DC Blocker

[spkrdctr]

"Either way the power plant shouldn’t be locking up. I assume “lock up” means the control software is crashing and the P20 power has to be cycled to recover?"

That is my take also. You would be surprised how a few new components can fix a troublesome circuit. Most people do not know and engineers do not like to talk about it, but electronic components are a real crap shoot at times. They fail all the time or are defective from the manufacturer. It just isn't high enough of a failure rate to really cause a business serious problems. In today's digital world it is cheaper to just replace an entire circuit board then to troubleshoot to the component. If your P-20 is under warranty,it needs to go to a repair shop. If it is not under warranty, they should send you a new board which will replace almost the entire guts of the P-20 and have you send your old board back for examination. But, I don't run the company!

 

[BDH55]

Sorry, got distracted for almost a week with plumbing problems. First it was the plugged branch line... then our hot water tank left us... and today it was my new friends at Roto-Rooter showing up to clear the kitchen sink drain line and letting me know that our kitchen remodelers 'glued' all the traps etc under the sink!

Anyway, back to my original issue... first, to clarify what I meant by my P20 'locking up'... I'll try to explain exactly how I am using the P20 and what I am seeing. My P20 is the heart of my main rack... everything plugs into it, and it is plugged into a dedicated 20 A line. While the P20 can be used to switch different zones on and off, I leave all my zones powered on so all my equipment has constant power. That said, I do turn the display off when I am not using my system, and back on when my system is on.

So what happens is I will sit down to listen/watch and notice that the display on my P20 is already on. At that point I know thru experience my P20 'controls' are locked up. In this case, 'locked up' means non-responsive to both the remote and/or front panel inputs. The only way to get functionality back is to kill the main power and bring it back up. The good news is I still have power to all my equipment and I 'believe' my P20 is still doing it's job. Since I keep all my zones on, I don't really need my remote, but... thinking about the price point on this piece of equipment, I expect it to work!

The latest is I challenged PS Audio support about recommending I install a DC Blocker to solve the problem, when Paul's video said that they have a DC Blocker inside the product. They went to Engineering, and now the feeling is that I have some spurious IR signals confusing my P20. While this seems odd as I also have a P12 that has never had an issue, the recommendation was to cover the IR receiver with some electrical tape and see what happens. So far, so good, but I also went thru a period of probably 3 months without having my lockup, so I guess we will see...

 

[spkrdctr]

If the tape trick works that will give you an answer. I have issues with my Yamaha receiver turning on at weird times. I know it is some weird signals etc in my apartment complex. It does not happen often, maybe once a month at most. So, if the tape trick works you have your answer. I hope it is fixed.

 

[BDH55]

If the tape trick works that will give you an answer. I have issues with my Yamaha receiver turning on at weird times. I know it is some weird signals etc in my apartment complex. It does not happen often, maybe once a month at most. So, if the tape trick works you have your answer. I hope it is fixed.

Well, so far, so good! That said, while tape may help eliminate any further DC blocker discussion, it doesn't really solve the problem. It's more like a bandaid that hides the problem. Plus, I would really like to be able to use my remote when I need to use it. Of course, me having to climb behind my rack to do a hard power reset isn't a very good solution either as I'm not getting any younger (and am losing my ability to safely work behind it as well).

You mentioned earlier about returning it for service. PS Audio is certainly willing to take a look at it, and I've thought about it. The biggest issue would be recruiting a couple of the neighbors not only to pull it from my rack, but box it, and get it to a shipper (and again on the flip side), as well as being completely shut down. Of course my biggest fear is that since there was a stretch of at least three months where my P20 ran fine, would they even find a problem? Of course now that they are leaning toward this being an IR issue, returning to them looks even less like an option. Certainly appreciate the suggestion however...