Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

As some of you know I have cherished my VFX-SD as a trouble free road 
warrior over at least 10 years. The other day I bought a Karma on 
eBay, but it wasn't to replace the VFX, just to add to my stack. The 
VFX took it the wrong way:

I turned it on and I just get a very faint illummination of a few 
characters on the right and left of the display. No floppy no 
booting. So I checked the power supply and found F3 and F4 are both 
blown. I can't find any of the old schematic postings so I thought I 
would throw it out there (Richard). Where do I go from here? I do 
know electronics, but I am not taking on a main board if these are 
going to that. 

Thoughts? Could I get lucky?  The VFX is still hands down the BEST 
controller ever evented for those of us who like layering on a 
unweighted, but high quality keyboard. I spent hours looking at the 
new Tritons, Motifs and Fantoms and nothing beats double click access 
to 12 patches realtime.

Thanks for any help you all can offer. BTW if you haven't checked out 
a Karma, it really fits witht the VFX and it is great poor man's 
Triton.

Dan

The dim segments on the side of the display 9 out of 10 times is a diode on the PS board, the reason we are seeing this so much now is that Ensoniq chose diodes that were rated to the number and not over rated. The over rated diodes would last MUCH longer than one chose to spec, any good tech handling this repair will slightly over spec the diodes and change them all at the same time, simple repair. 

One problem I am seeing is that owners of the units that this has happened to are not aware and continue to turn the unit on and off in an attempt to get the unit to boot this will cause even more damage. With even one diode out on the VFX/VFXSD/VFXSD2/SD1 or SD1 32 the PS will over power the 68000 CPU and cook the CPU, so do not keep turning the unit on and of.

 Richard at Route 66





In a message dated 12/11/2004 12:25:20 PM Eastern Standard Time, "gottamakethings" <gottamakethings@...> writes:

>
>
>As some of you know I have cherished my VFX-SD as a trouble free road 
>warrior over at least 10 years. The other day I bought a Karma on 
>eBay, but it wasn't to replace the VFX, just to add to my stack. The 
>VFX took it the wrong way:
>
>I turned it on and I just get a very faint illummination of a few 
>characters on the right and left of the display. No floppy no 
>booting. So I checked the power supply and found F3 and F4 are both 
>blown. I can't find any of the old schematic postings so I thought I 
>would throw it out there (Richard). Where do I go from here? I do 
>know electronics, but I am not taking on a main board if these are 
>going to that. 
>
>Thoughts? Could I get lucky? \ufffdThe VFX is still hands down the BEST 
>controller ever evented for those of us who like layering on a 
>unweighted, but high quality keyboard. I spent hours looking at the 
>new Tritons, Motifs and Fantoms and nothing beats double click access 
>to 12 patches realtime.
>
>Thanks for any help you all can offer. BTW if you haven't checked out 
>a Karma, it really fits witht the VFX and it is great poor man's 
>Triton.
>
>Dan
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
> 
>
>
>
>

Richard, many thanks on your advice. I did in fact power on and off 
perhaps 4 times but didn't leave it on for more than a few seconds. 
Hopefully no damage there. It didn't blow while it was running it 
just came up like this the other day. I assume the diodes you are 
referring to are the big ones right next to the fuses? Are they just 
rectifier diodes? If the fuse is 2A and is hung off the diode I would 
assume you are talking about replacing them with 4 amps or greater?

I will look into that.

Thanks

Dan



--- In Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com, mishon66@a... wrote:
>  The dim segments on the side of the display 9 out of 10 times is a 
diode on the PS board, the reason we are seeing this so much now is 
that Ensoniq chose diodes that were rated to the number and not over 
rated. The over rated diodes would last MUCH longer than one chose to 
spec, any good tech handling this repair will slightly over spec the 
diodes and change them all at the same time, simple repair. 

>> >
> >
> > 
> >
> >
> >
> >

I had something similar happen to mine not too terribly long ago. I 
replaced the fuses. All has been fine since. Of course, now I always 
make sure to have fuses and the appropriate allen wrench handy.

-Geren

--- In Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com, "gottamakethings" 
<gottamakethings@a...> wrote:
> 
> As some of you know I have cherished my VFX-SD as a trouble free 
road 
> warrior over at least 10 years. The other day I bought a Karma on 
> eBay, but it wasn't to replace the VFX, just to add to my stack. 
The 
> VFX took it the wrong way:
> 
> I turned it on and I just get a very faint illummination of a few 
> characters on the right and left of the display. No floppy no 
> booting. So I checked the power supply and found F3 and F4 are both 
> blown. I can't find any of the old schematic postings so I thought 
I 
> would throw it out there (Richard). Where do I go from here? I do 
> know electronics, but I am not taking on a main board if these are 
> going to that. 
> 
> Thoughts? Could I get lucky?  The VFX is still hands down the BEST 
> controller ever evented for those of us who like layering on a 
> unweighted, but high quality keyboard. I spent hours looking at the 
> new Tritons, Motifs and Fantoms and nothing beats double click 
access 
> to 12 patches realtime.
> 
> Thanks for any help you all can offer. BTW if you haven't checked 
out 

> a Karma, it really fits witht the VFX and it is great poor man's 
> Triton.
> 
> Dan