Phonic Firefy 808 Issues

[Stef123]

Hi,

sorry for not introducing myself first - i have a quite delicate Problem with my Phonic Firefly 808 Universal (Firewire/USB) from 2012, which i bought in non working condition and getting Schematics / Service Manuals for this thing, as well as for other devices based on the BridgeCo DM-Series (DM-Series was also utilized by Terratec, M-Audio etc, any Audio Interface which incoorporates Firewire)), looks very impossible -idk why, because this Platform and technology around it is quite outdated.

Well, it was said by the seller that it cannot be recogized by USB any longer, and a close inspection revealed that the D+Trace of the USB Port was "flying" around; no idea how that could happen. Means that i had to make a new connection, which i eventually did. But it looks like as the Firefly "resets" for each two seconds, because the Power light dims down for a short amount of time - before it does that again in a repeated loop.

Oscilloscope shows that the Voltage on the CPU PCB drops for a short period, but not on the serving Main PCB. So hooked up a logic analyzer to something "what seems to be a 4-Pin debug port" - no idea which Format it has, i suppose serial, and it outputs something, but repeatedly for each two seconds.

USB D+ and D- is low all the Time, even with a computer connected, which in conclusion cannot be right. They go straight into the Main DM1500 ASIC, which seems to boot a stripped down Linux Kernel from Flash. Of course there is also no Datasheet of that ASIC anywhere available, because the Company, which bought BridgeCo around a decade ago, closed Business at the very beginning of 2023.

So the question is: Whats happening here. As for my own experience of programming Microcontrollers for +30 Years, it -might- be possible that the integrated USB port of the ASIC changes State from unconfigured to something that does not "quite" like 3.3 / 5 Volts being pulled directly to GND in case of a defect, but i assume that should happen right after power up. And the ASIC itself won´t get hot at all, but seems to run (otherwise i wouldnt get "debug data" out of it, in whatever format it is). A diode Test revels at least no short curcuit between GND and the USB D-Pins.

Any help - and probaly someone which can share additional information about that specific Platform, at best a Service Manual for the Firefly, is very welcome!

Best regards!

 

[Stef123]

Hi, sorry for the late answer, i didn´t got a message notification.

I´m currently using Ardour and ALSA directly instead of JackD, because Jack seems to be more unstable and has more problems to set the card accordingly; in certain occasions Ardour won´t even start properly and kills itself because of communication errors to the Jack Server.

If i choose ALSA; 96 KHz with 1024 Frames and 3 Periods, it will start at 96KHz and the Sample Rate LED is also being switched to 96 KHz. If i leave the periods at "2", ALSA wont even start. But overall i cannot get it to run at samplerates beyond 96 KHz (even it should support them hardware wise), because at least in Ardour there is no choice for 176.4 and 192 KHz when using the ALSA driver. JackD offers them, but they cannot be used, since JackD won´t even start, no matter how the Parameters like Periods, Buffers per Period etc are being set.

TBH, if possible, i would rather tend to give up JackD and stick to ALSA.

 

[Stef123]

BTW: At least i am unable to get the Interface working fully properly, mainly because of the fact, that the Firefly routes Audio in to Headphones out internally, so you get always a portion of the raw incoming signal -and- the Signal being received and sent out of the DAW at the same time; something you won´t have.

On Windows and the 808 Control surface there seems to be be at least an "Crossover" Slider where you can adjust how much of Input 1-8 is internally routed to the Phone output; that Option doen´t exist under Linux. Maybe that is something you´ll have to do once and its getting permanent, but i won´t pull out my Windows machine in order to plug in the Firewire interface and try to get it working with rather old drivers,

Using different Cards for I/O doesn´t help either, because if the FireFly is chosen as the only input device and a different card, say, the internal HDA of the PC for the output, the Firefly won´t activate its inputs.