Hello,
Wow, that is really impressive that you've traced out all those schematics. What an undertaking. I would be very interested to see them. The one of interest to me would be the SDS7 and the test arrangement for it that you designed.
I'm curious whether you've been able to discover the length of the sequence of the waveform that encodes all the parameters. Before my unit died I was investigating this part, however my tools weren't able to accurately see the entire wave. I think that with this information it might be possible to create a fully programmable voice controller. There are probably other signals of importance as well, like for sequencing the individual demuxes, i would guess.
I'm also interested in the tama's since my studio mate uses a set of those.
I set up this email address just to see the list, so i don't check in too often. The better address is brianwright23 at gmail.com
thanks much,
Brian
--- In Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com, "Raymond EPPHERRE" <raymond.eppherre@...> wrote:
>
> Hello,
> Like said Patrice Jacquot,Simmons schematics are inreadable......or when they are,there are errors........
> I have redraw some Simmons schematics from my own Simmons Brain I had some years ago from Ebay.
> I have redrawn in particular SDS5,SDS8,SDS7 (voicing card only..) and SDS9...... I should be crasy because it is a very very big work and for something like SDS7 or SDS9 I spend some months with paper,pencil,multimeter to check routing,datasheet.....
> I have made the same with other drum brains like TAMA,PEARL,DYNACORD,DDRUM.....I am now working with the Dynacord P20.....
> If you want I can send you my SDS7 drawing with the schematic of a test board (with layout) to test SDS7 modules without the computer section.
> See you soon
> Thierry EPPHERRE from FRANCE
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: brianwright23@...
> To: Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 7:42 AM
> Subject: [Simmons Drums] SDS 7 Voice Card Reverse Engineering Project
>
>
>
> Hi, I'd like to introduce myself to the list and see if anyone out there has access to a usable SDS 7 Service manual.
>
> My SDS 7 Saga :
> About six months ago I restored an SDS7 which had been sitting on a shelf with a burnt out power supply for many years. It worked flawlessly with five voice cards for a few months when one day I came into the studio and found it had lost it's memory. Turned out that the battery for the digital memory had burst. I replaced it with a standard lithium memory backup battery of the same voltage from Radio Shack. This arrangement worked quite well for several more months, until that battery also burst, this time with enough force to effectively destroy both of the digital boards, (the ones located behind the keypad).
>
> In the course of rebuilding it the first time I got a pretty good sense of the method whereby the parameters are transmitted to the individual voices. There is a complex staircase-like waveform that has all the analog voltage levels strung together, presumably to be de-multiplexed by the "hybrid" module on each voice card.
>
> Now I'm entertaining the notion of embarking upon an effort to resurrect the voices using a more modern digital control section, potentially with midi control and pots or encoders, per parameter (15 of them). The main roadblock at the moment is that I don't have a legible copy of the Service Manual which had the circuit topologies. I do have the pdf scan which is available at http://www.simmons.synth.net/sds7/
> Unfortunately that scan is of low enough resolution that the important details in the schematic sections are totally obscured.
>
> If anyone has, and would be willing to share, this information. That would be wonderful. I would of course, in kind, return the fruit of these efforts to the list, should those actually bear any usable reults.
>
> thanks,
> Brian
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