Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

[SolderFumes]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

I'm at least 70% sure the people at Focusrite designing the thing would've put heatsinks in there, if they deemed it necessary. If the PCB being used as a heatsink isn't discoloured at all, then it's pretty safe to assume the problems you're encountering aren't thermal.

Well, not as far as the silicon is concerned. Electrolytics, on the other hand......

OK, fair enough. You're probably right. I'm going to do the caps and see what happens. Thanks again

[madsox]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

Hello everyone!

If anyone would please and be able to upload lots and lots of pictures of a Saffire Pro 40 power supply, I would be very grateful.

I bought a used device that is missing some parts.
What it does is completely different from what you see in some of the pictures on the internet.

Whats missing:
D1, D2, D3, D4, D10
C3, C11, C12, C13, C14, C15

If someone writes me a list of the value of these, that’s more than enough.

Thank you very much!

[Khron]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

How about posting a photo of your power supply first?

[SolderFumes]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

Hello everyone!

Whats missing:
D1, D2, D3, D4, D10
C3, C11, C12, C13, C14, C15

If someone writes me a list of the value of these, that’s more than enough.

Sorry for the delay.

I am in the process of recapping my power supply and wrote down the values of the original power supply caps. However, I don't know the diode values. I can check those when I have the unit out of the rack, but I may not be able to get to it for a little while.

Here are the cap values:
C3: 82uF 450V 105C
C11: 470uF 35V 85C
C12: 470uF 35V 85C
C13: 470uF 35V 85C
C14: 470uF 35V 85C
C15: 100uF 100V 85C

I hope this helps. Give me a little bit of time and I can get those diode values for you.

[SolderFumes]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

Hello everyone!


Whats missing:
D1, D2, D3, D4, D10

Not sure if you're still working on your Pro 40 but I was able to get some of the diode info you requested:

D1, D2, D3, D4 are all RL207

D10 starts with FR10, i can't tell the 5th digit

[SolderFumes]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

Well, not as far as the silicon is concerned. Electrolytics, on the other hand......

Khron,

I have been sourcing new caps for the Pro 40 power supply and the 5 CrapXons on the main board.

All the caps on the power supply are general purpose caps with no impedance data available. As a general rule, is it acceptable to replace general purpose caps with low impedance/low ESR caps of the same value? It seems that many of the better caps (highest ripple & longest life) are low Z. I see that you used some UCC LXV and Panasonic FR series (also low Z) in yours.

In other words, if I replace all the power supply caps with caps of the same value but low Z, would this likely cause any unintended, predictable consequences? Conversely, is it desirable to replace them with low Z?

The huge 82uF 450V 105C cap on the power supply is a mystery. It's made by Tianchen. Who? I can't find any data on it. There aren't many available in the same or similar size package so I'm just going with whichever can handle to most ripple and has the longest life.

The 5 Crapxons on the main board are GF series and those are already Low Z so that's seems straight forward.

If you could shed some light on this, I would appreciate it.

[madsox]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

Thank you very much for the data and here is the picture.
Sorry for the delay.

[madsox]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

Hello everyone!

Today come the last needed part, FQPF8N60.
After soldered, it's working.

Many thanks for help!

Tamás'

[SolderFumes]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

That's great news! Congratulations. You saved a Pro 40 from the trash can.

Do you have any pics of your completed power supply?

[madsox]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

I don't have image from power supply now, but if you have patience, i make on weekend.

[taulonvl]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

Sorry that not on topic. In one of your previous jobs, when you repaired StudioKonnekt48, you found a service manual, could you share it if you still have It? The link doesn't work anymore.

[mhelin]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

Got a second hand Pro 40, thought it could be used at least as ADAT A/D now as officially it's not supported/working with Windows 10 anymore. Anyway, it does, at least on my 20.04, and I have it connected to 1820M's FW port, the 1820M sits on PCI bus converter which connected to PCIe slot (there are no PCI slots on the motherboard).

Now the PSU is some generic one made by FEREX, model name is FP07M063. That same one is used on many (all?) Focusrite interfaces, though afaik they are planning to replace it. It's specs look like this:

Brand: FEREX
Model: FP07M063
Applicable Products: DVB digital TV set - top box
Input voltage range: 100V-240V
The output voltage: + 5, + 15V, -15V, + 51V
Output Power: 10W

Input characteristics
   Input voltage range: 100V-240V AC
   Input voltage frequency: 47Hz-63Hz
 Output characteristics
   Output combinations: + 5V, 2A; + 15V, 0.7A; -15V, 0.7A; +51 V, 80mA
   Ripple: 50mV
   Efficiency: 70% Min. (220V AC / Max Output Current)
 Dielectric strength: AC 3000V, 10mA, 60Sec
 Insulation resistance: 30M Min DC 500V
 Mean time between failures: working time 50000H

Protective function:
 Output Overvoltage Protection (OVP)
 Output Short Circuit Protection (SCP)
 Output Overcurrent Protection (OCP)

On gearslutz there was at least one case with a burned diode. On my unit the PSU looks good but it might be safer to replace the caps anyway. I guess it would be impossible to find alternative PSU to replace the FP07M063 though the current Focusrite PSUI001007 sold at least look different and doesn't have those CapXon caps anymore, they use Tianchen (the big 450V cap) and Econd brand caps now so it might be they have found another manufacturer or something. You can (could) get one from here:

https://www.fullcompass.com/prod/522...-mkii-rednet-1

Maybe you could get one from Focusrite directly?


