Emax

Hi,
Anyone knows where can I get memory upgrade kits for Emax II?
Thanks,
Al.

In a message dated 2/21/02 11:54:55 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
aaro@... writes:

<< Subj:     [emax] Memory Help Please.
 Date:  2/21/02 11:54:55 PM Pacific Standard Time

 From:  aaro@... (oniriko36)
 Reply-to:  emax@yahoogroups.com
 To:    emax@yahoogroups.com
 
 Hi,
 Anyone knows where can I get memory upgrade kits for Emax II?
 Thanks,
 Al.
 
 

Al
           We are working on a new one at Route 66 Studios but It will be 
some time before we have a working sample, I will say the price will be half 
or better than the original.
Richard at Route 66 studios

--- In emax@y..., "oniriko36" <aaro@c...> wrote:
> Hi,
> Anyone knows where can I get memory upgrade kits for Emax II?
> Thanks,
> Al.

Al, if you already have the memory expansion daughter board there is 
a place called Sound Logic who has memory kits. If you don't have the 
daughter board you're SOL.
Link to Sound Logic is:
http://www.ramona.com/Soundlogic/SL01KUC.html

Good luck,
Skip

In a message dated 2/22/02 5:47:22 PM Pacific Standard Time, skiplay4@... 
writes:

<< Al, if you already have the memory expansion daughter board there is 
 a place called Sound Logic who has memory kits. If you don't have the 
 daughter board you're SOL.
 Link to Sound Logic is:
 http://www.ramona.com/Soundlogic/SL01KUC.html
 
 Good luck,
 Skip >>

With the expander we are working on an existing Daughter board is not 
required (good news for all of you unexpended guys) and you don't need the 
update floppy disc either.
Richard at Route 66

Hi,
The Route66 upgrade will be cool if it works out, but how do you propose
duplicating the memory settings in the Emax II EEPROM that the upgrade
diskette sets and making new memory addressing PAL chips which sit on the
daughterboard to enable the larger memory size to be addressed?

Regards
Rob
The Emulator Archive
www.emulatorarchive.com

  -----Original Message-----
  From: mishon66@... [mailto:mishon66@...]
  Sent: 23 February 2002 01:57
  To: emax@yahoogroups.com
  Subject: Re: [emax] Re: Memory Help Please.


  In a message dated 2/22/02 5:47:22 PM Pacific Standard Time,
skiplay4@...
  writes:

  << Al, if you already have the memory expansion daughter board there is
  a place called Sound Logic who has memory kits. If you don't have the
  daughter board you're SOL.
  Link to Sound Logic is:
  http://www.ramona.com/Soundlogic/SL01KUC.html

  Good luck,
  Skip >>

  With the expander we are working on an existing Daughter board is not
  required (good news for all of you unexpended guys) and you don't need the
  update floppy disc either.
  Richard at Route 66

        Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
              ADVERTISEMENT




  Emax and Emax II User's Group

  http://www.silveriafamily.com

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> Hi,
> The Route66 upgrade will be cool if it works out, but how do you propose
> duplicating the memory settings in the Emax II EEPROM that the upgrade
> diskette sets and making new memory addressing PAL chips which sit on the
> daughterboard to enable the larger memory size to be addressed?
>
> Regards
> Rob
> The Emulator Archive

I'm not involved with the Route 66 upgrade, but I might be able to shed a
little light on things...
The PALs can be easily reverse-engineered.  Quite simple.  Pull the PALs
from a known good 8M Emax II, power them up on a test bench, then feed
inputs in and see what comes out.  That lets you make a function map, which
you then use to blow new PALs.
The EEPROM is trickier, because (apparently) it contains *all* the options
for a given instrument.  What I'd be inclined to do is just copy the EEPROM
from the 8M machine, and distribute it with the upgrade.  OK, you'd lose
your calibration, headroom settings etc.  Big wow. At least you'd have 8M to
play with...
Of course, the other thing would be to reverse-engineer the software, and
bypass the "protection" for the EEPROM editor in the Master section.  This
could be tricky, but there again, see http://groups.yahoo.com/miragehack for
a similar project...

