Yes, the sample and hold buffers were all checked and replaced. That was the first place we started when trying to diagnose the problem. I don't think it is them. Basically every chip except for the EPROMs has been swapped out with a chip known to work. All of the RAM ICs were shuffled and we did a hard reset. (Everything erased.) I wouldn't have thought it was the EPROMs either, but here we are. :) I can't think of many other things that it could be. This unit also has certain notes that will suddenly play at 100% velocity out of the blue, but only about 5% of the time. Swapping out every IC did not take care of that either.
From: John Leimseider <leimseiderj@...>
To: chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 5, 2011 3:42 PM
Subject: RE: [chromapolaris] Re: Tuning/Channel Problems?
Cantos Music Foundation/National Music Centre Project/Projet du Centre National de Musique
Second Floor, 134 – 11 Ave SE, Calgary AB T2G 0X5
Phone/ Téléphone: (403) 543-5127
Fax/ Télécopie: (403) 543-5129
www.cantos.ca/www.nmc.ca <http://www.cantos.ca/www.nmc.ca>
Coming up at Cantos
September 24 – Pub Songs & Singalongs for the Legacy Children’s Foundation
The Lions aren’t showing signs of slowing down! The final Calgary gig of the year is at Cantos for a double album release and doing good by helping with an instrument drive for The Legacy Children’s Foundation. 8:00pm, tickets available online.
September 25 – All That Jazz Brunch at Thomsons Restaurant
A new jazz series at the Hyatt Regency Calgary. Enjoy a variety of dynamic jazz perfomances the last Sunday of the month for the All That Jazz Brunch. The John Gray Trio performsat Thomsons Restaurant. 11:00am.
Hear that? The National Music Centre will give Canada a place that amplifies the love, the sharing and the understanding of music at the historic King Edward Hotel in the heart of downtown Calgary’s revitalized East Village. The final NMC renderings have been revealed. Play your part and view the building renderings at http://www.nmc.ca <http://www.nmc.ca>
I had another non-working Polaris in the shop so I swapped the chips between the 2 Polari and was able to kill two birds with one stone. I swapped out all of the chips from a polaris that doesn't boot up into the one with the channel 1 tuning problem. I did not swap the EPROMs, but I did switch all of the RAM chips around in the working one and did a full reset. The tuning problem persisted. I swapped out the DAC with a dac from a Polaris that works perfectly, and the tuning problem persisted. At this point, the only thing I have not swapped out is the EPROMs themselves. As a side benefit, I was able to confirm that all of the chips in the non working Polaris actually worked as well(except for the EPROM) and I think I am arriving at the conclusion that the EPROMs are bad in both units. Each unit has has a new 186 processor put in, and has been recapped. There's not much left to be the problem aside from perhaps a flux issue, though the board looks very clear of flux.
If anyone thinks there is something I might not have considered, please let me know. Thanks!
-Rob
--- In chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com, Rob Currier <robiecurrier@...> wrote:
To: chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 5, 2011 3:42 PM
Subject: RE: [chromapolaris] Re: Tuning/Channel Problems?
EPROMs fail VERY rarely… I’ve never seen one fail in a Polaris.
It’s way more likely to be in a sample and hold… Have you scoped the output of
the S/H to see if there’s any unusual crud? It’s usually a distorted sawtooth
when it’s bad. Use your scope on AC coupling and crank the input…
John Leimseider
Electronics Technician/ Technicien des
instruments électroniques
Cantos Music Foundation/National Music Centre Project/Projet du Centre National de Musique
Second Floor, 134 – 11 Ave SE, Calgary AB T2G 0X5
Phone/ Téléphone: (403) 543-5127
Fax/ Télécopie: (403) 543-5129
www.cantos.ca/www.nmc.ca <http://www.cantos.ca/www.nmc.ca>
Coming up at Cantos
September 24 – Pub Songs & Singalongs for the Legacy Children’s Foundation
The Lions aren’t showing signs of slowing down! The final Calgary gig of the year is at Cantos for a double album release and doing good by helping with an instrument drive for The Legacy Children’s Foundation. 8:00pm, tickets available online.
September 25 – All That Jazz Brunch at Thomsons Restaurant
A new jazz series at the Hyatt Regency Calgary. Enjoy a variety of dynamic jazz perfomances the last Sunday of the month for the All That Jazz Brunch. The John Gray Trio performsat Thomsons Restaurant. 11:00am.
Hear that? The National Music Centre will give Canada a place that amplifies the love, the sharing and the understanding of music at the historic King Edward Hotel in the heart of downtown Calgary’s revitalized East Village. The final NMC renderings have been revealed. Play your part and view the building renderings at http://www.nmc.ca <http://www.nmc.ca>
From:
chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com [mailto:chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of rob
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2011 1:27 PM
To: chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [chromapolaris] Re: Tuning/Channel Problems?
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2011 1:27 PM
To: chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [chromapolaris] Re: Tuning/Channel Problems?
