Soundcraft Ui24R appears to be totally borked!

[pfschim]

hey there TB Live Sound, I just spent a very aggravating few hours trying to sort out my Ui24R.

Getting ready for a duo gig on Sun (thankfully a few days away, so that gives me some time to figure out an alternative option) I powered up the mixer as normal. Everything came online as usual. I got working on the Show preset for this particular gig and midway through (about 30min of work) I got disconnected and the software mixer showed a "Connecting" message. After that it was goodbye Ui24R. I could never reconnect to it.

In frustration I did a hard, physical reset using the RESET button on the box. After that, even though it showed the Blue LED WiFi lights, no device could connect no matter what I tried.

Not sure what to do with this box at the moment. Pretty sure It's out of warranty, so I'm probably f**ked as far as the Soundcraft mixer goes and will need to work out another solution.

It's too bad too, because I really liked this mixer and it has worked pretty flawlessly for the past 2 years on dozens of gigs where I had to provide sound.

anyway, just thought I'd vent a little. If any of you have any ideas, I'm all ears!

thanks for listening

 

[Mike Caldwell]

Where you using the internal WIFI or an external router?

Just holding the reset button on those only resets the WIFI router section of the mixer. To do a full hard reset you need to load .txt reset file on a USB stick.
Full Reset for Ui Mixers

Try connecting an HDMI monitor and a mouse directly to the mixer and see if you have control of it that way.

 

[JRA]

 

[s0c9]

One should always use an external router with these smaller digital consoles.
Been saying it for years.
Internal Wi-Fi on them sux. Limited connections, etc.
My guess is the mixer is good, but WiFi reset itself.. have seen that happen.

 

[pfschim]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have already dusted off an old Yamaha MG12 analog mixer for the duo gig this weekend, so I have bought myself some time to mess with the Ui24R.

I understand the limited WiFi issues with these mixers, and generally use a stand alone TP-Link WiFi router when gigging it, but in this case I was right next to it in my home studio and it connected just fine. .... before crapping out about 30min later.

I did do a WiFi reset using the 10sec push on the physical reset button. I also did a hard physical reset, per the Soundcraft user site, by pressing the physical reset button for 30sec while powering the unit on. None of that changed its dead WiFi status, and while my devices were able to "see" its SSID, it kept prompting me for a "None" logon as the password. The default password scuilan did not work, so I suspect something deeper may be broken on my unit.

@Mike Caldwell ... Thanks! I'll definitely try the HDMI connected monitor and USB mouse suggestion and see if anything shows up. That will be interesting, but even if that does work, I'm not sure what I'd do if the internal WiFi is borked. I suppose I could just use it in that configuration (HDMI mon, wired mouse and keyboard), but that would make it more gear intensive for me. But lets see what happens.

I'd love to have this mixer back in action as I do like all of its capabilities. But for now, I'm covered for Sunday either way.

As usual, TB comes through!
Thanks!

 

[Mike Caldwell]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have already dusted off an old Yamaha MG12 analog mixer for the duo gig this weekend, so I have bought myself some time to mess with the Ui24R.

I understand the limited WiFi issues with these mixers, and generally use a stand alone TP-Link WiFi router when gigging it, but in this case I was right next to it in my home studio and it connected just fine. .... before crapping out about 30min later.

I did do a WiFi reset using the 10sec push on the physical reset button. I also did a hard physical reset, per the Soundcraft user site, by pressing the physical reset button for 30sec while powering the unit on. None of that changed its dead WiFi status, and while my devices were able to "see" its SSID, it kept prompting me for a "None" logon as the password. The default password scuilan did not work, so I suspect something deeper may be broken on my unit.

@Mike Caldwell ... Thanks! I'll definitely try the HDMI connected monitor and USB mouse suggestion and see if anything shows up. That will be interesting, but even if that does work, I'm not sure what I'd do if the internal WiFi is borked. I suppose I could just use it in that configuration (HDMI mon, wired mouse and keyboard), but that would make it more gear intensive for me. But lets see what happens.

I'd love to have this mixer back in action as I do like all of its capabilities. But for now, I'm covered for Sunday either way.

As usual, TB comes through!
Thanks!

Let us know it works with direct connections.
Forbut w the full hard reset did you put the reset .TXT file on a usb stick, if not the mixer did not do a full reset. When you the reset .TXT file you will get a prompt on the screen to start the reset.....but with out a connection you could not see it! If the direct monitor connection works try it with that.

 

[pfschim]

Let us know it works with direct connections.
Forbut w the full hard reset did you put the reset .TXT file on a usb stick, if not the mixer did not do a full reset. When you the reset .TXT file you will get a prompt on the screen to start the reset.....but with out a connection you could not see it! If the direct monitor connection works try it with that.

