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Don Backshall is a great guy!!

Don Backshall is a great guy!!

2011-10-13 by Mike

Don Backshall solved all of my PolySix issues and did it for basically a handshake.  Furthermore, he mailed my KLM-367 board back to me in good faith before my PayPal payment even cleared!!!  I sent him as much extra money as I could because he really deserved it.  Here's the correspondence bleow:

If the e-mail below can't restore your faith in blind internet transactions, I don't know what will.  

(Don's Response October 6)

Okay, the boards are on their way back. Priority Mail with delivery conf # 03103490000077720492.
Still three problems that I am aware of:
1) D/A calibration - Can't get the right lights to come on, but seems to be in spec anyway.
2) MG leak - I'm assuming this is caused by some crud between pin 1 and 2 on the bottom of CN06 header. I know these are a pain to remove, but I think it needs to be done. Sounds really bad when it's cold. Gets a little better when it warms up.
3) MG delay - Known problem with 2N3904 in Q5 position. Using the (2SC945) transistor from the old board seems to fix this, but the pins are different. You can compare what's connected to what between old and new boards to see what pin goes where. One of my old boards had a 2SC2785.
 
$8.60 postage
$1.60 fuses
$0.15 capacitor
-----------------------
$10.35 grand total - You can send it to this Paypal acct backshall1@bellsouth.net
 
I'm pretty sure you can get this board sounding just like it should, even if you can't get the right calibration lights to come on.
Have fun,
Don Backshall

_______________________________

(my response to him solving my problems October 05)

That's great!!  It looks like I'm a decimal doofus!  Ha Ha.  What's the bill?  I can send you a PayPal payment today or tomorrow.  I'll praise your expertise on the Korg PolySix forum too if you're intersted.

Thanks again,

-Mike

Re: [PolySix] Don Backshall is a great guy!!

2011-10-13 by klosmon

Nice guy, indeed.

Two things:
first, I've encountered many old 367 boards that were incapable of D/A 
calibration (as specified in the service documents) that still worked 
fine -- this is probably not an issue.

Second -- regarding the MG bleedthrough...
I've encountered this on many battery-damaged boards;  it has to do with 
damaged traces bleeding through to each other.
A fix I've found that works 99% of the time:  cut the trace on the 
bottom of the board at CN06-2, and also the trace that goes to R9 (near 
CN05).  Cutting the trace at both ends eliminates any possibility of the 
mod signal being affected by adjacent traces. The mod bleedthrough 
should disappear.  Now solder a jumper between CN06-2 and the end of R9, 
and hopefully the mod function will work, without distortion or other 
problems.

~GMM


Mike wrote:
>  
>
> Don Backshall solved all of my PolySix issues and did it for basically 
> a handshake. Furthermore, he mailed my KLM-367 board back to me in 
> good faith before my PayPal payment even cleared!!! I sent him as much 
> extra money as I could because he really deserved it. Here's the 
> correspondence bleow:
>
> If the e-mail below can't restore your faith in blind internet 
> transactions, I don't know what will.
>
> (Don's Response October 6)
>
> Okay, the boards are on their way back. Priority Mail with delivery 
> conf # 03103490000077720492.
> Still three problems that I am aware of:
> 1) D/A calibration - Can't get the right lights to come on, but seems 
> to be in spec anyway.
> 2) MG leak - I'm assuming this is caused by some crud between pin 1 
> and 2 on the bottom of CN06 header. I know these are a pain to remove, 
> but I think it needs to be done. Sounds really bad when it's cold. 
> Gets a little better when it warms up.
> 3) MG delay - Known problem with 2N3904 in Q5 position. Using the 
> (2SC945) transistor from the old board seems to fix this, but the pins 
> are different. You can compare what's connected to what between old 
> and new boards to see what pin goes where. One of my old boards had a 
> 2SC2785.
>
> $8.60 postage
> $1.60 fuses
> $0.15 capacitor
> -----------------------
> $10.35 grand total - You can send it to this Paypal acct 
> backshall1@bellsouth.net <mailto:backshall1%40bellsouth.net>
>
> I'm pretty sure you can get this board sounding just like it should, 
> even if you can't get the right calibration lights to come on.
> Have fun,
> Don Backshall
>
> _______________________________
>
> (my response to him solving my problems October 05)
>
> That's great!! It looks like I'm a decimal doofus! Ha Ha. What's the 
> bill? I can send you a PayPal payment today or tomorrow. I'll praise 
> your expertise on the Korg PolySix forum too if you're intersted.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> -Mike
>
> 



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [PolySix] Don Backshall is a great guy!!

