Mackie DL32R locked up during show

[JohnMHoyt]

Yes... it’s working well. All my problems were solved by spending some money....   I’ve been too busy to send the old one in for repair.

[WK154]

John,
That's a pretty drastic solution, Mackie loves it by making more money for a questionably design. someone needs to identify the problem, Mackie certainly won't tell us.
Michael how did your unit fare at the weekend gig?

[JohnMHoyt]

I should have sent it in at the first sign of trouble - it was under warranty when I first contacted Mackie...  but we were looking at a 2 week turnaround.
At that time, my band was playing 2 and 3 shows a week, plus a rehearsal, so downtime was not acceptable.
Mackie's tech recommended a potential fix - re-seating ribbon cables.  It worked.   

It worked long enough to get me out of warranty.   I kept reseating for a long time, until it didn't work any longer on one or two channels.

During that time, something else happened where the date on the recordings got bumped off several months - a huge pain when you have hundreds of recordings to sort through (makes it nice when you can search for a date).

Anyway....  Then it started locking up randomly.

[Michael Welter]

Michael how did your unit fare at the weekend gig?

For the most part, it worked well. But it did lock up a couple times. The iPads showed that it was disconnected, but the connection light on the unit was solid. The only fix was to restart the unit, which meant waiting for a break. This happened twice on Sunday morning, and it worked flawlessly after that.

[JohnMHoyt]

My new one has done something similar, but I think it's my iPad or the crapple airport...

So we have maybe 5 iPads connected, and an iPhone, it works great, and then one (it's mine) disconnects.   The bluetooth still streams music, the sound system is up.
Everyone else has control.  I can close the app, reopen it - still no DL showing up.

I reboot the airport (NOT the mixer, not the iPad) and my iPad will then reconnect and then I can control the Mackie from mine again.

It's happened to FOH (iPad Pro) a couple times, but mainly happens to me.  Probably because I'm doing more than anyone else with it and likely the first to notice.

At least this time it's not the DL32R, I don't think.

[Michael Welter]

John, that happens to me, as well. I use an Apple Airport Express router. When that happens, I go into the settings on the iPad, forget the network, then reconnect to it. And that fixes the issue.

[JohnMHoyt]

Hrmmmmm so I wonder if that is the Airport at fault or the ipad?    It ONLY does this with my system, so I'm leaning towards the airport.... maybe?

What exactly are we clearing when we reboot/reset?  ARP tables?

[Michael Welter]

I'm leaning toward the Airport being the problem, as I can usually also fix the problem with restarting the Airport. But it's usually more convenient to forget the network, and reconnect, as I don't have to visit the stage to do that.

[Weogo]

Hi Folks,

I have the same issue on occasion with ASUS AC68 routers, and more frequently recently.

My bet is something in IOS,  like the Ipad is not connected to the internet so it disconnects.

I don't have to forget the network, just turn off wireless networking, restart networking and it will re-connect pretty quickly.

Thanks and good health,  Weogo

[WK154]

John, after reading about all your Dl32 symptoms here is what I suspect. Since this happens infrequently I am suspecting the IP ( DHCP) lease time as the culprit. Once the (of unknown duration) IP lease time is up the connect process seems to be faulty or not executed. A good argument for using fixed IP addresses. The way to get the iPad to run the IP request code is to first forget the network and then reconnect. This works for Weogo and Michael apparently. This also explains why just one iPad is disconnected (yours). The logic for this resides in the iPad and is far less likely to be the fault of the router. Try the fixed IP address and see if the problem persists.
Michael, one hangup in my book is unacceptable. I hope this is not one of the elusive "White Noise" issues with Mackie's code. The long unsupported cables in the unit are a recipe for disaster with units in frequent transit. Mackie apparently has no clue.

[WK154]

Weogo, restarting WiFi or forgetting the network are basically the same thing in that both reestablish addresses and lease times. It is most likely in Mackie's code in handling the network (app to iOS code) since I have never experienced a disconnect with other network based communication apps that didn't have a recovery procedure (X-Air - iPad, Android, PC app come to mind).

[WK154]

This topic was also covered some time ago.
http://cacophony.aspinock.com/index.php?topic=520.msg15172#msg15172
Cheers

[Michael Welter]

I'll try a fixed IP address and see if that fixes the issue. Thanks for the idea.

[WK154]

I'll try a fixed IP address and see if that fixes the issue. Thanks for the idea.

Have you put on any mileage with the fixed IP address? A bunch here I'm sure would be interested in the results.

[Michael Welter]

Not yet. My DL is currently in storage, as I haven't had any gigs in the last few weeks.