Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

Good evening!

I'm having a problem with my trusty Ensoniq SD1. When I play individual sounds in sound mode, they play with aftertouch or pressure (in Ensoniq-speak) full on. The effect is most commonly volume, vibrato or filtering. Here's where things get weird. If I press the footswitch down (which applies sustain) the aftertouch effect disappears when I release the key and the note sustains with it's normal sound (no aftertouch effect).

When I play in program mode or a sequence, I can disable the aftertouch and play notes normally.

Two caveats with this problem. I bought the machine used in 1995 and the aftertouch never has worked very well so I don't use it. Secondly, this problem surfaced after I played it at church and foolishly did not plug it into a surge protector.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what has gone wrong and a possible solution? I have reinitialized the machine several times with no improvement. The preset mode workaround does the job but is a bit inconvenient. The SD1 works flawlessly aside from this problem and I'd prefer to bring it back to health. Thanks for your indulgence.

On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 01:19:56PM +0000, wjwilcox@... [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] wrote:
> Thanks for your insights.  I opened up the SD1 last week, removed all the keys, cleaned them and the top of the coil board and inspected for damage.  No apparent physical damage, boards secure.   
> 
>  The aftertouch kicks in as soon as I press a key, any key.  Changing the velocity curve setting has no effect.  The only way I've found to disable it is in preset and sequencer mode, setting pressure to "none".  I played the SD1 via MIDI from a controller and no aftertouch was triggered, so the problem is definately in the keybed's control circuitry.
>  
> 
>  At the suggestion of several independent acquaintences, including a former Ensoniq engineer, I'm going to replace the 68HC11A1P microcontroller on the keybed's control circuit board.  It's an educated guess so we'll see what happens.

Please let us know if that actually fixes it.  Did you try letting
(lifting?) the a key up a bit to see if the aftertouch "goes away"
before hitting the note-off point?

--> Steve Wahl

-- 
Steve Wahl    steve@...

Fools ignore complexity.  Pragmatists suffer it.
Some can avoid it.  Geniuses remove it.
-- Perlis's Programming Proverb #58, SIGPLAN Notices, Sept.  1982

Replacing the cpu seems a bit odd to me. I would expect that if the cpu had failed, there would be other issues as well. Hardware-wise, it seems possible to me that an I/O or data line could be damaged either in the cpu or on the board, but without a schematic I wouldn’t be able to tell what that could cause.

Seems to me more likely an issue with software. Have you tried re-initializing the keyboard? (reloading the OS is not the same.)

The major weakness in the SD1 appears to be the “ribbon cable” between the two boards in the keyboard causing various problems. Do you get any calibration error messages?

> On Mar 21, 2017, at 1:22 PM, wjwilcox@... [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] <Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> 
> The controller chip arrives sometime in the next week and a half, I'll check in after installation and testing.  I don't believe it's a mechanical issue.  I noted in my original post that the problem started after using the SD1 at a venue without plugging it into a surge protector.  There was some sort of power spike and the machine got scrambled and rebooted.  Prior to that it worked perfectly.
> 
>

On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 01:41:19AM +0000, wjwilcox@... [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] wrote:
> A replacement 68HC11A1P keybed microcontroller arrived today and was installed.  Unfortunately, it did not solve the problem.  On the bright side, I didn't make anything worse....

This makes sense to me.  If my understanding of the way the keyboard
functions is correct (the distance between the coils on the board and
the metal pieces in the keys is measured, somewhat similar to a metal
detector, distance X is key up, smaller distance Y is key down, and
even smaller distance Z means pushed into aftertouch zone), the
processor being able to figure out that a key is pressed but not be
able to figure out whether it should or should not be considered to be
in the aftertouch zone would be an odd thing, considering the digital
function of the processor itself.

Have you read Ensoniq Service Builletin 12?  It gives a lot of
keyboard information.  They describe four KPC versions and different
coil board types.  I find this note in there: "Remember that a KPC
board can only be replaced with the whole keyboard assembly as it
contains information specific to its particular coil boards and keys
in its memory."  I cannot decide if the note means they just know
which style coil board is attached, or if there was some factory
calibration proceedure that stored information for the particular
keyboard and analog parts on the coil boards.

I read the datasheet for the 68HC11A1P, it has 512 bytes of EEPROM.
That may have stored callibration information.

I wish there was a complete schematic of the keyboard somewhere.  The
one I can find on the web is missing a page or two.  But I probably
wouldn't be able to understand it without someone to explain it to me
anyway.

Since the problem seems to be common to all the keys, a guy might look
at the schematic and examine any analog components that seem to be
common to all keys, and check to see if they've drifted far out of
spec (perhaps zapped by the power surge you described).  

You said you had an aquaintance who was a former Ensoniq engineer?
That's probably a better resource than anyone here, certainly better
than myself.

