Lab.Gruppen PLM 14000 problem

K

Kevin Govaerts

Freshman
Jul 19, 2012
1
0
0
Hi there,

I recently bought six Lab.Gruppen PLM 14k's and I'm really happy with it!
But I'm having a problem that even the support of Lab.Gruppen don't really understand. Maybe there are some wizz on this forum who can help me out.

My problem
When I connect with daisy chain and start up the LAKE Controller, I can only see four of the six amplifiers. Also in the LAKE update I only see the four that are running the same firmware.

What's causing the problem

After close inspection I discovered that the bundle and DSP are different from the two I can't see and the four I can see.

What i've tried

I've tried the hard factory reset.
I've tried the downgrade bundle.
I've tried setting up a VPN to call in directly.

--------------------------------------

PLM 14k information

Not communicating x2
FW VersionAmplifier 0.14.2
Front Panel 1.6.0
Bundle 10.02.91
DSP 10.02.91
FPGA 041
Safe Image 0.03


Communicating x4
FW Version
Amplifier 0.14.2
Front Panel 1.6.3
Bundle 00.02.96
DSP 00.02.96FPGA 041
Safe Image 0.03


Still I cannot see them in the upgrade or in the LAKE controller so I cannot upgrade the firmware and even worse I can't control them!
Anybody here who knows what the solution is to my problem??
Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

Kevin Govaerts
 
Re: Lab.Gruppen PLM 14000 problem

Hey Kevin,
Have you tried to connect to the non communicating amps directly with an old version of the Lake controller? Can't understand why Labgruppen support shouldn't be able to help you with the information you give here. I would suspect that the firmware and or network card/ software, to be broken, but have not encounted that exact problem before.
 
Re: Lab.Gruppen PLM 14000 problem

Hi Kevin,

Is it only a problem when daisy chaining? Can you talk to each amp individually with just one ethernet cable between the controller and the amp (or just one switch in between the controller and the amp)?

For the non-communicating amps, you've listed DSP bundle 10.02.91. Is this a typo? Release 5.8build005 has DSP bundle 00.02.91.

I suggest trying controller 5.8build005 on these amps to see if you can talk to them. Lab should have this for download somewhere, or PM me and I can send you older versions.

It's not quite the same but I have had cases where I've updated the bundle in the Lake board (which should trigger a front panel and amp firmware update at reboot) but after reboot, either the amp and/or the front panel hasn't updated. Another reboot or two has fixed this.

And in one case where the amp firmware and DSP firmware were different, I couldn't communicate with the Lake board at all. (It would only sporadically respond to controller commands and not long enough for use, or even firmware updates. It seemed it was being flooded with messages from the amp board.) In order to get the amp firmware up to date, I had to update the bundle on a different amp (by first downgrading), shut this amp down (before the Lake board updated), pull the Lake board out, put it into the problem amp, then power up the problem amp. As the newly updated Lake board booted, it saw the out of date amp board and updated it's firmware. Once everything was working. I shut down the problem amp and swapped the Lake boards back. [Maybe this has changed in more recent builds, but it seems that the Lake board checks whether it should update the amp ONLY when it itself is first powered up after a bundle update. Rather than at every powerup... However the front panel does appear to update at any time. I've often swapped front panels between amps and seen this.]

I wouldn't recommend swapping Lake boards unless you're absolutely out of options and need to check if the problem is just the Lake board or combination of Lake board and amp. It's easy to break off some of the larger capacitors on the Lake board when inserting it. I've done it myself. :-)

Best,
Michael
 
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