Re: re-seating IC's

This sounds to me more like a PSU that is starting to show signs of degradation.

I've had a US Xpander now for over 12-years, and just last year it developed a somewhat similar issue (delayed booting). It took several power cycles to finally boot properly, progressively getting worse over the course of several months.

It also had intermittent tuning issues. Every once in awhile failing to tune a voice. As well as various tests failing, ie VMEM test failing, etc

In all these situations, I never reseated any ICs. In my case it was the PSU that was gradually failing, ultimately completely dying.?

Rather than try to repair the old PSU, I went with an after-market modern PSU and it resolved everything, as well reduced heat and weight, and eliminated the old transformer buzz/hum. The unit has been 100% stable and solid since.

Not saying that's the case here, but seems highly suspicious vs having to reseat any of the internal ICs

-Omar

Show quoted text

On Mon, Jun 6, 2022 at 12:40 PM Deano License <deanolium@...> wrote:

This is relatively common on any electronic equipment with socketed chips. Slight oxidation over time will disrupt the connections, and you only need one pin to start being temperamental?before the whole thing will start failing. Something like Deoxit put into the socket and the chip reseated usually helps a lot with this. Of course, make sure you don't bend the legs during this!

On Mon, Jun 6, 2022 at 4:54 PM Jacob V <contact@...> wrote:
Hi,

I'm posting to share some of my experiences in case they are of use to
others. I own a US-made Xpander for about 6 years now. It seems that
once every few years I see issues where the Xpander crashes or fails
to boot. Every time I have been able to "fix" this by re-seating the
ROM IC's on the processor board. By re-seating I mean pulling the ROMs
from their sockets and putting them back in. Folklore has it that this
helps scrape corrosion from the IC pins and/or the sockets.

I just went through this procedure again but this time I experienced a
new problem: after re-seating the main processor ROMs, the menu was
working fine again but there was no sound. I was also unable to tune
the synth; it would hang on VCO 1.

I tried the VMEM test and this hung on "TESTING" (which is supposed to
take less than 20 seconds). There are also two ROMs and one RAM on the
voice board. Because the hanging VMEM test pointed to those IC's, I
re-seated them. This restored normal operation: sound is back, tuning
passes.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Re-seating IC's does not feel like a proper fix to me but it's very
little effort and the problem does not happen enough to make me want
to spend more time on it.

Cheers, Jacob

--

Omar Torres

(404) 682-8379

Re: re-seating IC's

#1759

This is relatively common on any electronic equipment with socketed chips. Slight oxidation over time will disrupt the connections, and you only need one pin to start being temperamental?before the whole thing will start failing. Something like Deoxit put into the socket and the chip reseated usually helps a lot with this. Of course, make sure you don't bend the legs during this!

Show quoted text

On Mon, Jun 6, 2022 at 4:54 PM Jacob V <contact@...> wrote:

Hi,

I'm posting to share some of my experiences in case they are of use to
others. I own a US-made Xpander for about 6 years now. It seems that
once every few years I see issues where the Xpander crashes or fails
to boot. Every time I have been able to "fix" this by re-seating the
ROM IC's on the processor board. By re-seating I mean pulling the ROMs
from their sockets and putting them back in. Folklore has it that this
helps scrape corrosion from the IC pins and/or the sockets.

I just went through this procedure again but this time I experienced a
new problem: after re-seating the main processor ROMs, the menu was
working fine again but there was no sound. I was also unable to tune
the synth; it would hang on VCO 1.

I tried the VMEM test and this hung on "TESTING" (which is supposed to
take less than 20 seconds). There are also two ROMs and one RAM on the
voice board. Because the hanging VMEM test pointed to those IC's, I
re-seated them. This restored normal operation: sound is back, tuning
passes.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Re-seating IC's does not feel like a proper fix to me but it's very
little effort and the problem does not happen enough to make me want
to spend more time on it.

Cheers, Jacob

Re: re-seating IC's

#1758

This all sounds incredibly familiar. Literally an hour ago my Japanese XPander crashed and failed to boot. I opened it up, give each chip a push and now it works. I don't actually remove the chips first. This seems to be needed every six months or so.

