Vintage Simmons Drums (UK) Users Group

I just switched on my SDS7 and found all the memories scrambled. This has happened before and I have a note of (some) of the settings but I have lost a lot of good sounds. The problem is this is a fully maxed out SDS7 (it usually has 10-12 cards installed) so there are a lot of settings to write down and it is very tedious to reprogram.

The memory battery is good - I replaced the ni-cad pack with a Lithium battery a few months ago and the voltage is over 3v

This seems to be a common problem with the SDS7 - can any of the Simmons gurus here explain why this happens and is there a permanent fix for it? I thought it might have something to do with the backplane connectors, but the battery is connected directly to the memory chips so I don't see how a bad connection could affect it.

On a related note - does anyone have an external ram-pack for sale? this could be a long term solution. Or would it be possible to clone the ram pack with modern non-volatile memory, that would be a good project (or even replace the internal memory card with something more reliable).

Any thoughts appreciated.

Cheers, vout

First off you need to remove the lithium battery. Standard lithium batteries are not designed to be recharged. (Unless they are a lithium ion and they need a different method of recharging). You are lucky the battery has not exploded and set fire to the SDS!! You can remove a couple of diodes that are in the recharging circuit of the SDS7 and it would be ok to fit a standard lithium 3.0-3.6v battery so if you want to use the lithium battery you have fitted you must do this.

--- In Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com, vout@... wrote:
>
>
> I just switched on my SDS7 and found all the memories scrambled. This has happened before and I have a note of (some) of the settings but I have lost a lot of good sounds. The problem is this is a fully maxed out SDS7 (it usually has 10-12 cards installed) so there are a lot of settings to write down and it is very tedious to reprogram.
>
> The memory battery is good - I replaced the ni-cad pack with a Lithium battery a few months ago and the voltage is over 3v
>
> This seems to be a common problem with the SDS7 - can any of the Simmons gurus here explain why this happens and is there a permanent fix for it? I thought it might have something to do with the backplane connectors, but the battery is connected directly to the memory chips so I don't see how a bad connection could affect it.
>
> On a related note - does anyone have an external ram-pack for sale? this could be a long term solution. Or would it be possible to clone the ram pack with modern non-volatile memory, that would be a good project (or even replace the internal memory card with something more reliable).
>
> Any thoughts appreciated.
>
> Cheers, vout
>

It's a simpler option to just put a new Nicad in. If you have never seen what a lithium battery does if things go wrong search for laptop fires on youtube. Lithium batteries "gas" up during the recharge and this is controlled by venting and careful control of the recharge process. Normal lithiums cannot vent and will reach a point where the case seal ruptures. When hot and exposed to air, the lithium may self combust, bye bye to SDS7.

--- In Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com, "Richard" <warlandr63@...> wrote:
>
> First off you need to remove the lithium battery. Standard lithium batteries are not designed to be recharged. (Unless they are a lithium ion and they need a different method of recharging). You are lucky the battery has not exploded and set fire to the SDS!! You can remove a couple of diodes that are in the recharging circuit of the SDS7 and it would be ok to fit a standard lithium 3.0-3.6v battery so if you want to use the lithium battery you have fitted you must do this.
>
> --- In Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com, vout@ wrote:
> >
> >
> > I just switched on my SDS7 and found all the memories scrambled. This has happened before and I have a note of (some) of the settings but I have lost a lot of good sounds. The problem is this is a fully maxed out SDS7 (it usually has 10-12 cards installed) so there are a lot of settings to write down and it is very tedious to reprogram.
> >
> > The memory battery is good - I replaced the ni-cad pack with a Lithium battery a few months ago and the voltage is over 3v
> >
> > This seems to be a common problem with the SDS7 - can any of the Simmons gurus here explain why this happens and is there a permanent fix for it? I thought it might have something to do with the backplane connectors, but the battery is connected directly to the memory chips so I don't see how a bad connection could affect it.
> >
> > On a related note - does anyone have an external ram-pack for sale? this could be a long term solution. Or would it be possible to clone the ram pack with modern non-volatile memory, that would be a good project (or even replace the internal memory card with something more reliable).
> >
> > Any thoughts appreciated.
> >
> > Cheers, vout
> >
>

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the advice - I had removed the charging circuit when I fitted the Lithium battery, there was a discussion about this a while ago. I think I have found the problem though - it seems that the battery holder I had used is not very good quality, it does not grip the battery tightly enough and was not making good contact. I'm going to replace it with something better. Still I wish there was a better way of storing and backing up the sounds in the SDS7.

Cheers, vout

--- In Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com, "Richard" <warlandr63@...> wrote:
>
> It's a simpler option to just put a new Nicad in. If you have never seen what a lithium battery does if things go wrong search for laptop fires on youtube. Lithium batteries "gas" up during the recharge and this is controlled by venting and careful control of the recharge process. Normal lithiums cannot vent and will reach a point where the case seal ruptures. When hot and exposed to air, the lithium may self combust, bye bye to SDS7.
>
> --- In Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com, "Richard" <warlandr63@> wrote:
> >
> > First off you need to remove the lithium battery. Standard lithium batteries are not designed to be recharged. (Unless they are a lithium ion and they need a different method of recharging). You are lucky the battery has not exploded and set fire to the SDS!! You can remove a couple of diodes that are in the recharging circuit of the SDS7 and it would be ok to fit a standard lithium 3.0-3.6v battery so if you want to use the lithium battery you have fitted you must do this.
> >
> > --- In Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com, vout@ wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > I just switched on my SDS7 and found all the memories scrambled. This has happened before and I have a note of (some) of the settings but I have lost a lot of good sounds. The problem is this is a fully maxed out SDS7 (it usually has 10-12 cards installed) so there are a lot of settings to write down and it is very tedious to reprogram.
> > >
> > > The memory battery is good - I replaced the ni-cad pack with a Lithium battery a few months ago and the voltage is over 3v
> > >
> > > This seems to be a common problem with the SDS7 - can any of the Simmons gurus here explain why this happens and is there a permanent fix for it? I thought it might have something to do with the backplane connectors, but the battery is connected directly to the memory chips so I don't see how a bad connection could affect it.
> > >
> > > On a related note - does anyone have an external ram-pack for sale? this could be a long term solution. Or would it be possible to clone the ram pack with modern non-volatile memory, that would be a good project (or even replace the internal memory card with something more reliable).
> > >
> > > Any thoughts appreciated.
> > >
> > > Cheers, vout
> > >
> >
>