EII + Mac SD communication problem

[xmota]

Hi,

I have:

EII Logic Board Rev 1.0 (scanner 3.1, main EPROM 2.1. OS 3.1) and Apple
SE 1/40 running SD. My service people did all the required changes
inside accordingly to the SD troubleshooting for Rev 1.0 including the
point Nr.3:

"If you do not have AT LEAST VERSION 2.3 of Emulator II OS software,
then the following mod must be performed: Lift pin 22 of IC107 and
solder one end of a 1Kohm 1/4watt 5% resistor to it. Solder the other
end of the resistor to +5 volts DC anywhere nearby."

Unfortunately SD does not communicate with EII at all.

Can this point 3 cause the problem with newer OS?

I have another EII Rev 0.10 with added daughterboard. It is now broken
(some voices did not play and now it does not boot). The cable and Mac
worked OK with this second EII before.

Does anybody has any tips?

Tom

[JMP]

EII Logic Board Rev 1.0 (scanner 3.1, main EPROM 2.1. OS 3.1) and Apple
SE 1/40 running SD. My service people did all the required changes
inside accordingly to the SD troubleshooting for Rev 1.0 including the
point Nr.3:

Hi Tom, I'm pretty sure this matches my EII and I got a Mac SE to work fine with mine without making any modifications to the EII. Did you try switching the cable between the modem and printer ports on the Mac and/or switching the mode within Sound Designer to/from Panel mode? 

[dr.c]

Hi,

Did you ever communicate with a Mac with this machine, regardless of the software, firmware, etc.. or did you try ? Is it a machine you bought second hand ?

I am thinking about the interface circuits, I mean the buffer circuits wich are right before the In/Out plug, 1488 and 1489, IC108 and IC132. I was changing them immediately.
Change as well the 4070N, IC131. Its the SMPTE interface input, and, strangely, if it was dead, or locked in a "strange state" at boot-up, the Mac interface wouldn't work.

The resistor to be put is apparently what we call a "pull-up" resistor. But, if I may, the people who made the modification didn't try if it works ? This is strange...

[xmota]

EII Logic Board Rev 1.0 (scanner 3.1, main EPROM 2.1. OS 3.1) and Apple
SE 1/40 running SD. My service people did all the required changes
inside accordingly to the SD troubleshooting for Rev 1.0 including the
point Nr.3:

Hi Tom, I'm pretty sure this matches my EII and I got a Mac SE to work fine with mine without making any modifications to the EII. Did you try switching the cable between the modem and printer ports on the Mac and/or switching the mode within Sound Designer to/from Panel mode? 

Yes I tried both Mac ports. Since my EII did not communicate with Mac, I decided to ask the service to make the adjustments as described in the troubleshooting guide. Unfortunately with no results

[xmota]

Hi,

Did you ever communicate with a Mac with this machine, regardless of the software, firmware, etc.. or did you try ? Is it a machine you bought second hand ?

It never communicated with Mac. Yes it is second hand machine that I bought after my first EII had not played some voices and later did not boot up at all.

I am thinking about the interface circuits, I mean the buffer circuits wich are right before the In/Out plug, 1488 and 1489, IC108 and IC132. I was changing them immediately.
Change as well the 4070N, IC131. Its the SMPTE interface input, and, strangely, if it was dead, or locked in a "strange state" at boot-up, the Mac interface wouldn't work.

So you suggest to replace IC108 and IC132 and IC131? I can replace the ICs with those from the broken EII that communicated with Mac well.

The resistor to be put is apparently what we call a "pull-up" resistor. But, if I may, the people who made the modification didn't try if it works ? This is strange...

The guys who made the modifiaction have no experience with EII samplers at all. We tried both setups with the resistor and without the resistor. No positive results ....

Is it possible to use sound designer and EII with Mac Performa (My friend has one) ?

[JMP]

According to the Yahoo EII Users site, the Mac Performa 5200 and 575 are compatible.

[dr.c]

No prob, it won't be the E2 in cause, but the software on a mac.

I had Alchemy 3.0 (very funny to find this one at some places, I am the one who made this 3.0 mod) working with an E2 with a beige G3 !!!!

[xmota]

The results of the last tests:

There are no data on the Mac output when playing the MIDI keyboard in Sound Designer or just clicking with mouse on the EII remote panel in the SD or trying to communicate with connected EII. I am affraid that the problem is in Mac. When I am playing the EII keyboard some data are sent on the EII´s computer connector. The Mac also does not communicate with my Kurzweil K250RMX (but it never did).

Concerning my second EII that used to communicate with Mac and which is now broken ("boot in progress" but any reaction of the floppy drives). It looks like the problem is in communication between main CPU an PIO chips. There might be some cut lines. My service is now looking for the problem around these chips. I hope they´ll find it.

Tom

[dr.c]

First EII: Change the mac, get someone lend you one !

Second EII :

You say it stops at "Boot in progress". Does it give three clicks with the drive before ?

Tac, Tac, Tac, "Boot in progress".

[xmota]

1st EII: I´ll probably have to buy another Mac on eBay (friend of mine used to have Performa but as he told me he does not have it anymore). It is quite hard to find these old Macs here in Prague. Most of the Macs are G3 and newer here. btw which one would be the best and fastest one for EII?

2nd EII: No Tac, Tac, Tac The disk did not start to work at all. I had to remove the disk, then put it in again and close the drive to make it do something with the disk. But it rotate the disk only no attempt to read anything. The software is obviously not able to ask for the disk. We measured accordingly to the service manual the CPU and PIO chips and there is a square signal that is described in the manual as a problem between the main CPU and PIO. 

[dr.c]

Okay... stop everything, read carefully.

Open the machine.
Dismount the power supply.
I am ready to bet that the connector with the wires is brown where the yellow wire is.
You have to clean it.
After the, you have to take the solder away from the connector on the solder side of the power supply, clean this, and put new solder.
Clean the pins of the connector
Put everything back in place, don't forget to put the two wires of the power supply voltage selector in place in the power supply board.

50% chances it works.

Don't say "Naaa", just TRY it !

[xmota]

OK thanks, I´ll try to do it.

[Elmbeatz]

Okay... stop everything, read carefully.

Open the machine.
Dismount the power supply.
I am ready to bet that the connector with the wires is brown where the yellow wire is.
You have to clean it.
After the, you have to take the solder away from the connector on the solder side of the power supply, clean this, and put new solder.
Clean the pins of the connector
Put everything back in place, don't forget to put the two wires of the power supply voltage selector in place in the power supply board.

50% chances it works.

Don't say "Naaa", just TRY it !

Why not try it with the power supply of your other EII (the one which doesn't boot) ?

[xmota]

To be honest, I would prefer to have at least one working EII ...

[dr.c]

DON'T SWAP POWER SUPPLIES AROUND !!!
There are different models !

Just modify the machine wich is not working !