Show quoted text

On Mon, Jun 6, 2022 at 4:54 PM Jacob V <contact@...> wrote:

Hi,

I'm posting to share some of my experiences in case they are of use to
others. I own a US-made Xpander for about 6 years now. It seems that
once every few years I see issues where the Xpander crashes or fails
to boot. Every time I have been able to "fix" this by re-seating the
ROM IC's on the processor board. By re-seating I mean pulling the ROMs
from their sockets and putting them back in. Folklore has it that this
helps scrape corrosion from the IC pins and/or the sockets.

I just went through this procedure again but this time I experienced a
new problem: after re-seating the main processor ROMs, the menu was
working fine again but there was no sound. I was also unable to tune
the synth; it would hang on VCO 1.

I tried the VMEM test and this hung on "TESTING" (which is supposed to
take less than 20 seconds). There are also two ROMs and one RAM on the
voice board. Because the hanging VMEM test pointed to those IC's, I
re-seated them. This restored normal operation: sound is back, tuning
passes.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Re-seating IC's does not feel like a proper fix to me but it's very
little effort and the problem does not happen enough to make me want
to spend more time on it.

Cheers, Jacob

re-seating IC's

#1757

Hi,

I'm posting to share some of my experiences in case they are of use to
others. I own a US-made Xpander for about 6 years now. It seems that
once every few years I see issues where the Xpander crashes or fails
to boot. Every time I have been able to "fix" this by re-seating the
ROM IC's on the processor board. By re-seating I mean pulling the ROMs
from their sockets and putting them back in. Folklore has it that this
helps scrape corrosion from the IC pins and/or the sockets.

I just went through this procedure again but this time I experienced a
new problem: after re-seating the main processor ROMs, the menu was
working fine again but there was no sound. I was also unable to tune
the synth; it would hang on VCO 1.

I tried the VMEM test and this hung on "TESTING" (which is supposed to
take less than 20 seconds). There are also two ROMs and one RAM on the
voice board. Because the hanging VMEM test pointed to those IC's, I
re-seated them. This restored normal operation: sound is back, tuning
passes.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Re-seating IC's does not feel like a proper fix to me but it's very
little effort and the problem does not happen enough to make me want
to spend more time on it.

Cheers, Jacob

A request to Xpander owners

#1756

Hello Everyone,

I'm working on a program which will decode the Xpander cassette dump format and save that data as sysex. I'm doing this just?for fun, not that there is any pressing need for it.

My Xpander is on the fritz, and I think the cassette circuit?is outputting ?some garbage.

I would like to ask those who have physical Xpanders (as opposed to soft synths and Matrix 12s) to send me a cassette dump as a wave file, along with a sysex dump.

Please save the wave file in mono, 16-bit, and 48,000 Hz sample rate. (These are easily done in Audacity, and I'm sure in your favorite audio editor) . I would also like to suggest zipping cassette.wav and sysex.dat and use your name for the zip file, so that I can get back to the owner If needed.

Once I am able to decode the cassette format, I need to compare it to the sysex dump. This is why I'm asking for a "matching pair" from a few Xpander owners. Even if you only have the crappy Factory patches, I need the cassette dump & the sysex dump from the same machine.

The more "pairs of patch files" I get from Xpander owners, the better I will be able to test my program. I'm sure there will be level & noise differences from various Xpanders, this will be useful for my testing.

Eventually I would like to write the complementary program which takes a sysex dump and generates the cassette dump (although this will be more difficult).

Who knows, I may get around to trying this for a Matrix 12 too (but I only have an Xpander).

Thanks for your cooperation&?assistance.

tony

Re: Matrix 12 battery replacement

#1755

No wai, there is another M12 in Ireland?

WHO KNEW?

:)

Greetings from Wicklow..

