#35 Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP teardown and repair

Yet another sold-as-faulty eBay catch - a nice little Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP Firewire audio interface. The listing said:

"I bought this online and it is not working or it is not compatible with my computer. My computer is not recognising this audio interface. So I am selling it as not working."

 Fine by me. The photo of the back showed the Firewire port as looking quite pristine, so it wasn't a case of connector-inserted-upside-down. And for the price i won the auction for, it was worth the gamble. A frontal photo did show it powered up, so at the very least, it wasn't dead.

#34 MOTU Traveler mk3 teardown and repair

Hunting for faulty stuff on eBay has been fruitful yet again: this time, a MOTU Traveler mk3 Firewire audio interface. The reported issue was by now, the "classic", dead Firewire.

A pretty comprehensive little package, with loads of features shoehorned into quite a compact package - 1RU thickness / height, but only about 80% of the width.

#32 M-Audio (Avid) Fast Track C600 teardown & repair

This little bugger, an M-Audio / Avid Fast Track C600, was listed as faulty on eBay - description said it would no longer power up, regardless of it being bus-powered or having its own external power supply connected. Got it shipped for 30eu / $30, so why not?

#15 Alesis io|26 repair & modding

So, i got my hands on one of these Alesis io|26 interfaces for pretty cheap (50 bucks delivered). "Of course", i bought it as faulty (can you see a pattern yet?), with the already "classic" issue of dead Firewire chip (the ubiquitous Texas Instruments TSB41AB2).

I went for it mainly for two reasons. First, because i knew it was based on the TC Applied Technologies Dice II chip, and as such, should have flexible enough mixing / routing options; second, due to the ADAT inputs available. The sort of "added bonus", one might say, were the gain adjustments for the 8 analog (mic/line) inputs.

#14 TC Electronic Studio Konnekt 48 "Dice II STD" replacement / transplant

A couple years ago i got my hands on a faulty one of these. Details of the revival process can be found over here; photos visible only for forum members though. Buuuuut since i'm in a good mood, OVER HERE you can find the link to a Google Drive folder with all the (relevant) photos i had posted on that particular thread - you're welcome...

The last issue i had to take care of, back then, was the (apparent?) shorting to ground that some of the I2S clock signal lines, coming out of the Dice II chip. Fortunately, it has several sets of these clock output signals in use, so between cutting a couple traces and adding some wire jumpers, i managed to put together and distribute a healthy set of clock signals to all the ADC & DAC chips that required them.

PS: It seems that the original link for the schematics of this unit is dead nowadays ("thank you", Music Group?), but for the sake of completeness and posterity, i've reuploaded it right over here.