Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

Cheers chaps for all your advice.

Before you go & tear each others heads off, I'd just like to add that it is an original model VFX, not the SD variations. 

I opened her up last night & discovered (as I managed to find documented elsewhere also) that there is a standard CR2032 battery doing the job. I think the lithium batteries were installed in most Ensoniq synths post the VFX.

It's a solder job by the looks of things. I'm starting to get the odd gobbledegook patch name also so I can only assume it is in fact the battery that's on its way.

Cheers though for all your help. I do however find it odd that they'd change these things in latter models.

One point of note...I picked this up a year ago on ebay. Lovely condition & has served me well for the duration. 1989 model & all.

Now with all the talk about calibration issues/ribbon cable/hardwired in etc....I'd like to note that mine still has it's original Ribbon in & doesn't show any signs of the problem.

My TS-10 on the other hand...now that's a headache.

Cheers,

Pete

--- In Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com, Gordon JC Pearce <gordon@...> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 2009-08-07 at 20:36 -0500, Rish wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > No NO NO!   Do not half ass wire in any AA batteries!  (Gordon you
> > should know better) that is really bad advise. I do not care where
> 
> I'd like to know why you think that's a bad idea.  I do it as a matter
> of course on all my equipment that's of an age to have lithium batteries
> (not just synthesizers).
> 
> Of course, I replace soldered-in nicads right away too - have you seen
> the mayhem they cause when they fail?
> 
> >  you get the battery but replace it with the correct Panasonic 2/3a
> > lithium yellow label or blue label. Take the time to do it correctly
> 
> The lithium batteries you get now are incredibly expensive and only last
> a couple of years - quite often because they've been lying around for
> years waiting to be sold!  There's no real point in fitting them.
> Long-life alkalines have a far better shelf life and since the CMOS
> memory takes something in the realms of nanoamps, shelf life is
> more-or-less what it comes down to.
> 
> Gordon 2M0YEQ
>