I have a QSC Touchmix 16 and find that seems to run quite hot , not alarmingly , but I am concerned that the heat may shorten it's life . Just wondering if anyone has noticed this and done anything to alleviate that potential problem . I have considered just getting a fan to cool it somewhat but just putting it out there to see if anyone came up with a better solution . Or perhaps the heat is not a problem and won't reduce the lifespan of the unit ?
QSC Touchmix 16 one hot little number
- Thread starter Brian English
- Start date
Any heat will reduce the life of the electronics, it's the nature of the physics. The question is by how much. Too hot to touch is usually an indication that you have a problem. First step is to ensure even passive air circulation. Don't set the unit on a table or case top and expect the rubber feet to allow enough air to enter the bottom vents. Always operate any electronics that don't have active cooling ( fans and more exotic cooling systems ) in a position that allows a 'chimney effect' - cool air from below the unit to rise past the heat producing components inside and out thru the top. It's pretty effective if the designers chose to employ it in the case design. If the case doesn't have enough ventilation look for ways to maximize it by removing plastic hole covers or anything that prevents air flow. A fan on a mixer seems problematic if the mixer is also a control surface.
Thank you to all for your replies . I believe I have found a relatively inexpensive solution called a Targus Lap Chill .....just have to check the dimensions of the QSC 16 to ensure size compatibility but looks like a very good way to ensure some longevity for this mixer . I am very aware that heat is a killer for most electronics , this is why I posed the question , and so was looking to see if anyone had a hands on solution . With a couple of dumb questions my Long and McQuade rep put me on to Targus laptop cooling fans and it looks like just what the doctor ordered . Thanks for the input from all of you and I will repost my reaction once I have tried this out . BTW the Lap Chill is $41.00 Canadian .
I fixed a problem heat related, I see Riley was talking about the potential.
I hope this post helps people having a similar problem as boards are all just replacement these days, and that's pretty much the whole unit.
I got one of our touchmix-16 units in the other day and had to fix a low and missing some sound frequency on the right channel, I tried resetting everything just to start from scratch, but it didn't help. swapping channels(in and out) it followed it just on output. It didn't seem to appear on headphones. For some reason it was effected by the l,c,r even though I didn't expect that, but I don't have the schematics/block diagram to see how it effects it. These things do run a little hot with no fan and not much ventilation. I took the unit apart and most of the capacitors at the back of the unit along the AUX inputs and main outputs were slightly mushroomed on top (47uf/63v). Usually in electronics it's the caps in the power supply that do that, but this seemed to just be signal. 6 mushroomed of the 10 caps in the area were reading around 16uf, so I replaced all 10. It totally fixed the problem. I didn't test the Aux before taking it apart, but I'm sure they were effected as well.
I put the same temperature rating in from my stock, but probably best to find higher temp rating to help prevent it, or at least make it last longer.
I don't have the schematic to see exactly what all of the capacitors did, but I think most were just signal related.
If you're handy you could probably add a tiny fan off the supply in since those fans are such low power drain.
Normally our units aren't used every day, but I think this one was in a studio we had built(gone now) and was running
for probably a year and a half straight but only used maybe 1 or 2 days a week. For some reason some techs don't feel the need to shut thing off when not used every day.
I hope this post helps people having a similar problem as boards are all just replacement these days, and that's pretty much the whole unit.
I got one of our touchmix-16 units in the other day and had to fix a low and missing some sound frequency on the right channel, I tried resetting everything just to start from scratch, but it didn't help. swapping channels(in and out) it followed it just on output. It didn't seem to appear on headphones. For some reason it was effected by the l,c,r even though I didn't expect that, but I don't have the schematics/block diagram to see how it effects it. These things do run a little hot with no fan and not much ventilation. I took the unit apart and most of the capacitors at the back of the unit along the AUX inputs and main outputs were slightly mushroomed on top (47uf/63v). Usually in electronics it's the caps in the power supply that do that, but this seemed to just be signal. 6 mushroomed of the 10 caps in the area were reading around 16uf, so I replaced all 10. It totally fixed the problem. I didn't test the Aux before taking it apart, but I'm sure they were effected as well.
I put the same temperature rating in from my stock, but probably best to find higher temp rating to help prevent it, or at least make it last longer.
I don't have the schematic to see exactly what all of the capacitors did, but I think most were just signal related.
If you're handy you could probably add a tiny fan off the supply in since those fans are such low power drain.
Normally our units aren't used every day, but I think this one was in a studio we had built(gone now) and was running
for probably a year and a half straight but only used maybe 1 or 2 days a week. For some reason some techs don't feel the need to shut thing off when not used every day.
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Perry Vass , sorry for the late reply and I hope you have found a solution for the excessive heat on the TM 8 and 16 . I have been using the Lap Chill for a while now and it seems to work great for that. It is apparently the display that produces most of that heat . I have noticed the unit to be much cooler when shutting down after a gig and running the TM 16 at approx 75-80% input capacity since getting that Lap Chill . Cheers
Yes that bottom cabinet plate seems to be one big heat sink. I'm curious if the brightness setting actually reduces the brightness of the backlight or just adjusts the LCD "windows" transparency, which if anything would make it theoretically heat up more because it's blocking the light from leaving along with heat, kind of like covering a pot on a stove.