Fairlight-CMI

Hi,

My graphics pen is extremely inaccurate when the Fairlight is first booted up, but ONLY when the pen button is being pressed.

What basically happens is, the cursor flicks/moves randomly around its current position as the button is being pressed, no matter how soft or hard I press it and usually results in me selecting the wrong function, etc. Obviously it's bad for drawing curves and waveforms

 After a while it will settle, but if it hasn't been used for 5 mins or so, it will become unstable again. I've tried cleaning the pad and the pen, but probably assume the pen is faulty.

If someone else has had this problem and knows a cure, please let me know. It's doing my head in!!! If not, are pens/pads easy to get hold of?

Cheers,
Peter

Well, I had this problem as well, and found the cause by accident : 

When I first set up the CMI, I had the alpha keyboard plugged into 
the music keyboard, which was in turn plugged into the mainframe.

When I got everthing setup how I wanted it, I removed the music 
keyboard from the chain, and plugged the alpha keyboard straight into 
the mainframe, and used my normal master keyboard through midi to run 
the fairlight.

Having done that, everything worked OK.

Im not suggesting this is a solution, but it would be worth checking 
as it really narrows down the problems.

Cheers,

Arron 












--- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, "Peter Connelly \(Core Design 
Ltd.\)" <PeterC@C...> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> My graphics pen is extremely inaccurate when the Fairlight is first 
booted up, but ONLY when the pen button is being pressed.
> 
> What basically happens is, the cursor flicks/moves randomly around 
its current position as the button is being pressed, no matter how 
soft or hard I press it and usually results in me selecting the wrong 
function, etc. Obviously it's bad for drawing curves and waveforms
> 
>  After a while it will settle, but if it hasn't been used for 5 
mins or so, it will become unstable again. I've tried cleaning the 
pad and the pen, but probably assume the pen is faulty.
> 
> If someone else has had this problem and knows a cure, please let 
me know. It's doing my head in!!! If not, are pens/pads easy to get 
hold of?

> 
> Cheers,
> Peter

> My graphics pen is extremely inaccurate when the Fairlight is first booted
> up, but ONLY when the pen button is being pressed.

Have you tried the pad on a different unit to determine that the problem
is really with the pad, rather than the interface in the mainframe ?

What if you use the button repeatedly, does it improve ?  (corrosion on
the contacts of the button).

What if you hold the button and move the cable a bit, does it become worse ?

>  After a while it will settle, but if it hasn't been used for 5 mins or
> so, it will become unstable again. I've tried cleaning the pad and the
> pen, but probably assume the pen is faulty.

It could be the cable.

Regards,
Harald.