thoughts on Digitech Space Station eprom copying?

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Thanks Greg. Philip as PM'd me and supplying him with an XP300  is no problem. Nor anyone else in EI for that matter

Great! I figures it would be better for him to contact you since you are considerably closer than any of the other "usual suspects" who have experience with these 

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Anyone happen to have a 27C256-10 or -12 EPROM that I can "procure" from you? I really need one FAST! 

PM me if you can help!!

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Nevermind. I ended up ordering some. More than I need 

[brendamned]

greetings!

presently new to the message board community, and really only here for one purpose: my aim is to modify my xp100 to the xp300.  i'm not terribly interested in having the all-in-one mod, but just the xp300. 

from reading these posts, and looking at the build guide by Govmnt_Lacky and digi2t, it seems that the most difficult piece to acquire is the programmed EPROM chip.  now, i really have no knowledge of working with pedals, or even soldering in general.  a mate of mine was going to be doing the labour for me.  so, i was wondering if someone would be so kind as to program a chip for me, and post it to me.  preferably someone in the UK or EU, as i live in ireland. 

am i right in assuming that the rest of the pieces are pretty easy to come by/affordable?  it appears all i need is the chip itself, some ram and the 'smd device' which i have no idea what that is!  also, to only perform the xp300 mod how much ram would i need?  how many smd devices? 

any and all help appreciated!

[Govmnt_Lacky]

@brendamned

PM'd  

EDIT: Sorry.. dont know how new you are. PM'd means check your private messages. The link is in the upper left side of your screen 

[marmaliser]

@brendamned
The first thing you need to do is open up your XP100 (four screws on the bottom) and take a picture and upload it here.  There are two different XP100's and the process to modify is a little different.

@greg - Where are you getting ram chips from atm.. u-barn don't appear to have any

EDIT Just picked some up from utsource -hope they will be good

[Govmnt_Lacky]

@brendamned
The first thing you need to do is open up your XP100 (four screws on the bottom) and take a picture and upload it here.  There are two different XP100's and the process to modify is a little different.

@greg - Where are you getting ram chips from atm.. u-barn don't appear to have any

EDIT Just picked some up from utsource -hope they will be good

Good call on the XP100 type  I already sent a list to him via PM. It can be modified depending on which type he has. More than likely, he has the type with the program in the CPU mask.

As for the RAM chips... I fish on eBay just like you 

@brendamned

Open the back of your XP100. If you see an EPROM chip in there like the one below then post here and I will amend my list for you. IT will most likely have a white sticker on it that says XP100 V1.1

[digi2t]

@ marmaliser;

DO NOT BUY THE RAM CHIPS FOR UTSOURCE!! I REPEAT... DO NOT BUY THE RAM FROM UTSOURCE!!

I bought ten of them a while back, and every single one was bogus. As a matter of fact, I still have them, all neatly arranged on a piece of foam, which I keep them beside my monitor. I shit you not. They are there to remind me of my gaff, whenever I think that I might be getting a great deal.

The fact that they all sported the same production number should have been a dead give away.  If they are marked "NEC Japan", be wary. The ones that I've used to date, which work, are marked "NEC Ireland", and the production numbers are all different.

Greg can guide you to a kosher place to buy. I believe Mouser has a suitable equivalent.

Hey, just found this;
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/5-pcs-UPD41464C-10-DRAM-65536-4-Bit-100ns-Memory-D41464-41464C-10-NMOS-NEC-NEW-/130891206445

[marmaliser]

@ marmaliser;

DO NOT BUY THE RAM CHIPS FOR UTSOURCE!! I REPEAT... DO NOT BUY THE RAM FROM UTSOURCE!!

Bugger, oh well lets see what turns up.  I may also end up with  neat pile of duds next to my monitor

[marmaliser]

UTSCOURCE CHIPS WORKED !!

They arrived and are marked Ireland  Stuck 4 in an XP100 XPALL +  and they works fine

Cheap as er chips as well so fill ya boots ...  YMMV

[Govmnt_Lacky]

@marmaliser

Thanks for the tip! 

@To Whom it May Concern

I have now received 4 PMs from new subscribers requesting that I quote them a price to do a conversion for them in which I took the time to return their PM and kindly offer to work things out with them ONLY to have them NEVER reply. 

