|
Hello everyone!
First Happy New Year from Japan.
This evening I tried installing a Grey Matter E! board into my newly acquired used Yamaha DX-7 MKI. The Serial Number is 96982, but I am not sure how to check the OS version number. I believe my DX-7 is ok for installing the Grey Matter E! board but am not %100 sure.
I recently bought the Grey Matter E! board off Ebay. It arrived just fine but I noticed while doing the installation that two "long" screws needed to clamp down the E! board were not sent to me, but I improvised by finding a couple of screws in my spare parts box.
The issue here is that I followed the directions by extracting the two IC chips ( Rom IC14 and Rom IC21 ). I then soldered the red wire to IC63 Pin #7 and the black wire to IC63 Pin #10. I then seated the E! board into the appropriate IC14 and IC21 slots. I was able to do all of this just fine and I thought the board was "snug" enough to warrant turning on the DX-7 for a test run.
Well, after powering up the DX-7, I noticed that I got power but there was no display and the numbers .8 and .68 for example were flickering on and off. It was like there was a short or conflict in the system. I tried re-soldering the wires (carefully!) and re-seating the E! board several times and every time the same thing happened. ( Note I turned off and unplugged everything of course before trying different things ... laugh ).
Thus I was unable to get the Grey Matter E! board to install properly.
One thing I thought of while writing this post is that the when facing the DX-7 ( as if you are going to play the keys ), the IC chips themselves are upside down. My thinking now is that perhaps I soldered the red and black wires opposite of what they should be. IC63 is actually upside down meaning the lettering on the chip itself is upside down. Thus there is hope that if I try this again later in the week, that perhaps that might be the problem. My wires may have been crossed.
Otherwise for now, I re-installed the old chips and restored the voices using DX Manager without any issues. The Yamaha DX-7 works fine, but I just can't seem to understand why the Grey Matter E! board will not work properly.
I will try to find an image on Google ( if lucky ) showcasing the Grey Matter E! board already installed and see how those red and black wires are soldered. If lucky they will be the opposite of what I did. Otherwise ... trash the Grey Matter E! board!! LOL
This was just a small weekend challenge to see if I could add some stuff to the DX-7. If it doesn't work, all is not lost as I will enjoy the stock DX-7 no problem.
If anyone has any other ideas or if you recognize my problem, please let me know.
Thanks!!
Jim
Just an update:
I consulted the manual and noticed that the IC63 chip was oriented a certain way with an indentation on the right side. I can verify that I indeed had the red and black wires soldered correctly. Thus it appears I either made an error somewhere with my soldering or seating the board. It's also possible that the Grey Matter E! board is defective and no longer working properly. I soldered the wires carefully three different times and got the same result. The Grey Matter E! board seemed to also be seated firmly in the sockets as far as I could get them, but I did notice that the screw casing were a bit long. I felt the pins could go deeper if I didn't have the screw casing attached to the E! board. It would be difficult to pry those off though. Still, it should be been seated properly enough I thought, but I could be wrong.
I have no idea how to diagnose the problem at this point so unless I find an angle to test things, I'll probably just file away the Grey Matter E! board and keep the DX-7 stock as it works perfectly and sounds great as is. I don't think I could sell it as I'm unsure at this point whether it works and wouldn't want sell a defective board understandably. Oh well!
Thanks!
Jim
|
Hi,
i replaced the battery a while ago and did some photo series on my flickr. Maybe it is of any help, as you can see the Grey Matter E! board installed in my DX7 IIFD.
If i find the original pics which of course were bigger i'll do an upload to the new group.
Cheers
Roman
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
--- In YamahaDX@..., "Jim Atwood" <photoshootjapan@...> wrote:
Hello everyone!
First Happy New Year from Japan.
This evening I tried installing a Grey Matter E! board into my newly acquired used Yamaha DX-7 MKI. The Serial Number is 96982, but I am not sure how to check the OS version number. I believe my DX-7 is ok for installing the Grey Matter E! board but am not %100 sure.
I recently bought the Grey Matter E! board off Ebay. It arrived just fine but I noticed while doing the installation that two "long" screws needed to clamp down the E! board were not sent to me, but I improvised by finding a couple of screws in my spare parts box.
