No output from Alchemist

OWL Alchemist
#1

Hi,

After working for a few weeks my Alchemist is no longer outputting any signal, I’ve tried connecting headphones directly (as opposed to through my mixer) and using an oscillator patch to ensure a signal is being generated, however there is no signal at all. I’ve also ensured the volume is up on the device by holding the top left button and turning the C knob fully clockwise, but I still hear absolutely nothing. I can communicate with the device successfully from the site and I’ve tried resetting the device, and erasing the storage. I’m out of ideas now though.

Thanks for your help,
Dan

#2

This turned out to be a red herring, Chromium (on Linux) was reporting all was ok connection wise, but it was only when I switched over to Chrome (on my Mac) I realised there was a connection error with the device. So I attempted to do a firmware update, 20.7 has failed three times now, after I restart the device the led is red and nothing happens. So I tried version 20.5, which looks like it’s successful at the end since the led is green, but I get the following error:

Program Error 0x60 Failed to start program task

and restarting the device brings back that red led, and I again see the above error.

Is there a more reliable version I could downgrade to?

#3

Oh jeez, this has been a voyage of discovery. So I’m back at square one, I’m assuming that the above error was just down to wiping the storage, and when I loaded a patch ignoring the error it worked. The bad news is I still have no output at all. I’ve upgraded again to 20.7, but this was futile. I think my unit is faulty, I’ve had it for less than two months and it’s had minimal use. I’m quite disappointed, as I do really like it.

#4

Yeah, the error you saw was just result of firmware upgrade - I think it’s just a failure to load patch in such cases. You should probably wait for Martin’s response, but to me it looks like a hardware issue.

When I had some problems (which were due to me messing with firmware), I was told to send an email to info at rebeltech dot org if I want to arrange return for fixing. Pretty sure that this is what you’ll also hear.

1 Like
#5

Hi @danh, yes email me to arrange a return please: info at rebeltech dot org just as @antisvin says!

For the record, the things to try in a case like this is:

  1. connect headphones directly to the front minijack socket
  2. ensure you have a simple, working patch that you know produces sound (e.g. this one)
  3. make sure volume is up

Since you’ve done these things already I think it’s best to send it back to get checked over and fixed.