> Anyone know what a Polaris does when...the ribbon cables are
> not hooked up if powered on, the silders always
> worked with dead panels but will it make a
> sound, or make the computer crazed?

The ribbon cables for the left-hand panel (the one that usually gives
the most problem) only carries signals for the buttons. If the cables
are not hooked up, the computer should be happy and simply assume that
no buttons are ever being pushed.

You will be able to make sounds OK - as long as the sounds are already
present and the Polaris is set up.

If you are looking to create a sound from scratch - to tell the system
to 'tune' itself (via the panel) - then you'd be stuck without the
connections (since they're all done with switches on the left).

While on the general topic of the panel and the ribbon connector, I'll
follow up to an earlier note of my own (below):

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Clarke"
To: <chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2006 1:13 PM
Subject: Re: [chromapolaris] Re: Ressurecting memb switch death


...
> I'm a little surprised that with the huge number of companies that
> will make
> custom membrane switch panels that no one has decided to try to make
> one for
> the Polaris (if even only for their own personal use) (sure, some of
> these
> can do fancy things - like have built-in LEDs which will be very
> expensive
> or be waterproof to 10 atmospheres - but others do what are
> essentially
> plain-jane panels).
...
----- End Original Message -----

I got cranky during the last repair I did on my own Polaris, took my own
advise - and the attached is what resulted. Hopefully I won't be
worring about the cable for at least the next little :->

[More info to come later (after things aren't quite so busy around
here).]