HTH
  Gordon.

A few comments.

("What I'd be inclined to do is just copy the EEPROM
from the 8M machine")

Last time I looked the EEPROM was soldered to the board you mean to tell me that someone wiling to sacrafice a perfectly working EmaxII to an overheated pc board when removing the chip let alone loosing the chip?

("The PALs can be easily reverse-engineered.  Quite simple.  Pull the PALs
from a known good 8M Emax II, power them up on a test bench, then feed
inputs in and see what comes out. ")
  
I can verify beyond a shadow of a doubt that the PALs from Emu have the fusible link blown.
this means that you can't just read the PAL. By testing IO you may solve the logic but will you solve the RAS & CAS timing issues associated with the dynamic ram timing?  

The other problem is that the EmaxII is obsolete. Useful yes but not necessarily worth such a gallant effort. I have purchased EmaxII racks with 8mb for as little as $120.00 and I beleive that as they go by the wayside that you will find the parts you need to convert the EmaxII without the extended effort.  

Upside: I applaude the effort and if it works I may be interested in the upgrade.  

Downside: Anybody who wants to do this has a tremendous amount of work ahead of them probably not worth the effort. You can buy an ESI32 for around $200.00 and use midi to play the sounds with your Emax II. Then you have the capability of 32 MB, Emax/Emax II, Akai, and EIIIX library.

Currently I beleive that you can purchase an EmaxII memory upgrade kit from Mik at Sound Logic and I beleive it has the fabeled upgrade disk needed to write the EEPROM.  

Thank you group,
Skip

----- Original Message -----
From: Gordon Pearce
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2002 5:16 AM
To: emax@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [emax] Re: Memory Help Please.

> Hi,
> The Route66 upgrade will be cool if it works out, but how do you propose
> duplicating the memory settings in the Emax II EEPROM that the upgrade
> diskette sets and making new memory addressing PAL chips which sit on the
> daughterboard to enable the larger memory size to be addressed?
>
> Regards
> Rob
> The Emulator Archive

I'm not involved with the Route 66 upgrade, but I might be able to shed a
little light on things...
The PALs can be easily reverse-engineered.  Quite simple.  Pull the PALs
from a known good 8M Emax II, power them up on a test bench, then feed
inputs in and see what comes out.  That lets you make a function map, which
you then use to blow new PALs.
The EEPROM is trickier, because (apparently) it contains *all* the options
for a given instrument.  What I'd be inclined to do is just copy the EEPROM
from the 8M machine, and distribute it with the upgrade.  OK, you'd lose
your calibration, headroom settings etc.  Big wow. At least you'd have 8M to
play with...
Of course, the other thing would be to reverse-engineer the software, and
bypass the "protection" for the EEPROM editor in the Master section.  This
could be tricky, but there again, see http://groups.yahoo.com/miragehack for
a similar project...

HTH
  Gordon.



Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT




Emax and Emax II User's Group

http://www.silveriafamily.com  

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.  


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> A few comments.
>
> ("What I'd be inclined to do is just copy the EEPROM
> from the 8M machine")
>
> Last time I looked the EEPROM was soldered to the board you mean to tell
me that someone wiling to sacrafice a perfectly working EmaxII to an
overheated pc board when removing the chip let alone loosing the chip?

Overheated PC board?  I replace soldered-in IC's on both through-board and
surface-mount assemblies on a fairly regular basis.  I remember toasting a
ZX Spectrum main board once, the first time I tried to do this (around 15
years ago).  Since then I seem to have done it without too high a mortality
rate.  I'm not even particularly good at it.

