emusonacid! legacy

As stupid as it sounds, I don't use my E4 as much as I should because I have to reach over a bunch of gear into my rack to see the LCD. I think I can cure that by taking the front panel off and using some extension cables, or just longer ones.









There's a 4-pin, a 3-pin (two are needed), and a couple cables that look like IDE/FDD cables, with one being 20-pin and the other 34-pin.

Where can I get some really long cables that are like this, or at least some sort of extension cables? It's hard to find them since I don't even know what these cables are called. If I could get some of these in 10ft, that would be perfect.

You can find ribbon cables on eBay quite easily. Just search for "20-pin ribbon" and "34-pin ribbon". You may be able to have a custom length made. And be sure to bear in mind that many standard floppy drive cables have a deliberate twist in them. Avoid these like the plague unless the E-mu front panel 34-pin ribbon also has a twist (I haven't looked).

As for the smaller cables... You could create longer ones yourself with a new set of crimp pins. I'm not sure what type they are; you would have to extract one of the pins. Regardless, it's likely that you can still get them.

The only thing which might be problem is "voltage drop" across the extended cables. In short, there may be a limit to the distance which you can mount the front panel from the sampler. 10 feet is a pretty long way in small electronics!

As the sampler is too far away to see the display easily wouldn't it also be a problem editing? Or do you have the ASCII port?

Another solution to your problem
This might sound odd but you might consider mounting a cheap Web Cam in front of the emu display, run the video stream to the computer you are using as your DAW. This way you can bring the emu screen into your work environment when needed and minimise it when it's not.
Simple,cheap (About a fiver!) and non destructive.

Alternatively fit the computer with a twin monitor card and you could have the sampler screen side by side with your DAW.


6 LED Camera Webcam With Mic Microphone For PC Laptop
£3.59 & £1.60 P&P

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6-LED-Camera-Webcam-With-Mic-Microphone-For-PC-Laptop-/321079578732?pt=UK_Computing_ComputerComponents_Webcams&hash=item4ac1d5906c



If you don't have the ASCII port its something worth considering as it makes editing/naming/navigation much easier because you dont have to do all those multi presses to name/edit and hardly need to touch the sampler. It's like a remote and saves loads of wear and tear on the front panel.

Well I was going to take the ENTIRE front panel off, the LCD and all of the controls included. So that way I'll have the LCD and the editing buttons right there.

What are crimp pins? Never heard of them. I've looked on ebay and yeah, I can definitely find those flat cables. Just have to get those 3-pin and 4-pin cables sorted.

Crimp pins are what you find attached to wires in various types of connector. These pins make contact with the header when you plug the connector into something. So, if you can find suitable pins, the most straightforward solution is simply to make yourself new cables of whatever length you need.

Here's a strip of unused pins with a fan connector:




Now, with that said, even if you get all of this wired up properly, voltage drop may be a problem. So, don't be too surprised if this project doesn't work.

I went and did a ghetto version of it which was just extending the current wires. Everything is working, EXCEPT for the backlight LED. There seems to be a voltage drop very rapidly. If somehow I could get the backlight powered normally I'd be set.

I'd be curious to see a picture of this setup!

I'll post a pic once it's done. I ordered one of the wrong cables so I'll order a new one today and hopefully that'll work. So far, all of the extensions I've put in work.

As of right now I've decided to forgo the backlight. Extending the power wires to the LCD even just a foot drops too much voltage. It's going to suck not having it, but it will be worth it if I've got an EMU tabletop sampler. Do any of you guys have any bright ideas for powering up or brightening up the LCD backlight?

HSL wrote:Do any of you guys have any bright ideas for powering up or brightening up the LCD backlight?

I'm no expert, but I imagine the first thing to do is to find out what AC voltage/frequency the EL panel requires. This could be in an E-mu service manual schematic, or if you can find a part number for the EL panel itself you can probably look it up online.

From there, you could potentially bypass the E-mu's inverter board and power the backlight using a discrete inverter near to wherever you're going to site your E-mu's front panel.

HSL wrote:Extending the power wires to the LCD even just a foot drops too much voltage

Would have expected more problems with the ribbon cable re. capacitance/spikes/interference etc. - there's already a ferrite block around it, so am surprised at this with just an extra foot of wire.
Have you detached the front panel yet? If so, is it an issue with breaking the chassis connection... you may need an additional ground wire.

Is that black thing around the 34 pin ribbon cable the ferrite block? I always wondered what that was and what its function was. Funnily enough, I'm running that cable into an extension cable at the moment (male to female) and the ferrite block is OFF completely, and it works just fine. I forgot to put it back on. It seems to function without it but I'll put it back on when I get the other cable.

The Volume control is extending fine, I cut that cable and soldered on some old ethernet cable and wrapped it in some electrical tape. The headphones I'm leaving disconnected, so the only thing that's missing is the 20-pin ribbon cable which I'm waiting on right now in the mail. As soon as that comes and I hook it up, it'll be done, minus the backlight. Hope that one will work fine.

Also, yeah the front panel is off/detached. I extended the power wires for the backlight a couple feet and it wouldn't work. Then to test, I cut the cable really short and resoldered. With just a few inches of additional wire it actually works fine, but a few inches is too short to reach where I need it.

I'd like to hear more about this discrete inverter thing.

HSL wrote:Is that black thing around the 34 pin ribbon cable the ferrite block? I always wondered what that was and what its function was.

afaik the ferrite is to prevent the cable radiating RF and causing interference with other gadgets, and vice versa - there are similar 'lumps' on computer keyboard and mice leads. I thought the display content would degrade with a longer ribbon cable due to crosstalk between the wires, but looks like it's not too fussy. Good luck with it - sounds a great idea.

Perhaps one could fit an inverter inside the frontpanel? Or if its too big get a similar specc'ed inverter that is maller...

Any follow up on this? Im very curious to see the end result :-)