Sound designer help!

[seamonkey]

Not really any help but a suggestion. Back away from using the Mac for awhile, and start having some fun with just the Ell.
You've waited a long time to get one, and this must be very frustrating to you.
Sample some stuff, have fun with it for awhile, and then once you've learned your way around the Ell, you'll be ready to tackle the job with a clear head.

Do you have any disks you can use right now?

[JMP]

Yes, what Seamonkey said above..... 

If not, again... try another Mac if you haven't already. Where are you located? 

[ProudEmaxOwner]

I know the Mac works because I used it with this EII at the guy's house before I bought it. I'm sure it's just something simple I haven't done. I live near B'ham, UK.
I do have quite a few floppies, but I have the entire factory banks on zip and I'm dying to hear them!!

[Elmbeatz]

One more try  :

I recall there was some possible issue, if you set the RAM assignment incorrectly - I took a look at my settings yesterday evening. If you click the Sound designer icon and then show its properties, you'll see its assigned RAM usage.
These are the values which I set, and which work fine:

recommended: 468
I set it to: 2468 (I got 4 MB of ram)

I don't really think this may solve your problem, but maybe you give it a try.

If still nothing works, it M U S T be your cable... I mean you SAW that guy demonstrating with that VERY same equipment... only thing different is the cable!

[seamonkey]

Is there any way you can contact the seller and explain what problems you're having?
As you said, it may be a very simple thing you're missing.

[esynthesist]

Do you have a simple multimeter that can measure DC voltage and resistors ?
If so, it's rather easy to figure out if the problem is caused by the EII RS422 port, the cable or the Mac.
Just let us know, then we can provide you with the signal levels you should measure on each of the pins.

One possible cause - besides a bad cable of course - is that either the driver or the receiver IC in the EII is dead. It happened to my EII too, even while the port had been functioning properly before. A simple thing like static electricity through the pins of the cable can cause this damage. The IC's are not protected, they are directly wired to the DB25 terminal... that's why they are sensitive...

Another possible cause: if you have a piggyboard version of the RS422 board (=a small board on top of the digital board in the upper left corner), then it may have come loose during shipping/transportation. This board is not soldered, it just plugs into a socket on the digital board, so it can loosen from it...

Just some thoughts.
You would have to open the EII of course   

[Elmbeatz]

....
Just some thoughts.
You would have to open the EII of course   

Good points!
And she's already opened it up I think.

[rtech]

Hey, if you are still trying to get it to work try the following.

  1. Restart the Mac Classic without Extensions.

  2. Make sure to dissable any Virtual Memory. (Make sure to restart to disable the Virtual Memory)

What OS are you running on the Mac? How much memory does it have? Does the Mac Classic use 32bit Addressing? If it does turn it OFF.

I have three old macs which I use, but two are very problematic when using it with the EII.

[ProudEmaxOwner]

Tried everything you've said. Still haven't had the chance to open it up. I emailed the seller again. Can someone just give me step by step instructions please just in case I missed something out. So bloody frustrating. Also when I try to send, it opens an empty box where all the sound files are- I double click the folder, they are all there. SD can't seem to read them. I've tried opening SD from floppy and zip, the EII makes a noise, says under control of mac, and then all I get is can't connect. Should I be opening SD from the desktop instead? Clutching at straws, I know, but if someone would just give me step by step in the relevant order at least I'd know it's not me and the prob is tech side.

[JMP]

SD not reading the files probably means they're not stated as E2BK files. If so, you need to change the resource forks using filetyper program, see this photo here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emulatorII-list/photos/album/1866994847/pic/1880185672/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc

The communication error I'm unsure about. At the weekend I used a Powerbook 140, 165 & 180 to connect to my EII, they all worked except for the PB 140 running OS 7.5, I tried everything but got exactly the same message as you. No explanation for it and nothing I changed/tried worked.

Despite it working previously, you must now try another Mac to highlight whether the problem is with the Mac or your EII, otherwise you're just going to get stressed out over it..! 

I'm located up North in the UK, if you want to chat through the process/issue I'll try to help but can't promise to solve it.....! Up to you. 

[ProudEmaxOwner]

Would it be too much to ask if I could contact you on messenger or email? I have AIM. I know the Mac works, I used it at the blokes house, I'm starting to think it's the Emulator. It's been acting really strange the past month but I've been so busy with this production course I haven't had chance to open it up (that and the fact I have guests staying in the room it's in)
Would be great I could go through it with you via a messenger whilst I'm doing it.

[JMP]

OK, I don't do messenger but you can email me if you want (use the link at the left of my user name).

If communicating via messages though, may be best staying in this topic then at least other EII users can follow what's happening and maybe pin-point it...?

[ProudEmaxOwner]

Ok. Can you please give me a step by step order as to what to do and any cabling, in case there's something stupid I've forgotten to plug in (I haven't, but...) The Mac and EII are both currently off. The EII is an upgraded 2 floppy version, no HD. I have SD on a floppy, and a zip disk. The factory banks are on the zip disk. I want to hear the banks on the disk played via the Emulator. If I do this exactly as you do it should show where the problem is...thanks.

[JMP]

Start up the Mac, then the EII and leave your OS 3.1 booting floppy disk in the top drive.

Copy SD and your EII files onto the hard drive of the Mac. Run the program from there, configure the port (modem recommended) and change the program into front panel mode (bringing up a picture of the EII panel)   

You may also need  filetyper program off the Yahoo site  to correct the resource forks of the EII files but you can save this for later, you don't need to do this to get your EII and Mac communicating.

[JMP]

Just a thought, for now, unplug any midi cables from the EII and don't forget to plug the communication cable into the modem serial port on the back of the Mac.