Please... take the time to consider that these mods require SEVERAL obselete parts and require quite a bit of time to perform so....... this is not going to be a $20 cheap-o mod to do! If you really, really want the XP300 SS... you can either pay the $300-500 price tag that they now fetch on resale sites -OR- you can pay much less by having someone here mod it for you. BUT PLEASE DO NOT think that it is AT ALL cheap, easy, or non-time consuming. If you feel this way... there are documents here that YOU can use to do the mods yourself to get a better "appreciation" of what it all entails!

I now climb down from my soapbox.... 

[PhilipPacemaker]

'Mission Control, the XP300 is finally up and running. No faults or mishaps whatsoever. All systems go. Get ready for one hell of a trip!
Over and out.'



PS: Kudos and a huge THANK YOU goes to Greg and Mick 'marmaliser'. Your help is much appreciated!

Philip.

[marmaliser]

Good work Phil.....glad it worked out

[mongo]

Well I finally had the time to perform the conversion and it doesn't work, of course.

The effects are drowned in a sea of noise and some kind of very low , very lo-fi ring modulation, but you can somehow hear that the pedal and the presets affect the sound somehow (especially with the S/H presets, I can hear it very clearly)

So, what might be the problem? I have a XP-200, I added the tantalum caps and the RAM,am I missisng something else?

I had 2 EPROMS programmed with the BIN file and both have the same sonic result. Could the code be corrupted? could I still hear something of an effect if the code was not OK?

Could it be the RAM? mine are labeled NEC USA, and I bought it from alliexpress in China...

here are some pics, maybe someone can spot something... Thank id advance!  

MONGO

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Couple of things to try to help find the problems.

#1: Try a factory reset. It should be in the build documents.

If that does not work then.....

- Make sure the RAM chips are fully seated in the sockets. I have had issues with the spring sockets and the RAM chips "popping" up in the past. PUSH THOSE BUGGERS DOWN FULLY!
- With the XP300 chip installed and all RAM chips in..... make sure that you can cycle through and see ALL 40 XP300 program numbers in the display. Don't worry about the sound or function yet.
- Check to make sure you installed the NEW tantalum caps properly (oriented right?)

Next steps:

- Remove ALL of the new RAM chips (leave in the IRELAND chip)
- Remove the XP300 EPROM and replace it with the original XP200 EPROM

Verify that the pedal is working 100% with the Modulator programs. Check that ALL of the presets sound correct.

If that is all good, then my bet is that you got 1 or more dud RAM chips from China  

[digi2t]

I'm putting my money on dud RAM. I would not buy RAM from China. EVER. AGAIN. I got burned once, and that was that. What you're describing sonically sounds like what my unit was doing when I plugged in the dud RAM.

Check out Jamesco, they carry them, at a very reasonable price. They're pulls, but to me, a pull means that at least it was in something that worked before. Besides, shipping times will be shorter, and returns/refunds will be easier to deal with.

Insofar as the bin file is concerned, if you're using the files that I uploaded to the gallery, there should not be a problem. I've used all those files without issue. I'm curious though, after you burn a chip, have you done a verification check to ensure that the code matches? If it does, then it shouldn't be the eprom (code-wise). My chip burner's GUI has an automated feature, first a blank check, then burn, and the last check is a code verification after burning. If it matches, then it's OK, if not, it reports an error.

[mongo]

I will try it tomorrow and report! thanks for the answers!

Any luck finding GOOD Ram in Europe? I'm tired of shipping costs killing me

[mongo]

Did the RAM test: the modulator works. They sold me duds! can't believe it, I'm so angry!

So, where to get good RAM now..?

[digi2t]

Did the RAM test: the modulator works. They sold me duds! can't believe it, I'm so angry!

So, where to get good RAM now..?

Just to be sure, did you try exchanging the suspect RAM with the known good one? That should validate whether the RAM is actually at fault. Pull one good RAM, insert a suspect one, and test the patches for audio quality.

Buying dud Chinese RAM happened to me as well. I bought 10 of them, thinking it was a deal, and I would stock up. They were all duds. I kept them, and they sit quietly on the shipping foam, next to my computer now. I keep them there, as a constant reminder to verify my supply sources before buying.

If you happen to know anyone locally with any Commodore 64 motherboards kicking around, you might get lucky, and find some good 41464's from those.

[mongo]

I have 2 good RAM chips (I have another XP unit) and I tried exchanging chips several times and it was more or less noisy, yeah, I think I got ripped off. I happen to have a commodore 64 just lying aroung, I'll try to see if I can salvage some goodies from the motherboard, thanks for the tip!