20 Most Recent Fender Passport Deluxe 500watt Sound System with Deluxe Speaker Array Questions & Answers

Contact Fender support for the schematic at 1-844-202-0924

if no output from either speaker could be power supply problem. Comment: from my past experience this equipment is not easy to work on suggest you find a good tech

http://support.fender.com/manuals/pro_audio/Passport_P250_manual.pdf

Page 8 of the owners manual explains this and suggests that if their procedure fails to take it into an authorized Fender dealer for service. The manual is dowloadable at Fender.com/support.

If this system is still under warranty get it to a warranty service center. This is an early stage symptom of failure with the Power Amp IC. Fender has a good warranty policy on this stuff - 1 to 3 yearsIf not under warranty you may want to wait until it the problem is more persistent - easier for a tech to fix - unless it IS every time right now. A good tech can identify the issue quickly once "on the bench". My 'gut' feeling is the Power Amp IC when the system is first energizing to full stable power.

If you have an owners manual make note that channel one has a VIP feature with a control. This feature makes channel one override the other channels and is used for voice over announcements. The manual explains how to use the threshold control to set this. It can be downloaded at Fender.com/support.

BAD NEG. 15V REGULATOR AND RELATED CAPS IN POWER SUPPLY.CAUSES UNIT TO GO INTO PROTECT. main supply caps and power transformer is gone. possible you'll have to trash. good success, meder's tv service

This needs to go to the repair shop. The protect mode is turned on when either the power supply has a problem or one or both power amplifiers have a problem. These are often blown components.

These units are HARD to work on. To open you have to first remove then front panel before you can remove the back panel that has the power supply and power amps/heat sinks.

Compare repairs of these units to working under an automobile dashboard!

Hint: On startup, use a series 150 wat lamp to limit current while repairing. SInce these use a switching supply operating off the input line, use an isolation transformer for personal safety.

Turn the VIP level all the way down for the microphones you are using over the Mp3 music. If the VIP levels are up, the music will fade out so you can make an announcement.

Here ya go:

• Jeff Bloch's Amp & Guitar Center 1700 10th Ave Brooklyn, NY 11215 Ph: (718) 369-7080
• 
  

Authorized Fender electronics Service Center

You have probably blown the speaker... swap left and right to verify it is the speaker... These speakers are NOT too well suited for bass... They typically have low impedance speakers in series. You run a risk of popping the amp running with a blown speaker. You MAY have to replace all the speakers in the defective cabinet. ALL the speakers must be identical. The Passport 250 uses four 2 ohm speakers in series... not sure about the 500. It may have two 8 ohm in parallel. Do not use the speaker until it is fixed... the amps are hard to repair if a defective speaker cooks them.

You are in danger of popping the amp. The Fender passport 150 would be capable of covering about only a 20 foot by 20 foot area. If your area is bigger than that, you need more power and certainly bigger speakers. I would NOT recommend the larger Passport systems as the speakers are too directive for what sounds like your use... also there are reliability issues.

Usually a low hum indicated the 60 hz AC frequency that either isn't getting filtered enough in the power supply, due to a failing filter cap, or a bad ground connection in one of the cables of the unit.
If you have extra cables, try swapping them out to isolate the bad cable, or sometimes you can wiggle the cords to find out which one is the bad one. If all the cables check out ok, you will have to service the unit, and troubleshoot it to locate the source of the noise.
Usually, the bad cord will end up being a speaker wire that has frayed at one end and is making a poor connection on the ground side.
If someone has access to an oscilloscope, you can often see the noise and locate the source, but this usually requires a schematic of the unit to understand exactly where it's coming from so you can isolate the source.
If all the cords and cabes are ok, you will have to get the unit troubleshot. Contact a local repair service, or Fender for the nearest authorized repair facility::
http://www.fender.com/support
Good luck, and hope this helps.

The protect circuit is activated by a current sensing transformer in the *input* of the power supply. If any of the subassemblies of the unit (or all of them in combination) draw excess current then the protect light will illuminate and the power supply shut down to prevent any damage to the system.

The circuitry in the power supply is fairly robust as well as fuse protected so it is unlikely that the power supply itself has failed. More than likely one of your output power transistors has been shorted and it is easy to check this yourself if you are interested in doing so.

Furthermore if you follow a few *simple* precautions you can do this safely and confidently.

Post again on this thread if you are interested and I will spew the details.

-BK