The issue here is that I followed the directions by extracting the two IC chips ( Rom IC14 and Rom IC21 ). I then soldered the red wire to IC63 Pin #7 and the black wire to IC63 Pin #10. I then seated the E! board into the appropriate IC14 and IC21 slots. I was able to do all of this just fine and I thought the board was "snug" enough to warrant turning on the DX-7 for a test run.
Well, after powering up the DX-7, I noticed that I got power but there was no display and the numbers .8 and .68 for example were flickering on and off. It was like there was a short or conflict in the system. I tried re-soldering the wires (carefully!) and re-seating the E! board several times and every time the same thing happened. ( Note I turned off and unplugged everything of course before trying different things ... laugh ).
Thus I was unable to get the Grey Matter E! board to install properly.
One thing I thought of while writing this post is that the when facing the DX-7 ( as if you are going to play the keys ), the IC chips themselves are upside down. My thinking now is that perhaps I soldered the red and black wires opposite of what they should be. IC63 is actually upside down meaning the lettering on the chip itself is upside down. Thus there is hope that if I try this again later in the week, that perhaps that might be the problem. My wires may have been crossed.
Otherwise for now, I re-installed the old chips and restored the voices using DX Manager without any issues. The Yamaha DX-7 works fine, but I just can't seem to understand why the Grey Matter E! board will not work properly.
I will try to find an image on Google ( if lucky ) showcasing the Grey Matter E! board already installed and see how those red and black wires are soldered. If lucky they will be the opposite of what I did. Otherwise ... trash the Grey Matter E! board!! LOL
This was just a small weekend challenge to see if I could add some stuff to the DX-7. If it doesn't work, all is not lost as I will enjoy the stock DX-7 no problem.
If anyone has any other ideas or if you recognize my problem, please let me know.
Thanks!!
Jim
Just an update:
I consulted the manual and noticed that the IC63 chip was oriented a certain way with an indentation on the right side. I can verify that I indeed had the red and black wires soldered correctly. Thus it appears I either made an error somewhere with my soldering or seating the board. It's also possible that the Grey Matter E! board is defective and no longer working properly. I soldered the wires carefully three different times and got the same result. The Grey Matter E! board seemed to also be seated firmly in the sockets as far as I could get them, but I did notice that the screw casing were a bit long. I felt the pins could go deeper if I didn't have the screw casing attached to the E! board. It would be difficult to pry those off though. Still, it should be been seated properly enough I thought, but I could be wrong.
I have no idea how to diagnose the problem at this point so unless I find an angle to test things, I'll probably just file away the Grey Matter E! board and keep the DX-7 stock as it works perfectly and sounds great as is. I don't think I could sell it as I'm unsure at this point whether it works and wouldn't want sell a defective board understandably. Oh well!
Thanks!
Jim
|
Hello Jim !
I wish you a happy new year, and I hope that you'll
finaly succed to install properly your Grey Matter E! board.
I am interested by this special card and I get
attention to all informations about how to find one, how much it cost, and the
most important : how to install it properly.
Would you inform me of your progress and also tell
me how did you pay for your card, and at whom did you buy it !
If I find some good information about the
installing of the Grey Matter E! card I will tell you.
I wish success in your works !
Nicolas
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2011 10:51
AM
Subject: [YamahaDX] DX-7 MKI Grey Matter
E! board problem
?
Hello everyone!
First Happy New Year from Japan.
This evening
I tried installing a Grey Matter E! board into my newly acquired used Yamaha
DX-7 MKI. The Serial Number is 96982, but I am not sure how to check the OS
version number. I believe my DX-7 is ok for installing the Grey Matter E!
board but am not %100 sure.
I recently bought the Grey Matter E! board
off Ebay. It arrived just fine but I noticed while doing the installation that
two "long" screws needed to clamp down the E! board were not sent to me, but I
improvised by finding a couple of screws in my spare parts box.
The
issue here is that I followed the directions by extracting the two IC chips (
Rom IC14 and Rom IC21 ). I then soldered the red wire to IC63 Pin #7 and the
black wire to IC63 Pin #10. I then seated the E! board into the appropriate
IC14 and IC21 slots. I was able to do all of this just fine and I thought the
board was "snug" enough to warrant turning on the DX-7 for a test
run.
