Conrad Johnson dedicated fansite

08-22-12: Bogeybuster49: "Every light on the front panel lit up like my christmas tree."..."a voltage fluctuation
of the AC coming out of the wall socket. This is most likely after a power interruption."

The "Every light on the front panel lit up like my christmas tree" is what happened to my PF-R. During a sudden rainstorm. I didn't see any lightening, but there could have been a brownout, or who knows. (I was rushing around the house unplugging electronics as fast as I could).

I suspect certain C-J components are easily damaged by any kind of power interruption. (I have a couple of other examples, but I'd rather not go into it).

I've kind of just "written off" the PF-R. Whether they ever send it back to me after 9 weeks & counting, I don't know. Whether it's really "fried" like Ed said during one of the rare times I could speak to him, I could totally believe, if they actually told me a specific diagnosis.

Bogeybuster49

I've owned ET3, ET5 and GAT preamps. They all use the identical front panel logic/control board. (I've changed firmware in them, so I can confirm this first hand)

The units are susceptible to static electricity, but no more than any other device, and as far as voltage fluctuations, well again, they are no more susceptible than any other device micro-controller controlled device. There's nothing special in there. They are also susceptible to remote codes from other devices causing the CJ to get a bit flaky

I've never experienced the Christmas-Tree on any of the 3 preamps.I have zapped them or one way or the other caused them to stop functioning properly. Worst case took a power removal to cure and all was fine after.

The control board takes about 2 minutes to change out, so, it could be confirmed instantly if it's at fault. It would not be impossible in any way for there to be an intermittent solder connection or such on the control board that could cause an intermittent "Xmas Tree".

Thanks for the site tip, I just signed up!

@Bogeybuster49

Did you issue with the bad unit every get resolved. Very unusual situation as the people at CJ have alway been super responsive to any issue or problem that I have ever called them about. I had some tube issues with my PV12 and they dealt with the issue in a few days. Hope your ET3 is back in operation!

I had a problem with my PV-12, and I troubleshot it down to a shorted winding in the secondary of the transformer. While a short in the primary would blow a fuse, not so in the secondary. This could cause all the lights to come on and other strange problems.

Since this wire was very fine, and now people mention other problems that could be caused by the same problem, I believe it's a design flaw in all CJ's. Why they used wire that was so fine in the transformer is beyond me. I was considering another CJ preamp, but not now.