EII RS422 Upgrade

[midipuppies]

Is there a way to (myself) upgrade the serial interface to the required RS422 needed for SD for Mac?
Got a really low serial # EII with Rev 0 board.

[dr.c]

Its easy to do if you are used to mount little mechanic parts.

[midipuppies]

Do you know the proceedre?
Do you need other chips?

[dr.c]

Its a little board to add on the digital board, you have to buy it.

[Elmbeatz]

Its easy to do if you are used to mount little mechanic parts.

Sorry, Dr. C, but this isn't true.
There's  MUCH MUCH more to do than to just plug in the RS 422 Mod Board.
The whole procedure can be found on pages 128 and following in the EII Service manual.

I tried to install the Board without doing all the kludges (which are pure headaches) and the Result was zero.
If you're NOT an expert tech - forget about it.

Greetz,
Elm.

[midipuppies]

Thanks for the info Elm. The two units that I have I got together. They were (apparently) used in California for the original score for the movie Fantasia. One has a serial of 81 and the other is like 800 and something.
They are the dual drive models.
So do you have any idea what (if anything) the old serial port on these units was or can still be used for?
Was it an oversight on E-mu's part not initially putting in the RS422 jack?
Just curious...

[Elmbeatz]

I don't really know. The original OMI cd-drives also worked with 422 only. I guess maybe Emu built in the older 232 interface to be prepared for the newer 422 and then charge their early EII customers for the modifications  ?

It's a shame that these awful kludges need to be done. Fortunately one of my two EIIs has a rev 1 board... I should save all the banks I use via SD on floppies, so I can load them on my Rev0. I bought a big bunch of floppies last year

[Escobar]

I found something on the web that "might" help you out guys (No need for opening and soldering the EII!):

http://www.aten.com/products/productItem.php?pcid=20050107104648001&psid=20050117105110002&pid=20050224150617005&layerid=subClass8

I haven't tried the signalconverter interface myself but it seem to solve the problem with RS-232 <-> RS-422 communication. I guess you need a male cable between the device and one special RJ11 <-> RS-422 cable
connected to Mac.

[Elmbeatz]

 
 

[esynthesist]

I found something on the web that "might" help you out guys (No need for opening and soldering the EII!):

Even if this signal convertor would work, it will probably be useless on the Emulator II.
The specs say that the maximum supported baudrate is 115200 baud, while the RS422 communication between Mac and EII is running at 500000 baud.
This 500kbaud is driven by the EII's clock, so even if that means that the convertor's internal oscillator shouldn't support this high speed, it will have to be able to allow external clocking by the EII in order to get synchronous communication between Mac and EII (the Mac's serial port supports this).

So I would be careful when buying this unit...

///E-Synthesist

[midipuppies]

Yeah, I think I'm out of luck on this one. Just bought a mint mac SE too.......

[Elmbeatz]

Yeah, I think I'm out of luck on this one. Just bought a mint mac SE too.......

Keep seeking a Rev1 EII (or a modded Rev0).
It's definitely worth it. Once you have acess to the libraries via Mac....     hmm

[lennox]

Keep seeking a Rev1 EII (or a modded Rev0).
It's definitely worth it. Once you have acess to the libraries via Mac....     hmm
[/quote]

Yeah and if you have no problem with the communication between the MAC and EII  like the problem i have now 

going to try two other MAC's tonight (hoping it isn't the EII  )

[midipuppies]

I hope that works out for you. I even had a cable made and got the SD software. So close, but now so far away!
What do you guys think- worth hanging onto the two rev.0 units or get rid to buy a rev II?

I might post them in the classifieds on the forum here cuz I can't afford to pick up another unit right now and I am impatient to get things going!
I bought all the upgrades for them too- scanner roms, 3.5" drives and backlights too.
Let me know your thoughts.

[Elmbeatz]

When I wanted to buy a "backup"-EII back then, I was dumb enough not to even know about Rev0 & 1 (this forum didn't exist yet ), so I bought a rev0 and wondered why it wouldn't communicate.....

Nowadays, I only would buy a rev1 unit which is able to communicate. So, I guess it's hard to find people up here that will give you as much for rev0's as they would for a rev1, of course. Probably elsewhere.

I'd keep the upgrades, you never know. And I'd sell only one of your EII's if possible.

This thread reminds me of the other dealing with those floppy drive emulators - any news on that?

Greetz,
Elm.