Re: Matrix 12 battery replacement

#1754

Ah cool! thanks for the advice, was on to a tech here in Ireland but couldn't give an indication as to when he would be free to take a look at it , so took a look myself... and hey ho! worked like a charm, prepped the site,clipped the pins, cable tie'd the battery in place for easier soldering,flux and solder at the ready....job done! put back in the processor board,gave it? test run... all good! loaded a back up of my singles and multis... sounds so alive! hopefully that's it now for another ten years... hahaha p.s. to Jacob - yea solder sucker and braid,site cleaned with isopropyl alcohol,and left to sit.

D.C.

Re: Removing the Xpander battery

#1753

Just autotune. Anybody, please correct, if I was wrong.

Tiitu

Removing the Xpander battery

#1752

Hi ,

I don't remember when I last replaced the battery in my Xpander, and I wasn't smart enough?to write the replacement date near the battery.

I'm thinking about just cutting the leads for now, until I have time to solder in a new one.

If I do that, do I need to go through a calibration procedure like on the OB8, or just do autotune and cross my fingers?

I know I'll lose the patches, I have them backed up already.

Thanks

Tony

Re: Matrix 12 battery replacement

#1751

It's not a good idea to make a connection without going through the
board. The solder joint is both an electrical connection and a
mechanical connection. If the joint is too small you put strain on the
small area where you did solder. Especially with a bulky part like a
battery. Worst case the mechanical strain can peel the copper of the
PCB.

Did you unclog the old holes? E.g. with a solder sucker.

Whatever you do, be careful not to damage the board. It's easy to
damage the board while removing components. If you're out of your
depth, go to a tech.

Op zo 3 okt. 2021 om 14:26 schreef dave mezza <dave.mezza@...>:

Show quoted text

Hi folks just a quick question, I have a replacement Panasonic br-2/3v battery on its way for my Matrix-12, How easy are these to replace? ive managed to remove the old battery... the legs on the replacement are a fair bit longer so i may have to trim them...no problem there but regarding the legs themselves, do they have to travel through the pcb board for proper connection or can they just be soldered to the terminals on the processor board, the drill holes in the pcb for the battery are really tiny, smaller than usual... and im not sure if the pins would fit through, The older battery was soldered either side of the pcb but not both... ! any thoughts? if its too fiddly i might just get a local tech to have a look, my eyes aren't as good as they used to be.

Thanks again folks

Dave Campbell  q: /

Matrix 12 battery replacement

#1750

Hi folks just a quick question, I have a replacement Panasonic br-2/3v battery on its way for my Matrix-12, How easy are these to replace? ive managed to remove the old battery... the legs on the replacement are a fair bit longer so i may have to trim them...no problem there but regarding the legs themselves, do they have to travel through the pcb board for proper connection or can they just be soldered to the terminals on the processor board, the drill holes in the pcb for the battery are really tiny, smaller than usual... and im not sure if the pins would fit through, The older battery was soldered either side of the pcb but not both... ! any thoughts? if its too fiddly i might just get a local tech to have a look, my eyes aren't as good as they used to be.

Thanks again folks

Dave Campbell? q: /

Re: Xpanding my horizon

#1749

开云体育

So sad !

?

My condolences to his family.

?

/ Lars

?

Fr?n: [email protected] <[email protected]> F?r r1n9o
Skickat: den 16 juni 2021 14:21
Till: [email protected]
?mne: Re: [xpantastic] Xpanding my horizon

?

[Edited Message Follows]

Karl's last post to this forum was on 10/08/20. (His last reply to this thread was actually 4/15/10.)

PeWe, please pass on the group's heartfelt sympathies and gratefulness.? He made more helpful contributions to the group than anyone. There's no way to count all the people that his expertise helped, but we know he's directly and indirectly responsible for saving many synths. And that means more music for more people to enjoy, thanks to him.

Re: Xpanding my horizon

#1748
Edited

Karl's last post to this forum was on 10/08/20. (His last reply to this thread was actually 4/15/10.)

PeWe, please pass on the group's heartfelt sympathies and gratefulness.? He made more helpful contributions to the group than anyone. There's no way to count all the people that his expertise helped, but we know he's directly and indirectly responsible for saving many synths. And that means more music for more people to enjoy, thanks to him.