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

--- In korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com, <korgpolyex800@...> wrote:

There was also the "MDK" upgrade for the Poly-800.

I looked at it once and it is one of the worst upgrades I've ever seen. Many cut tracks on the main board and all sorts of wires and a crappy little board with a bunch of insane logic chips and a larger EPROM.

Both the EX-800 ROM piggy back mod and the Korg MDK upgrade kits don't give you anything more than the EX-800 sysex dump/receive feature.

As bimmerfan says, the HAWK mod is probably the way to go. And since I produce the HAWK and AtomaHawk kits, you get current tech support for those kits.

Mike

---

From: bimmerfan222 <bperkins211@...>
To: korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, May 27, 2013 2:13 PM
Subject: [korgpolyex] Re: ROM upgrade for original (1st-generation) Poly-800?

 

Hey Greg,

I think the ROM mod you are asking about is an image of the EX800 ROM that you piggy back into the Poly800.

You switch/boot up one or the other(two different ROM chips inside your Poly).. original Poly ROM has support for the keyboard/joystick, the EX800 image does not have support for the keyboard(it used up that memory for the sysex support).

So I think the trick was to use the EX800 image to load patches in.. shut it off, reboot with the Poly ROM and play the patches.

Not much of an improvement.. and all that work for such little return??

The invasive work needed is similar to what you'd do with the HAWK kit.. I'd just do the HAWK mod and be better off in the end.
A much better machine with sysex dumps, CC# controling, NRPN control for every single parameter and more.

Honestly, forget that EX800 ROM.. that's what was done before the HAWK. It's an obsolete mod IMHO.

-Blaine

--- In korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com, "Gregory" <GregCoben@...> wrote:
>
>
> Hello all,
>
> I just joined the group, lots of interesting and valuable stuff
> here.  I am an original owner of the first generation Poly-800 that I
> bought back in 1984.  This is the one that does NOT have the MIDI
> System Exclusive function.  But I still use it along with my other
> vintage synth equipment in my 80's cover band.  Anyway, after getting
> the dreaded "H5" display and suffering with an old cassette player that
> no longer rewinds (although my old Bic pen still works for that), I did
> some searching online and discovered that apparently there was a ROM
> Upgrade that came out that allowed the original Poly-800 to send and
> receive SysEx signals.  I think this was before the Poly-800 mkII was
> released.  I looked through the files and messages here in the group,
> but I didn't find anything specifally about this upgrade.  Does
> anybody have any information on it?  Thanks!
>
> Greg C.
>