I had another non-working Polaris in the shop so I swapped the chips between the 2 Polari and was able to kill two birds with one stone. I swapped out all of the chips from a polaris that doesn't boot up into the one with the channel 1 tuning problem. I did not swap the EPROMs, but I did switch all of the RAM chips around in the working one and did a full reset. The tuning problem persisted. I swapped out the DAC with a dac from a Polaris that works perfectly, and the tuning problem persisted. At this point, the only thing I have not swapped out is the EPROMs themselves. As a side benefit, I was able to confirm that all of the chips in the non working Polaris actually worked as well(except for the EPROM) and I think I am arriving at the conclusion that the EPROMs are bad in both units. Each unit has has a new 186 processor put in, and has been recapped. There's not much left to be the problem aside from perhaps a flux issue, though the board looks very clear of flux.
If anyone thinks there is something I might not have considered, please let me know. Thanks!
-Rob
--- In chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com, Rob Currier <robiecurrier@...> wrote:
>I will let you know if I need one. Â More soon. Â Thanks.
> I'm going to pull the DAC from my OB8 to confirm that's the problem, then
> -ROb"John Leimseider" <leimseiderj@> wrote:
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: synthparts <synthparts@...>
> To: chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Sunday, October 2, 2011 11:47 PM
> Subject: [chromapolaris] Re: Tuning/Channel Problems?
>
>
> Â
> If you do need a new DAC I have one.
> Doug
> synthparts.com
> --- In chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com,
> >the normal failure of the DACs. When they lose a really low order bit, certain voices won't tune, just a matter of what voltages are needed for the autotune. I have a couple of spares... The same ones that are in the OB8... Same symptom, sometimes.
> > I'd check the buffers for the 4051 first. I've also seen more than
> >Centre National de Musique
> > See if the good voices are getting really accurate octaves.
> >
> >
> >
> > John Leimseider
> >
> > Electronics Technician/ Technicien des instruments électroniques
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Cantos Music Foundation/National Music Centre Project/Projet du
> > Second Floor, 134 - 11 Ave SE, Calgary AB T2G 0X5<http://www.cantos.ca/www.nmc.ca <http://www.cantos.ca/www.nmc.ca>
> > Phone/ Téléphone: (403) 543-5127
> > Fax/ Télécopie: (403) 543-5129
> > www.cantos.ca/www.nmc.ca <http://www.cantos.ca/www.nmc.ca>
>Foundation
> > Coming up at Cantos
> >
> > September 24 - Pub Songs & Singalongs for the Legacy Children's
> >of the year is at Cantos for a double album release and doing good by helping with an instrument drive for The Legacy Children's Foundation. 8:00pm, tickets available online.
> > The Lions aren't showing signs of slowing down! The final Calgary gig
> >dynamic jazz perfomances the last Sunday of the month for the All That Jazz Brunch. The John Gray Trio performsat Thomsons Restaurant. 11:00am.
> > September 25 - All That Jazz Brunch at Thomsons Restaurant
> >
> > A new jazz series at the Hyatt Regency Calgary. Enjoy a variety of
> >amplifies the love, the sharing and the understanding of music at the historic King Edward Hotel in the heart of downtown Calgary's revitalized East Village. The final NMC renderings have been revealed. Play your part and view the building renderings at http://www.nmc.ca <http://www.nmc.ca> <http://www.nmc.ca <http://www.nmc.ca>
> > Hear that? The National Music Centre will give Canada a place that
>[mailto:chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of rob
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > From: chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 4:39 PMthe cause is. I replaced the 4051's, swapped out CEMs from other voices, replaced the electrolytics, and still cannot make voice one tune. It seems to be happening to both oscillators on voice 1, so this is something affecting the CV coming from the DA I am guessing. Perhaps the offset calculations happening on the 4051s could be wrong? Does anyone have any ideas as to what else this might be?
> > To: chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [chromapolaris] Re: Tuning/Channel Problems?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > I experienced this issue as well. I still have not figured out what
> > -Rob<mailto:chromapolaris%40yahoogroups.com> , "Paul D. DeRocco" <pderocco@> wrote:
> >
> > --- In chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com
> > >going out
> > > > From: charlespjackson
> > > >
> > > > Recently I began to experience an issue with my Polaris
> > > > of tune. Upon doing some research and reviewing older postshere
> > > > regarding similar problems it appears that the culprit hasbeen
> > > > narrowed down to a faulty Channel (1). If I manuallydisable
> > > > this channel then the Polaris functions and stays in tunejust fine.
> > > > From what I've gathered so far it seems the problem mightbe some
> > > > bleeding and/or bad (Sample & Hold) caps?be? Are
> > > > I would just like to know if I'm accurately diagnosing the
> > > > problem and if so how intricate/expensive a fix this may
> > > > the parts necessary for such a fix available? Where might Ibe
> > > > able to locate them?pretty easy
> > >
> > > I think it's usually the 4051 analog switches that leak. They're
> > > to find, since they're near the left end of each channel, whichare the six
> > > step-and-repeat sections on the right half of the board.a scope and
> > >
> > > This is a pretty easy thing to diagnose and fix, for anyone with
> > > good soldering skills. You can tell if a S&H is leaking bylooking at the
> > > op-amp outputs (pins 1, 7, 8 and 14 of the nearby TL084/LF347parts) and
> > > seeing if there's any sawtooth modulation larger than a fewmillivolts.
> > >
> > > --
> > >
> > > Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
> > > Paul mailto:pderocco@
> > >
> >
>
