Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

On Monday 15 October 2001 10:18 am, you wrote:
> Suzanne,
> Sorry to hear that. A volt tester would be worth
> a try. Would love to see you stay, but if not
> I would take the group just to keep it alive.
> Bet you could get another broken one to use as parts
> to fix yours.

At first I suspected the PSU, the display appeared devoid of anything, and 
the transformer was 'hot', even though it had been unplugged for a couple of 
hours. But, my multimeter (and a dark room) confirmed that the PSU is fine, 
the display lights up vaguely at each side of the display, but doesn't start 
the init tests. It appears that there has been a 'death in the digital 
domain' (to paraphrase black sabbath :). 

When I have more time, I'll take my o'scope to some of the signal lines on 
the CPU and such (look for clocks, activity on the address bus, etc),  Mr 
Walsh stated, in private email, that he has had to replace the CPU in the 
past, with luck, its as simple as that - but there are a lot of other chips 
in there that may not be replacable these days. Unfortunately, I suspect its 
one of those diagnosises that is really going to require a schematic and a 
lot of time, and a level of investment that I'm not sure I'm willing to sink 
into it right now - While I loved my SD1, it was mostly being used as a 
master controller, and I can envision 'diagnosis and repair' rapidly costing 
more than just buying a new master controller. 

Also as an electronics hobbyist, I can use this as an excuse to put time into 
the '88key keyboard with poly aftertouch (thanks 3M for giving the world 
'velostat') design' I've been (vaguely) working on.