Tuesday, September 1, 2009

PRO ONE WALNUT CASE PART 2 : P5 JUNIOR





oiled, electronics installed and new sequential and p1 badges... almost there.. just the keyboard re-build now....

Sunday, August 16, 2009

PIC OF FINISHED VS LCD




here she is. sorry its so blurry but its hard to get a pic due to the brightness of the display (ahhhh it feels so good to say that...:) )

PRO ONE WALNUT CASE



well after seeing the dude on ebay who sells the walnut cases and shit for 300 bills.. i wanted my own. i didnt want to buy one. i wanted to make it. my p1 deserves it. its been to so many shitty gigs and always has delivered.. and hen some. so i looked at his and then took apart mine to see what exactly had to be done. this coincided also with the tracking room at the studio being turned into a complete wood shop for remodeling of main control and a studio partnr getting a seriously huge load of old seasoned walnut. PERFECT! so i set about the making of it.. along with all the other projects..

took raw 4quater walnut and planed and planed to get it downto 2 sizes. 1/2 inch 4 the side caps and about 3/8 or so 4 the rest...
lots of sawing cutting, sanding planing gluing joining, etc etc. so finally i ended up with the product in the pics! been workin on it slow and just chuggin along piece by piece.

along with that though i figured i better figure out how to remake those fuckin bushings in the keys. wow. they suck. crumbled and dry rotted. so im using a plastic and metal sheet of heat shielding from a TX16w parts machine and making new spacer/bushing from it. cando about 6 keys a sitting (36 keys total) so its not real bad. but bad enough. i have to make 3 pieces for each key. i can order them , but i as usual i want to figure it out myself. ill pic them later on.. anyway heres the case..

i ordered the new pro one badge and the sequntial badge from the synthwood guy off ebay (figured he deserved some of my cash for the inspiration) and also bought a set of p1 (p5 style with the metal flange) knobs for the poys. cant wait to puthem on. also re did the power cord to have a regular 3 prong computer cord and such. mine was 1/2 step away from starting a fire i think... i used a power port and such from a spare eIIIxp parts machine.

but any way .. heres the pics of the stained and oiled (only 2 coats-needs about 6 more) p1 case..

Saturday, August 15, 2009

SHAWN 1- PROPHET VS 1







looks like the game was a good one! i spent about 5 hours today doing the prep an install for the vs's new blue and white lcd. i basicly had to cut a rectangular hole about 1inch by 2.5 inches thru the switch pcb of the prophet vs. this allowd me to insert the new lcd thru the hole and maintain a usable depth (since it sits behind the pcb and not between the pcb and faceplate. ) . so anyway.. worst case scenario i had to put the old one back in.. well...

best case scenario happened! the hole was fairly easyt to do (DREMEL IS THE JAM). used the fiber cutting wheel and the rotary routerhead/shaver head of sorts) to clean it outand square it out. luckily there were only 2 tracs that ran accross the field that needed to be removed . they were for the old contrast trimmer that ran to the (missing an broken ) backlight inverter for the e.l. foil. (not used) so for good measurre i jumped them anyway, just to keep them out the possible equastion. so after getting all the wires to the correct holes and some serious trial and error on fit (like milimeters each direction and such) i got it in and tested. B A M! the screen lookd fantastic ! but was off center.. so .. some screwing around and such finally got it right...

so the question of the trimmer pot for contrast? since my fuse holder and 110/220 switch was smashed in shipping by the loose transformer (check the scratches on the green pcb fields on the pics) i bypassed the 110/220 switch and had a free open hole in the back. i utilzed this for the 10k trimmer pot that contrls the contrast for the display now. it works pretty nice.

the display sits a decent depth and causes no issue in switch pcb sitting to far out or anything as well. infact it could actually slide a bit more foreward... i may be able to do this with slightly smaller plastic washers eventually if im *really* motivated. by probbly not. its fine for extended and everyday use and looks good from all angles. i posted some pics of the boards and work as well.. ill get a pic of it on when i go back tomarrow.. didnt think of that.. duh.

prophet VS LCD round II

im determined. the vfd is a swwet looking screen, but it sucks waaay to much juice and makes the vs freak out.... so i had 2 options: a different scree or a seperate poer supply. im opting or a different screen. led based backlite lcd. white letters on blue background.

i tried the sp12 with it nd found that its a fairly easy thing to do and kinda experimented on t before tryingto fuck with the vs more. sequenial was never know for its fantasticly sturdy PCBS or internal builds... so the less in and out and heating up those traces: the better.

so today i have to prep the lcd (do all the wiring pin outs etc and then do the jumps and resistr kluge and wire the pot for the contrast. then it comes time to remove that shit of display in ther and figure out how i have to cut the pcb behind the lcd pcbto make it fit. the prophet sand whiches the lcd in front of the switch pcb and behind the faceplate . very stupid design, BUT on the switch pcb, there is nothing *at all* behind it on either side of the pcb so you can safely and even if you will ..sloppily... make necceassry holes and cutouts. so im thinking i can cut out a hole for the metal case and display area of the new lcd. then mount the lcd to the switch pcb allowing the screen area to go thru the switch pcb and since its about twice as deep and the old one.. pretty much go exactly where it should.

possible issues: that there may be a trace or traces on the switc pcb that will be where the mounting needs to happen, or that there will be a single trace that runs trhu where the hole needs to go in for the screen. as far as i rememeber the filed behind the pcb is wide open more than enought to fit the screen thru. this will also make anyreplacement o the screen happen WITHOUT haveig to take our both solder linked switchboards. (stupide idea # 54 on the vs). it seems when they made the vs. it was quick and dirty. the serviceing design of it wasnt really thought of.. fantastic sounds. poor build design. but hey.. you cant have the world. :) they still made a timeless freak machine. thanks guys..

