Emax

Thanks for all the info Ted.  

You did your Emax up right.  Since you are selling the SCSI upgrades, I thought I would ask if you sell any SCSI card readers and or slim floppy drives.  It would be great if you did, since you clearly know what you're doing.

Also, I wanted to ask your advice.  In doing this SCSI upgrade project, I wound up with a whole other (non working) Emax SE.  Are there discontinued parts in the Emax  (such as filter chips, etc.) that I could salvage and keep for future repairs on my working Emax?  I'm suspecting it will be costly to repair, if it's even possible.  I tested the power supply, and that's not the problem, as far as I can tell.  So I can't really test anything else.

I was just wondering what you might do in this situation.

Thanks again for the info.


Regards,



Johnny...




On Jun 15, 2011, at 9:34 AM, Ted Summers wrote:

> Yes, I am the SCSI upgrade provider.
> Just ask anyone here :-)
> 
> With rev C (PC333) board there are no modifications just drop those chips in.
> It should be an easy smooth transition.
> 
> Regards,
> Ted
> 
> On Jun 15, 2011, at 1:56 AM, blchrr@... wrote:
> 
> Hi Johnny, Ted. 
> 
> Johnny- thanks for the tips and info, i do have a Rev C board so i think im 
> ok. I have checked out the Emulator archive- its a great little resource 
> site, i need to read through the install notes for the scsi upgrade as my 
> kit has arrived now and im keen to get cracking. I ended up buying used 
> internal SCSI zip, 2 slim floppy drives (one as a spare) all from Ebay.
> I picked up a set of the Zip disk libraries from Ebay too. 
> 
> Ted- small world, are you the guy that i just bought the SCSI kit and slim 
> floppy adapter from? :) Thanks man... real fast shipping on that. 
> 
> On a side note im also thinking of replacing the LCD with a VFD, has anyone 
> done that? 
> 
> Thanks guys.
> Look forward to getting my Emax upgraded over the next few months. 
> 
> Regards,
> Rob. 
> 
>> In regards to Card Reader- PCD-50b works and is bootable.
>> In regards to power supply too weak to support Zip or Compact Flash- my power readings data I have shows no proof of it.
>> I did some testing and there is a table of all my measurements at my wordpress site under "Drive Power Readings".
>> http://djtbs1.wordpress.com/ 
>> 
>> My testing I believe debunks that myth.
>> My belief is that some of the power supplies simply have bad solder joints, or were spec'ed at a very minimal tolerance in the first place.
>> But that is just my opinion.
>> When I bought my Emax the first thing I did was remove the power supply and resolder all the joints and replace all the caps.
>> These are 20+ year old units after all. 
>> 
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Ted 
>> 
>> 
>> On Jun 14, 2011, at 11:22 AM, Johnny Tomasello wrote: 
>> 
>> Hi, 
>> 
>> I have an Emax I, and I installed the SCSI myself. There are several things you should be aware of when doing this. You have to open the Emax and check to see if the motherboard can support the SCSI upgrade. Rev A boards do not, which is what I had. So I found a Rev C board on ebay and swapped it out. If your board already supports SCSI, I believe you can still purchase the upgrade from someone online. Check the board, I think I saw the info there. Also, check the emulator archive site. That has been invaluable to me in support of my Emax and SP12. 
>> 
>> Also, the Emax I cannot boot from a hard drive unless the SCSI ID is set to 0. I set mine up with an external ZIP (limited to SCSI ID 6 ro 5) for now. I can save and access sounds only. I'm still in the process of researching which SCSI card reader is compatible with the Emax I. I've tried a Spryus without luck. If anyone has any info on this, I'd be glad to hear it. 
>> 
>> As far as the internal ZIP, that should fix the "SCSI ID set to 0" problem, but I don't know if the power supply in the Emax is enough to support it. I have read where people have had problems supporting hard drives this way. I have not tested this, so I may be completely wrong. If anyone on this list has a definitive answer, I'd also be glad to learn that as well. 
>> 
>> I also purchased the Emax library on ebay you're mentioning. For the price, I thought it was well worth it. But the sounds are, for my purposes, a bit dated.  So I usually edit them quite a bit. But the sounds are 20 or so years old, so I shouldn't complain, really. 
>> 
>> As always, thanks to everyone on this list for all the information. 
>> 
>> Regards, 
>> 
>> Johnny. 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Jun 14, 2011, at 7:23 AM, blchrr@homecall.co.uk wrote: 
>> 
>>> Greetings to the list members.
>>> First post on the list, i wanted to ask about the similarities between the 
>>> original Emulator I and EII libraries and later Emax libraries, did many 
>>> banks get moved from the early emulators to the later Emax machines? Was 
>>> there a lot of overlap in the libraries?
>>> Also id like to know if you guys have seen the Zip disk packages on Ebay, 5 
>>> zips for Emax 1 and 2 zips for Emax II, supposedly with the complete factory 
>>> libraries for each machine spread over the zip disks, has anyone bought from 
>>> them?
>>> As for me, i bought an Emax 1 rack fairly recently and am hoping to add an 
>>> internal scsi zip drive in the future, i used to have a few vintage 
>>> samplers, but now the emax is the only machine i have.
>>> Cheers, Rob. 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------------ 
>> 
>> Emax and Emax II User's Group Website 
>> 
>> http://www.silveriafamily.comYahoo! Groups Links 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------
> 
> Emax and Emax II User's Group Website
> 
> http://www.silveriafamily.comYahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
> 
>