Well, after powering up the DX-7, I noticed that I got power but
there was no display and the numbers .8 and .68 for example were flickering on
and off. It was like there was a short or conflict in the system. I tried
re-soldering the wires (carefully!) and re-seating the E! board several times
and every time the same thing happened. ( Note I turned off and unplugged
everything of course before trying different things ... laugh ).
Thus I
was unable to get the Grey Matter E! board to install properly.
One
thing I thought of while writing this post is that the when facing the DX-7 (
as if you are going to play the keys ), the IC chips themselves are upside
down. My thinking now is that perhaps I soldered the red and black wires
opposite of what they should be. IC63 is actually upside down meaning the
lettering on the chip itself is upside down. Thus there is hope that if I try
this again later in the week, that perhaps that might be the problem. My wires
may have been crossed.
Otherwise for now, I re-installed the old chips
and restored the voices using DX Manager without any issues. The Yamaha DX-7
works fine, but I just can't seem to understand why the Grey Matter E! board
will not work properly.
I will try to find an image on Google ( if
lucky ) showcasing the Grey Matter E! board already installed and see how
those red and black wires are soldered. If lucky they will be the opposite of
what I did. Otherwise ... trash the Grey Matter E! board!! LOL
This was
just a small weekend challenge to see if I could add some stuff to the DX-7.
If it doesn't work, all is not lost as I will enjoy the stock DX-7 no
problem.
If anyone has any other ideas or if you recognize my problem,
please let me know.
Thanks!!
Jim
Just an update:
I
consulted the manual and noticed that the IC63 chip was oriented a certain way
with an indentation on the right side. I can verify that I indeed had the red
and black wires soldered correctly. Thus it appears I either made an error
somewhere with my soldering or seating the board. It's also possible that the
Grey Matter E! board is defective and no longer working properly. I soldered
the wires carefully three different times and got the same result. The Grey
Matter E! board seemed to also be seated firmly in the sockets as far as I
could get them, but I did notice that the screw casing were a bit long. I felt
the pins could go deeper if I didn't have the screw casing attached to the E!
board. It would be difficult to pry those off though. Still, it should be been
seated properly enough I thought, but I could be wrong.
I have no idea
how to diagnose the problem at this point so unless I find an angle to test
things, I'll probably just file away the Grey Matter E! board and keep the
DX-7 stock as it works perfectly and sounds great as is. I don't think I could
sell it as I'm unsure at this point whether it works and wouldn't want sell a
defective board understandably. Oh
well!
Thanks!
Jim
|
I have the same card. Firstly The pins on the board are not long enough to go into the socket properly so please make sure you have pushed the E! card down properly. The screws are very important Without them the board will move and you will lose everything. Also make sure you have counted from the right end of the chip when installing the Red/Black wire. ? You also need to go through the Installation and setup very carefully before it will work. ? Bob ? ? ?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: YamahaDX@... [mailto:YamahaDX@...] On Behalf Of Jim Atwood
Sent: 02 January 2011 09:52
To: YamahaDX@...
Subject: [YamahaDX] DX-7 MKI Grey Matter E! board problem? ? Hello everyone!
First Happy New Year from Japan.
This evening I tried installing a Grey Matter E! board into my newly acquired used Yamaha DX-7 MKI. The Serial Number is 96982, but I am not sure how to check the OS version number. I believe my DX-7 is ok for installing the Grey Matter E! board but am not %100 sure.
I recently bought the Grey Matter E! board off Ebay. It arrived just fine but I noticed while doing the installation that two "long" screws needed to clamp down the E! board were not sent to me, but I improvised by finding a couple of screws in my spare parts box.
The issue here is that I followed the directions by extracting the two IC chips ( Rom IC14 and Rom IC21 ). I then soldered the red wire to IC63 Pin #7 and the black wire to IC63 Pin #10. I then seated the E! board into the appropriate IC14 and IC21 slots. I was able to do all of this just fine and I thought the board was "snug" enough to warrant turning on the DX-7 for a test run.
Well, after powering up the DX-7, I noticed that I got power but there was no display and the numbers .8 and .68 for example were flickering on and off. It was like there was a short or conflict in the system. I tried re-soldering the wires (carefully!) and re-seating the E! board several times and every time the same thing happened. ( Note I turned off and unplugged everything of course before trying different things ... laugh ).