> ("The PALs can be easily reverse-engineered.  Quite simple.  Pull the PALs
> from a known good 8M Emax II, power them up on a test bench, then feed
> inputs in and see what comes out. ")
>
> I can verify beyond a shadow of a doubt that the PALs from Emu have the
fusible link blown.
> this means that you can't just read the PAL. By testing IO you may solve
the logic but will you solve the RAS & CAS timing issues associated with the
dynamic ram timing?

Yep, you can't read them through the programming port.  Testing the IO would
be the way to do it.  DRAM timing is a bit of a black art, but nowhere near
as critical as you might think.  Certainly, not at the relatively low speeds
the Emax goes at.  In any case, looking in a Maplin catalogue, 1M x 8 bit
CMOS SRAM's are less than \ufffd4, so you're talking about \ufffd30 or so.  That would
solve all the timing problems...

> The other problem is that the EmaxII is obsolete. Useful yes but not
necessarily worth such a gallant effort. I have purchased EmaxII racks with
8mb for as little as $120.00 and I beleive that as they go by the wayside
that you will find the parts you need to convert the EmaxII without the
extended effort.

I *really* wish I could get an Emax II for that in the UK.  Mine cost \ufffd130,
and it's only got 2M... I did get two Syquest drives with it though.
If you've got an Emax II rack that you can pull an 8M board out of, I'll buy
it!  Mine's got quite a few vacant spaces on the main board where the RAM
is - is this another form of upgrade or was it for using smaller RAM chips
to give 2M with different PAL's?

> Upside: I applaude the effort and if it works I may be interested in the
upgrade.
>
> Downside: Anybody who wants to do this has a tremendous amount of work
ahead of them probably not worth the effort. You can buy an ESI32 for around
$200.00 and use midi to play the sounds with your Emax II. Then you have the
capability of 32 MB, Emax/Emax II, Akai, and EIIIX library.

Again, they're still quite a bit more than that in the UK...  I'd like an
ESI32 though.  I've played with one in a friend's studio, and it seems a bit
nicer to use than the equivalent Akai.

> Currently I beleive that you can purchase an EmaxII memory upgrade kit
from Mik at Sound Logic and I beleive it has the fabeled upgrade disk needed
to write the EEPROM.
>
Yes, but it needs the daughter board.  Since I have the requisite 44256
DRAM's by the shedload, but do daughterboard, I suppose I'm SOL...

Cheers,
  Gordon.

Although I cannot add anything technical to this thread I have been 
following it with great interest. Skip is undeniably correct in 
saying that the Emax II is obsolete and that the effort by any normal 
comparision far outweighs the benefit. But on the other hand, there's 
also the challenge aspect of it. I'm sure like me anyone else who's 
paid for a memory upgrade in the past still winces at the thought of 
how much it cost compared to what memory does now (or for that matter 
not long after the Emax II went out of production)! For years I've 
been sort of hoping someone would find a way of cracking this not 
only to get the final 4MB I need at a reasonable cost but simply for 
the satisfaction of being able to do so without being forced to pay 
Emu what very quickly became a nonsense price. I know they had their 
reasons at the time but I think it would have been a better customer 
relations policy (at least once the general memory trend went the 
SIMM route) to help those who invested in their product a way of 
maximising its potential cost effectively rather than force them to 
buy its successor.

If anyone does manage to crack this problem then I would certainly 
consider doing the final 4MB mod if it can be done cost effectively. 
I use my Emax II live and so far it's the only sound source I need. 
Although I could buy an ESI or similar and hook it up via midi, I 
much prefer keeping it simple and only relying on one box! In that 
sense I don't consider it obsolete at all (don't think there are any 
dedicated sampling keyboards going now anyway and the Emax still 
looks great). Also, I probably will upgrade the sampler soon but 
after some positive experiences with the likes fo Reaktor, rather 
than get a hardware box I'm very inclined to go the software route - 
which of course doesn't help in the live situation (unless you're 
VERY brave!).

