Time out warning on V1. 3.1

[Bouncingogre]

Just doing a update this evening, and this warning came up on the screen.. See Picture

My update takes around 25 minutes, so it was warning me.
I will change it tomorrow!!
If I'd been away from the keyboard and not seen this, the keyboard would have shut down during the update.... Not good.

Be aware that Korg have changed the default shut down time from 2 Hours to 20 minutes.

"
In compliance with the latest legislation, we adjusted the default automatic power-off functionality by reducing the factory settings timer from 2 hours to 20 minutes (users can turn this function on / off to suit their needs). After this time of inactivity, the Pa5X will shut down automatically to reduce the power consumption. Users are encouraged to be careful not to lose any unsaved data, or change the settings. "

 

[happyrat1]

Sounds like a design error/manufacturer's defect to me.

 

[Bouncingogre]

Not sure, but it does seem strange to me that it would shut down the keyboard after 20 minutes of what they term as the "default automatic turn off".

What happened was :

As I was doing my back up last night, about ¾ of the way through it, the keyboard just suddenly shut down. No warning at all, Zilch.

I powered back on, and to save confusion, I renamed another new backup and it started to save it as normal. Then as a guess at about 12 minutes in, I got the Red message.
I hit one of the keys, and it completed the backup without issue.
I then deleted the first, failed backup.

Jury is out at the moment as to what exactly has caused it. I don't know... But if it re-occurs after I reset the timer then I will likely revert to V1.3.0

The ONLY difference is that during the First backup, I left the keyboard to get a coffee, so maybe I missed the message and after 20 minutes it shut down.

The 2nd, successful back up, I sat with it for the full 26 minutes it took, and pressed a key when the message appeared.
Although the message stays on screen for a good few minutes, once it disappeared from the screen, the backup then resumed and completed as normal.

I'll reset the timer later this morning. It does seem strange to set the timer to a very short 20 minutes.
Surely when the keyboard is still actively saving a backup it's not INACTIVE?

My immediate thought was, Is the long backup taxing the CPU too much, but I would have thought that that was unlikely.

What Is a concern is that if you Do change the timer setting, are you risking your warranty?
The last past of the Statement is not clear on this

"Users are encouraged to be careful not to lose any unsaved data, or change the settings."

That's very ambiguous........I will contact Korg UK on this one.

Keeping an eye on it anyway.

Keith

 

[Gunnar J]

Hi.
It's not only Korg that have changed the 'shutdoff' time, Roland and Yamaha have resently released updates that reduce the 'standard' time due to EU power saving regulations.
However, this should be possible to change in the settings. At G2 there is several steps up to 2 Hour, or you can disable it.
It's a bit funny that Roland after so many years all that sudden had to roll out this update for EA7, cause there was not much other 'news' to see in the fixlist.

Edit:
Edited a couple of typos.

 

[Bouncingogre]

Thanks Gunnar

I spoke to Korg UK about an hour ago, and they are going to come back to me on it.
Yes, I might have guessed that it was an EU directive!

Once I've heard back from Korg, I'll write up what they advise.

Hope all's good with you.

 

[kbrkr]

There are now only two settings for this feature; ON and OFF. You can turn it off in the General Settings. This is what I did as it was driving me CRAZY!!!!

 

[Bouncingogre]

As promised, here is the response I've had from Korg.


Hi Keith,

Steve here from Korg UK, your email has been passed on to me.

From what you have said I presume that you have v1.31 installed and have the auto power off when inactive for the designated time switched on.

It is perfectly okay to turn this facility off so the keyboard will not automatically shut down and this should stop this from re-occurring.

I hope this has answered your question and please let me know if you need anything further.


So I have turned it off in General Settings.

 

[happyrat1]

Actually it's pretty normal on about 90% of today's keyboards to go to sleep mode, or casino mode on the hydrasynth which turns into a stupid panel light show and I've never seen a keyboard where it can't be safely turned off. Even on the old Casios you could disable the timer by holding down the TONE button while powering it up.

Power saving, schmower saving, the feature was originally intended as a screensaver to disable the display before burn in happened.

 

[Bouncingogre]

Thanks for that Gary.
Yes I remember screensavers...
The problem at the moment is that having introduced V1. 3.1 there don't seem to be any detailed instructions.
The pdf that comes with the zip file only has a brief update of what's been added, but not how to use the additions.... Not helpful!

Anyway... Now I understand what happened, so normal service is resumed.

 

[happyrat1]

Burn in was a problem with the old LCD and Fluorescent displays but nowadays most displays are active matrix LEDs which theoretically should outlive the keyboard itself.

Korg's engineers probably thought of it as such a trivial matter that it never occurred to them that it would interfere with updates in the field.

You've done your duty and alerted them to the deficiency in their documentation and now the ball is in their court.

Personally I cannot stand the trashware that goes with their equipment so I tend to give them a wide berth when shopping for gear.

 

[Biggles]

Korg Engineers are well aware of possible Time Out issues.

Years ago part of the Instructions included with updates was to disable the Time Out prior to installing the update.

The Engineer in my says, why the feck did the update not include a routine to disable the Time Out, then reinstate it at the end of the update?

 

[happyrat1]

In my experience the two worst brands to update firmware on are Korg and Behringer.

I'd rather have to perform a nice neat sysex dump any day instead shoehorning in buggy drivers for a simple USB firmware update.

 

[amwilburn]

Just doing a update this evening, and this warning came up on the screen.. See Picture

My update takes around 25 minutes, so it was warning me.
I will change it tomorrow!!
If I'd been away from the keyboard and not seen this, the keyboard would have shut down during the update.... Not good.

Be aware that Korg have changed the default shut down time from 2 Hours to 20 minutes.

"
In compliance with the latest legislation, we adjusted the default automatic power-off functionality by reducing the factory settings timer from 2 hours to 20 minutes (users can turn this function on / off to suit their needs). After this time of inactivity, the Pa5X will shut down automatically to reduce the power consumption. Users are encouraged to be careful not to lose any unsaved data, or change the settings. "

Thanks for the heads up, Bouncing!

Mark

 

[Bouncingogre]

Korg Engineers are well aware of possible Time Out issues.

Years ago part of the Instructions included with updates was to disable the Time Out prior to installing the update.

The Engineer in my says, why the feck did the update not include a routine to disable the Time Out, then reinstate it at the end of the update?

Yep! That's about the size of it!
I usually go and find something else to do while my update is running, so to suddenly find the keyboard shutting down halfway through you're left wondering.. Did it complete it, or not?
Not brilliant! Could lead to a lot of lost work.