Problems with Novation Impulse

I recently got myself an Impulse 49 and I have two issues bugging me.

1. It seems that for whatever reason the faders will randomly send midi data once in a while without me touching anything. Not anything dramatic, for example I set all midi faders at 100 and after awhile (usually occurs while "in action" but it could take 5,15,30 mins or more than an hour, its pretty abstract really) I ll get a random change at some fader moving to either 99 or 101. Then I might get another minor change like that after 5 or 30 minutes or much later, as I said it's really abstract. This isn't normal behavior is it? Naturally, that translates to mixer faders moving when I am working in Cubase which of course isn't welcome. I am in Windows XP SP3 and I use Automap 4.4 but the issue is independent of Cubase or Automap as it happens with both of them closed too. I am trying to work things out with their support but so far it's not working. I am curious whether that's just a weakness of Impulse in which case Novation would think it's not a big deal and people wouldn't notice/mind (wouldn't you mind if you notice?), a software/firmware/windows/whatever bug/problem I could fix or it's just my luck getting a defective unit. Anyone got an idea/suggestion/fix?

2. For some reason and although Cubase initializes Automap and the Automap Server opens up along with Cubase, they don't connect (Cubase led in software setup stays red) unless I manually open the Automap server before I launch Cubase.

It's most likely just the resistance of the faders changing slightly due to moisture, temp change etc. Sounds like they maybe used cheep faders? It could also be that they used faders with a smaller range of resistance, meaning a smaller change would be needed to register on the microcontroller. In either case it sounds like some corner cutting thing on their part. I think you're stuck with it. :p

That's what I am afraid too... Thing is the controller is brand new, I only started using it, it's not like it has wore out from the usage. The guy from Novation Support says that this is not normal behaviour though (yet in case it's a software/firmware related issue/bug he hasn't so far helped me to locate it). Also, I don't want to believe that you know...this is typical in Impulse and noone has ever noticed it/been bothered from it.

So yeah, Novation says it's either a firmware or a hardware/faulty unit issue. But in case I return it to the shop I am afraid they will say they checked it and return it and say it's fine while the problem will still be present... It's really driving me crazy.... I mean, wouldn't you be annoyed with faders acting like that?

fucking novation. only thing i bought from them recently broke within 1 hour of using it, took it back got a replacement and exactly the same thing happened. just got a refund in the end, fuck novation.

you could try a new unit, but chances are it's because of the parts they used in it.

Any variable resistor is going to have that little variation. A higher quality one will have less. The microcontroller is basically looping over all the pots very quickly, reading the resistance of each and translating that into a digital CC value. Lower quality parts have lower precision tolerances and might jump around a little bit.

Thanks for the explanation slightlydrybean, it makes sense. I've finally located someone else with the same exact problem in another board. So I at least know I m not the only one. So I guess this means the "Impulse is just built that way" scenario you are supporting and the "bug/software" scenario are more likely rather than the "faulty unit" one. Not that it's entirely impossible that a bad batch had been released...

ya a bad batch could be the case. Could also just be bad engineering :/