Actually, while we're on the subject, what's the likelihood of Emax 
library compatability when the EOS Soft Sampler comes out?

Anyway, for what it's worth, I appreciate the efforts everyone on the 
list trying to keep the Emax alive - even if it does defy common 
sense!

Steve  

======================= http://www.steveadam.co.uk =====


-- In emax@y..., "Richard Spoula" <skiplay4@m...> wrote:
> 
> A few comments.
> 
> ("What I'd be inclined to do is just copy the EEPROM
> from the 8M machine")
> 
> Last time I looked the EEPROM was soldered to the board you mean to 
tell me that someone wiling to sacrafice a perfectly working EmaxII 
to an overheated pc board when removing the chip let alone loosing 
the chip?
> 
> ("The PALs can be easily reverse-engineered.  Quite simple.  Pull 
the PALs
> from a known good 8M Emax II, power them up on a test bench, then 
feed
> inputs in and see what comes out. ")
>   
> I can verify beyond a shadow of a doubt that the PALs from Emu have 
the fusible link blown.
> this means that you can't just read the PAL. By testing IO you may 
solve the logic but will you solve the RAS & CAS timing issues 
associated with the dynamic ram timing?  
> 
> The other problem is that the EmaxII is obsolete. Useful yes but 
not necessarily worth such a gallant effort. I have purchased EmaxII 
racks with 8mb for as little as $120.00 and I beleive that as they go 
by the wayside that you will find the parts you need to convert the 
EmaxII without the extended effort.  
> 
> Upside: I applaude the effort and if it works I may be interested 
in the upgrade.  
> 
> Downside: Anybody who wants to do this has a tremendous amount of 
work ahead of them probably not worth the effort. You can buy an 
ESI32 for around $200.00 and use midi to play the sounds with your 
Emax II. Then you have the capability of 32 MB, Emax/Emax II, Akai, 
and EIIIX library.
> 
> Currently I beleive that you can purchase an EmaxII memory upgrade 
kit from Mik at Sound Logic and I beleive it has the fabeled upgrade 
disk needed to write the EEPROM.  

> 
> Thank you group,
> Skip

I do use both an Emax II (4Mb) and ESi-32 (32Mb) and I can tell you it's just not the 
same. The ESi-32 does not sound remotely as nice as the Emax II does, plus it does not 
have an internal hard drive option which means taking it live requires me to take my 
removable media drive which I don't like to do and lastly it doesn't have the three sub 
outs the Emax II has either unless you get the turbo board. 

Sure the ESi-32 is better for editing and sampling and it has far more filters and 
supports SMDI transfers, but the reason why so many people are still using Emax II's 
(including NIN, DM, Orbital, and a slew of others) is because it sounds so similar to the 
original Emax and sounds far better for drums and analogue samples.

 
**********************************************************
     AIM/AOL: Emax JS **John Silveria II** ICQ: 60199476

Emax and Emax II User's Group - http://www.silveriafamily.com
Emax and Emax II Mailing List - emax@yahoogroups.com
**********************************************************

Steve, I beleive that Mik at Sound Logic can help you if you already have the 4mb Emax II. The way I understand it is that the 4MB Emax II already has the memory expansion board and the PALs are already installed. Mik at Sound Logic is as helpful as one can possibly get. I used his upgrades for my 3 mb keyboard and had to contact EMU for the proper PALS. Needless to say a lot of problems to solve but I ended up with a 7mb EmaxII keyboard and it was most certainly a challenge. He has the ram and disk that is needed. Follow this link. http://www.ramona.com/Soundlogic/SL01KUC.html

If your EmaxII is only 2mb it doesn't have the expansion board.

Good luck,
Skip

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: steveklp 
  To: emax@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Monday, March 04, 2002 7:57 AM
  Subject: [emax] Re: Memory Help Please.


