I have a similar problem to one reported elsewhere on this forum. I was trying to update my Aurora module to the FDN Reverb firmware (which was the only firmware present on the USB drive), but now the module only lights up solid white. Inserting the USB drive makes the entire case of modules start to flash.
What is the correct procedure to fix this? I saw a reference in another post about a tutorial on flashing the SD, but I haven’t found anything like that yet. How should I proceed?
Thanks!
Hey @AntennaSound, I’d be happy to troubleshoot with you!
Out of curiosity, have you tried using a different USB drive? Any USB drive formatted to FAT32 should work. I just want to rule out whether it’s the module or not that is causing the issue.
Thanks, Michael - I’ll try that now and see if that does it.
Okay, I put the Aurora in a Pod on its own. Took a new FAT32 USB drive and dropped the new firmware on it. Module was white on powerup, then it started alternating a yellow-green to blue-purple, which it is still doing. Just pulsing.
Nothing blinking red on the back side (i can see the reflections on the bottom of the pod - solid red).
Does that sound healthy?
Edit: patched it through the rack and it now seems to be working with the FDN firmware. I’ll see how it goes when I rack it back in with the other modules, but it seem okay now. Should I reformat the USB drive that came with it?
Edit 2: Okay strange things are afoot at the Circle K tonight. It’s back in the rack and when playing notes through it, I hear the FDN reverbs and they sound great - but the LEDs are very faint green… almost off. When the last reverb tail fades out, the lights come back up to normal strength and do a slow pulse between yellow/green and blue/purple. At the same time, there’s a quite audible high whining buzz that pulses in time with the LEDs.
This goes away as soon as I play more notes, but the LEDs again go almost dark.
Okay, sorry to keep replying to my own posts, but I’ve progressed in trouble-shooting the situation. My thinking was that it might be a power issue with the rack. I have a few large modules that draw a lot on that row, so I moved the Aurora back into a Pod for more testing.
I just obtained a used Cosmix Pro, and I’m not entirely familiar with it yet. I started to read up online about it a little more, and someone mentioned that the channel mixing sliders actually start to drive the gain a bit around the top of the throw. I immediately started to wonder if I had a gain-staging issue that was my own fault. Recalling people talking about how much headroom the Cosmix has, I brought the channel down to about half and start adjusting gains back along the signal path. I was able to easily push the noise down “under the floor” as it where.
So, the LED whine (which is definitely down there somewhere) is no longer an issue. It was user error, it seems. However, the LEDs on the Aurora still essentially go out whenever a signal comes into the unit and do not light until the reverb tails die. I’ve not seen this behaviour in any FDN firmware videos. Should I be worried about it?
That said, I really love the reverbs!
Based on your tests, it definitely seems like the issue involved power draw. I’m glad you were able to isolate it!
The LEDs in the FDN Verb firmware are reactive to the audio input, and their brightness is directly related to audio input amplitude. If you have something that is quieter going in, the LEDs will not be as reactive. Something like an oscillator with no filtering will cause the LEDs to react at full brightness.
When no cables are present in the audio inputs, FDN Verb’s LEDs perform a brighter idle animation.
Let me know if this aligns with your experience!
Thanks, Michael - that’s interesting to know. I’ll play around with it and see if the behaviour makes sense. Thanks again for your time helping with this.
The reverb is so nice I’m starting to think of getting a second unit so I can have both firmwares at once! 