[sdiy] Ensoniq keyboard calibration advice?

[brianw]

I've seen a lot of detailed responses to your question, but...

Have you tried gently removing the main chip and then plugging it in again?

I say this because I tried everything in the book to fix my (original owner) EPS, then bought a (used) VFX and starting swapping parts. In the end, I plugged the old EPS chip back into the EPS KPS board and it works perfectly.


Just to list all the things I tried before the chip: I bought gold-plated pin headers for the ribbon cables and painstakingly replaced the header (it was very difficult to desolder the original header); I bought new ribbon cables; I hooked up a logic analyzer and started making recordings of the digital traffic between the EPS main processor and the KPS. The last think I did was buy a used VFX and started swapping components between the two KPS boards - as far as I know, the same boards were used from the earliest EPS to the ASR-10 - trying to find the minimal set of "bad" components. Eventually, I discovered that *all* of the old EPS components were working in the VFX, so I put the original EPS KPS back together with all of its original components (except the gold-plated headers, because I wasn't about to desolder that again).

I felt so silly that I'd worked that hard and it was merely a chip reseating issue. Actually, I'm quite happy that my original EPS is working again ... and I now have a VFX to use as another poly-aftertouch controller!

Brian Willoughby

p.s. My apologies if your KPS or sensors have some more extensive issue. I've certainly read about other failures and how to repair them on this unique PolyAT technology, but sometimes the renowned stories are not the only story.


On Jun 30, 2022, at 12:00 PM, Peter Pearson wrote:
> Anyone on the list have insight or advice on getting Ensoniq gear to pass the keyboard calibration routine?  I'm looking at an ASR10 at the moment.  Cleaned the PCBs, resoldered the connectors (the only advice I've seen online), and checked continuity everywhere relevant I could think of.  No dice.  I haven't seen any in depth guide to dealing with this online aside from the "one simple trick" of resoldering the connector.  
> 
> Ensoniq was very stingy with schematics but the keyboard section is posted here:
> 
> http://www.tauntek.com/ASR10.htm
> 
> Any input would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!