Korg Poly800/EX800 Users

Hi,

*finally* getting round to doing this upgrade - at last: have not had the ex800 nearby.

remembering now what stopped me at the time:

my mod mainboard was not populated with eeprom DILs. just had one. so i wasn't sure about

this as there was no mention in the instructions. i ordered a pack of DIl sockets, and then it

went into storage, unmodded. have i misread something? are these part of the BOM i have?

i'd really appreciate a walkthrough at this late stage before i get started. currently studying the

instructions again.

i also have the Atomahawk v1.2 to fit.

bit anxious as i'm not very experienced at this kind of thing. have necessary tools, and a

window of spare time.

thanks in advance!

D

 

Hi,

*finally* getting round to doing this upgrade - at last: have not had the ex800 nearby.

remembering now what stopped me at the time:

my mod mainboard was not populated with eeprom DILs. just had one. so i wasn't sure about

this as there was no mention in the instructions. i ordered a pack of DIl sockets, and then it

went into storage, unmodded. have i misread something? are these part of the BOM i have?

i'd really appreciate a walkthrough at this late stage before i get started. currently studying the

instructions again.

i also have the Atomahawk v1.2 to fit.

bit anxious as i'm not very experienced at this kind of thing. have necessary tools, and a

< span>window of spare time.

thanks in advance!

D

 

Hi,

*finally* getting round to doing this upgrade - at last: have not had the ex800 nearby.

remembering now what stopped me at the time:

my mod mainboard was not populated with eeprom DILs. just had one. so i wasn't sure about

this as there was no mention in the instructions. i ordered a pack of DIl sockets, and then it

went into storage, unmodded. have i misread something? are these part of the BOM i have?

i'd really appreciate a walkthrough at this late stage before i get started. currently studying the

instructions again.

i also have the Atomahawk v1.2 to fit.

bit anxious as i'm not very experienced at this kind of thing. have necessary tools, and a

< span>window of spare time.

thanks in advance!

D

 

.... right... hawkmodder's log ... i'm going to have a little break here.

!! FINALLY !! managed the extract IC29. what a mission. you said this entire mod takes 2hrs.

beg to differ ! i've spent ... a very careful 3+ hours getting it out and cleaning up the holes so

it will take the DIL socket. more probably, i'm too embarassed to say.

i knew i didn't like braid: it's dangerous. it looks like i've lifted/annihilated two pads ;-((( f***

> from the underside, top right 1 and 2. need to have another look. held it up to the light to

see if there are any layers there.

decided to clean up the holes first and make sure the DIL fits. that's done, having a rest,

and letting you know of my little disaster. i really took care with heating and cooling.

iron is a Weller 15 w; old but does the job.

for me the trouble/difficulty was the small factory soldering, which seems very sound, and

it's been hard to get to the point where i could start extracting. you think it's all gone, and

then there's still some in there holding the IC pins.

ended up breaking one of the legs there, so it's a good job you give a replacement...

so now i need to test my pads somehow, see if/what i need to fix before proceeding, and how.

just going to have a beer, and then take the DIL out and see what all the pads look like.

(have the little auxiliary pcbs taped to the main board to stop the wires working loose)

i'd hoped this bit would go a bit better. ... :- /

please give me some good news...

If I were to do it again, I would just clip the legs off that IC and then remove the cut off leads from the pcb one at a time...

You won't ever need that eeprom again.  And even if you did, there's plenty around extra or you can get one burned for you.

 

thanks for tips.

Mike, i wasn't complaining ;-)  - just 'lol'-ing semi-hysterically with relief that i'd finally got it out.

i just have a solder pump here.

yeah did consider just cutting it out at one point, but even that looked tricky and traumatic.

recommend anyone doing it has a test-run on a junk pcb first as a warm-up - which i did

consider this time, but it looked straightforward enough.

anyway: it's not too ugly, looking at it today. tested continuity, seems to be ok.

any info on what those pins are/where connected is welcome.

looking through it, doesn't seem to lead anywhere much, just test points.

at least it's only a 2-sided, rather than multi-layer, board.

still have pads on component side. think it'll be o k. gonna do a test before next stage.

taking photos as i go.

 

phew - extremely happy and relieved to report that everything seems to be

working as normal, having fitted the DIl, and can even re-use the old IC29.

(still has patches in memory and even the sequence i had on it runs)

horrible moment there, thinking OMG i'm going to have to box this up and send it

to a distant tech to sort out, at huge expense.. but hopefully no, this seems ok.

btw: i can't identify in the parts i received which one would be the replacement.

so i had to go with the old one anyway - so that's a word of caution to anyone

inclined to just cut it out.

does the replacement have a different number on it, Mike? i'll check on the BOM.

i was seriously careful doing all this, but there's still points where you can mess up

if you're not ready f or them. i freaked out after flowing the DIL points because it went

right through to the other side and looked messy, with even a big blob. total horror moment.

use flux ! this was the magic trick. luckily i had some.

 

Mike, also:

which firmware version should i be downloading for this version?

 

Hi Mike,

ok: i remember what puzzled me when i first looked at the kit and the instructions:

i'm at the stage where the jumpers are to be installed on the Hawk board.

the board came with 2 DILs in the first leftmost positions.

they seem pretty firmly in place - are they factory soldered, or to be removed?

i can't get at the jumper positions underneath them-unless i solder to underside.

also, it does not look like the drawing in the instructions.it is v1.3

in the drawing, it shows the circled small jumpers, and one long jumper coming

through DIL #2 up to the top of the board.

on mine, this one is shorter and ends roughly under the DIL position.

(according to the markers on the pcb)

some other differences as well.

ah? or are these tracks, and i don't have to do the jumpers?

(do i remember something about this? ...)

 

ok. does rather look like a double-sided board, held up to the light. ;-)

(will upload links to photos as soon as i can)

- it's just that there are holes at every point, and looks like they won't all be used.

the documentation i printed up will have been for the previous pcb version then, and

i haven't seen an updated doc' for my pcb version.

the other thing that confused me, as i said, was that it came with 2 DILs apparently quite

firmly in place - i'm pretty sure i did not get EIGHT 28pin DIL sockets. though i did get

some more later, so i'm ok for those, -and i think i received more 16pin ones ?

have enough of both now anyway.

at the time i couldn't tell/wondered if the first 2 DIL were already soldered, as they didn't

want to come out, and i didn' ;t want to force them.

i think that's the point where i had to pack things away, and move -and had to shelve

project 'temporarily'.