  Although I cannot add anything technical to this thread I have been 
  following it with great interest. Skip is undeniably correct in 
  saying that the Emax II is obsolete and that the effort by any normal 
  comparision far outweighs the benefit. But on the other hand, there's 
  also the challenge aspect of it. I'm sure like me anyone else who's 
  paid for a memory upgrade in the past still winces at the thought of 
  how much it cost compared to what memory does now (or for that matter 
  not long after the Emax II went out of production)! For years I've 
  been sort of hoping someone would find a way of cracking this not 
  only to get the final 4MB I need at a reasonable cost but simply for 
  the satisfaction of being able to do so without being forced to pay 
  Emu what very quickly became a nonsense price. I know they had their 
  reasons at the time but I think it would have been a better customer 
  relations policy (at least once the general memory trend went the 
  SIMM route) to help those who invested in their product a way of 
  maximising its potential cost effectively rather than force them to 
  buy its successor.

  If anyone does manage to crack this problem then I would certainly 
  consider doing the final 4MB mod if it can be done cost effectively. 
  I use my Emax II live and so far it's the only sound source I need. 
  Although I could buy an ESI or similar and hook it up via midi, I 
  much prefer keeping it simple and only relying on one box! In that 
  sense I don't consider it obsolete at all (don't think there are any 
  dedicated sampling keyboards going now anyway and the Emax still 
  looks great). Also, I probably will upgrade the sampler soon but 
  after some positive experiences with the likes fo Reaktor, rather 
  than get a hardware box I'm very inclined to go the software route - 
  which of course doesn't help in the live situation (unless you're 
  VERY brave!).

  Actually, while we're on the subject, what's the likelihood of Emax 
  library compatability when the EOS Soft Sampler comes out?

  Anyway, for what it's worth, I appreciate the efforts everyone on the 
  list trying to keep the Emax alive - even if it does defy common 
  sense!

  Steve  

  ======================= http://www.steveadam.co.uk =====


  -- In emax@y..., "Richard Spoula" <skiplay4@m...> wrote:
  > 
  > A few comments.
  > 
  > ("What I'd be inclined to do is just copy the EEPROM
  > from the 8M machine")
  > 
  > Last time I looked the EEPROM was soldered to the board you mean to 
  tell me that someone wiling to sacrafice a perfectly working EmaxII 
  to an overheated pc board when removing the chip let alone loosing 
  the chip?
  > 
  > ("The PALs can be easily reverse-engineered.  Quite simple.  Pull 
  the PALs
  > from a known good 8M Emax II, power them up on a test bench, then 
  feed
  > inputs in and see what comes out. ")
  >   
  > I can verify beyond a shadow of a doubt that the PALs from Emu have 
  the fusible link blown.
  > this means that you can't just read the PAL. By testing IO you may 
  solve the logic but will you solve the RAS & CAS timing issues 
  associated with the dynamic ram timing?  
  > 
  > The other problem is that the EmaxII is obsolete. Useful yes but 
  not necessarily worth such a gallant effort. I have purchased EmaxII 
  racks with 8mb for as little as $120.00 and I beleive that as they go 
  by the wayside that you will find the parts you need to convert the 
  EmaxII without the extended effort.  
  > 
  > Upside: I applaude the effort and if it works I may be interested 
  in the upgrade.  
  > 
  > Downside: Anybody who wants to do this has a tremendous amount of 
  work ahead of them probably not worth the effort. You can buy an 
  ESI32 for around $200.00 and use midi to play the sounds with your 
  Emax II. Then you have the capability of 32 MB, Emax/Emax II, Akai, 
  and EIIIX library.
  > 
  > Currently I beleive that you can purchase an EmaxII memory upgrade 
  kit from Mik at Sound Logic and I beleive it has the fabeled upgrade 
  disk needed to write the EEPROM.  
  > 
  > Thank you group,
  > Skip



  Emax and Emax II User's Group

  http://www.silveriafamily.com 

  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. 



