Hello. I have tried contacting Fryette multiple times about this issue and for some reason they’ve not responded, or they’ve sent me here to this forum, and said they would contact me, but I’ve not received any contact from them. Kinda confused on how the support process is supposed to go?
My PS100 is from 2022. Suddenly, it has stopped attenuating. Light comes on, sound passes through, but none of the switches or knobs affect the tone. It does not attenuate. The channel switching also doesn’t do anything.
Tested both fuses and replaced the tubes with known good sets, no change. I didn’t expect that to fix it as the Channel Switching not working seems to indicate some other problem. Bad relay somewhere? Not sure.
I’m confident doing electronics repairs of all kinds, comfortable with high voltage, etc., but I don’t want to void any warranty or do something without getting input from Fryette on this issue. Would prefer to just send it in, honestly, but I can’t seem to get a hold of anyone.
I just experienced the same today. I was using the unit yesterday and it worked fine. I accidentally left it on overnight and came back to it today. It was on and I had left it in operate mode. Tubes look normal, heaters working. Unresponsive controls and no change from bypass to operate. Passes signal in both modes but does not attenuate or boost and will not switch channels. Bright and warm switches both work for silent mode.
I am actually an amp tech, and this is my personal unit. I bought it secondhand so I’ve already cracked it open to have a look not worried about warranty voids on a used unit. I suspect a relay as well, nothing visibly burned or damaged. Will update
It does indeed sounds like the unit is stuck in bypass mode. This will happen when the speaker switching jack detects it is unplugged or, yes, if there is a fault on the relay circuit or relay driver.
I did check and test both fuses. They are both good. I pulled the main board and the large resistor (R406) appears to have gotten hot to the point where the color code bands are discolored. Also, the traces underneath right next to the 1N5372B Zener (D406) shows some heat discoloration.
Could you please tell me the value of that resistor so I can replace it? It reads about 2.4M Ω and I can’t really make out what the colors are.
You can see here the two darkened spots spots on the traces. These spots are right next to where the 1N5372B zener is soldered in. Not sure if these would cause the issue, but I’m going to replace it and the resistor and then move on to the relays of the issue does not resolve.
Yeah, I’ll take a look at mine and let you know. I don’t have BOM information.
Unfortunately it’s in my office and I’m stuck at home with sick 2 year old. Could be a few days. That could be or close to RC filter in the power supply, so it’s probably a low-ish value. Unless it’s a bleed resistors for the caps.
Thank you again for your attention. From examining the traces, it appears to be a bleed resistor for the 470ųF cap, and it’s connected to one of the power transfo secondaries. I’m getting a range of different readings on it so I’m gonna replace it I just have no real way of verifying its value. Sorry to hear about the lil one being sick.
Value is probably not too critical as long as it is large; it is more a safety feature. I will return to the office today and check for you. But what is odd is why this resistor ended up carrying so much current that it burnt. But I would expect a carbon comp. resistor to fail (or shift to) open circuit, so that should reduce the current.
That makes sense… you think like a 1M? Most 2 and 3 watt metal films/oxides you can find on supply sites only go up to about 1M. Id much appreciate you taking a look for me when you get a few minutes. Thanks again for your attention
This is my PS-2A. The layout is slightly different, but I think the 10 Ohm (brown, black black gold resistor) is equivalent. And that would make more sense as to why it has higher power dissipation. This is not a bleed resistor; I guess it is in series with the power supply current and used to filter ripple.
This would also make sense as to why you measured it having a much larger value, because carbon comp. resistors tend to fail open (higher resistance). However, without tracing the circuit myself, I would feel confident enough to tell you what you should do! I would need to convince myself that the 10r value makes sense in your circuit. Want to post the circuit trace to see if that makes sense?
Is this still the case?
Are you in US, EU or somewhere else? We do have a network of amp techs. that are familiar with the products, and we could put you in contact. However, you did say it is still under warranty. Contact the dealer you bought it from; they will know the same contacts, and they should be able to help you if it is still under warranty. If not, then we can put you in touch with the right people.
Or did you decide to do this yourself? The usual warnings about high voltage being lethal apply, but as you said, you are an amp tech, so I figure you are not the typical customer!
Thank you so much! Yeah it’s a 10 Ω for R406. Makes sense! Thank you! That’s great cause I have some Vishay 10 Ω 3watt in stock! Gonna throw one of those bad boys in it!
