Xpantastic!

I've had my Xpander since 1985 and for the first time had a Voice Processor Error message.  I re-set (start w/ Clear button) and now it sounds fine, but is skipping voice 3.  Any thoughts?  Should I do another re-set or is there another software cure for this?  Thanks very much!

Hi Steve,

From what I understand, the Xpander will turn the voice off if it fails tuning.  
You can turn it back on in the master page if you need to.
Unfortunately I believe you have a hardware problem.  The good news is, it's 
probably an electrolytic capacitor in the voice 3 circuit. 
The usual suspect here is C549 a 2.2 uF 50 VDC electrolytic capacitor.
BTW
Given the vintage of these synths it's a good idea to recap the whole thing if 
possible.


Best Luck 

Karl Schmeer 

>From: steve_gruskin <steveg@...>
>To: xpantastic@yahoogroups.com
>Sent: Sun, March 4, 2012 7:38:19 PM
>Subject: [xpantastic] Xpander is skipping a voice

  
>I've had my Xpander since 1985 and for the first time had a Voice Processor 
>Error message. I re-set (start w/ Clear button) and now it sounds fine, but is 
>skipping voice 3. Any thoughts? Should I do another re-set or is there another 
>software cure for this? Thanks very much!

I have a few of those chips in stock.
Doug 
synthparts.com

--- In xpantastic@yahoogroups.com, Ed Koznofski <joigaloid9@...> wrote:

>
> Sorry for being so late.  I had the same issue with my Matrix-12.  In the end, I had to replace one of the CEM chips.
> In the M-12 they are socketed, so it was not too difficult to troubleshoot by swapping the chips between the bad voice and known working voices.
> 
> The bad news is the the CEM chips are hard to find, but they do turn up from time to time.
>

Hi to all !

I'm still looking for detailled hi-res pictures of an Xpander electronics boards. So, if someone had to open his box...

Thank you

Envoyé de mon iPhone

chris, I can take some for you. I have
a US model.

I'm assuming you just need pictures of the
boards in their current mounted state inside
the case. If you need both sides of each board
then thats a lot more involved and I don't think I'm gonna be able to help
you on that.

-omar

---
sent from iPhone

On Apr 2, 2012, at 1:01 AM, Christophe JANOT <cjanot@...> wrote:

> Hi to all !
> 
> I'm still looking for detailled hi-res pictures of an Xpander electronics boards. So, if someone had to open his box...
> 
> Thank you
> 
> Envoyé de mon iPhone
> 
>

Both sides will be fantastic, but difficult to realize ;-) Photos of composants sides will be great. So of you could tale pictures of processor and the voice board with different angles it will be great.

Regards,

Christophe

Thanks everyone for the advice.  Sorry to take so long to respond.   I'm getting the FAIL tuning message on the filter and Resonance so tried swapping out the filter chips and still failed on that voice.  So does that mean it's a capacitor?

I really appreciate the advice -- thanks.

Steve



--- In xpantastic@yahoogroups.com, Ed Koznofski <joigaloid9@...> wrote:

>
> Sorry for being so late.  I had the same issue with my Matrix-12.  In the end, I had to replace one of the CEM chips.
> In the M-12 they are socketed, so it was not too difficult to troubleshoot by swapping the chips between the bad voice and known working voices.
> 
> The bad news is the the CEM chips are hard to find, but they do turn up from time to time.
>

Hi Steve,
By far the most common fail (besides maybe the memory backup battery and VFD 
display)  has been the coupling capacitors. 

Particularly the one at the end of the voice signal chain: Cx49. It needs to be 
a 2.2 uF polarized electrolytic capacitor 

with a 50 VDC rating. If you use a smaller say 25V rating it will not work.  
These are very common and cost little.
Make sure to observe the polarity when replacing it.
They are all located along the lower edge of the circuit board.


C749 = Voice 1
C649 = Voice 2
C549 = Voice 3
C449 = Voice 4
C349 = Voice 5
C249 = Voice 6

Best Luck

Karl


________________________________
From: steve_gruskin <steveg@...>
To: xpantastic@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, April 6, 2012 1:17:46 PM
Subject: [xpantastic] Re: Xpander is skipping a voice

  

Thanks everyone for the advice. Sorry to take so long to respond. I'm getting 
the FAIL tuning message on the filter and Resonance so tried swapping out the 
filter chips and still failed on that voice. So does that mean it's a capacitor?

I really appreciate the advice -- thanks.

Steve

--- In xpantastic@yahoogroups.com, Ed Koznofski <joigaloid9@...> wrote:

>
> Sorry for being so late.  I had the same issue with my Matrix-12.  In the end, 

>I had to replace one of the CEM chips.
> In the M-12 they are socketed, so it was not too difficult to troubleshoot by 
>swapping the chips between the bad voice and known working voices.
> 
> The bad news is the the CEM chips are hard to find, but they do turn up from 
>time to time.
>