Thus I was unable to get the Grey Matter E! board to install properly.
One thing I thought of while writing this post is that the when facing the DX-7 ( as if you are going to play the keys ), the IC chips themselves are upside down. My thinking now is that perhaps I soldered the red and black wires opposite of what they should be. IC63 is actually upside down meaning the lettering on the chip itself is upside down. Thus there is hope that if I try this again later in the week, that perhaps that might be the problem. My wires may have been crossed.
Otherwise for now, I re-installed the old chips and restored the voices using DX Manager without any issues. The Yamaha DX-7 works fine, but I just can't seem to understand why the Grey Matter E! board will not work properly.
I will try to find an image on Google ( if lucky ) showcasing the Grey Matter E! board already installed and see how those red and black wires are soldered. If lucky they will be the opposite of what I did. Otherwise ... trash the Grey Matter E! board!! LOL
This was just a small weekend challenge to see if I could add some stuff to the DX-7. If it doesn't work, all is not lost as I will enjoy the stock DX-7 no problem.
If anyone has any other ideas or if you recognize my problem, please let me know.
Thanks!!
Jim
Just an update:
I consulted the manual and noticed that the IC63 chip was oriented a certain way with an indentation on the right side. I can verify that I indeed had the red and black wires soldered correctly. Thus it appears I either made an error somewhere with my soldering or seating the board. It's also possible that the Grey Matter E! board is defective and no longer working properly. I soldered the wires carefully three different times and got the same result. The Grey Matter E! board seemed to also be seated firmly in the sockets as far as I could get them, but I did notice that the screw casing were a bit long. I felt the pins could go deeper if I didn't have the screw casing attached to the E! board. It would be difficult to pry those off though. Still, it should be been seated properly enough I thought, but I could be wrong.
I have no idea how to diagnose the problem at this point so unless I find an angle to test things, I'll probably just file away the Grey Matter E! board and keep the DX-7 stock as it works perfectly and sounds great as is. I don't think I could sell it as I'm unsure at this point whether it works and wouldn't want sell a defective board understandably. Oh well!
Thanks!
Jim
|
When you install a Grey matter card, you have to initialize the memory. The RAM, being empty, has garbage in it which will give those display symtoms. Double check your wiring, as well.......?I bel the two wires are the read/write or chip select?lines for the new E! RAM, taken from the original DX7 RAM socket ( which is a different RAM pinout and capacity- larger). You have to hold down two buttons while powering up, to reset the RAM, ?try 1 and 17, or 1 and 32, 16 &32 ? ( you need three hands), then you have to load in sounds bank by bank, if my memory of this is accurate- it's been ale.. You may also get an Intitialise- YES/NO? message, after this reset. The grey matter instructions are found online and they are always a pain to install as the instructions are very poor.
By the way I have a Grey Matter E! kit for DX7 II F and FD for sale with instructions, if anyone is interested.
Cheers,
Gregg
?
|
--- On Sun, 1/2/11, Nicolas Finn wrote:
From: Nicolas Finn
Subject: Re: [YamahaDX] DX-7 MKI Grey Matter E! board problem
To: YamahaDX@...
Received: Sunday, January 2, 2011, 11:28 AM
?
Hello Jim !
I wish you a happy new year, and I hope that you'll finaly succed to install properly your Grey Matter E! board.
I am interested by this special card and I get attention to all informations about how to find one, how much it cost, and the most important : how to install it properly.
Would you inform me of your progress and also tell me how did you pay for your card, and at whom did you buy it !
If I find some good information about the installing of the Grey Matter E! card I will tell you.
I wish success in your works !
Nicolas
----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2011 10:51 AM
Subject: [YamahaDX] DX-7 MKI Grey Matter E! board problem
?
Hello everyone!
First Happy New Year from Japan.
This evening I tried installing a Grey Matter E! board into my newly acquired used Yamaha DX-7 MKI. The Serial Number is 96982, but I am not sure how to check the OS version number. I believe my DX-7 is ok for installing the Grey Matter E! board but am not %100 sure.