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi,
An interesting thread, here is some more info which should be useful. My
close working relationship with E-mu means that I have now have access to
the original PAL chip designs for a range of "emulators", and approval to
remanufacture will be given later this year. This is part of a larger
project to ensure rare E-mu designs are not lost and that these chips are
once again available to customers via The Emulator Archive. You may have
noticed that E-mu no longer deal directly in ANY spares, and that the
support system will soon by web based and phone only (no email). Times are
hard. Re-manufacturing Emax II memory upgrade kits complete with 8MB EEPROM
and daughter board is not a big priority for us at The Emulator Archive,
although technically we could do this. The continual fall in second hand
sampler prices means few people are likely to want to spend much on an Emax
II and we have seen little demand for upgrades. If 40 people email me back
wanting upgrades - we will do it!

I would encourage anyone interested in E-mu designs, spares, or history to
contact me off list for more information and help as I am in touch with all
the E-mu team past and present. This should avoid the need to reverse
engineer designs which is time consuing and will give E-mu's legal
department some work !

Once we have re-manufactured PAL chips available we will let people know.
They won't cost much. If there is strong interest we will remanufacture
specific upgrades. Email me off list if interested.

Regards
Rob
The Emulator Archive




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I'd certainly be interested in upgrading my 4Mb unit to 8Mb if it would cost no more than 
$100. I gave my music partner a 2Mb Emax II so she would have the ability to work on 
songs with similar equipment to mine. It would be nice to upgrade it to 8Mb as well, that 
way it could serve as a back-up unit, but at this point I don't think that will ever happen. 

I would think that if a cost effective method for making units 8Mb were developed the life 
of the Emax II could be seriously lengthened. As they get older more and more exsisting 
users are going to need replacements or want back-ups. I haven't heard of many users 
that have gone on to newer samplers being willing to part with their Emax II.

i have 3 emaxII's a 8meg turbo keyboard, a 3 meg rack and a 2 meg rack...
does any one knowif there is a way to swap the guts .. so ican make one of
the racks the turbo unit ??  i do'nt like having to carry the keyboar around
any more.

perhaps some one might be interested in  buying the keyboard ?? or all of
the above ??
                 \\\\|////
                     ("@ @")
  __o00o___(_)___o00o__

----- Original Message -----
From: John Silveria
To: emax@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2002 12:14 PM
Subject: RE: [emax] Re: Memory Help Please.


I'd certainly be interested in upgrading my 4Mb unit to 8Mb if it would cost
no more than
$100. I gave my music partner a 2Mb Emax II so she would have the ability to
work on
songs with similar equipment to mine. It would be nice to upgrade it to 8Mb
as well, that
way it could serve as a back-up unit, but at this point I don't think that
will ever happen.

I would think that if a cost effective method for making units 8Mb were
developed the life
of the Emax II could be seriously lengthened. As they get older more and
more exsisting
users are going to need replacements or want back-ups. I haven't heard of
many users
that have gone on to newer samplers being willing to part with their Emax
II.




Emax and Emax II User's Group

http://www.silveriafamily.com

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

i have 3 emaxII's a 8meg turbo keyboard, a 3 meg rack and a 2 meg rack...
does any one knowif there is a way to swap the guts .. so ican make one of
the racks the turbo unit ??  i do'nt like having to carry the keyboar around
any more.

perhaps some one might be interested in  buying the keyboard ?? or all of
the above ??
                 \\\\|////
                     ("@ @")
  __o00o___(_)___o00o__

----- Original Message -----
From: John Silveria
To: emax@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2002 11:47 AM
Subject: [emax] Emax II and the ESi-32


I do use both an Emax II (4Mb) and ESi-32 (32Mb) and I can tell you it's
just not the
same. The ESi-32 does not sound remotely as nice as the Emax II does, plus
it does not
have an internal hard drive option which means taking it live requires me to
take my
removable media drive which I don't like to do and lastly it doesn't have
the three sub
outs the Emax II has either unless you get the turbo board.

