Xpantastic!

I was just going to say the same thing.  If you swapped all the chips, a good idea BTW, there's not much left voice to voice on the board to age or break down other than the electrolytic capacitors (can shaped ones).  Luckily they're really cheap and really easy to un-solder and re-solder.  Good luck.



________________________________
 From: "blchrr@homecall.co.uk" <blchrr@...>
To: xpantastic@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 6:40 PM
Subject: [xpantastic] Re: hello everyone, Xpander problem, help is needed...
 

  
Hi Bakis, mine had similiar issues which turned out to be to due to old 
capacitors... its been fine since it was recapped (around 3(ish) years ago) 

> hi everyone, 
> 
> new member here, my Name is Bakis. 
> 
> recently bought an Xpander and have the following problem: 
> 
> works and sounds great...  ...apart from voice 5, 
> which, after its shipping to me, does not pass the auto tune test.
>  
> sometimes the 'PW' section of it fails, sometimes the Res section 
> fails, sometimes all the sections of voice 5 fail (except the vca section of 
> voice 5 that never fails). 
>  
> even if i activate the problematic voice, after its 
> been automatically shut off by the Xpander OS, it sounds a bit different from the 
> others in filter tone and tuning (of course, as it cannot be tuned,) and very very low in volume. 
> another weird thing i noticed: when i direct voice 
> 5 in its 'direct' output 5, then, from this output, i can hear all of the 
> xpander voices (together with voice 5) but very low in volume. 
> all the other direct outputs work as they should, 
> for all the other voices.
>  
> i performed software reset, re-sitted all ribbon 
> cables and all of the chips in the voice 5 section of the xpander voiceboard 
> without success,
> i also performed all the tests for the xpander 
> (memory, vmemory, etc...) and all are ok, afaik. 
> plus i re-sitted chip U106 which is responsible for 
> the panning output section of voice 5 (after studying the service 
> manual). 
> 
> also, i swapped both CEM3374 and CEM3372 of voice 5 with another working voice chips (voice 6) and 
> still the fault appears on voice 5. so, both the CEM chips are Not the 
> problem... 
> 
> 
> and i swapped ALL of the chips of voice 5 with 
> the chips of voice 6 and still the same problem appears on voice 5. 
> 
> so ALL the chips in the voice 5 section are ok for sure. 
> 
> 
> and, after hitting tuning many many times and hitting tuning 
> while the machine was at various different presets, i noticed that thing:
> when the machine was autotuning and it was in a preset 
> that was very complex with lots of modulations and vco modulation as well, 
> then voice 5 failed in the vco tuning as well, (and, at one time, vco 1 
> failed!). 
> when the machine was autotuning, while it was in a simpler 
> sound preset (some brass or synthlead...), then the voice 5 only failed in PWM 
> and maybe Res... but it passed vco tuning....!! 
> so maybe its a problem in another board of the machine 
> (like the CPU) and not in the voice 5 board ?
>  
> maybe this indicates that i should re-sit the chips in the 
> main CPU /memory board as well?? do you think i should take the time and re-sit 
> all the chips in the CPU board? would it make sense?
>  
> (do you think a 'HARD Reset' may fix the problem? how do i do 
> this?) 
> 
> is there anything specific i should check? 
> everything seems connected.... i cannot resit ALL the chips in all boards 
> obviously... but maybe i should resit a specific chip from another section of 
> the xpander boards....? any ideas / help?
>  
> i really do not want to break anything inside the 
> Xpander (i do not want to use a soldering iron, after all, everything seems in 
> place), but i can remove and easily re-sit a specific chip or two, if needed of 
> course....
>  
> btw, the seller is very honest and he insisted that 
> the machine worked fine (all 6 voices) before shipping, and i believe 
> him.. 
> 
> thanks for all your help in advance! 
> 
> best regards,      :-)
> Bakis. 
> 
> 
> Bakis Sirros - Parallel Worlds / Interconnected / Memory Geist 
> 
> [Doepfer_a100] group owner 
> 
> www. parallel - worlds - music. com 
> 
> www. facebook. com/ pages/Parallel-Worlds/192093934136476 
> 
> www. myspace. com/ parallelworldsmusic 
> 
> www. myspace. com/ interconnectedmusic 
> 
> www. myspace. com/ memorygeist
> www. DiN. org. uk
> www. musicamaximamagnetica. com
> www. vu-us. com