CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

moome · Joined: 01 Jun 2007 Posts: 497

ya, I was busy for the new BOX, but I always read email evry 3-4 hours except I am sleeping. Very Happy

Doc B. · Joined: 28 Jan 2014 Posts: 17 Location: Poulsbo, WA

Hi guys, I just set up a G70 with the Moome card last month. I was very impressed, and when I discovered the output range expander I was really thrilled. Unfortunately I also had a problem with one of the inputs seeming to be dead. In my case it turned out that the contacts of that input jack has gotten flaky. Some careful adjustment of how deep the HDMI plug goes into the jack brings the input to life. Perhaps a more robust jack would be worth investigating in future revisions.
I'm using 15ft and 20ft Rix HDMI cables with good results, from a samsung bluray player and a 2010 Mac mini.
If things seem messed up beyond recognition, press 4...

Doc B.
Head Bottlehead
Bottlehead Corp.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 3:42 am Post subject:

Hi Doc, welcome to the forum. Thanks for the observations.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 3:49 am Post subject:

Hey Doc, good to see you here! feel free to post your website addresses in full in your signature. The geeks here will geek OUT! Smile

Doc B. · Joined: 28 Jan 2014 Posts: 17 Location: Poulsbo, WA

Thanks for the warm welcome! I'll do up a signature when I get a chance. Meantime, the website is www.bottlehead.com

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 4:54 am Post subject:

Doc B. · Joined: 28 Jan 2014 Posts: 17 Location: Poulsbo, WA

Hi guys, I have a little follow up - the issue of one HDMI input not sensing signal happened again to me last night, even my wiggling the HDMI plug in that jack a bit no longer worked. So I pulled the card to have a look. Each HDMI jack has a sheet metal tab that is screwed to the front panel. Each of these tabs had about a 1mm gap between it and the panel, that is to say the screws that screwed the tabs down were a little loose. Not sure if that was intentional because of some alignment issue in the parts layout, but anyway I tightened up the screw on each HDMI jack tab and plugged the card back in, figuring that might make for a little more stable connection or possibly a better shield-to-ground path. Both input indicators lit right up when I put the card and cables back in and switching between them is now consistently good.

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

Sounds like the Connectors need to have the solder reflowed where they are connected to the PCB board. The tightening of the screws that hold them to the face plate most likely is pushing the through hole pins to make contact to the PCB. It s a temporary solution but not a permanent one.

Athanasios

Doc B. · Joined: 28 Jan 2014 Posts: 17 Location: Poulsbo, WA

The HDMI socket mounting pins are surface mount, not thru hole. I did inspect them with a loupe and the connections looked very solid and clean. In fact the board looked good everywhere. My suspicion is that the contacts in the jack itself were just not making good connections with the contacts in the cable plug because the fit was a little wiggly. Securing the jacks more tightly to the front panel probably just created a better angle for the plug pins to contact the jack pins. I find all of these little connectors like HDMI, USB and all of the mini variants pretty consistently unreliable. Don't even get me started about ribbon cables! It's not really the manufacturer's fault, something like a DVI-D connection is superior mechanically but everyone wants to sell skinny sexy things, even when those things are as mundane as an electrical connection. I for one am most appreciative that someone would go to the trouble to make this sweet little card available for these fossils.

larryp · Joined: 24 Jan 2012 Posts: 252 Location: eden prairie mn

Well I got my card back from moome and it's working fine! Even the remote works when I select output 1 or 2. Now I can finally hook up my dvd player & Roku box. Surprised

)

ecrabb · Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2014 5:49 pm Post subject:

Thanks for following up on this Larry, and way to go Moome for taking care of your customer!

Thumbs Up

Cheers,
SC

alanjesq · Joined: 09 Oct 2010 Posts: 13 Location: St. Louis,Mo.

Remote key "4" to let IFB Auto detect input color space. When color not normal, you may press remote key 5 6 7 accidentally.

Is color space same as input of signal?

alanjesq

alanjesq · Joined: 09 Oct 2010 Posts: 13 Location: St. Louis,Mo.

alanjesq · Joined: 09 Oct 2010 Posts: 13 Location: St. Louis,Mo.

Doc B. · Joined: 28 Jan 2014 Posts: 17 Location: Poulsbo, WA

I'm coming back way after the dance was over here, but I'll add a few nuggets from my own experience. For starters the card I installed a few months ago is still working very nicely. I do find that I sometimes have to press button D to get it to sync with my new Oppo 103d at startup. Not a big deal. Also have to press C to set the black boost sometimes at start up. Again not a big deal at all, just offering some datapoints. The connections have remained rock solid since I tightened up the screws as mentioned in my post above.

One thing to think about if the remote does not seem to work is the position of the sensor on the Moome card. My room is very much blacked out, with a black curtain maybe a foot behind the rear of the G70. I have to bounce the remote signal off the back curtain to get a chirp of recognition from the card since it is sort of recessed into the back panel and the signal is too weak coming from darkened front or side walls.

Aside from the very minor button pressing items I have to say that the Moome card and the Oppo are playing extremely well together. The theater is now running a full Bottlehead/Blumenstein Audio 5.1 setup and I recently switched to a Wilsonart Designer White laminate 96" screen. The most frequent comment from visitors is "I could sit in here and watch movies all day".