Fantastic news! I'm overjoyed!
One thing though, you didn't mention if it worked! I assume it did.
Did you get "Flash" on the display. How hard was it to put those two
extra jumper wires in place? Did you get that right first time? Were
you able to download the code and send the sysex firmware to it
successfully? I assume that worked OK too.
If so, I guess you're wondering how to get all those new features
working and what all the new parameters are. Since you're way ahead of
me here, I'm going to have to jump onto my machine in the home office
tonight and knock out some quick extended and global parameter tables.
There's quite a few of them and they're not in a particularly well
organized order yet. Also, I added a quick new diagnostic feature on
the weekend that tweaks some parameters when you first upgrade your
machine.
I'll have another look at the jumpers and see what I can do on the
next batch of boards. The problem there is the cost of double sided
and plated through boards. It would force the price up considerably.
But I definitely agree that I need to tweak the board design to
improve it somewhat, especially increasing the size of the jumper
pads. Do you really think IC sockets are necessary for the RAM and
flash ROM's? Or should I scrap those and assume people are OK with
soldering them straight onto the board? I kind of like the insurance
of sockets but it does force the price of the kit up.
Do let me know if you actually saw "Flash" on the display and were
able to download the new firmware to your Poly 800. That would be so cool!
I have a neat (I think) HAWK-800 sticker coming out to you in the next
couple of days. Everyone that successfully gets their Poly or EX
upgraded gets a sticker.
Mike.
--- In korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com, "evy_newt" <evy_newt@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Mike, I finally got my kit installed. Great job putting this
> together, I'm impressed! Just a few things I noticed while going
> through the assembly:
>
> - Solder points and traces are fairly small / thin. I actually ended
> up having to repair one hole that had folded over on itself during
> manufacturing. I would suggest making the traces just a little
> beefier since there's plenty of real estate to do so.
>
> - Jumpers below note 2 in Appendix A are pretty close together. I
> know you've modified the layout for the ones by note 1 already, but
> these seem to have a similar problem. Is it possible to do a double
> sided board to eliminate these jumpers? I think it would give a much
> cleaner layout and it would definitely make contruction easier.
>
> - There is no mention of installing the battery in the instructions.
> I know this is obvious to most, but it may be helpful to note that the
> kit will not work without a battery installed.
>
> Other than a couple small hiccups, I'd say it went pretty smoothly.
> Still trying to figure out the best way to mount the board in there.
>
> Thanks again! I'll let you know how everything else works out once I
> play with it some more ;)
>
> Everett
>