Rhodes Chroma Polaris

Hello,

I have good news my Chroma has life again! I think there was a bad ground somewhere. The unit now turns on but does not play. The buttons function and all of the buttons respond properly. I don't hear the button "pop" when I press them. I figure the memory/programs were lost. So I'm trying to load all using my computer polprog1.wav file.

DETAILS:
I'm using a SoundBlaster F1Tality Music card, main out and can hear the program sounds through the output (cassette sync-in 1/4" interface.) I have tried different volumes, toggling setting #3 on and off, and have not been able to get it to load. The code does appear to be coming through in both left and right channels. I'm not sure if it is a mono or stereo signal anyway. A few times with the volume cranked and #3 off it stopped the load before the end of the sound which was more encouraging than nothing.

FLASHBACKS:
I had immediate flashbacks of listing to that sound, watching the programs load most of the way and fail. I remember how exciting it was when it all worked! So where do I proceed from here? To I try and get the output sound louder?

Thank you in advance for your help!

> From: skyrunr
>
> I have good news my Chroma has life again! I think there was
> a bad ground somewhere. The unit now turns on but does not
> play. The buttons function and all of the buttons respond
> properly. I don't hear the button "pop" when I press them.
> I figure the memory/programs were lost. So I'm trying to
> load all using my computer polprog1.wav file.
>
> DETAILS:
> I'm using a SoundBlaster F1Tality Music card, main out and
> can hear the program sounds through the output (cassette
> sync-in 1/4" interface.) I have tried different volumes,
> toggling setting #3 on and off, and have not been able to get
> it to load. The code does appear to be coming through in
> both left and right channels. I'm not sure if it is a mono
> or stereo signal anyway. A few times with the volume cranked
> and #3 off it stopped the load before the end of the sound
> which was more encouraging than nothing.
>
> FLASHBACKS:
> I had immediate flashbacks of listing to that sound, watching
> the programs load most of the way and fail. I remember how
> exciting it was when it all worked! So where do I proceed
> from here? To I try and get the output sound louder?
>
> Thank you in advance for your help!

Why don't you load them via MIDI, using polprog1.syx?

--

Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
Paul mailto:pderocco@...

Hello Paul,

That sounds like a great plan. I dig up my midi cables and luckily my audio card came with an entire front panel of input jacks including midi. I went through the website and manuals and can't figure out what software I need to initiate sending the syx to the keyboard via MIDI. It seems like there would be some step-by-step instructions somewhere. Am I missing something obvious?

Sincerely,

Cisco

> From: skyrunr
>
> That sounds like a great plan. I dig up my midi cables and
> luckily my audio card came with an entire front panel of
> input jacks including midi. I went through the website and
> manuals and can't figure out what software I need to initiate
> sending the syx to the keyboard via MIDI. It seems like
> there would be some step-by-step instructions somewhere. Am
> I missing something obvious?

You can download MIDI-OX from http://www.midiox.com/. It has that function.

--

Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
Paul mailto:pderocco@...

Midi-ox seemed to work well, but the Polaris isn't responding to the sysex. Paul, just to verify, in order to get the sysex to load does the upperfunction-loadall need to be enabled?

I have tried many combinations of midi in/out, cables, and settings. I'm continuing to see if I can get midi out working. Unfortunately, Creative Lab's website was down yesterday so I couldn't work on it last night. I found a few other programs such as sendsx, dumpster, and sysexbox while I was waiting.

Worth noting, when I select sounds I do notice that the slider options and selections change for each program bank. So no it sounds more like an output problem. With headphones and the volume all the way up I can hear a difference in the background noise with when I toggle the volume and make selections. Not quite the normal button "pop" I remember though. There is even a slight change in the audio feedback when I press keys.

Fingers still crossed... Looking into some repair options out of Boston as well.

> From: skyrunr
>
> Midi-ox seemed to work well, but the Polaris isn't responding
> to the sysex. Paul, just to verify, in order to get the
> sysex to load does the upperfunction-loadall need to be enabled?

No. This has nothing to do with the cassette. As far as I know (I haven't
tried it myself) just streaming those .syx files into the Polaris should
write into the memory.

> Worth noting, when I select sounds I do notice that the
> slider options and selections change for each program bank.
> So no it sounds more like an output problem. With headphones
> and the volume all the way up I can hear a difference in the
> background noise with when I toggle the volume and make
> selections. Not quite the normal button "pop" I remember
> though. There is even a slight change in the audio feedback
> when I press keys.

You should download the service manual, and do whatever parts of section 6
you can manage, especially "What to do if you lose your memory" on 6-5. That
may fix everything.

--

Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
Paul mailto:pderocco@...

Hello,

I had downloaded ALL of the documents from this files section, but didn't realize the service manual was not in the files section of this site. I got the scratch sound working. It is nice to have SOME sort of sound coming from my Polaris for sure! Oddly a channels adjustment seemed to kick the sound back on.

I just can't get this puppy programmed with some real sounds. I can hear the midi sounds coming through the MIDI in from the computer, just as I can hear the cassette sounds when I try to load through the SYNC-IN. The memory is not full, but the Polaris will not accept any programming.

It looks like the next step is to find or make a CCR-81 cassette interface cable. I haven't been able to find one yet. So close but yet so far!

From: skyrunr <c1sco@...>
Subject: [chromapolaris] Re: My Polaris is on! Having loading loading, NEED CASSETTE CABLE
To: chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, June 3, 2011, 8:38 PM

 

Hello,

I had downloaded ALL of the documents from this files section, but didn't realize the service manual was not in the files section of this site. I got the scratch sound working. It is nice to have SOME sort of sound coming from my Polaris for sure! Oddly a channels adjustment seemed to kick the sound back on.

I just can't get this puppy programmed with some real sounds. I can hear the midi sounds coming through the MIDI in from the computer, just as I can hear the cassette sounds when I try to load through the SYNC-IN. The memory is not full, but the Polaris will not accept any programming.

It looks like the next step is to find or make a CCR-81 cassette interface cable. I haven't been able to find one yet. So close but yet so far!

> From: skyrunr
>
> I can hear the midi sounds coming through the MIDI in from
> the computer, just as I can hear the cassette sounds when I
> try to load through the SYNC-IN.

I'm not sure what you mean. This seems to imply that when you send .syx
files containing programs into the MIDI input, the Polaris makes some sort
of noise analogous to the sound you hear when you play the cassette programs
into the Sync input, which I don't understand. Or are you just saying that
you can play the scratch sound via the MIDI input?

Have you tried making up your own sounds and storing them? Does that work
okay?

If you continue to have unexplained problems, you could try the LOWER
FUNCTION, D, 12, STOP function, which erases the entire memory. You'll have
to do all the factory calibrations described in the service manual after
that, though.

--

Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
Paul mailto:pderocco@...