Btw. The main reason for burned Dice chips was that the firewire cable bundled with the early units was faulty. Well, it may be that now the PSU are is the main reason for non working units, don't know.

[Khron]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

https://khronscave.blogspot.com/2021...-teardown.html

Replacing the caps on the secondary of the power supply should reliable-ize it for years and years, assuming you use "proper" replacements (low-ESR ones from the handful of reputable manufacturers, and from a trusted source).

Unless you spring for a custom-made Delta, LiteOn etc, i have really serious doubts you'll find a suitable / compatible power supply with Japanese caps (which, "by definition", is bound to be way more reliable and long-lasting than all these cut-rate "Shenzhen specials").

PS: Hi again; you're here too?

[mhelin]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

https://khronscave.blogspot.com/2021...-teardown.html

Replacing the caps on the secondary of the power supply should reliable-ize it for years and years, assuming you use "proper" replacements (low-ESR ones from the handful of reputable manufacturers, and from a trusted source).

Unless you spring for a custom-made Delta, LiteOn etc, i have really serious doubts you'll find a suitable / compatible power supply with Japanese caps (which, "by definition", is bound to be way more reliable and long-lasting than all these cut-rate "Shenzhen specials").

PS: Hi again; you're here too?

Yes I'm here unfortunately. It was the broken E-Mu 1820M which brought me here in the first place. It's still working but the drivers doesn't support Windows 10 anymore, but there are some hacks which keep her going (so far, next update may break them). Anyway, I'm going to recycle the A/D PCB from the 1820M to build an 8 ch ADAT converter, there are three great AKM (rip the burn factory) A/D converter chips on it, AK5394A with a 123 dB SNR (on paper anyway), and then I'll use Nihtila's (https://www.tindie.com/products/niht...-ad-converter/) great A/D project as I2S generator and also get the two missing channels for the A/D. Got to learn KiCad to make a small PCB with the connectors, master clock and the V1401 ADAT transmitter (maybe the PSU though there are tons of ready made modules available).

Regarding the caps, on mine Pro 40 they have some nasty glue on them, didn't try remove it but it felt hard. Anyway, I like recycling the old gear. There are many firewire interfaces which will work forever as ADAT converters once they have been recapped and the internal mixer setup saved onto flash though not all work standalone.

[Khron]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

Totally with you on that I have two M-Audio ProFire 2626's as extra mic inputs in my recording rack; each cost me under 100e IIRC, and replaced the two MOTU 8Pres that i sold for more than that

... But that's enough off-topic-ing

Regarding the caps, on mine Pro 40 they have some nasty glue on them, didn't try remove it but it felt hard. Anyway, I like recycling the old gear. There are many firewire interfaces which will work forever as ADAT converters once they have been recapped and the internal mixer setup saved onto flash though not all work standalone.

[bfpgio]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

Hello everyone, what can I do about this ?
I can build diy kits but never replaced smd's

[Khron]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

First of all, clean off the soot (black stuff) from the bottom of the board.

[bfpgio]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

first of all, clean off the soot (black stuff) from the bottom of the board.

Here it is cleaned

[Khron]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

Well, you're somewhat in luck. I do actually have two Saffire Pro 40's that i need to put up for sale, so i suppose i could take a look under one of the power supplies in the mean time.

But until then, determining what was the root-cause of the damage would be very useful, and so would figuring out which components are blown. You can bet your life those resistors are NOT the only things that let the smoke out.

One of these two Saffires i have, turned out to have a faulty PWM controller in the power supply - the feedback side of it was wonky, so the output voltages were about twice what they should have been. I have no idea what the stock chip was, but replacing it with a pin-compatible one (and removing a now-unused resistor) cured that.

Considering that group of four parallel current-sense resistors is that well toasted, is a safe bet that the MOSFET is now just a wire, ie. shorted drain-to-source, at the very least. Probably blew the gate as well, going by the seemingly cooked 10 ohm resistor (marking "100" in the last photo), which likely killed the PWM controller as well.

There's gonna be quite a bit of measuring to do, before drawing up a list of parts that need replacing...

[bfpgio]

Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 re-cap

allright let me know the list of component, I could also simply change a maximum number of them all arround