Basestation mk 2 reliability?

Eigenharp
1

An interesting follow-up to FS (US) - Eigenharp Tau on eBay (sold)

I was the 3rd highest bidder and the 2 above me both bailed due to the lack of a basestation. So the seller gave me a buy-it-now option which was a good deal so I took it. It was pretty low risk since I have a working basestation pro to test with and he offered a 30-day return.

Turns out the Tau works fine! But here’s the interesting part… I also have a broken standard basestation (bought 2nd hand) that is a mk 2. The seller of the above Tau said the owner tossed his basestation. The serial number on this Tau is high enough that it would come with a mk 2 basestation.

I’m wondering now if there might be some reliability problem with the mk 2 and the reason the seller tossed his is because it didn’t work. Does anyone out there have a mk 2 station that is still kicking?

@fcolasanto was yours that broke a mk 2?
@Mumriken same question about yours

1 Like
2

I think we would have seen a lot more posts (not just here but in the old eigenlabs forum and G+ group), if it was a widespread problem.

also do you mean the the ‘mini’ basestation, compared to the ‘basestation pro’ ?
(or is there really a mk2 of one of these?)
I thought all taus came with the mini basestation - no?

Id guess, if the basestation fails, most likely causes would be connectors or the PSU.
neither should be hard to fix?!

anyways, Id be interested to know those that “failed”…
what does that mean? what diagnostics were done?

you mentioned previously that for yours, it would power your Tau, but not communicate…
to me, Id say thats likely a instrument ↔ basestation issue.
so instrument connector, cable, basestation connector.

Id need to open the mini basestation to compare to the pro version, but it looks similar.
Id say the main cost saving Eigenlabs did, is reduced complexity (pedal/midi IO) and using a ‘standard’ external PSU, rather than skimping on costs, they seem to value quality components.

also was your unit used?
do you know if its history, it could have had a ard life gigging in the past. I can imagine, frequently unplugging/ plugging the connector a lot (or heavy handedly) could eventually cause wear/failure.

note: the connectors are high quality, but everything will fail at some point.
(unfortunately, these units are not getting on a bit now… so fear we will ofc, see more issues as time passes)

many many years ago, the connector on my Alpha failed (became intermittent first), fortunately, I was able to return to Eigenlabs and they fixed it.
so it can happen… though, iirc, they said, this was the first they’d seen fail, so not common.

does mean Ive been much more careful / paranoid since, and tend to leave my eigenharps connected now.

that said, some here, do regular gigs with them, and no issues - so its ‘luck of the draw’, and ofc, taking good care too.