I own an X1850 and recently updated to the firmware 1.7 (coming from 1.6). Since then, the connection to my other 2 SC6000M seems to get lost after some time, since the “CUE” Buttons flash up, the 2.nd SC6000M gets the colors of the first player and the master tempo is recognized by beats not the analyzed track currently playing. I’m not quite shure if this is a problem of the X1850 or the 2 SC6000M, so I tried around a bit:
Completly disconnected the hardware during playing from my network (disabled WIFI and disconnected network cables just connecting the SC6000M’s)
So I played around a bit and now I got some more details:
If I run the X1850 without wired connection to my network the engine connect works between the 2 SC 6000Ms.
Running the 2 SC 6000Ms in WIFI is also no problem.
Connecting a wired connection to the “PC” Port of the X1850 kills the engine connect. It seems like both SC 6000Ms doesn’t seem to know which one is player 1 and which is player 2, setting both to player 1.
I’m not shure what I’m doing wrong, but connecting my home network kills the engine connect features. Has anybody have an idea? I connect the X1850 directly wired to a switch that is connected with a router and the rest of the network. Maybe some kind of interference with other devices?!
I have been playing around a bit, since on the weekend the problem occured again. So I tried to run the mixer without wired connection, just connecting the 2 SC 6000 Ms to the X1850 mixer, while they are connected to WIFI. After some time, they loose the engine connection and they both loose it (I thought player 1 still is connected, but changing the cue colors stated the connection is broken). While beeing in a set, I couldn’t restart the mixer, trying a “Refresh Ip Adress”, but the connection still wasn’t recovered. So I disconnected one of the SC 6000Ms and reconnected it after a minute, running the engine connection again until some minutes later, it just looses the connection again. So, yeah, I’m investigating the problem as good as possible.
I am using two SC5000Ms and an X1850 and had a few Engine Connect disconnects similarly to what you are experiencing. I do not use WIFI. It was always caused by changed IP addresses (my fault, reasons 1 and 2 below). My observations indicate the mixer (or the hub inside it) does not correctly handle IP address changes because restarting the players doesn’t fix this issue. Refreshing the mixer IP address via the menu will not fix this because it does not update the players’ ip addresses. My general advise is to ensure IP addresses do not change during a set. There are multiple scenarios where IP addresses can change e.g.:
the network is not connected when the devices (players and mixer) boot. When you connect it later and there is a DHCP server in your network, the devices will take the IP address they have been assigned to from the DHCP server. DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and is used for automatically assigning IP addresses. Many rooters implement a DHCP server and have it enabled py default.
the network is disconnected during a set. Consequently, the players take another IP address. One reason could be (possibly temporarily) powered off network components such as rooter or switch. It could also be defective contacts on the ethernet cables. Particularly if the latch on a plug is broken.
the DHCP lease expires. That means the DHCP server no longer reserves the IP Addresses. I did not verify if this can actually happen while the DHCP server is working properly. It could happen if the expiration is short enough and the players or the mixer do not refresh the lease. Solutions: increase the DHCP expiration time to e.g. 24 hours. Additionally I recomend to configure DHCP so that players and mixer will always receive the same IP addresses. Although DHCP seems to work via WIFI I would check that because there is a chance that the players handle wired connections differently.
If WIFI is turned on each player assigns two IP adresses one for the wired ethernet adapter and one for the WIFI adapter. If the rooting changes (start using WIFI adapter instead of wired adapter or the other way round) Engine Connect might get confused because it sees one or more players with a different IP address. I did not verify if this can actually happen. To exclude this I would turn of WIFI if the mixer is connected to a network.
Thanks for the ideas. I have now done a full network breakdown, disabling WIFI, running only the X1850 and the SC6000 M’s via Ethernet, but that also didn’t help, getting engine connect running stable. The start works fine, but after about 30 seconds the connection is lost and gone forever. I’m investigating further as I think there might be a network related issue, since running the whole network, having the X1850 not connected to ethernet and running the SC6000Ms via WIFI doesn’t break the engine connect feature.
