emulatorII-list

hey rob!!!

here is what the former owner of the sp12 had to say to the problem. 
meanwhile it has worked again: yesterday everything was fine and so 
i gave it a "one-day-test-run" - had it on all day, it got quite warm (like 
all my other emus :-) but did the job. lets see what happens when i 
power on again today...

here the email from the former user:

Simon:

I'm sorry to hear this is happening.  When I bought the SP-12 in
1998, it had a dead internal backup memory battery, and as a result would
not hold user samples in memory for more than a minute or so after power
off.  I also experienced the strange distortion noises at that time if I
powered off and on again after a few minutes, but the distortion went away
after clearing all memory once powered on.  This lead me to believe the
distortion was due to the dead internal battery, since the ROM sounds are
loaded into RAM, similar to the user samples, but are not automatically
reloaded into RAM on each power up to avoid overwriting a user sample that
might have been previously placed in one of the factory sound bank
locations.  So I concluded the distortion was due to corruption of the RAM
data after power off and capacitors discharging, etc. due to no backup
memory power from the dead battery.  What is confusing to me about the
problem you are experiencing is that after I recently replaced the
internal battery I didn't experience the distortion problem anymore after
powering off and on again later, and the user samples held their memory as
well.  Before I packed the SP-12 to ship it I powered it up to do a final
check of everything (including obscure features like the cassette save and
SMPTE functions), and to do a final recording of the SP-12 sounds using a
high quality sound card I got a few months ago, to make a mini sample
library for myself, and I didn't experience any problems.

Since you mentioned you tried clearing all memory and that didn't work,
one idea I can think of at the moment is perhaps to wait 5-10 minutes
after the SP-12 is powered on, then clear all memory and try the sounds.
Perhaps a warm up time may be useful, but this is a guess, but let me know
the result.  Also, if you have a voltmeter and feel comfortable opening up
the SP-12, with the power off and power cord disconnected you can measure
the voltage of the internal battery (yellow cylinder type).  It should be
above 2.5 V or so.  Be sure to ground yourself or simply touch the metal
frame before probing with the voltmeter to avoid static discharge.

Nate




  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rob Keeble 
  To: emulatorII-list@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 11:11 PM
  Subject: RE: [emulatorII-list] Re: SP12 fails!!! - - - why always me :-(


  Hi,
  First check to see if the problem is on one particular channel (listen to
  the individual outs with ROM and RAM sounds). If ROM and RAM sounds always
  cause problems on a channel then its a sample replay problem in the analog
  circuit for that channel.

  If all the RAM sounds are always okay and some of the ROM sounds are
  distorted/high pitched, particularly if mid way through - then suspect the
  factory EPROM's. EPROM chips do eventually die (yes including the EII and
  SP-12 boot EPROM's....). You can easily get a new set of EPROM's burnt by a
  service centre - I have the binaries. Some E1 users have already encountered
  boot ROM death, and EII users will see this happening over the next 5 - 10
  years. Lucky we have all the EPROM binaries available to recreate them!

  A service centre would also swap the sample EPROM's about to see if the
  problem is the chip or the replay electronics. Please don't attempt repairs
  without thr right equipment/training and the power OFF.

  Rather Off Topic...if any one is interested in the factory SP-12 samples in
  LM-4 format....let me know!

  Regards
  Rob
  www.emulatorarchive.com

  i have tried it again today...

  looks like these noisy sounds have now become a permanent error on
  my sp12. when i switched it on again today, there were the same
  things going wrong as yesterday. i can say more about the problem
  now, because i have tested a few things:

  - tried to put user sounds on the "failing" drum-buttons, that works
  fine. i also have a list of all the factory-drums making the
  described problems.

  snare1 (completely)
  snare2 (completely)
  ride1  (completely)
  ride2  (completely)
  crash  (just a slight bit of the end)

  i have recorded the failure and will send you an email, with an mp3
  attached. you can answer me via email if you want - or in the forum,
  depending on your oppinion wether this could be of any interest for
  other users...

  thanx in advance and please don´t destroy all my hopes of me,
  eventually haveing all my emu´s working 100% - ok :-(

  simon



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