Help with TimeFactor freak out :(

[thehafe]

Today while I was playing, my TF started randomly (and frequently) changing all my parameters.  Mix went up and down, feedback up and down, x settings up and down, ext.

The ONLY thing I've changed recently is the addition of an ernie ball volume pedal as an expression pedal.  I thought maybe the ernie ball was messing it all up, so I unplugged it.  No change.  Still freaking out.

Next, I thought about unplugging the power.  Did that, no change.  TF Booted up and started freaking.  Did it again, and again, and still freaked out every time it started up (even after waiting 10+ seconds while unplugged).  Mind you, this is all without an expression pedal.

Anyway, this is big time upsetting.  Does anyone have an answer?  PS, I normally search the forums before posting, but I'm off to bed in a hurry.  I've stayed up waaay to late messing with this thing.  Please forgive me if this is a commonly posted problem/answer.

Thanks,

Jason

[nickrose]

Look and see if this is only affecting those parameters programmed to the expression pedal. If so, you may have a bit of dirt in the socket – try plugging and unplugging the pedal ten times. A little WD40 on the plug might be useful.

If this doesn't do it, it would sound like a hardware problem – support@eventide.com

[Paradroid]

The problem you describe sounds identical to the current affliction my TimeFactor is suffering from. I would be very interested to know whether you were able to rectify the problem and also the steps you had to go through in order to do so. Was it a hardware issue or did you find a fix you could administer yourself?

Thanks in advance!

[brock]

I don't have a contribution to this thread (other than cringing at Nick's WD-40 suggestion), but I did see the screen name 'Paradroid'.  You wouldn't happen to live way down south (as in the Southern Hemisphere), and play a Parker, would you?

[Paradroid]

So, I carefully took the TimeFactor apart. Cleaned every speck of dust and reassembled. Reloaded the latest firmware and then did a factory reset. So far, so good. I haven't tested extensively (i.e. at a rehearsal or live show) but the issue seems to have gone away. Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon…

The weird thing is that, of course, I had already tried updating the firmware and re-initializing so my guess is that something changed when I opened the unit up, looked around, undid the ribbon cable, looked some more, plugged the ribbon back in and screwed it all together again. We'll see if it stays fixed. 🙂 I'll post my results in a weeks time.

As for brock… B-Rock? Tom Brockway? The gator wrestler? Yes, I am still in the "land down under" and still have the pre-Belew super Parker Fly but mostly play a custom made "tree trunk with Bigsby" in with my latest (non-electronica) band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QsiNls4UUY

Actually, the above video was taken at the gig my TF first started acting up. Look me up on Skype, brock, would love to catch up! Should have known I'd find you wherever the coolest sound toys are…

[WillardW]

a little late jumping on this discussion (a couple years late), but my TF is giving me the almost exact same problem as you had. I'm curious how your TF has held up since? Also, how did you manage to get the ribbon cable unclipped? If you have a procedure to removing both boards and unclipping the ribbon cable please let me know! Thanks!!

[Giacomo Cicirello]

Hi,

My timefactor freaked-out a lot, and sounded thin with less tonal quality.

Also it powered-off randomly, and if you moved the power plug it definetly will shut down and reboot.

I unmounted the pedal, unattached the ribbon cable inside  (the ribbon cable came out easlly) , blew some air  in the holes of the ribbon connector,re-attached it with strength.

I noticed when unscrewing the pedal base lid that the screws were really tight stronglyyy, I think they were pushing the bottom base lid  pressing against the power outlet little box, also noticed that the power outlet was with some marks of that preassure on the black plastic.

So this time I tighten the screws with less pressure.

The result, the pedal is not shutting off, even if you move strongly the power adapter plug against the power input and stopped freaking out 🙂

The pedal works better, I feel it sounds better after re-attaching the main cable inside…Not 100% sure about this, but I am very happy about this!

 

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