noise problem with Pulsar II and Luna 2496 breakoutbox

flashvalley · Post by **flashvalley** » Sun Nov 10, 2002 9:49 am

I've got a nasty problem I've been struggling for a while with now.
There are a high pitched noise and crackling sounds on the main outputs of my Pulsar II, but also on the outputs of the Luna box. Mouse movement as well as changing ULLI settings seems to have an effect on the noise.
Now I've noticed when I unplug the Luna Box the noise disappears. Plugging it back in will bring the noise back instantly. I bought the Luna Box recently so I would like to use it without these kind of problems
Very disturbing!
Does anyone know what could cause this? Remedy?

I know there are some topics with similar problems but none of them seem to mention the Luna Box (which is clearly causing the problem with my setup)

Greets,

Valley

borg · Post by **borg** » Sun Nov 10, 2002 10:04 am

just a wild guess... but is there a button to make the luna box act as a 'slave'?

i have the old A8, and when powered up, it's default setting is master. when i forget to switch it to 'optical' (slave), i have this high pitched noise on my inputs as well.

flashvalley · Post by **flashvalley** » Sun Nov 10, 2002 10:12 am

I've tried it and the high pitched sound is almost gone but the crackling remains...

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Sun Nov 10, 2002 11:20 am

Watch your Samplerate. Is it steady during the clicks?

flashvalley · Post by **flashvalley** » Mon Nov 11, 2002 6:36 am

I don't think I should switch to slave mode when using a Z-link device such as the luna box. When I switch to slave mode the system samplerate will show "--"... don't think that's right..

what do now?

Kenf · Post by **Kenf** » Tue Nov 12, 2002 4:09 am

Hi
I had problems with noise when using my Luna 2496 and Pulsar at first. I went around tightening all the screws in my PC, routed all the cables in my setup carefully and it eventually when away.
Electrical noise/ ground loops can be a problem, you need to wire your equipment as professionally as you can. You may need to spend some money on it, it's easy to over look the importance of good quality cables and good installation.
During my 'experiments' I connected a hefty ground connection directly between my PC case and Mixer case.... There was lots of high frequency noise introduced. PC's are electrically very noisey. A good quality computer case can help.
How complicated is your setup?

flashvalley · Post by **flashvalley** » Tue Nov 12, 2002 4:47 pm

I'll have to get help on the matter as I don't fully understand these grounding issues.

My setup is fairly simple. The Main outs of the pulsar II are connected to my mixer (behringer MX8000). The Outs of the Luna box are also connected to the mixer so I can use 10 outputs.
The 8 groups of the mixer are connected to the ins of the luna box.

But what I don't understand is: why is there no noise when the luna box isn't connected and appears it immediate when i conbect to the pulsar board?

Just trying to understand it all..

Valentijn

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Tue Nov 12, 2002 6:23 pm

What is your powersupply? Cuz you know that LunaBox is powered by the pci bus...A 300W is just barely enough for a P3 + Lunabox... A P4 would need at least 400W, if you have 2 HD + 2 cdrom, then a 450W is better.

Just my guess, maybe it is not related...

flashvalley · Post by **flashvalley** » Wed Nov 13, 2002 9:47 am

Tech support from creamware asked me the same question. And I've got a 250W power supply. I'll have to check out an other power supply..
But what do you mean with the Lunabox being powered by the PCI bus? I had to connect a powerplug from the powersupply to the Z-link so I would say it's being powered by the power supply? Or am I wrong here?

Valentijn

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Wed Nov 13, 2002 9:55 am

Luna2496 is powered by Z-Link cable, which draws it's power from the cable you attached between IDE-power to IO-card.

DSP cards get power from PCI bus, Z-Link from the IDE power cables.

Try to run without Z-Link/Luna2496 if you suspect the PSU. Does it still click on Pulsar's analog out?

flashvalley · Post by **flashvalley** » Wed Nov 13, 2002 10:20 am

nope that was part of the problem... when I disconnect the luna box (pulling out the z-link cable) the noise disappears almost fully. But when i reconnect the box, the noise will be back instantly...

So does this indicate it's the power supply?

Valentijn

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Wed Nov 13, 2002 10:24 am

If no Z-Link modules are directed to your monitors (they may be loaded cos then the Z-Link is really working), I'm quite positive, yes!