VG-99 Issue - anyone experienced similar?

Started by IMH1234, October 21, 2021, 01:50:07 PM

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IMH1234

Hi fellow VGuitar forum people,

I am hoping someone on the forum might be able to help with a problem - I fired up my guitar synth setup for the first time in a few weeks this afternoon to find my VG-99 has developed an issue.

Basically the unit turns on and plays patches but all of the controls, knobs, switches and assignments from whatever source suffer from latency of at least several seconds along with glitchy operation. So for example, if I try to change a patch with the shuttle wheel it takes a significant period of time before changing and quite often seems to skip or miss patches. If I use any of the assigned controllers, say the pedals on the FC300 then there is a very long delay in responding to these actions to the extent they cannot practically be used. The length of this delay seems variable but I estimate to be consistently between 2 and 10 seconds. This's makes the unit effectively useless for any real time performance or changing sounds reliably.

On power down the unit freezes with the shutting down message for several minutes before eventually shutting off.

What makes this particularly unusual is that this is my second VG-99 to have developed exactly the same issue - on the previous unit I tried every permutation of rebooting, reinitialising reinstalling, reconnecting imaginable before giving up the ghost and switching to a single VG99 + GR55 setup.

I cannot isolate anything unusual that would have caused this. My current setup is as follows:

GK-2a into boss GKP-2 splitter cable with the VG99 on the active side and a GR55 on the passive side of the splitter. I then control the system from the floor via a systex connection between the VG-99 and a FC300 and midi messages between the VG-99 and the GR-55 as well as a Voodoo Labs Hex for external FX looping. All PSUs are stock and as far as I can see in good working order. The setup is permanently installed in my studio and has not had any shocks, knocks or power surges that I am aware of.

Has anyone out there experienced a similar problem? I am speculating that there is a half life issue with the memory chips that these units reach after a time, causing them to operate slowly or die completely and that there is nothing more that can be done. However, I am not quite ready to junk my only remaining VG-99 if there is a practical known fix out there.

I would really appreciate if anyone has any ideas or experience of this problem. Let me know if any additional information would be of help to isolate this.

Thanks
Ian

admin

#1
Common issie if you have a MIDI loop back issue-can occur if using VG-99 RRC2 connection (to FC300) and a VG-99  MIDI Input connection and a USB connection to the VG-99 editor

To debug, isolate each component

Try VG-99 with only a GK 13 guitar and headphones, and power adapter, and nothing else

Should not have any control lag in that scenario

IMH1234

Thanks - although I am not connected via USB to anything I wonder if there is something similar happening via the devices connected via DIN Midi. Will have a go in the morning and report back

gumtown

Unplug the 5 pin DIN midi, if you have both Midi In and Out connected to the GR-55, a patch change feedback loop is known to happen, if the VG-99 and GR-55 both have Program change out (PC OUT) enabled.
What happens is both devices relay a program change it initiates or receives, causing a continuous program change loop.
So disable PC out on one of the devices.
Roland/Boss could have avoided this by having a check from the device that if it receives a program change midi command, to not relay it if the device is already on that patch.
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

IMH1234

Thanks All,

Great news is that all is working again - took a bit of tracking down but seems to be fixed by removing the DIN Midi in to the VG-99. I am unsure quite why this suddenly became a problem now as all has run fine like this for several years - possibly some rogue PC out setting last time I used the set up. Fortunately there wasn't really much point to having that midi in connection anyway - not too sure why I even wired it up other than in case it was needed one day.

One upside is that this has given me the opportunity to think a bit about the rig and how I use it - I am contemplating replacing the FC300 with a more modern midi controller - possibly a Morningstar. Given that I need the ability to control multiple different 13pin modules separately the RRC2 connection is actually not such a big advantage and the footprint of the FC300 is really far too large. I think that would also remove any possibility of these midi feedback loops as the Roland units would simply receive midi messages with no need to send anything.

Anyway, Thanks again for all the help - it is really appreciated

mooncaine

Good to know that worked for you.

Since you mentioned the FC300 and its Ethernet cable connection:

I, too, question whether it's usable to control 2 VG-99s at once. Can't help but think there's a way, though it might be more trouble than it's worth. That's a shame, because routing Ethernet signals to multiple destinations seems like a problem that the IT industry already relies on. Maybe I could use my iConnectMIDI device for it, but I'm not taking that with me on a stage.

I notice the FC300 has MIDI in and out. I don't recall ever using those jacks... yet.

philjynx

Quote from: mooncaine on October 22, 2021, 08:49:49 AM
Good to know that worked for you.

Since you mentioned the FC300 and its Ethernet cable connection:


It only LOOKS like an ethernet cable, there's no ethernet happening in it when connected to VG99 + FC, BOSS are just using a convenient 8 core connection cable.