I recently bought the Grey Matter E! board off Ebay. It arrived just fine but I noticed while doing the installation that two "long" screws needed to clamp down the E! board were not sent to me, but I improvised by finding a couple of screws in my spare parts box.
The issue here is that I followed the directions by extracting the two IC chips ( Rom IC14 and Rom IC21 ). I then soldered the red wire to IC63 Pin #7 and the black wire to IC63 Pin #10. I then seated the E! board into the appropriate IC14 and IC21 slots. I was able to do all of this just fine and I thought the board was "snug" enough to warrant
turning on the DX-7 for a test run.
Well, after powering up the DX-7, I noticed that I got power but there was no display and the numbers .8 and .68 for example were flickering on and off. It was like there was a short or conflict in the system. I tried re-soldering the wires (carefully!) and re-seating the E! board several times and every time the same thing happened. ( Note I turned off and unplugged everything of course before trying different things ... laugh ).
Thus I was unable to get the Grey Matter E! board to install properly.
One thing I thought of while writing this post is that the when facing the DX-7 ( as if you are going to play the keys ), the IC chips themselves are upside down. My thinking now is that perhaps I soldered the red and black wires opposite of what they should be. IC63 is actually upside down meaning the lettering on the chip itself is upside down. Thus there is hope that if I try this again later in
the week, that perhaps that might be the problem. My wires may have been crossed.
Otherwise for now, I re-installed the old chips and restored the voices using DX Manager without any issues. The Yamaha DX-7 works fine, but I just can't seem to understand why the Grey Matter E! board will not work properly.
I will try to find an image on Google ( if lucky ) showcasing the Grey Matter E! board already installed and see how those red and black wires are soldered. If lucky they will be the opposite of what I did. Otherwise ... trash the Grey Matter E! board!! LOL
This was just a small weekend challenge to see if I could add some stuff to the DX-7. If it doesn't work, all is not lost as I will enjoy the stock DX-7 no problem.
If anyone has any other ideas or if you recognize my problem, please let me know.
Thanks!!
Jim
Just an update:
I consulted the manual and noticed that the IC63 chip was oriented a
certain way with an indentation on the right side. I can verify that I indeed had the red and black wires soldered correctly. Thus it appears I either made an error somewhere with my soldering or seating the board. It's also possible that the Grey Matter E! board is defective and no longer working properly. I soldered the wires carefully three different times and got the same result. The Grey Matter E! board seemed to also be seated firmly in the sockets as far as I could get them, but I did notice that the screw casing were a bit long. I felt the pins could go deeper if I didn't have the screw casing attached to the E! board. It would be difficult to pry those off though. Still, it should be been seated properly enough I thought, but I could be wrong.
I have no idea how to diagnose the problem at this point so unless I find an angle to test things, I'll probably just file away the Grey Matter E! board and keep the DX-7 stock as it works
perfectly and sounds great as is. I don't think I could sell it as I'm unsure at this point whether it works and wouldn't want sell a defective board understandably. Oh well!
Thanks!
Jim
|
Jim,
?
I hope the attachment will help - if you haven't read it already.
Cheers
Renata
|
Just a long overdue follow-up here. My DX-7 works great with the Grey Matter E installed. The trick was getting the right screws to clamp down on the board tight enough. Once secure, everything worked great.
Thanks again for the help everyone!
Jim
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
--- In YamahaDX@..., Gregg Sheehan <auddoc@...> wrote:
When you install a Grey matter card, you have to initialize the memory. The RAM, being empty, has garbage in it which will give those display symtoms. Double check your wiring, as well.......??I bel the two wires are the read/write or chip select??lines for the new E! RAM, taken from the original DX7 RAM socket ( which is a different RAM pinout and capacity- larger). You have to hold down two buttons while powering up, to reset the RAM, ??try 1 and 17, or 1 and 32, 16 &32 ? ( you need three hands), then you have to load in sounds bank by bank, if my memory of this is accurate- it's been ale.. You may also get an Intitialise- YES/NO? message, after this reset. The grey matter instructions are found online and they are always a pain to install as the instructions are very poor.
By the way I have a Grey Matter E! kit for DX7 II F and FD for sale with instructions, if anyone is interested.
Cheers,
Gregg
??
