Message
Re: [Fairlight-CMI] Faulty light pen issue
2017-09-01 by britt@shapetable.com
No worries, and wish I had more time to spend on this stuff. :-)
Glad to hear the mouse adapter works if you unplug the lightpen. That narrows the problem down significantly.
That means that the Q219 is good and the cabling/connections from the Q219 to the VDU connector on the back of the CMI is good.
So I think this means it could be:
- bad connection in cable from VDU <-> mouse adapter
- bad connection between connector on the back of the VDU and the lightpen connector on the front of the VDU
- bad connection in lightpen plug or at lightpen itself
- defective component in lightpen
Since you can see a faint crescent when you bring the lightpen to the monitor, I wonder if maybe there is a broken/intermittent/corroded ground connection.
If you haven't already, please try this the next time you are at the machine:
Use the new(er) 5-pin XLR cable that came with the mouse adapter to directly connect the VDU to the CMI. (Rather than the cable that originally came with the CMI).
This will tell you if there is a problem in your old(er) XLR cable.
Joe