so anyway i'll take some pics and of the surgey and try to document everything i do. so hopefully someone may need to use it for their own VS.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009




SP12 LCD REPLACEMENT AND INSTALLATION

as the backlight was growing dim on my sp12 (which i so dearly love) i was looking around foe sweet looking replacemts for it. crystalfontz.com is the spot. they have so many damn choicees. they use leds instead of the e.l. foils to do the backlights as well. so they really never burn oout. i kinda guessed at which would be the correct physical fit for the sp12, and only did the biopsy on it after ordering.. luckily it was a good guess. i went with the blue background and the white letters since it seemed very emu-ish and would fit.

the old lcd's have 14 pins. the new ones have 16 (15 and 16 are cathode and annode for backlight leds.) they also have a seperate spot to hook them up as well. i chose to jump mine from the incomming +5vdc from the main switch PCB. you have to put a 68ohm resistor from the jump off the +5 though, other wise it'll burn it out. the power accross the a and k then is about 2.23 on mine.. so its right in the tolerances for the leds. the other thing you have to do is install and wire a 10K ohm trimming pot for the display contrast. this goes to the power for the lcd (not backlight and not logic) its pin 3 in on the 16 pin set. so you jump the +5 to the leds and to the in on the 10k trim, then the ground gets jumped to the kathode of the leds and to the ground of the 10k trim also then the out of the trimmer get wired to the pin 3 location on the led pcb. its actually that easy.

the physical mounting was easy as well.. i re-used the 4 bolts that held the old lcd.. put the nuts on and tightend them in. then with a dremel tool and a littel rotary barrel grinder slowly ground the corners down on the lcd pcb. so it literally snugged right in and centered to the old position. then i put 4 washers on top of it (to overlap onto the PCB) then i found 4 more nuts to fit and sandwhiched the board between them and tighted it up. i also had to drill a hole thru the face plate for the 10K trimmer pot to be accessable onthe outside. i figured it should be right near the screen area. .. so its actaully quite easy to do and works fantastically. its a mid level project for someone who has a decent amount of experiance id say...

Sunday, July 5, 2009

VFD : NEGATIVE

the over heating issue was caused (as could be logically ssumed) from the installation of the VFD module. the VFD module was drawing far to much power.. even when that board wasnt plugged ing.. and making the voice board overheat. i didnt loook at it this way : on the back of the vs is a printed power total by the fuse " 500ma@110v" max draw. so i then look at the vfd "150-200ma" max draw alone! shit. thats just under half the power for the vfd alone. duh. good thing i dont build rockets. anyway so i reinstall the old burnt out lcd and things work for hours. he ps section ets hot but not like it did, and not as fast. all functions work as they should as well. the new switches are great.

so im thinking that i should maybe figure out how to add more amperage (say take the ps supply up to 1a or so and then the vfd should be coolio.. or add an external hack (walwart adapter ) for the VFD section power, im not sure how the migleing of power supplies works.. and it it is seperate from the mains or not. id probubly have to cut traces to make sure that the external is isolated from the mains. so its back to the burnt out (BUT WORKING) prophet vs. such is life...

but on a positive note. its better than a non working vs and the dx-7 IIFD restoration came out excellent as well (new display-from a tx-16w) and all new 3mm tactile switches. its fantastic and its fun to programm with the butons! DESPITE WHAT 20 YEARS OF BAD PRESS SAYS!!!!! its not really that hard. try it!

Friday, July 3, 2009

prophet vs- the next trial

well , i did all e work. i re-capped the power suplly section, put new voltage regulators, and installed the VFD. the vfd has caused a small issue: it sits like .5mm higher than the old LCD, so i checked the board behind the old LCD area, kucily it was a huge, blank field of open PCB. so i drilled to holed thru the board to accomodate the "taller" compoments on the back of the VFD board. problem solved. now all switches sit as they really should.

enter the next test: power section heats up INCREDIBLY fast. ugh. ok so unplug all boards and slowly plug them in to see whats causing the issue If you guessed the VFD was the issue - YOURE WRONG! its the voicing board (uh-oh) since it contains some of the super rare CEM chips. luckily none of them were smoking hot. the 2 voltage resistors on that board (7805 an 7905) positive and negative 5 volt regulators are the issue.. the negative one gets untouchable. red flag. no good. i left it on with the switch/display section on for like an hour : normal heat level on the ps. i turn the voincing board on and in like 5 monutes the ps is too hot to touch. not good. so i had to order the regulators (50 cent parts) from mouser electronics. only took 3 days to get here but.. still. i hate the fact that there are no more mom and pop electronic supply places left. anyway i ll try them out in there today and see if the solve the issue. im crossing my figers...

Monday, June 22, 2009

prophet vs restore - modification



got a prophet vs off ebay.. took the chance on it even though i had abad feeling.. always wanted one bad. so i get it, the ps was free floaing inside. it smashedthe lcd inverter and the 110/220 voltage switcha and the fuse holder. long story short ..fix all those issues and re cap the ps section and change out the voltage regulators. it runs great. then i switch out every switch on the face plate. mouser electronics has them yet. i made the switches lite grey almost white rather than black.. they came out well and then added walnut to the sides. i have a vfd from noritake on the way as well to replace the burned out lcd. ill post pics of that when its done.