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Subject: Re: [chromapolaris] OK - I Have Diagnostics Now And They Are Weird

From: "David Clarke" <ac151@...>
Date: 2018-05-31

> ... Starting Diagnostics:

Tracey - to clarify - the 'diganostics' section of the Service Manual is not necessarily intended to be a 'follow these steps in order to check the health of your keyboard' but instead it contains a set of individual notes about how different functionalities can be controlled. The idea is that these can be used as a sort of 'tool box' by someone to try to investigate/diagnose an issue.

> ... 3) Tried playing with Pulse on the Oscs but it just gave "effect" -
> was it suppose to turn off the Osc?

As an example, the referred to "Oscillator Enable/Disable" section of the Diagnostics chapter is not intended to test/evaluate the oscillators.

Instead - perhaps someone sometimes heard a sour note, but not all the time. With 6 voices and 2 oscillators per voice, it wouldn't necessarily be obvious to the person trying to debug which oscillator on which voice was the 'sour' one. The Enable/Disable section of the Diagnostics just give general guidance to a user how they might be able to narrow down the offending hardware, by giving guidance as to how certain things can be functionally disabled.

The Oscillator Enable/Disable section is saying that if you want to make it so an oscillator doesn't sound - then if you have it set up as a 'pulse' waveform, and set the width to max (or min) - then that will 'turn off' output from that oscillator.

> 4) LF D 2 - Revision 5. Poop.

Revision 5 is functional - but if you have concerns about that you can always arrange for newer firmware to be active:

http://www.rhodeschroma.com/?id=polariseproms

> 9) LF 11: LED did not go on and I heard a click. Had to power off / on.
10) LF 12: LED did not go on and I heard a click. Had to power off / on.

What of you mean by "Had to power off/on"? Was the Polaris stuck? Did it no longer respond to user input?

> ... 11) Noticed Bank B had organ sounds which it should not.

There are no hardcoded default programs in the Polaris. The programs are 100% defined by what was/wasn't loaded by the user/saved by the user.

So - in this case, what is specifically meant by Bank B shouldn't having organ sounds? Was it confirmed that earlier in the test the sounds in that bank were different? Did the content of the bank seem to change?

One of the diagnostic results not reported on was LF D 1 (Battery state). What did you see here? Whether or not the batteries are new or old, it is important to know what the Polaris 'thinks' it sees for the battery voltage (e.g., if something is preventing the battery voltage from going where it should - then every time you power off and back on you could end up with random values and settings).

> If not mistaken, it should have scratch patch because I previously did a RESET.

It all depends on specifically what was done. If the 'reset' referred to here is like the LF 12 'Cold Reset', then that wouldn't necessarily blank all the programs.

If you did 'LF + D + 12 + STOP', then that will erase everything (and all the programs and adjustments will be blank).

> 12) Tried to go through all of "A" Bank using the numbers...
> A8 - Moved to G 8
> A9 - Moved to H 9
> A10 - Moved to I 10

What specifically are do you doing/seeing here?

E.g.,
- you press "A" and it flashes (and nothing no other program bank letters are illuminated)
- you press "8" and instead of the panel keeping "A" lit up and "8", the panel now shows "G" (on solid) and "8" (on solid)?

> A11 - No LED, Click and stayed on A1 - no sound. Turn off / on.

What specific steps are being done here? E.g., it was noted that you 'stayed on A1'.

So - for this test that you were going through all of the "A" bank, how is it that when we did the A11 test it was already on "A1"?

E.g. is it not the case that you:

- press A - see A flash, and 1-12 all light up with a solid LED
- press 1 - see the flashing A LED now turn solid and see the "1" button turn solid (with all other bank and program LEDs being out).
- press 2 - see the program LED change from solid "1" to solid "2"
- press 3 - see the program LED change from solid "2" to solid "3"
...
- press 11 - see the program LED change from solid "10" to solid "11"
...

> ... I think I need to focus on adjustments or some new part(s) in the Synth.

Perhaps - but the only way to know 'what' is to figure out what's wrong and identify the functionality involved.

Some basic/key important observations:

- are you finding that the behaviour changes 'over time'? E.g., if you leave the Polaris on (not power cycling it) are you finding that (for instance) program A1, A2 and A3 are 'OK' when you first power on - but then after some hours somehow A1, A2 and A3 are different/broken/different?

- are you finding that memory contents change across a power cycle? E.g., that during power up 1 you have 12 LEDs light up in Bank A, 12 in Bank B, etc. - but during power up 2 - or after it has been off overnight you find now that there are more/less patches defined/contents of patches changed?

> 14) LF B 1 - 6 seemed to work without issue.
> 7 gave a honk and went to flashing "F".
> 8 gave a honk and went to G 8.
> 9 gave a honk and went to H 9.
> 10 gave a honk and went to I 10.
> 11 gave a click and went poof - locked up. Turn off / on.
> 12 gave a click and lit up B 1 - 3. Locked up. Turn off / on.

There's something not good occurring here, seemingly related to what the Polaris believes has been selected for buttons 7-12.

If you don't use program buttons 7-12, and restrict yourself temporarily to buttons 1-6 - are functional problems seen?

E.g., if there not already some patches, create some by editing the scratch patch and storing a changed version to A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, B1, B2, B3, etc. If you now only use those (along with any slider editing you wish to do) are things nominally OK, or do certain things failing?