But, at this point I fear you may be looking at a keyboard transplant,
or a Frankensoniq built from yours and another donor. :-(

--> Steve

-- 
Steve Wahl    steve@...

Real men don't take backups, they just "mv home.tar.gz
olsen_twins_hottub.mpg" and share it on KaZaA  -- Unknown

I thought I had a schematic, but nothing more than the service manual and it's not much help. I found one on the internet but it was hardly legible. I might have to open my SD1 and see if I draw one of my own. 

I ran across a rather interesting thread on a forum that has some troubleshooting tips. The poster describes a different Motorola chip that is responsible for aftertouch but without opening my SD1 I didn't follow. http://www.vintagesynth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=96381

He does make some (informed?) guesses about the 68HC11 that may (or may not) explain why your new one didn't work although I doubt that code is stored in the EEPROM. Calibration data seems more likely to me if there is an external ROM that can be changed. (I remember making copies of my ROMS, and I think I pulled one from the keyboard.)

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 28, 2017, at 12:33 PM, Steve Wahl steve@... [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] <Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> 
> On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 01:41:19AM +0000, wjwilcox@... [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] wrote:
> > A replacement 68HC11A1P keybed microcontroller arrived today and was installed. Unfortunately, it did not solve the problem. On the bright side, I didn't make anything worse....
> 
> This makes sense to me. If my understanding of the way the keyboard
> functions is correct (the distance between the coils on the board and
> the metal pieces in the keys is measured, somewhat similar to a metal
> detector, distance X is key up, smaller distance Y is key down, and
> even smaller distance Z means pushed into aftertouch zone), the
> processor being able to figure out that a key is pressed but not be
> able to figure out whether it should or should not be considered to be
> in the aftertouch zone would be an odd thing, considering the digital
> function of the processor itself.
> 
> Have you read Ensoniq Service Builletin 12? It gives a lot of
> keyboard information. They describe four KPC versions and different
> coil board types. I find this note in there: "Remember that a KPC
> board can only be replaced with the whole keyboard assembly as it
> contains information specific to its particular coil boards and keys
> in its memory." I cannot decide if the note means they just know
> which style coil board is attached, or if there was some factory
> calibration proceedure that stored information for the particular
> keyboard and analog parts on the coil boards.
> 
> I read the datasheet for the 68HC11A1P, it has 512 bytes of EEPROM.
> That may have stored callibration information.
> 
> I wish there was a complete schematic of the keyboard somewhere. The
> one I can find on the web is missing a page or two. But I probably
> wouldn't be able to understand it without someone to explain it to me
> anyway.
> 
> Since the problem seems to be common to all the keys, a guy might look
> at the schematic and examine any analog components that seem to be
> common to all keys, and check to see if they've drifted far out of
> spec (perhaps zapped by the power surge you described). 
> 
> You said you had an aquaintance who was a former Ensoniq engineer?
> That's probably a better resource than anyone here, certainly better
> than myself.
> 
> But, at this point I fear you may be looking at a keyboard transplant,
> or a Frankensoniq built from yours and another donor. :-(
> 
> --> Steve
> 
> -- 
> Steve Wahl steve@...
> 
> Real men don't take backups, they just "mv home.tar.gz
> olsen_twins_hottub.mpg" and share it on KaZaA -- Unknown
>

I'd ask this guy:
Home
  
|  
|   |  
Home
   |  |

  |

 
THESONIQ is the only one authorize service center
by EMU .I work at ENSONIQ factory for many years
and i am the only one left who is still service ENSONIQ 
unit here.Also i have the whole ENSONIQ stocking parts 
here .If you have any ENSONIQ  units need to service ; 
upgrade ; sale or trade in
Please give me a call and i am very happy to help you
 
Fiat justitia, pereat coelum!
            
                          - John Quincy Adams

      From: "wjwilcox@... [Ensoniq-VFX-SD]" <Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com>
 To: Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Monday, March 6, 2017 8:46 PM
 Subject: [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] Ensoniq SD1 issue
   
    Good evening!
I'm having a problem with my trusty Ensoniq SD1. When I play individual sounds in sound mode, they play with aftertouch or pressure (in Ensoniq-speak) full on. The effect is most commonly volume, vibrato or filtering. Here's where things get weird. If I press the footswitch down (which applies sustain) the aftertouch effect disappears when I release the key and the note sustains with it's normal sound (no aftertouch effect).

When I play in program mode or a sequence, I can disable the aftertouch and play notes normally.

Two caveats with this problem. I bought the machine used in 1995 and the aftertouch never has worked very well so I don't use it. Secondly, this problem surfaced after I played it at church and foolishly did not plug it into a surge protector. 

Does anyone have any thoughts on what has gone wrong and a possible solution? I have reinitialized the machine several times with no improvement. The preset mode workaround does the job but is a bit inconvenient. The SD1 works flawlessly aside from this problem and I'd prefer to bring it back to health. Thanks for your indulgence.