2011-10-13 by michael

Mike, 

I appreciate the referral.  I just messaged him to see if I could get him to
accept some money to fix my polysix!!

Thanks, 

Michael
Show quoted textHide quoted text
From:  Mike <mborish_2000@yahoo.com>
Reply-To:  <PolySix@yahoogroups.com>
Date:  Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:04:22 -0000
To:  <PolySix@yahoogroups.com>
Subject:  [PolySix] Don Backshall is a great guy!!

 
 
 
   

Don Backshall solved all of my PolySix issues and did it for basically a
handshake.  Furthermore, he mailed my KLM-367 board back to me in good faith
before my PayPal payment even cleared!!!  I sent him as much extra money as
I could because he really deserved it.  Here's the correspondence bleow:

If the e-mail below can't restore your faith in blind internet transactions,
I don't know what will.

(Don's Response October 6)

Okay, the boards are on their way back. Priority Mail with delivery conf #
03103490000077720492.
Still three problems that I am aware of:
1) D/A calibration - Can't get the right lights to come on, but seems to be
in spec anyway.
2) MG leak - I'm assuming this is caused by some crud between pin 1 and 2 on
the bottom of CN06 header. I know these are a pain to remove, but I think it
needs to be done. Sounds really bad when it's cold. Gets a little better
when it warms up.
3) MG delay - Known problem with 2N3904 in Q5 position. Using the (2SC945)
transistor from the old board seems to fix this, but the pins are different.
You can compare what's connected to what between old and new boards to see
what pin goes where. One of my old boards had a 2SC2785.
 
$8.60 postage
$1.60 fuses
$0.15 capacitor
-----------------------
$10.35 grand total - You can send it to this Paypal acct
backshall1@bellsouth.net <mailto:backshall1%40bellsouth.net>
 
I'm pretty sure you can get this board sounding just like it should, even if
you can't get the right calibration lights to come on.
Have fun,
Don Backshall

_______________________________

(my response to him solving my problems October 05)

That's great!!  It looks like I'm a decimal doofus!  Ha Ha.  What's the
bill?  I can send you a PayPal payment today or tomorrow.  I'll praise your
expertise on the Korg PolySix forum too if you're intersted.

Thanks again,

-Mike

 
   

 




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

RE: [PolySix] Don Backshall is a great guy!!

2011-10-14 by backshall1

Unfortunately, both the calibration problem and MG bleedthrough are
happening on the new clone board, not an old damaged board. It's not the
first time I've seen new boards that wouldn't calibrate, either. Generally,
the 4 and 8 lights come on and you can change the 8 to 7, 6, 5, but you
can't make the 4 move down. I tried a couple of different types of DAC08 and
even an original spec 1408 but it made no difference. I also tried a 4560 in
place of the TL072.

 

I did lift one end of R9 to verify that the MG leak was on this trace from
CN06-2 to R9. The only way I can see this happening on a new board is if
there is contamination on the bottom of CN06 between pins 1 and 2 that needs
to be cleaned up, since the old Molex connector was moved from the old to
new board and the area around CN06 is a real mess on the old board. I know
it's a pain to remove these headers, but for a new board it makes more sense
than cutting the trace.

 

I think all Mike's flattery was an attempt to bribe me into not mentioning
the other problems found on his new board. Ha, I warned you. This is for
"educational purposes" for the rest of us trying to build new boards.

 

1)       Blown fuses - solder bridge between C6 and C7. Although these two
capacitors each have one pin connected to ground, the pins closest together
are not ground, they are +15v and -15v. It might seem like a bad design to
have these two pins so extremely close together but I guess it's the best
way to get +15/-15 rails down to all the op-amps and comparators.

2)       D4-D7 unstable, no control from sub octave switch - No solder on
ground pin of IC29.

3)       No MG at all, no Effects Speed control - Several pins not soldered
on IC16.

4)       From Tape not working - C4 had a 47nF (47000pF) cap in it instead
of 470pF.