I have not messed with the Soundcraft since it died on Tue. I've got a duo gig to get ready for and then some travel. I'll try it late next week when I get back home. While I'd love to have the Ui24 back in action, the little Yamaha 12 channel analog mixer is working just fine for setting up the duo gig. I no longer run sound for the bands with the Soundcraft that I originally got it for, so it has been sitting unused for a few months anyway.

thanks again, and once I get some time, I will try what you suggested.

 

[Bonecat]

I briefly had a UI24 that I'd purchased new. It did a similar thing. Plugged into my band router, built a baseline set up for my band, and started working on EQ, etc. While I was doing that, it stopped responding to control inputs. I verified that the router was functioning correctly and checked the cable to assure it was good. About 5 minutes later it stopped passing audio of any kind. I put it back in the box and returned it. I'd always had good luck with SC analog boards and had read a lot of positive reviews of the UI24, but that was a nightmare. I cannot abide unreliable gear, so SC lost me as a customer. I ended up getting a used Midas MR18 and (knock on wood) it's been flawless.

 

[turcmic]

One should always use an external router with these smaller digital consoles.
Been saying it for years.
Internal Wi-Fi on them sux. Limited connections, etc.
My guess is the mixer is good, but WiFi reset itself.. have seen that happen.

This^

Any router will do. I use one that was sitting in a box for a couple of years and it does the job. I share to access to band members for their own IEM mix.

Behringer and Midas suck too without external router.

 

[pfschim]

I briefly had a UI24 that I'd purchased new. It did a similar thing. Plugged into my band router, built a baseline set up for my band, and started working on EQ, etc. While I was doing that, it stopped responding to control inputs. I verified that the router was functioning correctly and checked the cable to assure it was good. About 5 minutes later it stopped passing audio of any kind. I put it back in the box and returned it. I'd always had good luck with SC analog boards and had read a lot of positive reviews of the UI24, but that was a nightmare. I cannot abide unreliable gear, so SC lost me as a customer. I ended up getting a used Midas MR18 and (knock on wood) it's been flawless.

well, I will say that my Ui24r was pretty much perfect for 2 years of steady use, so I can't really call it totally unreliable. I stopped running sound for the one band that I had bought it for and the mixer got put away for about a 8 months. It was only after I pulled it out of storage (temp controlled) and started to use it this past week to set up for a new duo gig I have that my problems started. Just wanted to make that clear.

I was quite happy with the capabilities of the Ui24r ... until it decided to stop working. I did my duo gig today using another mixer and I'll try to restart the Ui24r with Mike Caldwell's suggested approach (HDMI monitor and USB keyboard) and see if I can do the .txt file full reset before I give up on the Soundcraft.

 

[s0c9]

This^

Any router will do. I use one that was sitting in a box for a couple of years and it does the job. I share to access to band members for their own IEM mix.

Behringer and Midas suck too without external router.

Pretty much ALL small footprint digital consoles with built-in WiFi - regardless of manufacturer - have WiFi that SUX!!!
ALWAYS use an external router with them.
Not just for reliability, but many of the built-in's have limited connection counts, limited range, etc.

 

[Bonecat]

well, I will say that my Ui24r was pretty much perfect for 2 years of steady use, so I can't really call it totally unreliable. I stopped running sound for the one band that I had bought it for and the mixer got put away for about a 8 months. It was only after I pulled it out of storage (temp controlled) and started to use it this past week to set up for a new duo gig I have that my problems started. Just wanted to make that clear.

I was quite happy with the capabilities of the Ui24r ... until it decided to stop working. I did my duo gig today using another mixer and I'll try to restart the Ui24r with Mike Caldwell's suggested approach (HDMI monitor and USB keyboard) and see if I can do the .txt file full reset before I give up on the Soundcraft.

The UI24 has a lot going for it. I just got a lemon. I've heard them/used them when running sound for other bands and I liked it. My experience was almost certainly an outlier, but there's a lot of good options out there in small digital mixers…

 

[alembicf1x]

I had a similar issue with my UI24R and it turned out to be a loose header connection to the board. Pretty easy to remove the cover and check. Ended up hot gluing them together.

 

[4Mal]

Loose ribbon cable will pretty much brick a ui 24r . Actually many digital boards. That happened to me as far back as a Presonus 16.4.2... reconnected the cable and good as new! I hope that does it for you.

 

[s0c9]

Loose ribbon cable will pretty much brick a ui 24r . Actually many digital boards. That happened to me as far back as a Presonus 16.4.2... reconnected the cable and good as new! I hope that does it for you.