--- On Sun, 1/2/11, Nicolas Finn <nicolasfinn@...> wrote:
From: Nicolas Finn <nicolasfinn@...>
Subject: Re: [YamahaDX] DX-7 MKI Grey Matter E! board problem
To: YamahaDX@...
Received: Sunday, January 2, 2011, 11:28 AM
??
Hello Jim !
I wish you a happy new year, and I hope that you'll finaly succed to install properly your Grey Matter E! board.
I am interested by this special card and I get attention to all informations about how to find one, how much it cost, and the most important : how to install it properly.
Would you inform me of your progress and also tell me how did you pay for your card, and at whom did you buy it !
If I find some good information about the installing of the Grey Matter E! card I will tell you.
I wish success in your works !
Nicolas
----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Atwood
To: YamahaDX@...
Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2011 10:51 AM
Subject: [YamahaDX] DX-7 MKI Grey Matter E! board problem
??
Hello everyone!
First Happy New Year from Japan.
This evening I tried installing a Grey Matter E! board into my newly acquired used Yamaha DX-7 MKI. The Serial Number is 96982, but I am not sure how to check the OS version number. I believe my DX-7 is ok for installing the Grey Matter E! board but am not %100 sure.
I recently bought the Grey Matter E! board off Ebay. It arrived just fine but I noticed while doing the installation that two "long" screws needed to clamp down the E! board were not sent to me, but I improvised by finding a couple of screws in my spare parts box.
The issue here is that I followed the directions by extracting the two IC chips ( Rom IC14 and Rom IC21 ). I then soldered the red wire to IC63 Pin #7 and the black wire to IC63 Pin #10. I then seated the E! board into the appropriate IC14 and IC21 slots. I was able to do all of this just fine and I thought the board was "snug" enough to warrant turning on the DX-7 for a test run.
Well, after powering up the DX-7, I noticed that I got power but there was no display and the numbers .8 and .68 for example were flickering on and off. It was like there was a short or conflict in the system. I tried re-soldering the wires (carefully!) and re-seating the E! board several times and every time the same thing happened. ( Note I turned off and unplugged everything of course before trying different things ... laugh ).
Thus I was unable to get the Grey Matter E! board to install properly.
One thing I thought of while writing this post is that the when facing the DX-7 ( as if you are going to play the keys ), the IC chips themselves are upside down. My thinking now is that perhaps I soldered the red and black wires opposite of what they should be. IC63 is actually upside down meaning the lettering on the chip itself is upside down. Thus there is hope that if I try this again later in the week, that perhaps that might be the problem. My wires may have been crossed.
Otherwise for now, I re-installed the old chips and restored the voices using DX Manager without any issues. The Yamaha DX-7 works fine, but I just can't seem to understand why the Grey Matter E! board will not work properly.
I will try to find an image on Google ( if lucky ) showcasing the Grey Matter E! board already installed and see how those red and black wires are soldered. If lucky they will be the opposite of what I did. Otherwise ... trash the Grey Matter E! board!! LOL
This was just a small weekend challenge to see if I could add some stuff to the DX-7. If it doesn't work, all is not lost as I will enjoy the stock DX-7 no problem.
If anyone has any other ideas or if you recognize my problem, please let me know.
Thanks!!
Jim
Just an update:
I consulted the manual and noticed that the IC63 chip was oriented a certain way with an indentation on the right side. I can verify that I indeed had the red and black wires soldered correctly. Thus it appears I either made an error somewhere with my soldering or seating the board. It's also possible that the Grey Matter E! board is defective and no longer working properly. I soldered the wires carefully three different times and got the same result. The Grey Matter E! board seemed to also be seated firmly in the sockets as far as I could get them, but I did notice that the screw casing were a bit long. I felt the pins could go deeper if I didn't have the screw casing attached to the E! board. It would be difficult to pry those off though. Still, it should be been seated properly enough I thought, but I could be wrong.
I have no idea how to diagnose the problem at this point so unless I find an angle to test things, I'll probably just file away the Grey Matter E! board and keep the DX-7 stock as it works perfectly and sounds great as is. I don't think I could sell it as I'm unsure at this point whether it works and wouldn't want sell a defective board understandably. Oh well!
Thanks!
Jim
|
