A dead DI?

[YamahaGuy]

This weekend I had an event that we used my Yamaha Stagepas 1K as the FOH system with my Yamaha MG16XU in place for the mixing desk. I ran a 50' 12x4 snake and for inputs to the Stagepas I went out of the TRS outs to the TRS cables on the snake and used from the box, TRS to XLR cables into channels 1 and 2 on the Stagepas.

I was excited to try out two new wireless mics and the Xvive 3. They all worked perfectly, as did the aux input from our computer and/or tablet for playback music.

The problem I had was when I went to hook up my guitar. I tried using my (cheap) DI box. My chain was from Yamaha FGX730SC to my pedalboard, which has an LR Baggs Para DI, to tuner to delay, chorus, reverb, and finally looper, then out with instrument cable to the input of the DI box, out of the DI box with XLR to the snake, and back to the mixer.

No signal at all. Got a lot of static noise. Changed mic cable. Same result. Flipped the ground lift switch and a lot of the static noise went away but still no signal. Tried right from my Baggs out with XLR to snake and had plenty of signal. Tried from my pedalboard into channel 3 on the Stagepas and that worked fine. Thinking maybe the snake was bad I tried other channels with the same result -- no signal from the pedalboard to the mixer via the (cheap) DI box. It is a passive DI box, though I had had phantom power on on the mixer.

So I concluded my DI box is bad. Not sure what made it decide to stop working. I will be testing it later today to see if it is in fact dead. And if so, I may crack it open and take a closer look.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by YamahaGuy

This weekend I had an event that we used my Yamaha Stagepas 1K as the FOH system with my Yamaha MG16XU in place for the mixing desk. I ran a 50' 12x4 snake and for inputs to the Stagepas I went out of the TRS outs to the TRS cables on the snake and used from the box, TRS to XLR cables into channels 1 and 2 on the Stagepas.

I was excited to try out two new wireless mics and the Xvive 3. They all worked perfectly, as did the aux input from our computer and/or tablet for playback music.

The problem I had was when I went to hook up my guitar. I tried using my (cheap) DI box. My chain was from Yamaha FGX730SC to my pedalboard, which has an LR Baggs Para DI, to tuner to delay, chorus, reverb, and finally looper, then out with instrument cable to the input of the DI box, out of the DI box with XLR to the snake, and back to the mixer.

No signal at all. Got a lot of static noise. Changed mic cable. Same result. Flipped the ground lift switch and a lot of the static noise went away but still no signal. Tried right from my Baggs out with XLR to snake and had plenty of signal. Tried from my pedalboard into channel 3 on the Stagepas and that worked fine. Thinking maybe the snake was bad I tried other channels with the same result -- no signal from the pedalboard to the mixer via the (cheap) DI box. It is a passive DI box, though I had had phantom power on on the mixer.

So I concluded my DI box is bad. Not sure what made it decide to stop working. I will be testing it later today to see if it is in fact dead. And if so, I may crack it open and take a closer look.

Hi YG

I look forward to hearing what you find. I've had a lot of active and passive Direct Boxes over the past 30 years, and have had one of each go South.

I'm pretty sure any equipment can develop issues or quit working…and given the treatment gear like direct boxes get in our gear bags, I'm glad they are all still working.

[Bob Womack]

Some passive DIs don't play nice with phantom. Set up your right and turn off phantom and see if something changes.

Everything dies at some point. Sometimes cheaper things die quicker. There's nothing like a good active DI supplied with proper phantom to run it.

All the best.

Bob

[Irish Pennant]

I use the PADI as the DI on my board. I use the loop (send receive) function of the PADI. With the exception of a tuner pedal, I have all my pedals within it, including the looper pedal. I use the XLR and phantom power for the PADI.

For the loop function I use a "Y" cable. 1/4" male TRS to a split pair of 1/4" TR.

My tuner pedal is before the PADI.

Signal chain. Guitar>Tuner>PADI>Mixer
Loop Chain. Zoom A3>HOF Reverb>Archer Delay>Ditto 2x.

[YamahaGuy]

Originally Posted by Irish Pennant

I use the PADI as the DI on my board. I use the loop (send receive) function of the PADI. With the exception of a tuner pedal, I have all my pedals within it, including the looper pedal. I use the XLR and phantom power for the PADI.

For the loop function I use a "Y" cable. 1/4" male TRS to a split pair of 1/4" TR.

My tuner pedal is before the PADI.

Signal chain. Guitar>Tuner>PADI>Mixer
Loop Chain. Zoom A1>HOF Reverb>Archer Delay>Ditto 2x.

I've thought about doing that (using the effects loop) which also powers the PADI with phantom, but then it and the other pedals won't pack into my pedalboard carry bag with all the connectors in place. Though I suppose I could custom make a TRS to dual TS cable with all right angle connectors to get it done. Thanks for the reminder of that option.

[YamahaGuy]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Some passive DIs don't play nice with phantom. Set up your right and turn off phantom and see if something changes.

Everything dies at some point. Sometimes cheaper things die quicker. There's nothing like a good active DI supplied with proper phantom to run it.

All the best.

Bob

I've accidentally fried a cell phone sound (dual XLR to TRS 1/8") with phantom power, so I'm thinking maybe that is what the problem was. I still have a 2 channel Samson active DI, so it's going to get used a bit more now.

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by YamahaGuy

Though I suppose I could custom make a TRS to dual TS cable with all right angle connectors to get it done.

You mean like this one? I use one on my pedalboard (insert loop on a Grace Alix) and it works great.