I played this night with the SC6000Ms connected via WIFI and the X1850 not connected to the Ethernet. The engine connection was lost after about 30 minutes, recovering some times, then again failing, resulting at the end (about 3h) in a complete lost. Also the feature loading tracks from a drive attached to the other player was lost. I will try to get some new ethernet cables and attach the players with them to find out if the cables are broken.
Thanks @Robert_Wisher, your tip is also mentioned inside the manual. With another boot order I usually get no connection at all.
So today I tried some more investigation:
I switched the ethernet cables to some old cat 5e cables I still got here. I connected the x1850 to a gigabit switch, that is attached to my routers switch (also running gigabit).
Booting the 2 sc 6000ms first, waiting for them to be booted and then powering the x1850 works, as the gigabit (i can see it inside the fritzbox router) connects. Then after about 30 seconds till 2 minutes, the connection is again broken, not beeing recovered. The IP adress the x1850 displays is the same as the fritzbox router displays. Also when the connection is lost, the “CUE” buttons light up, as if the engine connect starts connecting but stops at the “CUE” of deck 1 (usually the “CUE” buttons light up from 1 to 4, assigning the colors of the sc6000ms).
@Robert_Wisher:
I see you also run an SC6000 with the X1850? Can you explain me, how you connected them to your network and what components you have? Maybe I can figure out, what is going on with the connection lost.
I also connect the x1850 to a switch that is connected to my router. My left sc6000m (deck with my hard drive) is connected through port 2 on the link and my right sc6000m is connected through port 3 on the link. First I power the left deck and choose the internal hd and load the drive profile. Then I power on the right and turn on the mixer. When the linked hd shows up on the right deck I then load it and the profile. Left deck is set to player 1 in the settings and right deck is set to player 2 in the settings. All the inputs are set to line on the mixer. Hope this helps, sorry you’re having issues. It took me a min to get it running properly myself.
I’m now shure, there is something wrong with the x1850:
Tonight I had a stream playing in my usual setup the x1850 not attached to ethernet, the 2 sc6000m connected to wifi. The players are connected to the x1850 via digitial audio (1 to 4).
After about one hour the mixer started to cut out the audio signal during a transition (I play electronic stuff (tech, deep, techno)) of one player, mostly the one currently running the main signal. So the output was only the coming player, while the audio of the currently playing player was displayed normally (the sc6000m was running like always) and the levelmeter also showed output. But it was not abled to be heard, not on master, not on my headphones and not on the soundcard (I use the build in USB card to capture the audio).
I still hope this can be repaired by me, but I’m feeling the mixer should go to a repair station (after 3 years in use, very bad quality).
They won`t repair my mixer an x1800 that is about five years old because it is out of warranty and they are not doing out of warranty repairs as far as I know, my ticket was raised in January 2024 and that is what they told me.
I am UK based.
As my mixer is only about 5 years old , and not overly used, I am a bit dissapointed at the build quality, they also can not sell me the part I need but you may be luckier as yours is the newer x1850.
Hope you find the issue and get it fixed, please let us know what that is when you do as I am now running on a brand new x1850.
@Rob_Gaudet Sorry to bother you, but can you tell, why the ticket is just laying there without any response? Is the support in europe currently just overloaded? Would be glad to hear, what can be done or if I should get the mixer to a repair station (I bought it from Session music, they seem to offer a repair, but I’m not quite shure, if they get the problem, if you can’t).
Or as I asked, would it be an idea to flash it back to firmware 1.6 and see, if the mixer runs on this firmware.
Thanks for your help. I managed to find the problem myself: I just reflashed the firmware 1.7 using the mixer right attached to my computer without any usb extenders. Now the mixer works like expected, no audio hangs or the engine connect fails.