Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family group photo

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Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

Index last updated: 2026-04-29 00:03 UTC

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old chestnut - eeprom cart

old chestnut - eeprom cart

2013-06-16 by koknbull2

An old question, has anyone made a eeprom cart for the SD-1? I've seen it where people have fitted an eeprom chip to a std eprom cart, but even they are hard to find. I have thought about laying out my own PCB but I would have thought after all this time someone somewhere has already done this.

So my question is, does anyone know of a eeprom cart design or availablity? I'd be happy with just PCB design files.

SD-1 Display Freaking Out.. Buttons don't respond

2013-06-17 by Clayton Lewis

Hi all

After a weekend of shows, my SD-1 start freaking out on me. I turned it on and the display just starts to flash and the letters and numbers are just putting on a light snow… flickering on and on. And on top of that the buttons don't respond to anything now. When it first happened, I was able to continue to use the MIDI (I use my SD1 as a controller for my computer) but now with the buttons not working… it just doesn't want to do anything. Attached is a screenshot

Anyone see this.

I just had the battery changed last year.

THANKS

Re: [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] SD-1 Display Freaking Out.. Buttons don't respond

2013-06-17 by <tomlinson6050@...>

Hi. First things:
Re-seat all plugs.
Check the power supply for EXACTLY correct voltages
Re-seat the CPU chip and both OS chips.
Bill



---- Clayton Lewis <clay@...> wrote: 

=============
Hi all

After a weekend of shows, my SD-1 start freaking out on me. I turned it on and the display just starts to flash and the letters and numbers are just putting on a light snow… flickering on and on. And on top of that the buttons don't respond to anything now. When it first happened, I was able to continue to use the MIDI (I use my SD1 as a controller for my computer) but now with the buttons not working… it just doesn't want to do anything. Attached is a screenshot

Anyone see this.

I just had the battery changed last year.

THANKS

Re: [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] SD-1 Display Freaking Out.. Buttons don't respond

2013-06-17 by jammie

button and vfd cpu scanner chip is faulty
this deals with all button presses which are triggered as logic signals by the cpu
this then tells the vfd chips what to write on the screen
its a common problem they just fail
no more chips available
the esq1 sq80 vfx all use this cpu scanner chip
as does emu
the chips are 65001 8 bit logic micro with mask rom with specific code
can get code but cant get the eeprom versions of the chip any more
as its a no longer made chip
as i was looking at the same for the loads of esq1 i get in for service
the next option now is create an avr or fpga emulation chip
Show quoted textHide quoted text
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 10:03 PM
Subject: [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] SD-1 Display Freaking Out.. Buttons don't respond

Hi all

After a weekend of shows, my SD-1 start freaking out on me. I turned it on and the display just starts to flash and the letters and numbers are just putting on a light snow… flickering on and on. And on top of that the buttons don't respond to anything now. When it first happened, I was able to continue to use the MIDI (I use my SD1 as a controller for my computer) but now with the buttons not working… it just doesn't want to do anything. Attached is a screenshot

Anyone see this.

I just had the battery changed last year.

THANKS

Re: [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] SD-1 Display Freaking Out.. Buttons don't respond

2013-06-18 by Christian Brunschen

On 18 Jun 2013, at 01:41, jammie wrote:



button and vfd cpu scanner chip is faulty
this deals with all button presses which are triggered as logic signals by the cpu
this then tells the vfd chips what to write on the screen
its a common problem they just fail
no more chips available
the esq1 sq80 vfx all use this cpu scanner chip
as does emu
the chips are 65001 8 bit logic micro with mask rom with specific code

It's a 6501/11, IIRC

can get code but cant get the eeprom versions of the chip any more

Did you manage to get the code off one of these chips?

By the way, there's a control panel board for a VFX for sale on eBay:


And it does seem to have the chip on it (furthest to the right in the pictures). However, the VFX doesn't have all of the buttons that you'd find on a VFX-SD or SD-1 panel, so there's no guarantee that the code on the chip would be the same :/

as its a no longer made chip
as i was looking at the same for the loads of esq1 i get in for service
the next option now is create an avr or fpga emulation chip

The core of the chip is essentially a 6502, with a couple of extra bit-twiddling instructions if I understand correctly, so emulating it should not present a huge hurdle.

Best wishes,

// Christian


----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 10:03 PM
Subject: [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] SD-1 Display Freaking Out.. Buttons don't respond

Hi all

After a weekend of shows, my SD-1 start freaking out on me. I turned it on and the display just starts to flash and the letters and numbers are just putting on a light snow… flickering on and on. And on top of that the buttons don't respond to anything now. When it first happened, I was able to continue to use the MIDI (I use my SD1 as a controller for my computer) but now with the buttons not working… it just doesn't want to do anything. Attached is a screenshot

Anyone see this.

I just had the battery changed last year.

THANKS




Re: [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] SD-1 Display Freaking Out.. Buttons don't respond

2013-06-18 by jammie

got the code of an esq1
its simalar but there are extra buttons on the vfx/sd
so the code will be different
we need a dead chip so that we can melt the protection surface of to reveal the mask rom so that the binary can be written
Show quoted textHide quoted text
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 10:40 AM
Subject: Re: [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] SD-1 Display Freaking Out.. Buttons don't respond

On 18 Jun 2013, at 01:41, jammie wrote:



button and vfd cpu scanner chip is faulty
this deals with all button presses which are triggered as logic signals by the cpu
this then tells the vfd chips what to write on the screen
its a common problem they just fail
no more chips available
the esq1 sq80 vfx all use this cpu scanner chip
as does emu
the chips are 65001 8 bit logic micro with mask rom with specific code

It's a 6501/11, IIRC

can get code but cant get the eeprom versions of the chip any more

Did you manage to get the code off one of these chips?

By the way, there's a control panel board for a VFX for sale on eBay:


And it does seem to have the chip on it (furthest to the right in the pictures). However, the VFX doesn't have all of the buttons that you'd find on a VFX-SD or SD-1 panel, so there's no guarantee that the code on the chip would be the same :/

as its a no longer made chip
as i was looking at the same for the loads of esq1 i get in for service
the next option now is create an avr or fpga emulation chip

The core of the chip is essentially a 6502, with a couple of extra bit-twiddling instructions if I understand correctly, so emulating it should not present a huge hurdle.

Best wishes,

// Christian


----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 10:03 PM
Subject: [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] SD-1 Display Freaking Out.. Buttons don't respond

Hi all

After a weekend of shows, my SD-1 start freaking out on me. I turned it on and the display just starts to flash and the letters and numbers are just putting on a light snow… flickering on and on. And on top of that the buttons don't respond to anything now. When it first happened, I was able to continue to use the MIDI (I use my SD1 as a controller for my computer) but now with the buttons not working… it just doesn't want to do anything. Attached is a screenshot

Anyone see this.

I just had the battery changed last year.

THANKS




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