I should clarify - it is a 2022 unit, but I bought it from a client of mine. Not sure where he bought it. Oh, and FWIW, I’m in the USA.
I am comfortable doing the repairs myself, but I’d mostly rather send it in due to time. I am not an amp tech by trade, but I do most of the repairs here at the studio. I’m an audio engineer by trade. But that also means I work 60 hour weeks with very minimal spare time.
As much as I’d like it to be a $2 relay and a 10 minute fix, I also (in the nicest way I can say this) don’t want to wait around for another month to get answers on this problem, or spend hours and hours trying to diagnose and fix it myself.
The ideal case I suppose is that someone from Fryette could just tell me what the issue is, and I could fix it. But I don’t know how to get in touch with them, or how to get a definite answer. I first contacted Fryette on Nov 3, and haven’t heard from them directly yet. That’s 43 days ago. So… I’m at a loss. If Fryette is going to take months to get back with me or do a repair, I don’t want that either. I’m really just very confused by the service procedure here. Do they just… send folks to the forums and hope we figure it out? Like, what am I missing? Am I doing something wrong and not contacting them in the appropriate way? Why have I not heard from them in a month and a half?
I guess I just don’t know what to do at this point. I just need it fixed as soon as possible, and I don’t know which route will give me that option. If there’s a clear easy answer that someone can give me, then sure, I’ll do the repair myself. But if it’s just “go to the forums and hope for the best” then absolutely no offense to anyone, but I’d rather just send it in, because I use the PS2 and PS100 daily in the studio with clients and just need it fixed.
Please advise if you have any input on what I should do next.
I just noticed that @theclosetstudios is the original poster not @Hillel . So I missed the fact you have not been responded to. Not sure what you mean but have been waiting a month, looking at the dates above.
The forum is used for all support questions, we can diagnose issues and hopefully propose a fix. However some issues are only resolvable by seeing the unit in person and sending it in for a service. In those cases we use the support email: requesting RMA ETC. When you send an email to Support, you should get a reply with words to that effect. Hope that clears up the process: forum → triage → escalate by requesting a service if needed.
As you know, debugging technical problems remotely is very difficult. It is hard enough when you have the unit in front of you. You sound very technically accomplished! But I really think just sending it in would be the best way forward, rather than messing around with going back and forth. Hope that makes sense.
I apologize if I “hijacked” the post, my intent was just to help find a solution to share if I’m able to solve the issue since it seems to be likely the same or related issue.
No need to apologize, Hillel. I appreciate you sharing your findings, or any findings you may discover as you diagnose, I was really just trying to figure out the procedure for sending my unit in, or if it was a simple obvious fix that everyone knew that I could DIY.
Also @dan - I first emailed Fryette on Nov3, and got an automated response to check out the forums and that I’d be contacted directly there. The phrasing was: “ Your request has been forwarded automatically to our new Fryette Support Forum. If you have a repair issue or require warranty service we will respond to you directly via the forum.”
So to my brain, that meant that maybe my email would be forwarded to Fryette somehow, or a post would be automatically made (it wasn’t). It’s rather confusing to me. I still don’t understand what the process is supposed to be, or the normal sequence of events to getting my problem solved. I was like… well, I’ve looked at the forums and didn’t see my question answered, but maybe they’re going to send me a DM on the forums? I don’t know. So I signed up and waited, there was no response or direct contact, and eventually I just made this post because no direct contact ever came.
I guess I’m just confused by the whole automated send-to-forum system. I never got an email response or direct contact from Fryette. It’s just very vague and doesn’t explain what “forwarded to our support forum” means, or who would contact me, or when, or where.
Surely I’m not the only one confused by this style of support system. Can you explain how the process is supposed to go, for future reference? I just feel like I’m missing something here and making myself look like a crazy person. Lol.
I understand now, yes that can be rephrased. Sorry to have the big lag in response! And don’t worry @Hillel its all good and on topic.
When we first started the forum , we thought we could automatically convert support emails to public questions on the forum. However, without consent of the person we can’t do that. So we would ask permission and sometime they would not get back and sometime we would have to redact personal information and anonymise. It turned into more work.
So what we ended up doing was hoping the user would come to the site to re-ask their question. And use the support email for more official support like requesting a repair.
We are trying to improve our processes, thanks for the heads up it could be better!
