape away some of the plastic on the chip with an x-acto knife to have enough metal to solder to. I'd certainly give it a go if you have some good soldering skills and a decent iron, or know someone who does.

[garyb]

yep.