So I have my mopho keyboard connected to the DT, the DT out goes to a novation circuit. Everything worked well for a while. Then the Midi started to crap. I tested everything, then finally realized that my midi out port on the Mopho was fried. I though maybe it’s always been like that and I didn’t realized it.
The mopho as a secondary midi out (for polychain). So I started using that one instead. I didn’t used it for a while, then today I re-did the connection, mopho to dt, dt to circuit. I played for a while, then left the gear as is. While watching television I hear a weird noise coming from the synth. I go to the studio and try to play on the mopho. The midi routing isn’t working anymore. I plug in the mopho directly to the circuit, nothing… just blip of midi signal coming in once in a while. Plug the DT to the circuit, all is fine, I can play on the DT to the circuit with no problem.
Now my mopho 2 midi port are fried, nothing comes out of it. I have to send it back to DSI support to fix the port. How can the DT fry another device out port? I tried other cables and it was the same, so it wasn’t a bad cable… This is really infuriating since it happened twice exactly the same way.
If anyone has any idea what could be going wrong I’d really appreciate it. I’m scared now of plugin my mopho in the DT - even when I get it fixed, I’d probably chain thing differently.
How did you even come to this conclusion?
A midi in port is a galvanically isolated port with no power going back to device connected to it.
It seems more logical to blame the Mopho, not the Digitakt.
Yeah that was my first conclusion, but then 2 ports burnt in a row? That seems quite weird. I have plugged in the mopho to countless device before and it worked fine…
Yep the digitakt port works fine. I’m just flabbergasted and wanted to share if anyone else had that happens to them.
It might be that something broke in the power source for the midi out ports. The reason that the second port lived a bit longer could just be because it wasn’t connected, or the components held out longer.
DSI had issues with bad solder joints on their DIN-MIDI ports about 10 years ago.
Had several from that era, was easy to resolder them. They’ll loosen up over time too, since the ports aren’t bolted onto the chassis.
I switched to the cheap Hosa plastic-housing MIDI cables - they’re much lighter than the more expensive cables with the heavier metal-housings. Also was gentler when handling them.
Wow thanks for that. Good to know, this synth is about 10 years old actually. Does it make sense to open it up and check out the soldering? I have some experience with soldering with a decent soldering iron.
When I contacted DSI they say it was free to get the midi port fixed, maybe because it was a known issue after all. But I’d rather fix it myself is I can as I don’t like the wait of shipping the synth back and forth to California from Canada.
Unfortunately there was nothing I could see wrong. The midi port are soldered in the pcb directly, and the joints seems fine from a visual inspection. There isn’t much I can see, even less fix at that point… Anyway glad I got to open it up I’ll have to send it to the mothership after all.
Cracked solder joints can be very hard to pick up with a visual inspection, even when using a magnifier. If you feel confident you could ‘reflow’ the joints by heating up the existing joint with an iron.
I’ll have to send it to the mothership after all.
