VOGONS


First post, by serrith

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Lo there, i hope anyone can help me here but i particularly hope Phil from Phil's Computerlab could answer this seeing as he owns multiple sound canvas devices.

I have soundcanvas 55 MKII for quite some time now and it worked flawlessly. It has never been dropped, abused, manhandled or anything else.
I always connected my computer trough a roland UM one midi interface to the Midi in 1 connector on the back of the sound canvas.

Today i cannot seem to get any midi through Midi in 1, but it works on Midi in 2, unfortunately that connector is on the front of the device.
I can confirm the Midi in 1 works, when i feed midi to it and then connect an MT32 to the THRU port of the SC-55 (daisy chaining) the MT32 does receive the signal.
So the connector on the SC55 isn't dead.

I have the feeling this is a button combination problem, while moving it and reconnecting it i probably pressed a combination that switched the primary input to the secondary MIDI in port ?

Can anyone help me out ?

The manual talks about switching Midi in 1 and 2 but thats if you connect more than one input to it and i when i try it it changes nothing.

Help me Obi whoeverKenobi, you are my only hope !

Reply 2 of 11, by skitters

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serrith wrote:

Oh yeah, quick thing, a "factory reset" (holding both instrument buttons then power on) doesnt seem to work either.

The directions I have say:

Power on while holding both INSTRUMENT buttons, then press ALL

If you didn't " press ALL " that might be why it didn't work.

Reply 5 of 11, by keropi

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maybe the connector needs a reflow - it's common: all that stress over the years can result to solder cracks

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 9 of 11, by Jepael

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serrith wrote:

It shouldn't be a soldering problem should it ? When i daisy chain my sc55 to the MT32 (PC ==> SC55 Midi IN 1 ==> SC55 THRU ==> MT32 Midi IN) it passes the midi on perfectly.

No, not a soldering issue. If the input connector is fine, opto-isolator is fine, and the data goes to thru output connector just fine, then it's working.
But it still does not mean the data goes OK to IC24, maybe IC24 can't receive it for some reason.
But it can receive from the other midi connector so IC24 should be fine.

EDIT: true, it can be the optocoupler, if it does not drive the output so well, the buffer to MIDI through may still see the data if it has different threshold for seeing logic levels than IC24. This can be seen with an oscilloscope.

Reply 10 of 11, by Cloudschatze

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What setting is the Computer switch set to? The behavior you're experiencing is symptomatic of it not being set to the "MIDI" position. If it is, then the contact may be dirty/bad, in which case switching it out-of/back-into the MIDI position may help.

Reply 11 of 11, by serrith

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Ok i solved it, thanks for all the replies.

I feel a bit like an idiot truly. It seems it was a bad contact, i opened the sound canvast and blew out the midi connector from the inside and outside and it suddenly worked again.
Kind of weird since that connector was always connected, dust shouldnt have gotten onto the contacts but i guess it did.
I removed the internal battery as a precaution, since the midi module is only used for dos gaming i don't need it to remember any settings.
That way the battery cannot accidentally leak either.

PHEW, i'm so relieved it isn't broken 😁

Thanks everyone for the kind and helpful replies !!!

THESE FORUMS ROCK !