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Anyone here know anything about the Linn 9000?

Anyone here know anything about the Linn 9000?

2015-05-22 by richtrix@...

Or a good forum to talk about them? Sorry to ask here in the Oberheim but I really love this group. I just picked up 2 Linn 9000s today off Craigslist. I am pretty stoked about one of them as it was modded up by Forat in the 90s. The other is just a stock unit. Unfortunately the Forat modded one is missing the Tom Toms and Conga cards but it has the A/D converters and SMPTE cards. I have only tried turning the Forat one on after the PSU checked out and all I got was the screen coming on giving me blocks across the top and the record and play button lights coming on. Don't really know where to start on these guys! I just posted an album if you want to see pictures.

Re: [oberheim] Anyone here know anything about the Linn 9000?

2015-05-22 by DeVille

The Forat brothers are still in business. They also finished the software (which was never right)!
Give Ben or Bruce a call. Or email.

Denny Chandler
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-----Original Message-----
From: "richtrix@... [oberheim]"
Sent: May 22, 2015 1:25 PM
To: oberheim@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [oberheim] Anyone here know anything about the Linn 9000?

�

Or a good forum to talk about them? Sorry to ask here in the Oberheim but I really love this group. I just picked up 2 Linn 9000s today off Craigslist. I am pretty stoked about one of them as it was modded up by Forat in the 90s. The other is just a stock unit. Unfortunately the Forat modded one is missing the Tom Toms and Conga cards but it has the A/D converters and SMPTE cards. I have only tried turning the Forat one on after the PSU checked out and all I got was the screen coming on giving me blocks across the top and the record and play button lights coming on. Don't really know where to start on these guys! I just posted an album if you want to see pictures.

Re: [oberheim] Anyone here know anything about the Linn 9000?

2015-05-22 by richtrix@...

Thanks Denny,

Yeah I know they are around still. They will cost an arm and a leg though I'm sure. I am surprised I can't even find a service manual online (Forat has them for sale). I am ok with dealing with electronics and would like to give it a stab. Just seeing if there is anyone out there in the ether that knows anything about these.

Sincerely,
Rich Clarke

Re: [oberheim] Anyone here know anything about the Linn 9000?

2015-05-23 by Bob Grieb

If you search for Linn 9000 schematic, you will find it quickly.I just downloaded it.   Unfortunately, the scan of the processor page is 
pretty bad.    That's where you would want to start if it's not coming up.If you have blocks on the display, it's not getting initialized, so the CPU 
is probably not running correctly.   Could be bit rot in the EPROMs,or a bad chip.   Or a power supply cap that's failed.   Lots of things.If you don't have a scope, I would say don't bother.
      Bob
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      From: "richtrix@yahoo.com [oberheim]" <oberheim@yahoogroups.com>
 To: oberheim@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Friday, May 22, 2015 6:32 PM
 Subject: Re: [oberheim] Anyone here know anything about the Linn 9000?
   
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Thanks Denny,
Yeah I know they are around still. They will cost an arm and a leg though I'm sure. I am surprised I can't even find a service manual online (Forat has them for sale). I am ok with dealing with electronics and would like to give it a stab. Just seeing if there is anyone out there in the ether that knows anything about these. 
Sincerely,Rich Clarke

Re: [oberheim] Anyone here know anything about the Linn 9000?

2015-05-23 by DeVille

Also check the backup batteries. I had trouble with my 9000 when they started going bad.

Denny Chandler

-----Original Message-----
Show quoted textHide quoted text
From: "Bob Grieb bobgrieb@... [oberheim]"
Sent: May 22, 2015 6:22 PM
To: "oberheim@yahoogroups.com"
Subject: Re: [oberheim] Anyone here know anything about the Linn 9000?

