Emax

Thanks for the encouragement.  From my understanding, the holes are  
already there for the socket.....

 >> In fact I think this expense problem is part of and compensated by
the challenge/kick/hobby/appreciation...isn't it ?
True.....

On your project---

Regarding the USB converters- are you working on Mac or Laptop that  
has no serial? The serial is RS422, at 500kilobits (not bytes) per  
second, according to the service manual. it also says the RS422 is  
using differential mode.
Here is a web page discussing that:
http://www.lammertbies.nl/comm/info/RS-422.html

Maybe you already know about these things, but just in case.....

I would think the biggest challenge there would be timing between USB  
and the RS422, and I believe RS422 uses different signal levels. It  
may be that the USB is using too low of signal levels....

just a couple of thoughts.

Regards,
Ted



On Oct 25, 2008, at 9:36 AM, esynthesist wrote:

I think quite some Emax users really appreciate your efforts !

So do I, and I didn't even buy your SCSI kit (yet) :-)

In fact I was very enthusiastic when I read about your SCSI kit and I
was even more thrilled when I discovered my Emax SE keyboard had a
Rev2 board.
But... my enthusiasm kind of disappeared when I started reading the
SCSI Upgrade instructions. My headache reached a climax when I read
that a 24-pin IC socket should be removed and replaced by an 28-pin
socket (what about the PCB holes for the 4 additional sockets ??)
So as other members already mentioned: the problem is probably not
the price (which is really fair) but the technological challenge and
the risk to destroy a perfectly working Emax.
Personally I'm thinking about outsourcing this upgrade job to my
synth repair guy but I have to ask him a price estimation first.

Of course this kind of upgrade/rev.engineering activities take a lot
of time and may also require some "personal cash" investment.
E.g. for developing EMXP and making sure everything works fine I had
to do quite some investments. At the beginning I thought that having
an EMAX SE, an EMAX-II, an EII+, and an EIIIXS would be sufficient
for making sure that the software works on all samplers of those Emu
families.
But it seemed I had to buy an Emax Plus and a "real" EIII also,
machines I didn't need otherwise. Especially the EIII was very
expensive and I'm still not really using it - it's just sitting there
for test purposes of EMXP. (true, I can sell them again when I stop
developing this software)
Another example: for the past few weeks I was trying to add serial
communication to EMXP for the Emax and EII. But to come to the
conclusion that this will probably not be possible, I first had to
buy two USB-RS422 converters and one USB-RS232 converter.
I'm glad I didn't buy a 1000+ EUR digital oscilloscope yet :-)

But I don't really care about these expenses, fortunately I don't
have a wife :-)
In fact I think this expense problem is part of and compensated by
the challenge/kick/hobby/appreciation...isn't it ?
The fact that we are helping some Emu fans out there and that they
really appreciate our efforts could be our main driver/objective.

Many thanks for the efforts and I'll probably send you an order in
the coming days/weeks !

///E-Synthesist

--- In emax@yahoogroups.com, "Ted Summers" <djtbs1@...> wrote:
 >
 > Thanks for your words of encouragement. $2500- wow. My wife freaked
when she
 > realized I had spent the $900 (although she somewhat chilled out
when I told
 > her that I had made some of it back)---- I couldn't imagine the
amount of
 > your project .... I hope people start coming through for you as
well.
 >
 > It is all very easy for people to say it could be done cheaper. I
think we
 > both know it isn't all as easy as it sounds. You never really know
what it
 > is gonna take until you get into it. And once you get into it, you
feel like
 > you wasted your money / time if you just drop your effort too....
catch 22.
 >
 > Best of Luck!
 >
 > Regards,
 > Ted
 >
 >
 > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
 >






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