Upgraded Blackbox and now it hisses and L/R balance is off

[grahamenglish]

I upgraded the Blackbox from 1.5.1 to 1.6.4 and now the noise floor is really high and it only plays out of the left channel. I tried to go back to the previous firmware version but I get the same results. Everything seems to operate normally except for the noise and L/R balance.

Any ideas?

I also tried to send this support request using the contact form but got the following error:
There was an error trying to send your message. Please try again later.
https://1010music.com/contact-us

[chrislux]

Same strange things here..try a new init preset. Creating a new preset worked fine.
All my older presets are buggy now. Really Annoying...

[maxman]

also consider deleting the settings.tml file on the sd card, which will reset all internal settings to default.
blackbox will create a fresh one on boot. i don't have any noise/output issues on 1.6.4 on my side..

cheers max

[grahamenglish]

Thanks for the ideas. I tried creating a new preset, and that didn't change anything.

Then I deleted the settings.tml, and it seemed to help at first. The output was working normally. The hissing was gone due to my record monitor setting being turned off. But when I turned on record monitoring to record something from the input, the hiss came back.

It seems the issue is with the input. The meters are displaying a loud uneven signal, even when nothing is connected to the input. See the attached image.

I re-installed the 1.5.1 firmware, and still, the input isn't working as expected. I can play samples, and I can resample, but the input no longer works.

I'm stumped.

[maxman]

maybe you have some kind of ground loop? do you have noise/hiss only with headphones and a power/battery pack(to eliminate any ac power noise) ?

[grahamenglish]

I thought it might be a ground loop at first but ruled that out with experimentation. It seems the input is the problem. The inputs show a signal present even when nothing is connected to the input and even when no other inputs or outputs are connected.

Since the hardware and software worked perfectly before the upgrade and downgrading hasn't helped, I'm guessing that there could be an audio calibration issue or something. Something seems to have been broken during the upgrade process.

[maxman]

do you see that high input signal even without any cables connected to input?

[grahamenglish]

Yes. The input signal is present even when nothing is connected to the input.

[maxman]

okay than i think its somehow a hardware issue....but weird it happend due to a software update... seems unreasonable

[Aaron]

Sorry to hear this. Please use the contact us form for help on re-calibrating as the next step. It could be a hardware problem.

Thank you.

[grahamenglish]

Thanks for the reply. I've tried using your contact form several times in the past couple of days but I always get an error: There was an error trying to send your message. Please try again later.

[grahamenglish]

Calibrating the input fixed the problem. I'm back in business!

[LooMusic]

Hello

I have the same issue. My Blackbox is unusable ...
Would you give us this calibration process ?

[grahamenglish]

You'll need to be able to send a steady 5v signal to both the left and right sides of the input. I was able to send a 5v signal via 2 channels of my Mordax Data using a 3.5mm stereo to dual mono breakout cable. If you can do that, I can give you the steps. If you can't, contact support.