 

Missing some IC socket pins while soldering is an easy thing to do with all
those shiny pins on a shiny new board and is not as easy to find as you
might think. I didn't notice these until I got it under a big lighted
magnifier.

 

Don B.

 

  _____  
Show quoted textHide quoted text
From: PolySix@yahoogroups.com [mailto:PolySix@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
klosmon
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2011 2:47 PM
To: PolySix@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [PolySix] Don Backshall is a great guy!!

 

  

Nice guy, indeed.

Two things:
first, I've encountered many old 367 boards that were incapable of D/A 
calibration (as specified in the service documents) that still worked 
fine -- this is probably not an issue.

Second -- regarding the MG bleedthrough...
I've encountered this on many battery-damaged boards; it has to do with 
damaged traces bleeding through to each other.
A fix I've found that works 99% of the time: cut the trace on the 
bottom of the board at CN06-2, and also the trace that goes to R9 (near 
CN05). Cutting the trace at both ends eliminates any possibility of the 
mod signal being affected by adjacent traces. The mod bleedthrough 
should disappear. Now solder a jumper between CN06-2 and the end of R9, 
and hopefully the mod function will work, without distortion or other 
problems.

~GMM

Mike wrote:
> 
>
> Don Backshall solved all of my PolySix issues and did it for basically 
> a handshake. Furthermore, he mailed my KLM-367 board back to me in 
> good faith before my PayPal payment even cleared!!! I sent him as much 
> extra money as I could because he really deserved it. Here's the 
> correspondence bleow:
>
> If the e-mail below can't restore your faith in blind internet 
> transactions, I don't know what will.
>
> (Don's Response October 6)
>
> Okay, the boards are on their way back. Priority Mail with delivery 
> conf # 03103490000077720492.
> Still three problems that I am aware of:
> 1) D/A calibration - Can't get the right lights to come on, but seems 
> to be in spec anyway.
> 2) MG leak - I'm assuming this is caused by some crud between pin 1 
> and 2 on the bottom of CN06 header. I know these are a pain to remove, 
> but I think it needs to be done. Sounds really bad when it's cold. 
> Gets a little better when it warms up.
> 3) MG delay - Known problem with 2N3904 in Q5 position. Using the 
> (2SC945) transistor from the old board seems to fix this, but the pins 
> are different. You can compare what's connected to what between old 
> and new boards to see what pin goes where. One of my old boards had a 
> 2SC2785.
>
> $8.60 postage
> $1.60 fuses
> $0.15 capacitor
> -----------------------
> $10.35 grand total - You can send it to this Paypal acct 
> backshall1@bellsouth.net <mailto:backshall1%40bellsouth.net>
<mailto:backshall1%40bellsouth.net>
>
> I'm pretty sure you can get this board sounding just like it should, 
> even if you can't get the right calibration lights to come on.
> Have fun,
> Don Backshall
>
> _______________________________
>
> (my response to him solving my problems October 05)
>
> That's great!! It looks like I'm a decimal doofus! Ha Ha. What's the 
> bill? I can send you a PayPal payment today or tomorrow. I'll praise 
> your expertise on the Korg PolySix forum too if you're intersted.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> -Mike
>
> 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

RE: [PolySix] Don Backshall is a great guy!!

2011-10-14 by backshall1

Michael,

 

Unfortunately, I stopped working on old damaged boards a couple of years ago
when the new clone boards became available. The old boards just seem to be a
never-ending black hole of problems that I don't have time to deal with and
I was never really happy with the end result and neither were some of my
customers. I agreed to look at Mike's board because it was a new clone board
and should not really have any problems and I thought it would be a good way
for folks in the group to learn what to watch out for when building a new
board.

 

If the damage on your old board is not too severe, you can probably get it
back into reasonable shape with a multimeter and a soldering iron. Describe
the problem, post a picture, and I'm sure the whole group will assist where
they can. 

 

Don B.

 

 

  _____  
Show quoted textHide quoted text
From: PolySix@yahoogroups.com [mailto:PolySix@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
michael
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2011 4:37 PM
To: PolySix@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [PolySix] Don Backshall is a great guy!!

 

  

Mike, 

I appreciate the referral. I just messaged him to see if I could get him to
accept some money to fix my polysix!!

