Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Korg Poly800/EX800 Users

Well, this might take a few years but here are my plans.

I see all these great modifications being done but wouldn't it be nice
if they were fully supported within the programming of the instrument
itself? Why drill all of those nasty holes in your Poly when you could
program them right from the front panel? Ok, since we're thinking
about that, why not replace the display and keys with a more up to
date method. Maybe LCD with some real descriptions on the screen? And
those switches aren't going to last forever.

So at this point, I've found an 8085 disassembler. Over the next few
weeks I'm going to make a copy of the EX800 ROM and also a copy of the
Poly-800 ROM. Dad - I promise I'll be REALLY careful!

DOES ANYBODY HAVE AN MDK ROM IN THEIR POLY-800? I would really, really
like a copy of it.

And then, I am going to start disassembling the code (read: big job).

I bought the Korg PS-800/EX-800 Rescue Kit and it is well worth the
money but I was bitterly disappointed to find that the MDK ROM
contents were not on the CD. I sort of feel a little bit misled by the
promo on eBay because it sort of implies that the MDK ROM was on the
CD but in fact, it's just the MIDI implementation document which is
useful ony if you have the ROM. Anyway...

If I can disassemble the code then I am going to be in a position to
work out what all of the code does. I may be able to determine how
much ROM space is used for such features as scanning the keyboard, the
sequencer, the chord programming, etc. Since the entire keyboard and
all switches are based around an X Y matrix it is possible we would
save a lot of code space just by reengineering the keyboard system. We
could reclaim a lot of memory by removing the sequencer entirely too!

Then, we'll be in a position to integrate digital potentiometers where
you currently put your mod slayer modifications etc and program those
as parameters direct on the Poly memory!

And hopefully, we'll have enough space left in ROM to add some of the
other features I wanted such as an arpeggiator.

I am also thinking that we may be able to just double the ROM space by
finding a safe place in the code where we can make a ROM bank switch.
If we can do that then the skies the limit.

But before I do all this, what does everyone think about spending a
little money on their Poly 800? If I go this route, then I would end
up developing a retrofit card for the Poly and with parts and labor it
would end up being about $100 - $200. Who thinks they might shell out
that much for a Poly upgrade?

Mostly, I am just doing this to keep the 1980's alive!

Mike H.