Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater problem with my new sms-1

Hi all- after reading posts on this and other forums about the velodyne sms-1, I bought one. Set it up yesterday while no one was home and ran into a snag. I can get the tones and osd, but the graph just lays there. It's like the mic isn't working. If I tap on or blow into the mic, I get a response on the graph which disapears the next sweep. I turned the sub up till it shook the windows but nothing, just how loud do those tones have to be? I triple check the connections, tried both mic inputs, I must be missing something stupid. Any thoughts?

If you have the audio,video, and mic from the SMS-1 connected correctly, once you are in the set up menu things should work. If it does not I would contact Velodyne and talk with a tech, setting up the SMS-1 is not complicated and you could have a defective product.

Thanks for the reply, I was just sure I was missing something, everything I've read suggests this thing almost operates itself. I'll call them and report the outcome. Defective mic maybe? Let the wagering begin.

The mic doesn't have a battery, does it?

thats important...and that too a working battery...

Your problem sounds familiar. I had the same problem at first. Here is a checklist to troubleshoot and get you going.

1. Shut off your sub at the sub.

2. Turn off the the low pass filter at the SMS by putting the cursor to setup and pressing "select" and "reset".

2. Go to your receiver/processor menu and set the speakers to small, sub is on, and the crossover at 80 initially.

3. Make sure your sub is connected to the right inputs as per the manual.

4. Run a pair of RCA cables from the equalized output back into a spare input on the processor (like VCR or an AUX) and set the processor to that source input.

If its working you should hear the sweep coming from the main speakers and see it on the graph. If that is ok then turn on the sub switch.

You should be good to go and now the real work starts on setting placement,polarity, and phase before setting the crossover and finally equalizing.

Good luck.

No dice. Went down the list, (did finally get the low pass set to off) I get tones, (measured around 95 db on the RS meter) and a screen, can see the sweep sweeping, just a flatline for a graph.Does that mean my room is dead? JK. I called velodyne and the rep gave a # for the service manager, it was pretty late in the day so I left a message.
I had to talk my dealer into ordering this for me so I'm not counting on much help there, as he'd never heard of the thing before I told him about it. Anyone with one of these care to tap on your mic and report what the graph does? It takes a pretty healthy tap to nudge the graph halfway up or so.
I'm gonna feel like an idiot if this thing just starts working on it's own.

Any update on the problem ?

After trading phone messages for several days with the customer service manager I got his e-mail and explained the problem that way. He's sending a replacement mic and cable.I expect it tues. or wed. From the looks of things velodyne's customer service is gonna be on the same level as Axiom's. It's just killing me looking at that thing and not being able to utilize all that coolness. I promised my dealer a demo when I get it figured out.

Sorry you had the bad luck with it, good to hear the customer support is good. Hope it is up and working next week, let us know if you are happy with it.

Finaly an update. I waited a couple weeks, (ok 3 or so) for the replacement mic to show up, I'm mr. patient, and finaly emailed velodyne again. Two days later the mic and cable were waiting when I got home from work. I figure the earlier email vanished into cyberspace.
I plugged in the new mic and cable and the sms sprung to life! Kinda anticlimactic at this point. I did a quick run through when the house was empty the other night. I checked a couple other sub positions, checked phase and polarity, none of which really made any drastic change. I ran the auto eq and called it good for now as I'm gonna be changing out some furniture pretty soon. One thing which seemed odd was when I matched the sub level to the mains, I had to turn the sub way down, 10 on the sms and 20% on the sub. This is just a little 10" definative sub here, not an ep 600.

Glad it came to life

That's kind of where I am with the levels on my EP500; About 25% gain on the sub, -8 dB on the receiver level, and the SMS-1 at volume 10. Seems way low since the SMS goes from 1 to 99 for volume!

Enjoy.

I've always found, even with just a Ratshack meter, that the sub calibrates lower than expected.

I'm not sure if it's a matter of not being as sensitive to the low bass, or if I just like the extra "kick", but I always end up turning the sub up a bit from "flat", calibrated levels.