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Weird front panel light show (Mesa D-350 content)

squish

squish

What's under the hood?
Dec 6, 2005
1,329
4,733
Atl
#1
We were hanging in the green room during downtime yesterday and the merch guy asked if anyone had a USB charger block for his wireless credit card reader. Nobody had (or said they had) one, so I kinda whispered to him that my amp had a USB charge port on the back.

I try not to share info like that because I have band members who would just keep their phones plugged in on my amp if they knew. I have enough trouble keeping drinks, capes and boas off of it anyway.

So five minutes before show time a singer finds me to say that I need to go look at my amp. Sure enough, all of the blue and red front panel lights are flickering. I unplug the Tile thing (almost chucking it across the stage), cycle power to it and thankfully only the normal lights come on and operates normally.

Later I reviewed the manual and it had no mention of this fault indicator. Anyone know what the problem was, other than the amp didn't like charging that device?
 
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#3
squish said:
We were hanging in the green room during downtime yesterday and the merch guy asked if anyone had a USB charger block for his wireless credit card reader. Nobody had (or said they had) one, so I kinda whispered to him that my amp had a USB charge port on the back.

I try not to share info like that because I have band members who would just keep their phones plugged in on my amp if they knew. I have enough trouble keeping drinks, capes and boas off of it anyway.

So five minutes before show time a singer finds me to say that I need to go look at my amp. Sure enough, all of the blue and red front panel lights are flickering. I unplug the Tile thing (almost chucking it across the stage), cycle power to it and thankfully only the normal lights come on and operates normally.

Later I reviewed the manual and it had no mention of this fault indicator. Anyone know what the problem was, other than the amp didn't like charging that device?
Click to expand...
There are specific protection circuits for the USB output that will shut done the Subway amps if the device draws more than the rated maximum. There are so many semi-standards in the USB world, specifically handshaking charge current control, that no matter how it's designed, lower current charge sources can be forced into shutdown. This is also true of the Apple 2.5W USB power supply, which is what the electrical model of the USB charge source is modeled after, including responding to the hardware defined Apple handshaking rather than the ever-changing software defined versions.

No harm was done to your amp.
 
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#5
Hi squish :)

I always have a beer on my amp! No room for capes!

agedhorse said:
There are specific protection circuits for the USB output that will shut done the Subway amps if the device draws more than the rated maximum.
Click to expand...

Good feature! :thumbsup:

You never know what folks bring to a gig! :D

squish said:
I have enough trouble keeping drinks, capes and boas off of it anyway.
Click to expand...

And I don't gig with folks who bring exotic pets to the gig. Certainly not boas! :D

squish said:
Anyone know what the problem was
Click to expand...

We have to ask Andy if this amp also has a snake detector. :D



Wise(b)ass
 
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#6
Auer said:
Does a amp really have to have USB anyhow?

I'm not feeling all this "functionality" that's being crammed in to these tiny class D things.

I have worn out USB jacks on other devices. /Shrug
Click to expand...

A few months ago, I had a dead battery after a gig. It would have been nice to have been able to jump start my car from my Subway.

:laugh:
 
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#8
gln1955 said:
A few months ago, I had a dead battery after a gig. It would have been nice to have been able to jump start my car from my Subway.

:laugh:
Click to expand...
Now that’s funny, I will bring this up at the next R&D meeting and see what reaction we get ;)
 
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#9
Auer said:
Does a amp really have to have USB anyhow?

I'm not feeling all this "functionality" that's being crammed in to these tiny class D things.

I have worn out USB jacks on other devices. /Shrug
Click to expand...
The USB feature has been very well received by players. If you don’t want a USB power port, there are a LOT of amps without them that you can choose.

The USB jacks used on the Subway amps are a commercial/industrial version of the USB-A, not consumer grade USB-B or C. We have not had a single jack failure since this feature was introduced.
 
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#11
agedhorse said:
The USB feature has been very well received by players. If you don’t want a USB power port, there are a LOT of amps without them that you can choose.

The USB jacks used on the Subway amps are a commercial/industrial version of the USB-A, not consumer grade USB-B or C. We have not had a single jack failure since this feature was introduced.
Click to expand...
The one in the TT works great for the phone and a rechargeable music stand LED light I use.
 
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#15
fdeck said:
... so long as it isn't harvesting my data and selling it. ;)
Click to expand...
Interesting that you mention this... our last cyber-security training was on the subject of vulnerability of USB devices to hackers. This is (or can be) an issue with IoT (internet of things) devices of all kinds, devices can write code to computers and other devices that communicate with the internet. The Subway USB connection is 100% hardware protected, it's impossible for there to be any hacking or data harvesting of any kind.
 
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#16
agedhorse said:
The USB feature has been very well received by players. If you don’t want a USB power port, there are a LOT of amps without them that you can choose.

The USB jacks used on the Subway amps are a commercial/industrial version of the USB-A, not consumer grade USB-B or C. We have not had a single jack failure since this feature was introduced.
Click to expand...
It’s an awesome feature. I wish my D800+ had it too.
 
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#19
squish said:
I have enough trouble keeping drinks, capes and boas off of it anyway.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you gotta' help us out with this one.

For a short time, I played in a band with some kids about half my age. They were 23, when I was 46. We played a series of frat parties and tailgater deals at a local University. Something every week. It was amazing how many inebriated college kids tried to put a beer on my WalkAbout Scout. And if you know anything about how that combo-cab is designed, if a logneck gets turned over on top of one, it would practically funnel beer right through the cooling slots on top to the goods inside. I always imagined there would be a hiss and a pop, and my gig would be prematurely over. So it was a constant battle all night; HEY MAN, DON'T PUT YER BEER ON MY AMP! YEAH YOU, MOVE YER DAM DRINK DUDE! THANKS!

Maybe if I'd kept a pet boa on there...
 
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