Sure the ESi-32 is better for editing and sampling and it has far more
filters and
supports SMDI transfers, but the reason why so many people are still using
Emax II's
(including NIN, DM, Orbital, and a slew of others) is because it sounds so
similar to the
original Emax and sounds far better for drums and analogue samples.


**********************************************************
     AIM/AOL: Emax JS **John Silveria II** ICQ: 60199476

Emax and Emax II User's Group - http://www.silveriafamily.com
Emax and Emax II Mailing List - emax@yahoogroups.com
**********************************************************


Emax and Emax II User's Group

http://www.silveriafamily.com

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Skip, thanks for the advice, I remember the link from a previous post 
and have checked it out. However, I'm much of the same opinion as 
John in that $100 is probably the most anyone can justify for a 4MB 
to 8MB upgrade (I do have the board). I don't know about anyone else 
but I can't find it in my heart to justify over $50 per MB when all 
it really is is a set of chips and a mysterious diskette with an 
uncrackable code whose only purpose is seemingly to protect a now 
valueless intellectual property in a long since obsolete OS! 

Although in saying that I should be clear in that I'm sure your 
contact is offering the service as economically as he can.

It's just still too much compared to what I perceive as the actual 
value of the component parts in todays market!

Steve

======= http://www.steveadam.co.uk ==================

--- In emax@y..., "Skip Spoula" <skiplay4@m...> wrote:
> Steve, I beleive that Mik at Sound Logic can help you if you 
already have the 4mb Emax II. The way I understand it is that the 4MB 
Emax II already has the memory expansion board and the PALs are 
already installed. Mik at Sound Logic is as helpful as one can 
possibly get. I used his upgrades for my 3 mb keyboard and had to 
contact EMU for the proper PALS. Needless to say a lot of problems to 
solve but I ended up with a 7mb EmaxII keyboard and it was most 
certainly a challenge. He has the ram and disk that is needed. Follow 
this link. http://www.ramona.com/Soundlogic/SL01KUC.html

> 
> If your EmaxII is only 2mb it doesn't have the expansion board.
> 
> Good luck,
> Skip

In a message dated 3/6/02 6:26:58 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
steve@... writes:

<< Subj:     [emax] Re: Memory Help Please.
 Date:  3/6/02 6:26:58 AM Pacific Standard Time

 From:  steve@... (steveklp)
 Reply-to:  emax@yahoogroups.com
 To:    emax@yahoogroups.com
 
 Skip, thanks for the advice, I remember the link from a previous post 
 and have checked it out. However, I'm much of the same opinion as 
 John in that $100 is probably the most anyone can justify for a 4MB 
 to 8MB upgrade (I do have the board). I don't know about anyone else 
 but I can't find it in my heart to justify over $50 per MB when all 
 it really is is a set of chips and a mysterious diskette with an 
 uncrackable code whose only purpose is seemingly to protect a now 
 valueless intellectual property in a long since obsolete OS! 
 
 Although in saying that I should be clear in that I'm sure your 
 contact is offering the service as economically as he can.
 
 It's just still too much compared to what I perceive as the actual 
 value of the component parts in todays market!
 
 Steve >>

Hey all....I can retain the data from a spent Emaxll upgrade discs in a snap, 
I have done this many times with diag discs that were made to be used only 
once or twice. The trick is finding one. 

I agree on a street price that would be under $100.00, the original board is 
not vary complex and can be remanufactured for a vary reasonable price. I 
would go as far as the say street prices between $75 and $90 for 4 MB to 8MB. 
My reasoning for remanufacturing the board is that yes I fell I could make a 
small profit, but In my travels I personally haven't ever played or even seen 
any Emaxll that was more than 2MB, I believe that a vary large percentage of 
the units out there are unexpanded.  If Rob decides he will reman the memory 
card I will hold off, if not then we will begin and Rob 1 am one of 40.

Richard at Route 66 Studios