Thanks, 

Michael

From: Mike <mborish_2000@yahoo.com <mailto:mborish_2000%40yahoo.com> >
Reply-To: <PolySix@yahoogroups.com <mailto:PolySix%40yahoogroups.com> >
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:04:22 -0000
To: <PolySix@yahoogroups.com <mailto:PolySix%40yahoogroups.com> >
Subject: [PolySix] Don Backshall is a great guy!!

Don Backshall solved all of my PolySix issues and did it for basically a
handshake. Furthermore, he mailed my KLM-367 board back to me in good faith
before my PayPal payment even cleared!!! I sent him as much extra money as
I could because he really deserved it. Here's the correspondence bleow:

If the e-mail below can't restore your faith in blind internet transactions,
I don't know what will.

(Don's Response October 6)

Okay, the boards are on their way back. Priority Mail with delivery conf #
03103490000077720492.
Still three problems that I am aware of:
1) D/A calibration - Can't get the right lights to come on, but seems to be
in spec anyway.
2) MG leak - I'm assuming this is caused by some crud between pin 1 and 2 on
the bottom of CN06 header. I know these are a pain to remove, but I think it
needs to be done. Sounds really bad when it's cold. Gets a little better
when it warms up.
3) MG delay - Known problem with 2N3904 in Q5 position. Using the (2SC945)
transistor from the old board seems to fix this, but the pins are different.
You can compare what's connected to what between old and new boards to see
what pin goes where. One of my old boards had a 2SC2785.

$8.60 postage
$1.60 fuses
$0.15 capacitor
-----------------------
$10.35 grand total - You can send it to this Paypal acct
backshall1@bellsouth.net <mailto:backshall1%40bellsouth.net>
<mailto:backshall1%40bellsouth.net>

I'm pretty sure you can get this board sounding just like it should, even if
you can't get the right calibration lights to come on.
Have fun,
Don Backshall

_______________________________

(my response to him solving my problems October 05)

That's great!! It looks like I'm a decimal doofus! Ha Ha. What's the
bill? I can send you a PayPal payment today or tomorrow. I'll praise your
expertise on the Korg PolySix forum too if you're intersted.

Thanks again,

-Mike

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: Don Backshall is a great guy!!

2011-10-18 by Mike

No, I'm not trying to flatter anybody.  I understand that I made lots of mistakes. IC16 might have been a botched attempt to salvage a part for another project.  Who knows, maybe I gave up or got a phone call or something and forgot about it.  I'm pretty sure that Mouser or Digikey put the wrong cap in the bag.. he he.   Mistakes are part of learning.  I just corrected a buddy's mistake over the weekend.  He made the classic mistake of putting the PSU caps in backwards on an RS202.  Sometimes a second opinion can make all of the difference in the world.

Also, to folks that are attempting this:  I'm pretty good at soldering and have a Hakko 703b which is one hell of a soldering station.  I also have the best analog scope ever, Tek 2465, and a good multimeter.  It is very easy to make mistakes and the decimal error on the tape engage really screwed me up.

All together, I think I spent about 8 hours on this project from ordering the board and parts, populating it, and testing:(  Furthermore, it took me an entire year to finally get it running because I put it aside after making the initial mistakes.