It's not restricted to mixers. Many processors - gtr/bass - have there same issue.

 

[pfschim]

hey, back again to update my situation with the Ui24r.

Finally got some muisc/gig/session down-time to futz around with the apparently dead Ui24r.

I connected an HDMI monitor and wired mouse. Powered the unit on and it did display the Soundcraft UI splash screen, then it gave me a 2 different spinning circles, then the mouse pointer seemed to be active ... then ....... nada. Dark screen and no mouse movement and no other signs of life. I tried it 3 times and the last time I let it set for 5 minutes and there was no status change.

Powered it down and decided to open it up to see if there were any loose ribbon cables/headers. I checked very carefully and saw nothing loose or disconnected at all. Looked very clean inside with no obvious signs of a problem.

Sooooo, I guess the unit is sadly DOA. I will look into Harmon repair, but I hate that kind of process particularly for an out of warranty item. But who knows, maybe Harmon will be that rare company pleasure to deal with.

Outside of getting the Ui24r repaired, now my dilemma is what to do about a new digital mixer. Do I go with another Ui24r as I'm familiar with how to operate it, even though it is a fairly dated device at this point. Or, do I consider a newer design the Allen&Heath CQ, old standby Behringer X-Air, Midas, or ???. Hmmmmmm what to do, what to do ??

thanks to all who offered suggestions.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

hey, back again to update my situation with the Ui24r.

Finally got some muisc/gig/session down-time to futz around with the apparently dead Ui24r.

I connected an HDMI monitor and wired mouse. Powered the unit on and it did display the Soundcraft UI splash screen, then it gave me a 2 different spinning circles, then the mouse pointer seemed to be active ... then ....... nada. Dark screen and no mouse movement and no other signs of life. I tried it 3 times and the last time I let it set for 5 minutes and there was no status change.

Powered it down and decided to open it up to see if there were any loose ribbon cables/headers. I checked very carefully and saw nothing loose or disconnected at all. Looked very clean inside with no obvious signs of a problem.

Sooooo, I guess the unit is sadly DOA. I will look into Harmon repair, but I hate that kind of process particularly for an out of warranty item. But who knows, maybe Harmon will be that rare company pleasure to deal with.

Outside of getting the Ui24r repaired, now my dilemma is what to do about a new digital mixer. Do I go with another Ui24r as I'm familiar with how to operate it, even though it is a fairly dated device at this point. Or, do I consider a newer design the Allen&Heath CQ, old standby Behringer X-Air, Midas, or ???. Hmmmmmm what to do, what to do ??

thanks to all who offered suggestions.

It doesn't sound like you have done a complete system reset. Follow these instructions from the manual. I've done this a few times as I was learning the basics of how this mixer works. Worth a try!!

Reset to the default factory firmware
This method removes all updates you may have performed on the mixer and returns it to the default factory
shipping firmware and state. Create a test file named fullreset.txt (no contents necessary) and copy to
a USB stick. Insert the USB stick into one of the Ui's USB ports. Use a paper clip to hold the reset button
down for approximately 10 seconds while you power on the unit. The Ui will recognise the fullreset.txt file
on the USB stick and perform a full factory reset.

 

[pfschim]

It doesn't sound like you have done a complete system reset. Follow these instructions from the manual. I've done this a few times as I was learning the basics of how this mixer works. Worth a try!!

Reset to the default factory firmware
This method removes all updates you may have performed on the mixer and returns it to the default factory
shipping firmware and state. Create a test file named fullreset.txt (no contents necessary) and copy to
a USB stick. Insert the USB stick into one of the Ui's USB ports. Use a paper clip to hold the reset button
down for approximately 10 seconds while you power on the unit. The Ui will recognise the fullreset.txt file
on the USB stick and perform a full factory reset.

ah, I was under the (apparently mistaken) impression that I needed to be able to "see" the Ui24 in order to do the fullreset.txt reset process.
I'll give that a try and see what happens.

 

[Mike Caldwell]

ah, I was under the (apparently mistaken) impression that I needed to be able to "see" the Ui24 in order to do the fullreset.txt reset process.
I'll give that a try and see what happens.

For the full hard reset using the .txt file you do need to see when the prompt comes up and manually start the reset process.

 

[pfschim]

For the full hard reset using the .txt file you do need to see when the prompt comes up and manually start the reset process.

ok, so if "seeing" anything from the unit is central to the reset process, then I'm back to my basic problem. I can't seem to use the HDMI monitor and wired mouse approach, and I can't get into the unit via WiFi. I did find my ethernet dongle, so perhaps I could try that from my laptop. I'm game to keep trying stuff, but I feel like I may be at a dead end here ??