�

If you search for Linn 9000 schematic, you will find it quickly.
I just downloaded it.�� Unfortunately, the scan of the processor page is
pretty bad.��� That's where you would want to start if it's not coming up.
If you have blocks on the display, it's not getting initialized, so the CPU
is probably not running correctly.�� Could be bit rot in the EPROMs,
or a bad chip.�� Or a power supply cap that's failed.� Lots of things.
If you don't have a scope, I would say don't bother.

����� Bob

From: "richtrix@... [oberheim]"
To: oberheim@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2015 6:32 PM
Subject: Re: [oberheim] Anyone here know anything about the Linn 9000?



Thanks Denny,

Yeah I know they are around still. They will cost an arm and a leg though I'm sure. I am surprised I can't even find a service manual online (Forat has them for sale). I am ok with dealing with electronics and would like to give it a stab. Just seeing if there is anyone out there in the ether that knows anything about these.�

Sincerely,
Rich Clarke




Re: [oberheim] Anyone here know anything about the Linn 9000?

2015-05-24 by richtrix@...

Hi Bob and Denny,

Indeed the batteries are shot and corroding. The corrosion may have actually caused some damage to components or the PCB as well. Time will tell. I have already ordered a Lithium 3.6 Volt replacement battery. It's great to know that the batteries being dead can cause problems. Wouldn't it be cool if that alone fixed it?! Fingers crossed but not optimistic.

As for the missing cards there is a really weird story there. I asked the guy I bought these units from if he knew what happened to the cards. He is the original owner who bought it new for $6000 back in 198x. He said it basically ruined him because it was such a buggy unit. He had it back to Linn many times and he said that the only person to ever touch it was Forat. That if they were missing Forat must have taken them out for some reason. I find this story to be very confusing as I don't think that this would be the case but this guy (I've gotten to know him a little) is not technical at all and I'd believe that he'd never have opened it himself. I have the missing cards in the other unit though so I guess I'll try them. It seems like the unit might also not boot properly without the cards since the firmware would probably be looking for them? The cards that are there have been heavily tinkered with by forat. There are wires running all over them and I can see that some ICs have a second piggy backed and soldered on top of the original. Memory expansion I am figuring. I haven't taken out the cards to really inspect them though.

@ Bob

I actually do have a digital scope now. I found the schematics online no problem. Once the batteries come and install them and clean up the corrosion I'll start digging into everything else.

I probably paid too much for these two units but if the main one gets working it has all of the Forat mods including the 709 software, A/D card, SMPTE card and the 256SRAM expansion so it's much more valuable then.

If you guys have any more thoughts or suggestions in the meantime let me know. Otherwise I'll report back once I have the batteries fixed.

Sincerely,
rich Clarke

Re: [oberheim] Anyone here know anything about the Linn 9000?

2015-05-26 by Neil Hester

If the chips are socketed rather than soldered, with the machine unplugged very very carefully lever them out a little bit and push them back in a few times this will clean the contacts and might help.
It's happens a lot with old socket chips as they oxidize over time and get bad contacts.

Best Regards

Neil Hester
www.pro-tools-pc.com

On 23 May 2015 02:25, "Bob Grieb bobgrieb@... [oberheim]" <oberheim@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

If you search for Linn 9000 schematic, you will find it quickly.
I just downloaded it. Unfortunately, the scan of the processor page is
pretty bad. That's where you would want to start if it's not coming up.
If you have blocks on the display, it's not getting initialized, so the CPU
is probably not running correctly. Could be bit rot in the EPROMs,
or a bad chip. Or a power supply cap that's failed. Lots of things.
If you don't have a scope, I would say don't bother.

; Bob

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From: "richtrix@... [oberheim]" <oberheim@yahoogroups.com>
To: oberheim@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2015 6:32 PM
Subject: Re: [oberheim] Anyone here know anything about the Linn 9000?



Thanks Denny,

Yeah I know they are around still. They will cost an arm and a leg though I'm sure. I am surprised I can't even find a service manual online (Forat has them for sale). I am ok with dealing with electronics and would like to give it a stab. Just seeing if there is anyone out there in the ether that knows anything about these.

Sincerely,
Rich Clarke




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