-Mike

--- In PolySix@yahoogroups.com, "backshall1" <backshall1@...> wrote:
Show quoted textHide quoted text
>
> Unfortunately, both the calibration problem and MG bleedthrough are
> happening on the new clone board, not an old damaged board. It's not the
> first time I've seen new boards that wouldn't calibrate, either. Generally,
> the 4 and 8 lights come on and you can change the 8 to 7, 6, 5, but you
> can't make the 4 move down. I tried a couple of different types of DAC08 and
> even an original spec 1408 but it made no difference. I also tried a 4560 in
> place of the TL072.
> 
>  
> 
> I did lift one end of R9 to verify that the MG leak was on this trace from
> CN06-2 to R9. The only way I can see this happening on a new board is if
> there is contamination on the bottom of CN06 between pins 1 and 2 that needs
> to be cleaned up, since the old Molex connector was moved from the old to
> new board and the area around CN06 is a real mess on the old board. I know
> it's a pain to remove these headers, but for a new board it makes more sense
> than cutting the trace.
> 
>  
> 
> I think all Mike's flattery was an attempt to bribe me into not mentioning
> the other problems found on his new board. Ha, I warned you. This is for
> "educational purposes" for the rest of us trying to build new boards.
> 
>  
> 
> 1)       Blown fuses - solder bridge between C6 and C7. Although these two
> capacitors each have one pin connected to ground, the pins closest together
> are not ground, they are +15v and -15v. It might seem like a bad design to
> have these two pins so extremely close together but I guess it's the best
> way to get +15/-15 rails down to all the op-amps and comparators.
> 
> 2)       D4-D7 unstable, no control from sub octave switch - No solder on
> ground pin of IC29.
> 
> 3)       No MG at all, no Effects Speed control - Several pins not soldered
> on IC16.
> 
> 4)       From Tape not working - C4 had a 47nF (47000pF) cap in it instead
> of 470pF.
> 
>  
> 
> Missing some IC socket pins while soldering is an easy thing to do with all
> those shiny pins on a shiny new board and is not as easy to find as you
> might think. I didn't notice these until I got it under a big lighted
> magnifier.
> 
>  
> 
> Don B.
> 
>  
> 
>   _____  
> 
> From: PolySix@yahoogroups.com [mailto:PolySix@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
> klosmon
> Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2011 2:47 PM
> To: PolySix@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [PolySix] Don Backshall is a great guy!!
> 
>  
> 
>   
> 
> Nice guy, indeed.
> 
> Two things:
> first, I've encountered many old 367 boards that were incapable of D/A 
> calibration (as specified in the service documents) that still worked 
> fine -- this is probably not an issue.
> 
> Second -- regarding the MG bleedthrough...
> I've encountered this on many battery-damaged boards; it has to do with 
> damaged traces bleeding through to each other.
> A fix I've found that works 99% of the time: cut the trace on the 
> bottom of the board at CN06-2, and also the trace that goes to R9 (near 
> CN05). Cutting the trace at both ends eliminates any possibility of the 
> mod signal being affected by adjacent traces. The mod bleedthrough 
> should disappear. Now solder a jumper between CN06-2 and the end of R9, 
> and hopefully the mod function will work, without distortion or other 
> problems.
> 
> ~GMM
> 
> Mike wrote:
> > 
> >
> > Don Backshall solved all of my PolySix issues and did it for basically 
> > a handshake. Furthermore, he mailed my KLM-367 board back to me in 
> > good faith before my PayPal payment even cleared!!! I sent him as much 
> > extra money as I could because he really deserved it. Here's the 
> > correspondence bleow:
> >
> > If the e-mail below can't restore your faith in blind internet 
> > transactions, I don't know what will.
> >
> > (Don's Response October 6)
> >
> > Okay, the boards are on their way back. Priority Mail with delivery 
> > conf # 03103490000077720492.
> > Still three problems that I am aware of:
> > 1) D/A calibration - Can't get the right lights to come on, but seems 
> > to be in spec anyway.
> > 2) MG leak - I'm assuming this is caused by some crud between pin 1 
> > and 2 on the bottom of CN06 header. I know these are a pain to remove, 
> > but I think it needs to be done. Sounds really bad when it's cold. 
> > Gets a little better when it warms up.
> > 3) MG delay - Known problem with 2N3904 in Q5 position. Using the 
> > (2SC945) transistor from the old board seems to fix this, but the pins 
> > are different. You can compare what's connected to what between old 
> > and new boards to see what pin goes where. One of my old boards had a 
> > 2SC2785.
> >
> > $8.60 postage
> > $1.60 fuses
> > $0.15 capacitor
> > -----------------------
> > $10.35 grand total - You can send it to this Paypal acct 
> > backshall1@... <mailto:backshall1%40bellsouth.net>
> <mailto:backshall1%40bellsouth.net>
> >
> > I'm pretty sure you can get this board sounding just like it should, 
> > even if you can't get the right calibration lights to come on.
> > Have fun,
> > Don Backshall
> >
> > _______________________________
> >
> > (my response to him solving my problems October 05)
> >
> > That's great!! It looks like I'm a decimal doofus! Ha Ha. What's the 
> > bill? I can send you a PayPal payment today or tomorrow. I'll praise 
> > your expertise on the Korg PolySix forum too if you're intersted.
> >
> > Thanks again,
> >
> > -Mike
> >
> > 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

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