Author Topic: Strange Poping Noise from my Orion (Read 269 times)

lowlife · « **on:** April 27, 2008, 06:51:27 AM »

Set-up: Orion, 25-foot Road Hog cable, Eden Metro
Every so often there is a loud POP, some times 4 or five in succession then back to normal. The POP appears to be powerful enough to possibly blow one of both of the Metro's drivers. I switched to another Road Hog Cable, same thing. I switched to a 3rd Road Hog Cable, again same thing. I swapped the Orion for one my Excels, no POP. The 2nd Excel, no POP, back to the Orion, POP, POP, POP. I took the Orion to the local Alembic Dealer (Steve's Music Store, Montreal), but they could not replicate the problem and trying 7 differnt rigs in their store could not reproduce the problem. One of my friends suggested that the POP sounded like an electrical discharge of some sort, but that's only an opinion, and even if he's right I have no clue as to which component might be the culprit.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Ellery (Lowlife)

keith_h · « **Reply #1 on:** April 27, 2008, 07:48:57 AM »

Have you tried exercising or cleaning the input jack on the Orion? This could be a case of dirty contacts causing either the signal connection to be opening or possibly the 9V contacts to be opening and closing.

Another thing to try is swap the 1/4 connectors with your Excel and see of the problem moves. If it does it confirms the problem is in the connector somewhere.

Keith

David Houck · « **Reply #2 on:** April 27, 2008, 10:45:38 AM »

When you took the Orion to the store, did you use the Road Hog cable? If not, try a different brand of cable at home. The barrels of different brands of jacks are not exactly the same; so a different brand of cable would be worth a try.

lowlife · « **Reply #3 on:** April 28, 2008, 04:12:36 AM »

Dave, I took 2 of my Road Hog cables with me when I went to the store, but even if I wouldn't have, I'm kind of leaning away from the cable being the issue, as I'm pretty sure that the guts are identical between the Orion and the Excel, and the Excel doesn't have a problem. And I did have a similar thought about the sizing of the jack, so I picked up a really cheap 6-foot cable, which gave the same results; POP with the Orion and no POP with the Excel.

I'm going to start with Keith's idea of cleaning the jack and its contacts. It's also less invasive for someone who can hardly hold a soldering iron. Is there any way to tell specifically which of the contacts turns the battery useage on/off?

Ellery (Lowlife)

(Message edited by lowlife on April 28, 2008)

lowlife · « **Reply #4 on:** April 28, 2008, 09:50:38 AM »

Keith, I think you hit it dead-on. I took a close look at the two contact arms of the jack and they seemed to be a tight enough fit, so I went first with the easiest solution; that of cleaning the contacts.

The were dirty enough to leave metalic-type deposits on the Q-Tip which was first sprayed with a non-residual contact cleaner.

A subsequent 15 minute test did not present any POPs at all.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Ellery (Lowlife)

lembic76450 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 28, 2008, 11:21:20 AM »

Keith,
Sometimes the best way to clean small contacts like that is to tear the end off a dollar bill, about 1'4 wide,along the narrow end, about 3 long. The paper used for money is just coarse enough to clean contacts like that without damage. Just silp the paper between the open contacts, close the contacts and pull the paper through gently. You don't want to bend the contacts. In my job, we clean relay contacts like this. I've done this many times on the 1/4 stereo jack on my Series I.

keith_h · « **Reply #6 on:** April 28, 2008, 01:05:17 PM »

Kenn,
I'm not the one having problems. :-) I typically use Ciag's DeoxIT or some small contact cleaners I have from the the days I worked with relay's and the like (I did electrical engineering in my younger years).

Ellery,
Happy to hear cleaning the contacts appears to have fixed the problem. You did what I would have suggested in using cleaner on a Q-Tip and swabbing the connector.

Keith

lembic76450 · « **Reply #7 on:** April 28, 2008, 01:29:30 PM »

Sorry Keith,

Guess I didn't look high enough to see that Ellery started this thread..... Did anyone mention beer yet??

lowlife · « **Reply #8 on:** April 28, 2008, 01:41:15 PM »

No, but now would be a good time for me to owe one to Keith. So if you ever get up to Montreal Keith (perhaps for the Jazz Fest), the first few are on me. In the mean time, I'll think of you when I down my next one.

Ellery (Lowlife)

keith_h · « **Reply #9 on:** April 28, 2008, 02:15:13 PM »

Ellery,
I might take you up on that offer. My wife and I have been talking about a vacation up your way but most likely next year. I spent this years money on Return to Forever tickets in Philadelphia. I think the Jazz fest would be a good time to go.

Keith

lowlife · « **Reply #10 on:** April 28, 2008, 02:29:07 PM »

The offer is without a time limit so there's no hurry; and Montreal has plenty of beer just waiting for thirsty musicians.

Ellery (Lowlife)

David Houck · « **Reply #11 on:** April 28, 2008, 04:52:55 PM »

Congrats!!!

Following up on Kenn's suggestion, I tracked down a prior post. Mica was specifically addressing jack problems in an F-2B, but I suppose this could apply to instrument jacks as well.

edwin · « **Reply #12 on:** May 03, 2008, 10:05:45 AM »

I gather there was a Poping noise on the east coast of the US not to long ago. I am not sure if it was strange or not, as I was not there.

Edwin

lbpesq · « **Reply #13 on:** May 03, 2008, 10:17:20 AM »

grrroooooooooaaaannnnnnn!!!!!

Bill, tgo